Based on a horrifying real incident, Netflix’s iHostage is a testament to how your whole life can turn upside down in a snap. None of the customers and the Apple store staff had imagined in their worst nightmares that they would be taken hostage by an armed assailant, and the entire incident is gonna leave them traumatized for life. Mingus’ character is based on a real-life store employee, Alex Manuputty, who worked in the sales department. After the incident, Alex gave numerous interviews and provided first-hand information to the director, Roos Gerritsen, whose 2024 documentary film, The Hostage Situation in the Apple Store, serves as the source material for Netflix’s iHostage. The first scene that you watched in the film is based on the testimony of Alex, who had switched shifts with a colleague on February 22, 2022, and was helping the customers. At around 5:30 PM, an armed hostage-taker, Abdel Rahman Akkad, entered the store and took out a gun from his bag, firing shots from his submachine gun. As soon as people heard the gunshots, they started running for their lives. Some people ran towards the first floor, and some hid in the canteen, while those standing near the entrance quickly fled the store.
Alex Helped The Three Customers
Alex tried to run towards the exit door when suddenly he spotted a mother and her 13-year-old daughter trying to get into the elevator to reach the first floor. Alex felt an obligation to protect the customers inside the store, which was why he decided to help the mother and daughter. This was when Alex spotted another customer, whom he had been attending to previously, standing behind him trying his best to hide from the armed assailant. Alex knew that all 3 customers wouldn’t be able to make it to the exit, and therefore used his digital key card to open up the door of the cramped broom closet next to the elevator. Alex, along with the three other customers, locked himself in so that Abdel couldn’t spot them and take them hostage like the Bulgarian man. And before I forget, the names of all the hostages, including the store employees, have been changed in the Netflix film to maintain their privacy. In the film, the mother’s name is Soof, while her daughter is Bente. The customer Alex was attending to is named Lukas. The only reason I’ve mentioned Alex’s real name is because after the hostage situation, he gave numerous interviews to different media outlets and also helped the documentary director to get a complete picture.
Alex Connected With The Police Negotiator
Unlike what we saw in the Netflix film, it wasn’t Alex who called the emergency number. It was the young girl who had dialed 112 and an operator patched the call through to the police negotiator, Martin, introduced as Mark in iHostage. During the hostage situation, Martin was present at the Leidseplein square and was working from his car, parked a few meters away from the Apple Store. Alex took the phone from the young girl and explained the situation to Martin. The whole evening, Martin was on call with Alex, giving them timely instructions to avoid getting spotted by the armed assailant. You may remember the scene where Mingus informed Martin’s fictional counterpart in the film about the lights and music inside the store, which automatically shut off at 9:00 PM. According to Alex’s interview, the entire sequence was quite similar to the real-life incident, where Martin quickly contacted the control room, which got in touch with Apple HQ in America to turn off the alarm and turn on the lights and music again. The music was extremely important for the survival of the four people hiding inside the closet, because the walls of the room were really thin and the hostage-taker would have easily heard them or sensed their presence if the music had been shut off. In the film, Mingus also mentioned that he had a son, which once again is true, as his real-life counterpart is a father to a boy who was 15 years old at the time of the hostage situation.
The Mother Panicked
In the film, the young girl’s mother had a panic attack, because of which she started to sweat uncontrollably, and her breath shortened. This entire sequence, too, is picked directly from the real-life incident where Alex and Martin believed that the woman inside the cramped broom closet was having a heart attack, which was when Martin asked Alex to make her wear his Apple Watch so that they could measure her heart rate. Furthermore, at some point during their confinement, Alex got restless and decided to leave the closet, but Martin convinced him to stay there for the customers and trust them. Throughout the hostage situation, Martin kept talking to Alex in a friendly manner and even cracked a few jokes to keep the hostages calm so the authorities outside could devise a plan of action to extract them out of the crisis as quickly as possible.
DSI Officers Saved The Hostages
Sometimes around 10:30, as soon as the Bulgarian man ran out of the store, Martin quickly signaled Alex to lie low in case there was an explosion. Meanwhile, the armed assailant ran after his hostage when suddenly he was hit by a DSI vehicle and quickly hit the ground. Once the Bulgarian man was secured and the assailant was taken into custody, the DSI officers barged into the store and extracted the four people locked inside the closet.
Alex Went Into Therapy
After the chaos was contained, Alex and the three customers finally came out of the store, where Alex hugged Martin, to whom he owed his life. The four hostages were later taken to the nearby Marriott hotel, where the authorities provided them with refreshments and time to settle down after such a spine-chilling incident. However, as Alex mentioned in his interviews, things have never been the same for him since. He started stuttering and having nightmares about the whole event, which crushed his soul from within. He even took EMDR therapy, but it didn’t help him much. He later joined salsa dancing, which did wonders and helped him get rid of his stuttering. But even though things are improving for the better, neither Alex nor any of the other hostages have completely overcome the traumatic incident. In Alex’s case, sometimes loud noises or similar violent events bring back the memories of that terrifying night, which makes him feel completely helpless. He is still in touch with the three customers and talks to them often, as he believes they are the only ones who can understand his situation, as they went through such a nightmare together. A month after the incident, on 31st March 2022, Alex, the Bulgarian hostage, and the three customers received the Hero’s Pin for bravery from the Mayor of Amsterdam.
Alex Still Lives in Amsterdam
According to Alex’s biography, “330 Minutes,” written by Stephane Roozen, Alex was born in Curacao, where his biological mother gave seven-week-old Alex to a Dutch couple, who finally brought him to the Netherlands, the country he grew up in. In the books, Alex shared his version of the true story of what exactly happened to him and the other three victims locked inside the broom closet for 330 minutes on February 22. Before the incident, Alex joined the Apple Store in May 2019 as a retail specialist and worked in the sales department for more than five years. He left his position last December. He still lives in Amsterdam and has been quite active on most social media platforms promoting his biography and the new Netflix film that was released on the streaming platform this week.
