- "Kaleidoscope," which premieres on Netflix on Sunday, is loosely based on a real mystery.
- In 2012, Hurricane Sandy caused an underground vault to flood. It was full of bonds.
Netflix's new miniseries "Kaleidoscope" is based on a true story of a company that nearly lost billions of bonds due to flooding in its underground vault.
The series, which premieres on Sunday, follows a group of criminals who attempt to pull off a heist in the middle of a storm. In an interview with Netflix's website Tudum, the show's creator Eric Garcia said that the idea of a heist in the middle of a storm was inspired by a real-life event in 2012 where "$70 billion worth of bonds got flooded" during Hurricane Sandy.
"It's loosely based on something that might have happened," he explained. "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 coverup for a heist!'"
Here's everything you need to know about the upcoming series and the story it is based on.
The story is based on the flooding of an underground vault after Hurricane Sandy
Hurricane Sandy hit the east coast of the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean in 2012. According to CNN, the storm killed at least 147 people directly in those three areas and caused damages that cost billions of dollars.
The storm also caused flooding in New York, including the underground vault of the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp, a Wall Street-owned organization that housed more than 1.7 million paper certificates for shares, bonds, and other financial instruments for important parts of the US trading infrastructure.
Reuters reported two weeks after the storm that the company found significant flooding and water damage at the vault located at 55 Water Street once they were able to open it. At the time, the company refused to disclose how much of the bond certificates were flooded, but their spokeswoman Judy Inosanto said it was a "very small percentage" of the $39.5 trillion of stocks and bonds that the company stores. She said most of the bonds and stocks were handled electronically.
According to their annual report in 2013, the DTCC said they had recovered and restored 99% of the certificates from the flooded vault.
However, in "Kaleidoscope," the storm is used as a cover for the team to pull off a heist.
In the show, Giancarlo Esposito leads a team of underdogs to steal from a criminal empire
In the series, a former thief Leo Pap (Giancarlo Esposito) brings together a team to pull off an impossible heist during a hurricane. They aim to steal $7 billion worth of secret bonds owned by a criminal empire from an underground vault.
The series has a talented cast including "You" star Tati Gabrielle, "A Knight's Tale" actor Rufus Sewell, and Australian action star Jai Courtney.
The creators of the series also boast that the show can be watched in any order since the series is non-chronological. The eight episodes of the miniseries take place at different points before, during, and after the heist ranging from 24 years before the heist to 6 months after.
"Kaleidoscope" is available to stream on Netflix on Sunday, January 1.