The true story behind Trainwreck: The Real Project X, explained

Netflix's anthology series Trainwreck is releasing another new episode, Trainwreck: The Real Project X, this July 8, 2025. This episode will follow the story of how a social media slip-up led to a full-blown riot in Haren, Netherlands when a teenage girl created a Facebook event for her sixteenth birthday party in 2012.

However, she made the page public instead of private, and thousands of people RSVP’ed. The event was inspired by the Hollywood movie Project X, and what started as something fun soon turned into a nightmare when thousands of people turned up and there was no provision to contain them. Trainwreck: The Real Project X will examine the full story in detail.

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What is the true story behind Trainwreck: The Real Project X?

In 2012, a group of Dutch teenagers became inspired by the Hollywood movie Project X and made a birthday event go viral to which thousands of people RSVP’ed.

The movie Project X, which was released just months earlier, depicted a wild, out-of-control high school party that quickly spiraled into chaos when hundreds of people showed up, leading to excessive drinking, drug use, vandalism, and violence, requiring a full-scale police intervention.

The movie ended with the main characters facing serious consequences, like legal action and financial damage. Project X was loosely based on a real-life event in 2008 in Melbourne, Australia, where a teenager threw a large party at his house, which he promoted on social media, and over 500 people attended.

The party spiraled out of control, resulting in property damage, and the police had to be brought in to get the situation under control. A similar situation occurred in Haren in 2012 when a similar event was created on Facebook for the birthday party of a teenager, which quickly went viral.

While the police and local authorities were initially warned about the potential scale of the gathering, they underestimated how big the event would become and did not take any preventive steps beforehand to prepare adequate security or crowd control measures.

On the day of the party, a massive crowd gathered in the small town, and the situation rapidly escalated from a birthday party to a full-blown riot with widespread disorder, vandalism, looting, and violence. The town suffered major property damage, and the event caught national headlines.

Trainwreck: The Real Project X is directed by Alex Wood. The episode features interviews, archival footage, and clips from social media where locals share their memories of the event. Trainwreck: The Real Project X also brings to viewers perspectives from the law enforcement agencies who revisit the event and identify their mistakes, and interviews with the teenager who threw the party but now regrets it.

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What is the Trainwreck anthology all about?

Trainwreck is a Netflix anthology series that revisits some of the most bizarre and gripping sensationalized events that once dominated the mainstream media. However, behind the sensational coverage, there lie complex stories, essential facts, and the experiences of real people who found themselves at the center of the chaos.

Trainwreck brings to us these stories, exploring everything from disastrous festivals and political scandals to media hoaxes and reality TV disasters. The anthology released its first installment in 2022, exploring the infamous Woodstock ’99 festival.

It is back once again to examine eight more such moments from history, like the devastating Astroworld tragedy, the American Apparel cult, and this week, the story of a party spiraling into chaos and the role social media played in it.

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Catch the latest episode of Trainwreck, Trainwreck: The Real Project X, this July 8, 2025.