Is Netflix's Spiderhead Based On A True Story?

The eagerly anticipated sci-fI film 'Spiderhead' has finally been released on Netflix.

Chris Hemsworth and Miles Teller star in the disturbing dystopian tale of prisoners who became guinea pigs for a shady pharmaceutical company in order to receive reduced sentences.

The story follows a distressing day in the life of Jeff, played by ‘Topgun: Maverick’ star, Miles Teller, who is administered a large amount of illegal drugs that manipulate emotions, which leads to him constantly questioning his own thoughts.

Probing whether the emotions he feels are his own, or instead a result of the experiment, Teller’s character attempts to escape the island on which he is imprisoned. 

In the film, Chris Hemsworth stars as Abnesti, an affable but deceptive scientist whose motives seem to shift throughout his experiments.

Is Netflix's Spiderhead Based On A True Story?

Unfortunately, Spiderhead is not based on a true story, but the movie does have a source material.

The recent addition to Netflix is inspired by an original short story that George Saunders wrote and published in The New Yorker back in 2010.

The book titled ‘Escape from Spiderhead’ was eventually released in Saunders’ Tenth of December collection in 2013 as a part of some of his best short stories.

Escape From Spiderhead has achieved a lot of different awards due to its amazing storytelling and unique premise. And it was its story that was able to catch the attention of screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, who went on to write a script for the Spiderhead film so that they could adapt the short story into a movie.

Directed by Joseph Kosinki, the Netflix banger stays true to the storyline and atmosphere of Saunders' original work thanks to the superb scriptwriting and directing. It may not win any awards anytime soon, but it is definitely worth a watch.