It seems that the real-life version of Squid Game may not be all that far off from the capitalist dystopia depicted in the fictional show. The set of Squid Game: The Challenge hasn’t been immune to the blistering wave of cold weather hitting the UK, where it’s currently filming. During a filming session for a real-life version of the Red Light, Green Light sequence, freezing temperatures ravaged the area. As a result, a small number of contestants on the show reportedly required medical attention.
According to The Sun, “hopefuls competing for a record £3.7million prize spent hours in temperatures of -3C and had to remain completely motionless to win one game.” Although they claimed that “one exhausted player was stretchered away and others had to crawl to the finish,” Netflix “vehemently denied” to Variety that anyone had to be stretchered away from the game.
The sequence was shot in an airplane hangar, so the contestants weren’t completely unsheltered from the elements. That being said, anyone who’s ever been in a similar structure knows how drafty these environments can be. A Netflix spokesperson gave this statement to Variety:
We care deeply about the health and safety of our cast and crew, and invested in all the appropriate safety procedures. While it was very cold on set — and participants were prepared for that — any claims of serious injury are untrue..
As upsetting as the circumstances are, it’s hard not to see the irony of the situation. The whole show has been the subject of criticism, with some calling it ill-conceived. Squid Game functions as a statement on a not-so-far-off dystopia where poor people are brought in to compete for wealth at risk of death. The “real” version of the same game wasn’t supposed to actually kill people … and yet we’re already hearing reports like this one.
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