Is Squid Game based on a true story? The real life inspirations explained

6 January 2025, 22:04 | Updated: 6 January 2025, 23:02

Is Squid Game based on a true story? The real life inspirations behind the show revealed. Picture: Netflix

By Katie Louise Smith

From the Ssangyeong Motor Strike to the Brothers' Home in 1986, here's all the real life (and debunked) inspirations behind Squid Game.

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TikTok has been inundated with videos claiming Squid Game is based on a true story, but just how true are those claims?

From viral videos mentioning 'Brothers' Home' and claiming the Netflix series was 'based on a true story from 1986', to pictures depicting eerie abandoned locations that mirror the colourful hallways of the Squid Game compound, not everything that's being shared is factually correct. Those photos, for instance, are not real and have been confirmed as AI by the artist who created them.

While Squid Game is not directly based on any specific event, there are some real life inspirations that have influenced and informed several aspects of the story and characters within the show.

Here's all the real life inspirations that creator Hwang Dong-hyuk has spoken about, as well as the similarities between real life happenings in South Korea.

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Is Squid Game based on a true story?

What is Squid Game based on?

Thankfully, Squid Game is not directly based on a real life event and it's not a true story either. Creator Hwang Dong-hyuk has previously explained that he took inspiration for the actual competition from Japanese comics and animations.

“I freely admit that I’ve had great inspiration from Japanese comics and animation over the years,” he told Variety. “When I started, I was in financial straits myself and spent much time in cafes reading comics including ‘Battle Royale’ and ‘Liar Game.’"

Battle Royale is a popular Japanese action novel (and film) that sees a group of junior high school students forced to fight to the death by a totalitarian government. Liar Game sees contestants encouraged to cheat and lie to obtain other contestants' money in a tournament, with the losers forced to bear a debt proportional to their losses.

"I came to wonder how I’d feel if I took part in the games myself. But I found the games too complex, and for my own work focused instead on using kids’ games.”

Squid Game used the real Ssangyong Motor Strike as inspiration for Gi-hun's story. Picture: Netflix

As for Squid Game's broader themes, Hwang explained that they are based on modern capitalism, and well as his own financial struggles.

“I wanted to write a story that was an allegory or fable about modern capitalist society, something that depicts an extreme competition, somewhat like the extreme competition of life," he continued. "But I wanted it to use the kind of characters we’ve all met in real life."

"As a survival game it is entertainment and human drama. The games portrayed are extremely simple and easy to understand. That allows viewers to focus on the characters, rather than being distracted by trying to interpret the rules," he added.

Squid Game is not based on The Brothers' Home but it does bare some minor similarities. Picture: Netflix

Is Squid Game based on The Brothers' Home 1986? Did it happen in real life?

Squid Game as we see it on Netflix did not happen in real life. Hwang Dong-hyuk does not appear to have mentioned taking any specific or direct inspiration from the horrific Brothers Home facility in any interviews, but there are some similarities with the brutal elements of the Squid Game story.

The Brothers' Home was an internment camp located in Busan, South Korea which was meant to be a safe haven for homeless people. However, innocent people (including children) were also taken off the streets, taken to the camp and held against their will.

The facility operated between the '70s and the '80s, and was the site of one of the worst human rights abuses in South Korea.

The Brothers' Home was reportedly set up to clean up the streets and house "vagrants" ahead of the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, according to CNN. Originally, the plan was to feed, clothe and educate those in the facility before "releasing them" a year later. However, that didn't happen and the abuse (carried out by guards and inmates themselves who had been promoted to positions of authority) soon started.

It's been reported that within the facility, one of the horrifying things they forced people to do were to keep certain postures for extended periods of time. If they failed to remain still, they would be beaten.

On top of images of people at the Brothers Home facility wearing matching blue tracksuits, these particular details are perhaps why people think Squid Game has taken inspiration from the horrific ordeal. Survivors are still seeking justice to this day.

As mentioned above, the pictures of colourful staircases that are being shared alongside the Brothers' Home stories on TikTok are not real. They are AI images made by artist @cityhermitAI.

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Is Gi-hun's story is based on the real Ssangyong Motor Strike?

Explaining the inspiration for Gi-hun's backstory in 2021, Hwang told AFP: "Through the reference to the SsangYong Motor layoffs, 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."

In season 1, it's revealed that Gi-hun was laid off from his job at Dragon Motors after 16 years of working there. He later went on strike with his other employees before his on-going financial struggles resulted in him joining the games.

His story mirrors that of what happened to over 2600 workers (43% of the whole workforce) at Ssangyong Motor Company in South Korea following the 2009 layoffs. This then led to a 77-day strike as union members protested, and ended with clashes between strikers and riot police wielding rubber bullets and tasers.