Is Squid Game Based On a Real Story?

There’s been a lot of talk online lately about the historical events that supposedly inspired Netflix’s Squid Game. But is an outlandish survival thriller like Squid Game actually based on a real story, or is the internet disinformation machine up to its old tricks again?

Is Squid Game Based on a Real-Life 1986 Atrocity?

The main source of “Squid Game IRL” intel right now is an unsubstantiated factoid doing the rounds on social media. It claims that unnamed parties forced a group of hostages to complete a series of life-or-death challenges “in a bunker underground in no man’s land” in 1986. As you’d expect, posts promoting this alleged atrocity have gained plenty of traction; one of the most popular, the video embedded above, has racked up 3.6 million views on TikTok.

But is it actually true? Almost certainly not. For starters, those spreading the “1986 hostage games” story don’t cite any verified sources backing up their “research.” Nor do they provide a clear location for the bunker; presumably, it’s meant to exist somewhere in the Korean Demilitarized Zone. Again, there’s no public record of such a structure playing host to a grotesque, Squid Game-style contest.

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The one vaguely accurate detail in all this is an image that accompanies some of the social media posts (including the TikTok video). Depicting a group of men in blue jumpsuits, it’s a genuine photo from the Brothers Home in South Busan. Active during the 1970s and 80s, the Brothers Home was an internment camp where thousands of South Koreans were detained, ostensibly for welfare reasons. Notorious for its human rights abuses, the camp’s conditions have drawn comparisons to Squid Game.

That said, Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk has never publicly acknowledged the Brothers Home as a direct influence on the show.

Did Any Real-Life Events Inspire Squid Game?

So, Squid Game doesn’t take its cues from a (likely made-up) 1986 hostage incident. It’s not explicitly based on the horrors that occurred at the Brothers Home, either. Does that mean the Netflix series isn’t based on any real-life events? Not quite. Back in 2021, Hwang Dong-hyuk confirmed that Squid Game protagonist Seong Gi-hun’s backstory is modeled on the SsangYong strike in 2009.

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The strike broke out after automobile manufacturer SsangYong announced sweeping job cuts. It saw violent clashes between workers and police over its 77-day duration. Many of the workers’ lives were never the same again – something Hwang sought to reflect in Gi-hun’s history. “I wanted to show that any ordinary middle-class person in the world we live in today can fall to the bottom of the economic ladder overnight,” he said.

Squid Game Seasons 1 and 2 are currently streaming on Netflix. Season 3 is slated for release in 2025.