Money Heist: The Phenomenon (La casa de papel: El fenómeno)

THIS DOCUMENTARY CONTAINS SPOILERS FROM THE FOURTH SEASON

A NETFLIX ORIGINAL DOCUMENTARY

This series was unexpected from the start.

Money Heist is a story of failure.

Because the series flopped.

"Okay, well, I'll see you around in other projects." And suddenly...

"Awesome, Netflix has bought it."

Suddenly, it was being watched abroad, even more so than in Spain.

That's when it suddenly started to really take off.

And you realize that a tsunami is about to hit.

The team, we couldn't believe it.

We realized that people had a bond with the series

that went beyond just entertainment.

The impact that it has had on people around the world

and their expectations of the series right now puts you to the test.

None of us realized until we had the chance to get out there.

Your life changes completely. Your reality changes.

Yes, there are changes.

"We have to come back with a bang."

Let them see what we can do, right? So we brought out the big guns.

And we did.

Our story begins in 2017,

on a free Spanish TV channel: Antena 3.

You're on TV.

We started off well with 4.5 million viewers.

Good.

But...

The first season did very well, especially at the start,

but viewership gradually declined in the second season.

It started to wane.

It dropped by half.

The audience kept getting smaller.

- It was plummeting. - Falling...

And suddenly...

- It dies. - ...it's over.

It ends... and it's over.

And we put the series in the back of our minds.

I cried a lot on the last day.

I feel as though I've killed her.

- It was hard. - I went through a real grieving process.

I cried over my character. It was hard to say goodbye.

"It's the end of the road."

Yeah, it was pretty crazy.

And it was tough.

And then Netflix comes along

and buys the Spanish series so the rest of the world can watch.

Netflix includes it in its international catalog.

Cool!

It goes to Netflix. But it's like no big deal.

I don't think we, Netflix or anyone expected anything.

In fact, it was launched without advertising.

It simply appears in the catalog.

It was part of Netflix's basic catalog, and then...

Suddenly, something starts to happen.

I hardly had any followers and then suddenly, I had 15,000.

Then 30,000, 50,000, 60,000.

I suddenly had half a million followers, 600,000, 700,000.

From many countries.

I'd look and then two hours later, another 2,000.

We all started getting more followers.

That's what tipped us off, "Wow, something's happening here."

A boom, to be precise.

Enormous banners in Saudi Arabia. I couldn't believe it.

In Brazil, in Mexico, in Colombia.

On the other side of the world.

We started to get photographs from the carnival in Rio.

All in Money Heist costumes.

Some crazy guy has a tattoo of Úrsula.

- Where? - A full-leg tattoo, in color, this big.

"You what? What are you going on about? I mean, what is this?"

And it gets better.

We earned a worldwide rank of two,

competing against every series ever made.

My goodness! Not even the Americans would do this.

Netflix's head honchos start talking about us in their meetings.

Casa de papel

or Money Heist as it was released in the US,

so successful for us all around the world.

Stephen King, Benzema and Mbappé put the mask on.

Neymar too. He liked it so much that he ended up being a monk.

Oh, heavenly, Mr. Andrés.

I'm a fan.

- After that... - A bit of suspense.

...can anything else happen?

Yes, we win an Emmy.

"Money Heist."

And a strange honor: we start to inspire robberies.

With red overalls, the famous Dalí mask and armed.

Several of them.

A million-dollar gold heist.

...the characters from the series Money Heist.

It's been imitated, copied, using similar masks.

But the most exciting thing occurs in the streets.

The red jumpsuits and the mask are paraded around America, Europe and Asia.

They're used in political protest marches

in Lebanon, Iraq, France and Chile.

And along with the revived "Bella Ciao,"

it travels the world for causes such as democracy,

- feminism or the environment. - Now!

AUGUST 2019

But when an NGO rescues a boat full of immigrants

and as soon as they are brought to safety, they start to sing "Bella Ciao"...

That's much more important than any of the rest.

Then Netflix asks us, "Guys, can you carry out another robbery?"

What?

Wow, wait a second.

I think we took two months to reply

because we wanted something...

with the maximum guarantee of not letting viewers down,

something that wouldn't disappoint all those people.

We have to get the gang together.

"I can't believe it, how cool!"

We're the Resistance, right?

When we started filming again, we realized for the first time

how much our lives had changed.

This was fame.

When we got to Duomo Square, which was our first location,

it was already full of people.

We can see all of that.

"What's going on? We have to film here?"

They surrounded us as if it were a soccer stadium.

They stayed deathly silent, which was wonderful.

I said to myself, "Okay, concentrate.

No eye contact until you finish."

When we were coming to the end of the sequence,

I said to Álvaro, "Hey, Álvaro, let's go say hi to everyone."

Shall we quickly say hi to everyone?

And we took three or four steps,

and as we approached them, suddenly, they were coming from all sides...

Grazie mille. We must get back.

We weren't able to finish filming.

We had to stop filming. A catastrophe.

We ended up hiding out in a building.

There was no way we could continue.

Not from any angle, the reflection in the window...

It's packed. There are 4,000 people in the square right now.

- Seriously, we're laughing, but... - Jesús!

But it's a nightmare.

We can't film.

But we still find it funny.

This is going to turn tragic.

And it did. It was difficult getting to the car.

People started running after us.

If I get out, there will be a scene. Watch out!

We were like The Beatles.

And at the next location, which should have been peaceful...

I don't like to have to tell you this.

...the biggest thing was waiting.

Cut!

I think there was a point when we'd gone in there,

we saved it, we made the sequence work.

And Álvaro said...

"Pedro, maybe it'd be cool to say thanks to these people."

I said, "Álvaro, no.

Look what happened at the Duomo, we could die."

I'm fucking with you.

And we had the idea of standing on a bench.

And someone jumped over the barrier.

Thank you so much for your support.

Wow! Oh, no!

We started to see people running

like there was no tomorrow.

We just want to thank you, all of you, for being here.

Thank you so much.

All of a sudden, my face is all over the world.

This is insane.

It's very worrying because you stop being anonymous.

It's extraordinary.

It would take its toll on all of us.

Cars with tinted windows, escorted by bodyguards when abroad.

It has suddenly taken on a much, much wider dimension.

Everyone who sees you on the street says, "You're awesome."

Then you get home and some people say, "I am awesome."

I went from being totally anonymous

to suddenly having to ask to be allowed in the VIP lounge

because people wouldn't stop asking for photos with me. No.

Unless you really keep yourself in check, you become an asshole.

A real asshole.

This much popularity translates into data.

Today, Money Heist is one of Netflix's most-watched productions,

including films, and has many fans in America...

...across the world with a small baby...

...as well as in France...

Italy...

Argentina, Chile...

Brazil and Portugal.

It's also a huge success in North Africa, the Middle East and Turkey.

And overall,

it's one of the most-watched shows around the world.

This is a worldwide phenomenon.

The nicest thing about it is that it came from the viewers.

This was on another level.

It came about spontaneously.

I think there's a kind of "love attack."

We realized that people had a connection with the series

that went beyond pure entertainment.

It was almost a philosophical connection.

It's a bit overwhelming.

It's hard to believe, but that's how it is.

It was reaffirming for us, like,