Netflix’s Kaleidoscope has been making headlines ever since it was announced last year. The show, featuring eight episodes, is based on a unique concept, where viewers can watch the episodes in any order they want, except for the finale.
Fans have appreciated the never-seen-before narrative of the show, which focuses on a team of thieves embarking on a heist to crack a seemingly unbreakable vault. Many viewers are now wondering if the show is based on a real story. Well, read on to find out.
Is Netflix’s Kaleidoscope Based on a True Story?
Kaleidoscope is based on real events that happened during Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Netflix says that the series is ‘loosely inspired by a real-life story.’ During Hurricane Sandy, which hit the US, Canada, and the Caribbean in 2012, a company was said to have lost billions of dollars.
At the time, 147 people were reported dead, and damages of billions of dollars were estimated. The underground vault of the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp in New York was flooded and damaged in the incident. As per reports, the Corp had more than 1.7 million paper certificates for shares, bonds, and other financial trading instruments.
The vault was in a condition to be opened only two weeks after the hurricane. When the DTCC unlocked the vault, they found huge damage due to flooding. The Wall Street-owned company initially refused to disclose the value of the losses and claimed that it was a low amount in comparison to their overall trade of $39.5 trillion.
The company revealed that most of the transactions were handled electronically, and hence the damages were insignificant. A year later, DTCC announced that 99% of the lost share was recovered.
Kaleidoscope is a Fictional Take on the Incident
As per Netflix, the show is inspired by a strange case where ‘$70 billion in bonds went missing in downtown Manhattan during Hurricane Sandy.’ The show’s creator Eric Garcia revealed that he got the idea of making a heist show from the incident.
He explained, “It’s loosely based on something that might have happened. After Hurricane Sandy, $70 billion worth of bonds got flooded in the basement of the DTCC, which is a large clearing effort that’s owned by a bunch of the big banks. To my mind, I was like, ‘Well, that’s a perfect cover up for a heist!’”
The show follows Leo Pap, an experienced robber who hires a team of small-time thieves to get into the USA’s most secure vault. Each member of the team has a unique skill to help with the mission. What follows is a tale of corruption, greed, scheming, vengeance, loyalties, and betrayals.
The official synopsis of Kaleidoscope reads, “Spanning 25 years, Kaleidoscope is an all-new anthology series following a crew of masterful thieves and their attempt to crack a seemingly unbreakable vault for the biggest payday in history.”
“Guarded by the world’s most powerful corporate security team, and with law enforcement on the case, every episode reveals a piece of an elaborate puzzle of corruption, greed, vengeance, scheming, loyalties, and betrayals. How did the crew of thieves plan it? Who gets away with it? Who can be trusted?”
All eight episodes of Kaleidoscope are available to stream on Netflix. Stay tuned for more news and updates.