iHostage, Netflix’s new gripping crime thriller, is now streaming. The Bobby Boermans directorial hit the OTT space on April 18, starring Admir Šehović, Soufiane Moussouli, Loes Haverkort, Marcel Hensema, and others in the lead role, and soon shot to the trending list. Inspired by a real-life Apple Store standoff in Amsterdam, the Dutch thriller walks the fine line between fact and fiction with chilling accuracy.
Probably the most exciting part of the movie is how it explains the whole hostage situation from different angles, including the attacker, the hostages, and the first responders. The real-life event dates back to 2022, when a seemingly harmless person turns criminal, demands money, and believes that’s what will help him fix the wrongs done against him. The story also involves a brave Bulgarian hostage who was hailed a hero. The crypto demands, fake bomb vest, and quick-minded cops, all of it made this incident worth turning into a tale for people.
The true story behind Netflix’s iHostage
The incident dates back to 2022, when a robbery inside the city’s most lively part shook the whole of Amsterdam. According to Yahoo News, a 27-year-old man named Abdel Rahman Akkad walked into the Apple Store in Leidseplein, one of the busiest areas of Amsterdam. Akkad was identified as an employee of a supermarket chain who reportedly used his official truck to drive to the store. The time was around 5:40 PM, when the culprit pulled out a machine pistol and a handgun, dressed in full camouflage, and wearing a bomb vest. He told the staff and customers to stay put, saying he’d blow himself up along with the whole building if police got near. Some customers managed to flee the scene as soon as the chaos broke, others managed to escape to the first floor of the building, while a few hid in the storerooms. Akkad asked for a negotiator and demanded €200 million in cryptocurrency plus a safe exit.
“He said he’d blow the whole place up if he didn’t get what he wanted,” a police officer later told local media. He grabbed one hostage, a man from Bulgaria, and held him at gunpoint for five hours. While all this was happening, police surrounded the building. Akkad fired four shots at them, making it clear he wasn’t bluffing. The situation became so tense that the police had to tell people on social media to stop posting, to stop the robber from watching any updates on the developments happening inside. Hours went by, and police managed to rescue a lot of customers without the culprit noticing, but the Bulgarian man’s life was still hanging by a thread.
But something unexpected happened (and we’ll leave that part for you to watch in the movie). The gutsy hostage managed to escape the situation with a risky move that could’ve easily cost him his life, but ended up saving not just his own, but others’ too. That’s when the police acted fast, and Akkad was knocked down to the ground. Robots played a very real part in the incident. The bomb vest turned out to be real, but thankfully, it wasn’t armed. Akkad was badly hurt and taken to a hospital, where he died the next day, February 23, 2022. The Dutch police chief, at the time said, “The hostage has played a hero role. In a few split seconds he escaped this hostage situation, otherwise it would have been an even longer night and nasty night.”
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Police looked into Akkad’s past and found he has a criminal history, including being arrested before for illegal firearms. He also had some harassment cases lodged against him by an ex-girlfriend and was reportedly struggling financially. But the exact motive behind the robbers, apart from being money motivated, was never revealed. A few of the hostages were awarded for their courage.
In the last few years, Netflix’s obsession with true crime stories has clearly benefited the OTT space. Whether it was the recent Stephen Graham’s Adolescence or the 2022 release The Good Nurse, The Guilty, Equalizer, The Irishman, and more, the OTT giant has managed to pull in some of the most loyal fans in the genre. That said, Netflix’s Q1 results topped expectations. According to Variety, revenue hit “$10.54 billion, up 12.5%, with earnings per share at $6.61 (compared to $5.28 a year earlier). Operating margin stood at 31.7%, up from 28.1% in Q1 of 2024.” All this after the platform stopped revealing its subscription numbers.
