The Viral Lie: 5 Dark Truths Behind The 'Squid Game 1986' Myth And Its Real-Life Inspirations

Since the global phenomenon of Squid Game premiered, a persistent and chilling rumor has circulated online, claiming the series is based on a "true event" that took place in 1986. This viral narrative, which often involves a secret bunker, hostages, and deadly games, has been shared across platforms like TikTok and Facebook, generating millions of views and fueling intense curiosity about the show's dark origins. As of December 14, 2025, the myth continues to resurface, forcing us to separate the shocking fiction from the even more disturbing historical truths that actually inspired creator Hwang Dong-hyuk's vision.

The short answer is that there is no documented film, book, or real-life "Squid Game" event from 1986. However, the year 1986 sits right in the middle of one of the darkest periods in modern South Korean history, an era of intense social inequality and authoritarian rule. The viral myth is a powerful blend of genuine historical tragedies, like the notorious Brothers Home, and outright misinformation, making the true story behind the show's inspiration far more complex and unsettling than a simple bunker game.

Fact vs. Fiction: Debunking the Viral '1986 Bunker Game' Myth

The most widespread version of the "Squid Game 1986" theory claims that a real-life death game took place in a secret, underground bunker within the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in 1986.

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This narrative suggests that people were held hostage and forced to participate in deadly competitions for survival, mirroring the plot of the Netflix series.

The Truth: This claim is unequivocally false and has been widely debunked by fact-checkers.

The images often shared alongside these posts, which depict eerie, abandoned bunkers, are frequently generated by Artificial Intelligence (AI) or are unrelated to the actual DMZ or any documented historical event.

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The theory gained immense traction because it tapped into a very real, deep-seated fear and historical trauma in South Korea—the memory of the authoritarian regime and the numerous human rights abuses that took place during the 1970s and 1980s.

While the "1986 bunker game" is a fictional construct, its popularity demonstrates a public attempt to connect the show's themes of desperation and exploitation to a verifiable historical context.

The Real 1980s Horror: The Brothers Home Tragedy

If the "1986 bunker" is a lie, what is the chilling historical truth from that era that people are likely confusing it with? The most probable and darkest connection to the 1980s is the horrific case of the Brothers Home (also known as the Brothers' Home or Brothers' Welfare Center).

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The Brothers Home was a state-funded "care center" in Busan, South Korea, that operated between 1975 and 1987.

Under the guise of a social welfare program, thousands of homeless people, vagrants, and even children were forcibly detained and imprisoned.

A State-Sanctioned System of Exploitation

• Forced Labor: Inmates were subjected to brutal forced labor, generating profit for the facility's owner.
• Systemic Abuse: Reports detail widespread, systemic abuse, rape, torture, and murder within the facility's walls.
• High Death Toll: While the official death toll is in the hundreds, it is widely believed that thousands died due to starvation, disease, and violence.
• The 1986 Connection: The facility was fully operational in 1986, and its closure in 1987 followed a prosecutor’s investigation, placing the tragedy squarely in the timeframe of the viral rumor.

The parallels to Squid Game are stark: a secluded location, people stripped of their identity and forced into a brutal system, and the exploitation of the most vulnerable members of society for the profit of a few powerful individuals. While the games were not playground activities, the core theme of a deadly, institutionalized system of control and profit is eerily similar.

Beyond 1986: Other Real-Life Inspirations for Hwang Dong-hyuk

Creator Hwang Dong-hyuk has been open about the real-world social and economic issues that inspired his script, confirming that the show is a work of fiction but rooted in stark reality.

The true inspirations come not from a single, secret event, but from a confluence of modern Korean economic crises and the creator's personal history.

The Ssangyong Motor Strike (2009)

The backstory of the main protagonist, Seong Gi-hun (played by actor Lee Jung-jae), is directly inspired by a real-life corporate conflict: the Ssangyong Motor Strike of 2009.

Gi-hun’s history as a fired employee who participated in a violent labor strike is a clear reference to the Ssangyong workers who staged a 77-day occupation strike after mass layoffs.

This event, which resulted in violent clashes between workers and police, perfectly illustrates the themes of economic desperation, class struggle, and the precariousness of life for the working class—a central pillar of the Squid Game narrative.

The Global Debt Crisis and Personal Struggle

Hwang Dong-hyuk began writing the script in 2008, a period following the 2008 Global Financial Crisis. He himself was in significant debt and struggling to find funding for his project, which took over a decade to produce.

This personal experience with financial hardship and desperation is what gives the show its emotional core. The characters—from the North Korean defector Kang Sae-byeok to the highly educated Cho Sang-woo—represent different facets of individuals crushed by insurmountable debt in a hyper-competitive, capitalist society.

The Children's Games and Social Commentary

The use of traditional Korean children's games, such as Red Light, Green Light, Marbles, and the titular Squid Game, is a deliberate choice. It serves as a devastating metaphor for how the innocence of childhood is corrupted by the harsh, adult reality of economic survival.

The juxtaposition of simple, nostalgic games with brutal, life-or-death stakes highlights the extreme measures people are forced to take when a system fails them.

The "Squid Game 1986" rumor, while false, serves as a powerful reminder of how art can intersect with historical memory. It is a testament to the show's effectiveness that viewers immediately sought to anchor its horrific premise in real-world events. While there was no secret bunker game in the DMZ, the period of the 1980s in South Korea was marked by real, state-sanctioned violence and exploitation at places like the Brothers Home, providing a much darker and more authentic historical context for the show's underlying commentary on class, debt, and the cost of survival in a ruthless economic system.