Plot Synopsis

Executive produced by Jeff Zimbalist and Stu Schreiberg, CRUSH is a two-part documentary that unravels the chilling events of the deadly 2022 Halloween crush in Seoul, South Korea where 159 young people were killed on October 29, 2022 in a Halloween night of celebration turned into a nightmare. More than 100,000 young revelers, who were packed into the narrow bar-lined alleyways of Seoul's trendy Itaewon neighborhood, became trapped in a mass panic. The toll was astonishing: 159 people, including two American students studying abroad, had suffocated and died that night. Nearly all those who perished were in their twenties. CRUSH relies only on the voices of those who were either caught up in the crowd, themselves, or trying to respond and render help as the scale of the unfolding tragedy became apparent. Using raw footage, first-person accounts, real-time body camera video, surveillance video, and cell phone footage, CRUSH tells the story from the perspectives of: an American student -- who convinced her roommate to go out to a bar for the first time -- who emotionally relives the night that would be her friend's last; two off-duty American soldiers describe how they pulled often unconscious people from the crowd and tried to save as many as possible; a fashion executive talks about his desperate search for his best friend; and a Korean illustrator, who was buried under dozens of bodies, and now must come to terms with being partially paralyzed. CRUSH tackles disturbing questions that have rocked South Korea as victims' families cry out for justice, accusing their government of being unprepared and slow to respond. Two mid-level officials committed suicide, but the country's president and his cabinet ministers appear to be weathering the storm, bruised but holding on to power, nonetheless. The series is a shocking tale of fate and randomness, how the lives of strangers can intersect and the courage some people find in moments of crisis. Both installments of CRUSHED dropped on Tuesday, October 17, 2023 on Paramount+.