Warning: This article contains spoilers for Luther: The Fallen Sun.

David Robey’s Red Bunker plot in Luther: The Fallen Sun makes him one of the most sinister villains Luther has faced, while also raising the question of whether the red room referenced in the plot is based on real life. Luther: The Fallen Sun is a Netflix follow-up to the original BBC series, Luther, which follows the titular disgraced detective on his journey to bring Robey, a serial killer from his past, to justice using any means necessary. The closer that Luther and his associate, DCI Odette Raine, get to Robey, the more personal the threats become, making Robey a terrifying threat for the detectives.

Towards the end of the Luther: The Fallen Sun movie, Luther (portrayed by Idris Elba) and Raine discover that Robey is going to run a red room using his kidnapped victims, which he calls the “Red Bunker.” In the Red Bunker, Robey plans to host a livestream in which his sadistic viewers vote on how to torture the victims. Robey’s plans make him a threatening villain, but the true inspiration behind the Red Bunker makes Luther: The Fallen Sun’s villain plan so much scarier.

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Luther: Fallen Sun's Red Rooms Are An Urban Legend

Idris Elba as Luther.

Although the red room (or in this case, Red Bunker) in the Netflix movie Luther: The Fallen Sun is real, red rooms in real life are considered urban legends. The dark web myth takes its name from a Japanese Internet urban legend, although dark web red rooms are said to function differently. On the dark web, red rooms refer to live torture and murder in online livestreams and chatrooms. Reported instances of red rooms like in the Netflix movie have lacked evidence and therefore have been ruled hoaxes, largely due to a lack of ability for the required darknets to support streaming capabilities.

However, red rooms appear to be real in the Netflix movie Luther: The Fallen Sun. At the end of the Luther movie, it is revealed that the reason villain David Robey (played by Andy Serkis) has been kidnapping victims is to torture them in his “Red Bunker” livestream. In real life, matters regarding the dark web are not necessarily public knowledge, but in the Netflix movie, Luther (played by Idris Elba) immediately identifies Robey’s scheme as a red room. Though it’s reassuring that red rooms are primarily myth, the fact that they are more recognized in the Luther movie makes the world of The Fallen Sun even more horrifying.

How Luther: Fallen Sun's Red Rooms Have Some Truth To Them

luther-robey

The events of Luther: The Fallen Sun are fictional, but the Netflix movie red room plot might reveal the urban legend has some real foundations. According to a Reddit AMA with Eileen Ormsby, internet journalist and author of The Darkest Web, there is some truth regarding the red room rumors, with sections of the darkweb being capable of showing a variety of unpleasant crimes to those who delve into it. Perhaps the scariest part is that those committing the crimes often seem normal, like David Robey. Knowing the truth behind red room makes Robey’s Red Bunker plot even more terrifying in Luther: The Fallen Sun, as truth is often stranger than fiction.

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