Into the Deep is a Netflix true crime film detailing the life of Peter Madsen and the events leading up to the Danish inventor's murder of top Swedish journalist, Kim Wall.
In the summer of 2016, Australian filmmaker Emma Sullivan — Into the Deep's director — had been documenting Madsen's work for a year, not knowing that her film had captured a close look at the eccentric figure as he turned into a murderer before our very eyes.
Into the Deep provides an unprecedented portrait of Madsen whilst also tracking the impact of Madsen's crime on his enthusiastic team working alongside him at Rocket Madsen Space Lab (RML),
Where is Peter Madsen now? We've got answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about the Netflix film below.
Is Into the Deep based on a true story?
Yes, Into the Deep is built out of a year's worth of observational footage filmed in the months leading up to and after Kim Wall's murder. The film introduces us to the Danish inventor who'd grown famous for building his own homemade, crowd-funded submarine and was determined to become the world's first amateur astronaut.
Emma Sullivan had initially contacted him to produce a documentary about his life and work. She interviewed many of his enthusiastic fellow workers and filmed them working to realize his dream of going up in space, but unwittingly ended up on the ground as the case against Peter built up.
Footage of his team hard at work on their latest project stands side-by-side with film showing those close to Madsen reacting as they learned about the incident on the submarine and as more and more details about the investigation into Kim's disappearance were revealed.
At the end of Into the Deep, the documentary reveals that some of the footage shown in Into the Deep "proved instrumental in his conviction".
Who was Kim Wall? What happened to her?
Kim Wall was an award-winning Swedish journalist who had written for notable publications like The Guardian, The New York Times and Vice. She had been given the opportunity to interview Peter Madsen aboard his submarine. She was due to move to Beijing but had decided to miss her own leaving party to spend the night aboard his homemade miniature sub, where Madsen killed her.
The submarine sank on August 11 in 2017. Madsen was quickly pulled to safety by fishermen, though there was no sign of Wall, and Madsen subsequently gave several different accounts of what happened to her; initially, he said he had dropped Kim Wall off on land near a restaurant the night before and had not seen her since. On August 12, he said she had been struck by the submarine hatch and he had dumped her body overboard, then he later alleged Kim had died of carbon monoxide poisoning whilst on board.
Madsen was in police custody since August 12, 2017. Prosecutors rejected Madsen's accounts. Police had found disturbing content on Madsen's workshop computer, and argued that tools had been taken onboard the submarine as part of his premeditated plan to murder her on August 10 (via BBC News).
Where is Peter Madsen now?
Peter Madsen was found guilty of Kim Wall’s murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment in April 2018.
In 2020, Madsen was caught after escaping from Herstedvester Prison west of Copenhagen. BBC News reported that he had gotten out after threatening a prison employee, and he appeared to have some sort of object strapped to his waist which required bomb disposal specialists to attend the scene before he was taken back into custody and received more jail time for his escape attempt.
How to watch Into the Deep: The Submarine Murder Case
Into the Deep is available to stream exclusively on Netflix. It was released worldwide on September 30, 2022, after a work-in-progress version premiered at Sundance Film Festival in 2020.
