Squid Game: The Challenge Explains How Players Are Killed in BTS Video

Netflix has released a new BTS video revealing how Squid Game: The Challenge creates its 'kill shot' effect for eliminations.

By Kofi Outlaw

Netflix's Squid Game: The Challenge turned the Korean-language international hit show into a worldwide hit reality show competition, that is only underscoring some of the original show's dark themes. To immerse contestants in (faux) life-or-death challenges based on children's games, the makers of Squid Game: The Challenge wasted no dollar or effort recreating the world of the TV series – including the harsh punishments for losing. 

In a new Netflix behind-the-scenes featurette, the makers of Squid Game: The Challenge reveal how contestants are 'killed off' in the reality show – which, in case it must be said, obviously does not really kill each player, like in the original show. 

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(Photo: Netflix)

Squid Games: The Challenge's Games Technical Consultant, Bryn Williams, and executive producer Toni Ireland, reveal the intricate technology used in the show, to help keep track of, and ultimately eliminate, players. Trackers were installed into vests worn by all 456 players under their tracksuit uniforms. Those trackers were then fed into a system of software designed to monitor and analyze their movements and other data. 

As for the 'kill shots' in every episode: squib packs, which are built into the vests each contestant wears. When producers know that a contestant has been eliminated in a game, they simply activate the squib system, which propels the squib through a tube to create the explosive effect, as if the player had been shot. The system was designed so that the squib explosion is (at the very least) jarring for the contestant – and slightly painful, judging by some players' reactions. 

Squid Game: The Challenge may be faking the violence of the original show, but the squib system during eliminations is a jarring and disturbing feature, nonetheless. The contestants' faux death scenes still evoke a sense of tragedy and loss, both for the viewers and fellow contestants. It's the entire point of including such a feature in the show, and it's interesting to see that there was some serious engineering done to create it. It's been equally interesting to see the range of viewer reactions to it. 

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On a more humorous note: this featurette from Squid Game: The Challenge might help those viewers who are confused about 'where the shots are coming from' when players get eliminated. The squib system arguably does its job too well, as it often seems like there are gunmen (albeit paintball gunmen) shooting down contestants from offscreen. Given the lawsuit already in progress, it's probably best for Squid Game: The Challenge to make it clear that's not happening. 

Squid Game: The Challenge is streaming on Netflix. 

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