Squid Game: Did the players actually fall in Glass Bridge?

❘ Published: 2023-12-06T16:35:40

Netflix

One of the biggest moments in the latest batch of Squid Game: The Challenge episodes was the infamous Glass Bridge – but did the players actually fall through the tiles?

Some games in The Challenge have been almost exactly the same, like the sprint-and-stop tension of Red Light Green Light, the slimy-cookie-cutting of Dalgona, and players choosing the means of their own fate in Marbles.

However, in lieu of people being killed for losing the games or players being put in any physical danger, there have been a few changes. Notably, it ditched Tug of War for a huge interactive game of Warship, and several allegiance-straining tests have been woven into the reality series.

The second batch of episodes (6-9) dropped last week, which saw 20 players forced to step onto the perilous Glass Bridge. Not everybody made it to the other side – so did they really fall as far as the show made it appear?

Squid Game: What happened to the players in Glass Bridge?

The Glass Bridge from Squid Game: The Challenge

The players in Squid Game: The Challenge didn’t actually fall during the Glass Bridge game. The people you saw plummeting through the glass were stunt doubles.

In the original series, players who chose the wrong side fell to their death far below, where they were scooped off the floor like cracked eggs. While the stakes in The Challenge are immense and intense, they’re not life or death, and the producers employed some crafty editing to make it look like the players plummeted into the void.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, executive producer John Hay explained: “The fall itself was done by a professional stunt person for the safety of the players. Obviously, that’s paramount for us. There was a large airbag underneath, but that also needs to be done by professionals.

“The order of the pattern of the [glass squares], which is a pass and which is a fail, is all predetermined before they’ve stepped on the bridge. And their reactions and their peers’ reactions to stepping on a fail door and being eliminated are all real. And then, at the last minute, we swapped them out, and a stunt person did the fall.”

It’s unclear exactly how far the stunt people fell, but producer Stephen Lambert assured it was a “safe distance… the way it’s filmed makes it look like it’s further than it actually was.”

Hay added: “The bridge itself was at height. That was important to us that the sensation of being high on a bridge was there, but obviously, the fall had to be a safe distance. There’s a large airbag underneath, that was all tested and checked. It was incredibly important to us that the gameplay was totally authentic. But we have, as Stephen says, made it look like they fall a little bit further than they do.”

Squid Game: The Challenge Episodes 1-9 are available to stream on Netflix now, with the finale dropping on December 6. You can check out our other coverage below: