Spiderhead is based on a New Yorker short story written by George Saunders. Here's what inspired the story and a look at how much comes from history.

Warning: contains SPOILERS for Spiderhead.

While Netflix's Spiderhead isn't exactly based on a true story, there are several elements about it that complicate this statement. Spiderhead is adapted from George Saunders's 2010 New Yorker short story "Escape from Spiderhead," which is about a prison compound where inmates undergo psychoactive drug experiments in exchange for a modicum of freedom. Spiderhead explores the ethics of such experiments, particularly after Jeff (Miles Teller) discovers dark secrets about Spiderhead's primary operator, Dr. Steve Abnesti (Chris Hemsworth).

Such drugs that are tested at the Spiderhead facility include the loquacious Verbaluce, the euphoric Luvactin, the laugh-inducing Laffodil, and the mind-tormenting Darkenfloxx. None of the drugs mentioned in Spiderhead exist in real life, much like the Spiderhead compound itself. In fact, Spiderhead implements many changes from the short story, from Jeff's happier ending to the characters who were really Darkenfloxxed. Needless to say, Spiderhead is a work of fiction due to numerous factors.

With that said, like many works of fiction, Spiderhead takes a lot of inspiration from real life. There are many horrifying accounts of illicit mass medical experiments conducted in history. Such experiments would take disenfranchised populations and subject them to unethical, dangerous acts. There was the infamous Tuskegee syphilis study between 1932 and 1972, in which hundreds of Black men were misled about their condition and treatment, or lack thereof. The Nazis also performed numerous medical experiments on concentration camp prisoners that disregarded their humanity to the point of occasionally killing subjects. The CIA's infamous Project MKUltra became a continuation of the 1940s concentration camp studies and ended in the early 1970s. Project MKUltra is perhaps the closest historical example of Spiderhead's experiments, for the CIA gave copious amounts of LSD and other psychoactive drugs to prisoners, mentally ill people, and sex workers.

Spiderhead displays many of the ethical violations apparent in such 20th-century studies as MKUltra or the Tuskegee trials. Spiderhead's subjects must verbally "acknowledge" a "drip-on" for a certain drug when being studied, but they're usually not notified as to what drug will be administered to them. Furthermore, when Jeff refuses to have any test subjects Darkenfloxxed, Dr. Abnesti coaxes, manipulates, and acts out in anger in order for Jeff to change his mind. Choices and consent then become illusions that seemingly legitimize Spiderhead's operations by offering false legal protection. Furthermore, the prisoners making up Spiderhead's cast of characters are constantly told about the privileges they hold at the compound compared to the state prisons from which they came, thus manipulating them to stay under Dr. Abnesti's control.

When the studies inspiring Spiderhead came to light in the public eye, substantial ethical standards in scientific research were implemented to thus lower the possibility of a present-day Spiderhead situation. With that said, Spiderhead still offers insight into the commodification of quick-fix psychosomatic drugs in end-stage capitalism. The studies on which Spiderhead is based happened mostly during wartime in which the primary objective was to learn enemy secrets or strengthen a nation's health. Spiderhead's drugs, however, mean to control the populace through forced obedience or extreme pleasure while being marketed as a way to improve one's life. If there's a Spiderhead 2 in the future, the sequel could further explore present-day drug marketing and a growing cultural desire to create instant, manufactured fixes for ennui, sadness, and a host of other mental states.

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