Trainwreck: The Real Project X (2025) Movie Script
[light, suspenseful music plays]
[man 1] Haren is a very calm
and green and peaceful place.
[church bell tolls]
We don't have tourists, uh, here in Haren,
and that's, uh, what we like.
Normally, there's nothing happening.
[ominous music plays]
Apart from that one particular day.
[disorienting music plays]
[shouting indistinctly]
[sirens wailing]
[music stops]
[shouting] Haren!
[exciting electronic music
plays over car stereo]
[man 2] It was Friday night.
We are pumped up to go to the party.
[both yelling excitedly]
We're going to the biggest birthday party
in the history in the Netherlands.
[music continues]
[man 3] The strangest thing,
it was in, like, this small town.
[laughs] It was the first time
I heard of this place, Haren.
[reporter] A Facebook invitation
to a girl's 16th birthday party
went viral.
The girl had posted a message
inviting her friends,
but forgot to mark the event as private.
All I wanted was
just to have a good 16th birthday,
but it really got a bit out of control.
[counter clicking]
Some of my friends said it might be
turning into a Project X party.
-[people cheering]
-[EDM playing]
Project X, that movie, fueled the fire.
-[music continues]
-[man speaking indistinctly]
-[clicking]
-[music fades]
Wait a minute.
17,000 people are invited to my house?
[chuckles] Are they gonna show up?
[suspenseful music playing]
[woman 1] It was a scary situation.
If this Project X escalates,
we will have disaster.
[people shouting, talking indistinctly]
[in Dutch] Let's be clear.
There is no party here.
[in English] Fuck off.
We're gonna do
this real movie in real life.
Let's go.
[chanting in Dutch] Where is the party?
The party is here!
[in English] Everybody was jumping,
drinking beer, having fun.
[EDM playing]
The energy just made a 180
all of a sudden.
-[music continues]
-[people shouting excitedly]
[siren wailing]
People just went berserk.
It was completely out of control.
[people shouting]
Oh my God,
they are gonna destroy everything.
-[flash-bang bursts]
-[people yelling]
[woman 2] I was worried
they'd reach the house
and, um, destroy whatever they could.
Burn it down,
pretty much like in the movie.
[people shouting]
[siren wailing]
[music accelerating]
[music crescendos]
[music distorting, fading]
[train horn honks]
[indistinct announcement over PA]
[woman 1] After everything
that happened with the party,
I left the Netherlands.
[mellow music plays]
Nowadays, I don't come home
that much anymore.
I don't think the Dutch
have forgotten what happened.
People see the Netherlands
as quite a party country.
A lot is permitted here, right?
Uh, weed, prostitutes.
[birds chirping]
But in reality,
the Netherlands is very controlled.
The Dutch don't like it
when people break our unwritten rules.
[bicycle bell rings]
But I never tended to be
someone who conformed.
Sometimes when I talked to my dad,
he would just sort of remind me that
you know, when you stick your head
above the grass
-[music ends]
-it also might get cut off.
[pleasant music plays]
When I turned 16, I told my parents
I would love to throw
a birthday party here at home.
Sixteen is an important birthday
for us in the Netherlands,
especially because
the drinking age then was 16.
Back then,
everyone used Facebook for everything.
Popularity was associated
with how many friends you had,
you know, how many likes you got.
People wanted to show
that they were fun, right,
that they were doing cool things.
So I created the event,
something like "Merthe's 16th birthday."
I invited 78 people, to be exact.
It asked whether
I wanted to make it public or private.
I clicked "public."
[ominous music plays]
[shouting excitedly]
[chuckling]
We met Merthe in 2012
when she joined our volleyball team.
[dramatic string music plays]
She was the new girl.
She didn't know anybody.
We went to different schools.
We lived in the city center of Groningen.
And she was from a smaller town
next to Groningen called Haren.
People living in Groningen
view people living in Haren as,
"They're from Haren.
They're probably posh."
Yes.
Didn't have to be,
but everybody thought it.
-[chuckles]
-Yes.
-[woman 1 grunts]
-[woman 2 laughs]
But, eventually, her personality
was completely different than we expected.
[intriguing electronic music plays]
She could make jokes about herself.
She was very easy to talk to.
She fitted right in.
When she invited us,
we were super excited
to come to her party.
-Merthe was a lot of fun to hang out with.
-Yes.
[Merthe] We all loved
watching Hollywood films.
-Things like Mean Girls, Easy A, Hangover.
-[mouse clicking]
Life in these movies was quite different
from what we experienced
in the Netherlands.
And kids my age wanted
to experience something similar.
[dramatic whooshing]
[school bell ringing]
When I got to school the next day,
now and then, I was looking at my phone.
Ah, the old iPhone.
[chuckling] So small.
I can't remember how we could type on it
with a screen of this size.
I guess it was the first time
when you could use
social media on your phone.
So events were
in the palm of your hand now,
and you always knew what was going on.
[intriguing music playing]
Somewhere around lunchtime,
the number of attendees
was ticking up slowly,
but nothing out of the ordinary.
[man] I was chilling out
in between classes.
[phone chimes]
Suddenly, I got a ping on my phone,
and it was an invite to the party.
I went to school with Merthe,
but I wasn't really friends with her.
She lived in a nice house.
They're a little bit elite.
Everyone in our school
knows where they live.
It looks like a little bit
of the, um, Home Alone house.
And of course it looked like
a good house for a party.
And then I saw it was a public party.
I was a little bit of a rebel.
So I thought, "Wouldn't it be funny
if I invite more people?"
Yeah, but I couldn't invite
all of my people at once.
So I needed to click on every person
who was in my contact list
to invite them personally.
-[mouse clicking]
-It took me a long time to do it.
[spluttering] I sent like 500 invites.
Everyone was so excited
about inviting more friends.
-[school bell rings]
-[footsteps approaching]
[Merthe] After the break,
one of my friends came up to me
to say, "Laurens is crashing your event
and talking about inviting
a lot of people."
That's probably
when I started to check my phone.
There were now
3,000 people invited to my party.
[ominous music plays]
What the hell is going on?
People were very enthusiastic
and were posting things
on the timeline of the, uh, event.
[phones chiming]
And then some of my friends said
it might be turning
into a Project X party.
Mom, Dad, it's me, Thomas.
I wanted to be cool for one night.
The Project X movie
came out earlier in 2012.
[Thomas] Tonight's about
changing the game.
["Pursuit of Happiness" plays, stops]
Every teenager
wants to go to a party like that.
I remember people jumping off roofs.
-[shouting excitedly]
-["Pursuit of Happiness" resumes, stops]
The worst nightmare of a parent.
[glass shattering]
[phone rings]
-Hello?
-Thomas?
-Dad, hey.
-We just wanted to call one last time.
-Make sure you were set for the night.
-[song stops]
[laughing] This is too much
out of control.
[woman screams]
Best party movie ever.
Now, people were hyping each other up,
posting pictures of, you know,
the gnome with the ecstasy.
[song resumes faintly]
Suddenly, I got texts,
messages on my phone,
"What a really good idea."
And then it went rolling and rolling.
[intriguing music plays]
[Merthe] Yeah, it was exciting,
and it was cool.
So I took to Twitter
and tweeted something like,
"Just 3,500 people coming."
I really thought it's just a joke.
It will calm down.
[ticking]
But it just didn't stop.
The number of invites went up and up.
And it was doubling, tripling.
It was crazy.
[clock ticking]
I don't think we had any class at all.
-[phones chiming]
-It was just people hanging over tables
and absorbing this crazy thing
that was happening.
[chuckling] And also
the teacher was sort of into it.
[ticking]
At this point, it's starting to feel like
maybe this isn't gonna stop by itself.
So I looked at my phone and I tried
to find an option to delete the event,
but at that time,
you couldn't from the phone.
It was only possible on a desktop version.
But I couldn't go home yet.
So there was nothing
I could do in this moment.
[school bell rings]
When the class finally finished,
I quickly took my bicycle and went home.
I definitely felt, "I can't hide this,"
like, "I have to ring the alarm bells."
But I don't think my parents
really understood social media.
You know, whenever I posted
anything on Facebook,
they'd say, "Did you send them an email?"
[chuckles]
And so I showed my dad the event.
And he was more like,
"Huh? What-- What happened?"
[ticking]
"17,000 people are invited to my house?"
[chuckling] "Are they gonna show up?"
But he did realize quite early
the trouble that the whole family was in.
So my mom started calling the police
[busy signal beeping]
to see if she could find
someone that could help us.
But I'm not sure the police understood
what the Facebook event was.
So we decided that it would be best
for me to delete the event.
It was a mixed feeling, right?
"Okay, now,
it's a good thing that it's over."
But at the same time,
it's like an anticlimax or something.
[intriguing music continues]
[man] I don't have
any connection to Merthe,
except that I saw
her birthday party on Facebook.
And it was, like, the first event
to explode like this.
I was an 18-year-old kid.
And I just wanted to experience
that one epic party, like the Project X.
I remember getting something to drink,
refreshed my Facebook,
and I saw it was gone.
"404, page not found."
I was a little bit disappointed.
Things don't happen here.
I was having fun.
Everybody was having fun.
And for me,
it felt like it was too early to end.
So that's when I created
the copycat event at Merthe's house.
[eerie sting]
[typing]
I called it Project X Haren.
A surprise birthday party for her.
[suspenseful music plays]
[Merthe] That evening, I had plans to go
to the cinema with one of my best friends.
And so we were standing
in the line for the popcorn
and hearing the people in front of us.
"Oh my God, did you see that event?"
"Project X. Yeah, I'm gonna go."
[chuckling] We're like, "What the fuck?"
"What's going on?"
[phone vibrating, chiming]
My phone is blowing up with messages.
This new event has been created
using a lot of references
to the Project X movie
and inviting everyone to my house.
[chuckling] What the hell?
[inhales sharply] What? Who did this?
[Jorik] It went really crazy and viral.
It was meme after meme
after meme after meme.
[chimes]
The memes is what really did it for me
because I'm a meme fanatic.
I was just balling. [chuckles]
There were other memes of like,
"Where is the party? Here is the party."
One of them photoshopped me.
It was really surreal.
You can't believe it's happening to you.
What on earth was I gonna do?
[intriguing string music plays]
[Chris] I was the first elected
night mayor of Groningen.
And I was responsible
for all the nightlife in the city.
Organizing festivals.
Dealing with bars, with problems.
In the Netherlands, it looks very liberal,
but there's also a lot of structure,
a lot of rules in the background.
We have a city council,
but after five o'clock, they go home,
and I come in.
I was on Facebook,
and I saw this event coming up.
It was a little bit weird
because it was an event in Haren.
It's a little bit of a boring town.
Nothing is happening there.
Only some rich kids living there.
But then I started
to receive phone calls from residents.
They had a bad feeling
there was something not really right.
[ominous music playing]
[Arnold] I really thought
it potentially could go wrong.
But I could not do anything on my own.
I thought action should come
from, uh, local authorities.
[woman] I was just working on my laptop.
[phone chimes]
And then there was this message
popping up on the phone.
[phone chimes]
Somebody had sent me
the Project X trailer.
[music playing over video]
There were streets that were on fire.
My thought then was, "Oh my God,
they are gonna destroy everything."
[woman screams]
If this is going to happen
in a little village like Haren,
we will have disaster.
[dramatic, ominous music plays]
I love Haren very much.
[chuckles] Really, very much.
In fact, I was a member of city council
on the opposite side of the mayor.
I thought, "This is gonna be huge."
So I tried to warn the mayor.
[busy tone beeping]
But he was away for a couple of days,
so I couldn't reach him.
[Chris] I tried to contact the mayor.
I wanted to help.
I wanted to solve this problem.
Something a night mayor has to do.
But he didn't respond.
So every day
I called the city council of Haren.
They were used to dealing
with lampposts, crossings.
So they were not taking it serious.
-We must, uh, find a way to stop this.
-[music stops]
We must find a way-- a way
to protect people in Haren.
[ominous music plays, fades]
[Merthe] My parents at this point
started to get a bit worried.
"Are people actually gonna show up?"
You know, "Will we not have
a house anymore in one week?"
And then we, obviously,
started thinking about,
"Okay, what can we do
in order to take this down?"
[tense music playing]
The admin of Project X Haren
was someone called Jorik Clarck.
So we went back and forth a little bit,
making snarly comments at each other.
[Jorik] I think she liked the attention.
Yeah, I made her, uh, Facebook famous.
[music intensifies]
Jorik didn't understand
that it really had an impact
on my life and on our family.
And I don't think he grasped that.
But I wanted to try
to convince him to take it down.
And so a friend,
who was connected to him on Facebook,
she gave me his number.
[vibrating]
I'm hesitant
to pick up numbers I don't know,
but I was like, "Ah, fuck it."
So I slide it, I pick it up, and it says,
"Hey, is this Jorik?"
I'm like, uh,
"Yeah, who am I speaking with?"
"Well, this is Merthe's dad."
And I was like, "Oh shit." [chuckles]
He was a little mad at me.
He explained to me, like,
people were climbing over their fence
and taking pictures
of them inside their living room.
And that was the point
that it finally hit me.
If I'm actually ruining their life,
that's not something I want.
So that's when I put out the message
saying that the party's over.
[eerie, ethereal music playing]
And people didn't like that.
When he finally took it down,
obviously, there was a lot of relief.
It's over.
[tense music playing]
Then a few hours later,
another event popped up
[computer chimes]
[ominous music plays]
which was crazy.
[Jorik] It shocked me.
It was like an exact copy of my page.
[Merthe] The numbers went up
very, very fast.
[Jorik]
There were already 30,000 people invited.
[music intensifies]
[Merthe] It was a weird name to have.
Der Fhrer obviously has
a very negative connotation
in the German language.
[eerie music plays]
So I thought
I'd try to reason with the admins,
saying how serious it was,
and how really we were urging
and really asking them to take it down
because it was having
a really big impact on our lives,
and, um, it wasn't just a joke.
And the only response
that I got were two words.
"Eat shit."
[eerie music continues]
The rumors about this party
started getting bigger and bigger.
There was gonna be a stage,
and there were artists coming.
Heineken was even gonna sponsor the event,
like it was some kind of festival.
That was crazy.
[mouse clicking]
[Chris] I was listening
to the radio in the car,
and, suddenly,
they were talking about Project X.
[in Dutch] Merthe speaking.
[man 1] It's Timor and Coen from 3FM.
-[Merthe] Hi.
-[man 2] Hi.
[man 1] The party's coming up?
[Merthe in English] Unfortunately,
everyone had my phone number.
And one of the first calls that I got
was from De Coen en Sander Show.
I didn't really know what to do.
I just, sort of, kept talking.
[in Dutch] The party
is definitely canceled.
[man 1] You could've had 6,000 presents.
[Merthe] That'd be great, but it wouldn't
cover the cost of a new house.
[man 1 laughs]
[Merthe] By the way,
am I live on the radio right now?
-[man 1] Yes! Ha-ha!
-[man 2] Yes! 3FM! Merthe!
[line disconnects]
[in English] Then it went huge
in the national media.
[in Dutch] The town of Haren
is getting ready for the arrival
of thousands of unwanted partygoers.
[male reporter] 50,000 invitations
have now been sent via the internet.
[man in English] One, two, three.
Do it! Do it!
[dramatic music playing]
When a crazy video of a poster
rolling off of a building hit the news,
we started realizing, okay,
this is really going to-- to happen.
There were already rumors
about people getting on buses
from different cities in the Netherlands.
[reporter in Dutch]
Residents on the Stationsweg in Haren
are worried.
[phone chimes]
[Mariska in English] There were now
thousands of people coming.
It's even bigger
than I was thinking at the start.
-[dramatic music continues]
-[ticking accelerates]
[Arnold] I had a very nasty feeling.
Uh, we are just not ready
to-- to host all these people.
[music fades]
At this point,
we kept the curtains closed 24/7.
People were always
taking pictures of the house.
[camera shutter clicks]
I couldn't go to volleyball.
I couldn't go to school.
People started making masks of my face.
It's almost like The Purge
where you're trapped in your house,
and people are ringing the doorbell
and trying to get in.
[doorbell rings]
[man] Our target for this year's Purge
is hiding in your home.
[eerie music playing]
[Merthe] It wasn't just, you know,
people making fun anymore.
They also became a little bit scary.
[ominous music plays]
[Chris] The day before the party,
I was getting more and more nervous.
I was thinking this is not a place
where you wanna host
a few thousand people.
It's gonna be very, very dangerous.
If the council doesn't take it seriously,
I had to come up with a plan.
[dramatic music plays]
The only solution was to organize
an alternative party outside of Haren.
I said to the city council,
"I don't wanna make a penny on this."
So they were like,
"Oh, this may be a good idea."
"Uh, can you work that out for us?"
Normally, it takes months
to organize a very big party.
We only had
like 24 hours to organize this.
I sent a plan.
But Mayor Bats had the final say
[music fading]
and I was really praying
that he was making the right choice.
The day before the party,
I was invited
for a meeting with the mayor.
[tense music plays]
And I really hoped
that the mayor would say to us,
"Okay, I made a decision,
and I will close every road to Haren,
so no one can come in."
But the mayor didn't wanna do that.
[Bats in Dutch] I have
a very clear message.
This party is canceled.
Just so everyone is clear,
there is no party here.
[in English] I got a bit angry
when I heard that.
Why don't you take the youth seriously?
There was no kid that thought,
"Oh, well, if he says there's no party,
I believe him."
It was too late. It was the wrong message.
[phone vibrates]
[Chris] I received a call
from the city council.
Uh, the mayor decided
to not do this alternative party
but just work with police.
[music fading]
They were very stupid,
and they were naive.
There was no music, there was no stage,
there was nothing.
And if you don't provide these things,
the kids will find ways
to have a good time.
[disorienting electronic music plays]
[talking indistinctly]
[belches]
Stuk means broken.
[exciting electronic music plays]
We want to break television channels
because they have rules.
We hate rules.
[chuckles]
We do, like, Jackass stuff.
Crazy challenges every fucking week.
-[crackling]
-[screams]
[laughing]
Everybody was texting,
"Hey, are you going to Project X Haren?"
"This party is gonna be epic."
"Everybody is gonna talk about it,
so you need to be there."
We had a dream.
We want to have
the biggest YouTube channel in the world.
-So this was our move.
-[laughing]
Let's fucking film this shit,
and let's have fun.
You wanna go to Haren? Party? Project X!
Here we go.
[intriguing electronic music playing]
[man] It was the morning of the party.
The city council of Haren
asked me to help monitor social media
because they did not have that experience.
I was asked to put the message out
that there would not be a party.
[message whistles]
My boss told me, "Do whatever it takes."
[chuckles]
Just keep telling the public,
"Do not come to Haren."
[chuckles] "There is no party."
But we were just this tiny town
with four likes.
We started to interact, uh,
but it was impossible to do.
[message whistles]
It was a-- a David and Goliath situation.
[ticking]
[Merthe] When I checked Facebook
on the day of the event,
about 350,000 people had been invited.
So the timeline
was just streaming with posts.
[upbeat synth music plays]
People were gearing up to-- to come.
[messages chime]
[Arnold] My youngest daughter
worked in the supermarket.
She told me that there were a lot
of strange people buying a lot of alcohol.
Everyone was just trying
to get their hands on alcohol.
We were 16, and in the Netherlands,
it means you can drink.
We didn't need a fake ID like McLovin.
[music fades]
[ominous music plays]
[man in Dutch] Why did you decide
to get the train here to Haren?
Uh, just out of curiosity really.
It'll be an experience
to see something like this.
[in English] By lunchtime,
there were people really gathering
in front of the house
in large numbers and planning to stay.
[indistinct conversations]
The press was ringing the doorbell a lot.
[man 1 in Dutch] Still quiet at Merthe's.
We'll ring the doorbell.
[man 2] Good afternoon.
[man 3] No cameras.
[man 1] Her father has had enough of this.
[Arnoud in English] I was doing
live coverage for Project X Haren.
When I drove to Merthe's street,
they had taken away the street signs.
-[sign creaking]
-[tense music plays]
I guess it was kind of funny.
People have navigation on their phones,
so it's not very hard to get there.
[Merthe] When I looked outside,
so many people
had gathered in front of the house
that it started to feel unsafe.
So that was the moment
where I said, "I want to go."
[Arnoud] There were too many people
standing in front of her house.
And the police decided,
"Okay, we're going to stop this,"
and they were closing
both ends of the street.
[Merthe] I was very relieved that we left.
When we arrived at my aunt's house,
I don't think we said much.
We just sat there
watching everything as it unfolded.
[in Dutch] Just two more hours,
and the party starts in Haren
for 16-year-old Merthe.
The man next to me now,
police spokesman Paul Heidanus,
stands here with a cautious smile.
Mr. Heidanus, I understand you have
300 police officers on standby?
I won't say anything
about the measures we have taken.
But let it be clear,
we know what we're doing.
[dramatic sting]
[tense string music plays]
[in English] Everything was under control.
My shift ended, so I left.
I was cycling, and then I stopped.
And I saw
this endless line of cars coming in,
and people walking towards Haren.
[ominous music plays]
We were outnumbered.
[line ringing]
So I called the people
at the-- at the town hall,
and, uh, I said,
"This message we put out,
it didn't work."
[dramatic sting]
[people laughing and conversing]
Every time a train arrived,
I saw this stream of people
walking past us.
I didn't know Merthe,
but I'm a party animal myself.
And we were just walking to Haren,
you know, with a big-ass group.
The vibes was nice.
[exciting electronic music plays]
Hey!
When I arrived at the party,
I saw people having fun.
[people singing indistinctly]
[tense string music plays]
[Arnold] We could hear
the shouting and screaming.
We closed the doors and the windows.
You cannot do very much more than that.
Very scary. Very scary.
[shouting and singing indistinctly]
The busier it-- it got,
the-- the crazier it got, really.
-[all chanting indistinctly]
-[dramatic electronic music playing]
[in Dutch] Chaos.
-[chuckles]
-[car horns honking]
This is absolutely crazy. [laughs]
I've never known someone
have so many friends.
Project X Haren can start, we are here!
[Thomas in English] Everybody was jumping,
drinking beer, having fun.
[all cheering]
They were thinking,
"Let's have the best night of our life."
[distorted voice speaks
over stereo indistinctly]
-[music continues]
-[people cheering]
Everybody was screaming
like crazy animals.
[chanting in Dutch] Where is the party?
The party is here!
[in English] I loved it.
[chanting continues]
I still sometimes,
in my head, sing this song.
[in Dutch] Where is the party?
[in English] Because that's
what I heard all night.
A lot of these young people
were really expecting
to find some sort of a party.
And all they found was-- was barriers
and a few police officers
and a crowd that was getting bigger
and bigger and bigger.
-[speaking in Dutch]
-[woman] Oh, sorry!
And every time I was going live,
these strange, stupid things happened.
Arnoud?
[in Dutch] Hey, guys,
what are you doing here?
Good vibes, motherfucker!
[yells indistinctly]
[in English] And I was like, "How long
are we going to keep this going?"
[speaking indistinctly in Dutch]
[in Dutch] A Facebook party attracts
strange people from all over the country.
I've just been showered in whiskey.
-I think it's time to move on from here.
-Good, Arnoud Bodde. Thank you.
[tense music plays]
[Mariska in English] I walked
with the dog to the center
to see what was happening.
[ominous music plays]
Behind me, there was a group of people
[people chanting]
chanting, making noise.
And then, suddenly,
I felt a hit on the head.
And, immediately,
-I heard glass breaking.
-[glass shatters]
They threw a bottle at my head.
-[dog whimpers]
-The dog started to shake.
That's when I felt
that the atmosphere turned around.
You could feel it in the air.
You could see, in a minute,
it can explode.
-[loud bang]
-[people cheering]
[in Dutch] We are now in Merthe's street,
and it's madness.
[in English] It looks like
we entered a football stadium.
-[people shouting]
-Thousands and thousands of young people.
[in Dutch] And we have only ten officers.
[woman shouts indistinctly]
[in English] I saw so many people.
More and more and more.
[people shouting indistinctly]
And I was like,
"No way that there's 300 police officers
in the village right now."
[people chanting]
There was obviously no plan.
These were not riot police.
They were just regular cops
-[air horn blasting]
-who were looking at each other, scared.
[people jeering]
[Merthe] The police,
they were outnumbered by thousands.
And I wasn't sure that
they were gonna hold the line much longer.
-[crowd shouting indistinctly]
-[ominous music playing]
I was very worried they'd reach the house
[people shouting in distance]
and burn it down,
pretty much like in the movie.
[exciting electronic music playing]
They saw the movie Project X.
They want to have the party in the house.
They want to have the swimming pool,
but they don't get it.
And people get really, really drunk.
[speaks indistinctly]
[yelling indistinctly]
[man speaks indistinctly]
And then some people get aggressive.
[ominous music playing]
[people cheering]
-[loud bang]
-[people cheering]
Everybody was screaming.
[imitates screaming]
We thought,
"What the hell is happening here?"
[Chris] I opened up my Twitter.
I saw them start to throw bottles.
[bottle shatters]
And suddenly I hear a lot of sirens.
[siren wailing]
Oh no. Now-- Now it's gonna happen.
[siren wailing]
If you invite the police to a party,
there's only one outcome.
There's gonna be a riot.
-[loud bang]
-[man] Whoa!
[in Dutch] The police have fired
a warning shot.
[in English] The police made
one fucking big mistake.
They were trying to push us away.
-[people clamoring]
-[loud bang]
[in Dutch] Now it's really
getting out of hand.
[people talking indistinctly]
Fuck, it's getting crazy now.
[all clamoring]
[in English] They started
a war they couldn't win.
[in Dutch] It was the police
that provoked this.
[in English] Nothing ever happens here,
and we're not allowed to go crazy.
People tasted that freedom.
And when the riot police
started to take it away,
people just went berserk.
-[people chanting excitedly]
-[suspenseful music playing]
[in Dutch] This is fucking bizarre.
How long will the police let this go on?
[loud bang]
[Merthe in English] I was worried
about my dad because
he had decided to stay.
He wanted to be there for the neighbors.
I hoped that he wouldn't somehow
get caught up in that crowd.
-[loud bang]
-[people shout excitedly]
[Iloe] We didn't go to the party.
And I also didn't want
to contribute to a crowd
that is putting her family in danger.
[Fenna] I remember
the footage from the news.
It was the police hitting people.
The police were getting, also, aggressive.
If somebody
was getting close to the police,
the police would [imitates strike]
smash the guy.
-[ominous music plays]
-[people shouting]
I was filming this. I was like,
"Okay. Oh my God. What's happening here?"
I've never seen this before
in the Netherlands.
Hit people that hard
when they are laying on the ground?
That's wild.
[Thomas] I fell down.
And, yeah,
riot police started, like, attacking
my legs with their bats and stuff.
You know,
but I managed to get up and got away.
And I was like, "Okay,
you wanna treat me like a rioter?"
"Then I'll become a rioter."
[ominous heavy metal music plays]
[music becomes exciting]
I saw people bending down a pole.
So I just decided to help them.
[people shouting indistinctly]
I saw people
running through our garden
to avoid the police.
Normally, you see it on television,
and it's far away,
but now we had it in our front yard.
-[people shouting]
-[loud clack in distance]
People were throwing
Molotov cocktails into the cars.
[exciting electronic music playing]
And I thought,
"Oh my God, this is like Call of Duty."
"This is real."
"This is fucking real."
[tense music plays]
[people cheer]
I saw this very big guy grabbing a pole,
and he just started bashing in
the windows of the supermarkets.
The thing that was going through my head
was, "Free cigarette."
-[security alarm blaring]
-[people shouting indistinctly]
So I put on my hood,
and I was actually
the first one to go inside.
So I just filled up the bag to the brim.
I was living in the moment.
[sucks teeth] I felt alive, I guess.
You know?
We were just filming the robbery.
[ominous music plays]
But that was a wrong decision.
In just one second, shit hits the fan.
"Hey! Hey! They're filming us!
They're filming us!"
-[groans]
-"Grab them! Grab them!"
[microphone thumps]
[exhales] And after a-- a few seconds,
you were laying on the ground.
And people were trying to get his camera,
"Give me the camera!"
I saw these arms with big tattoos,
like, bam, bam!
And the only thing that I could do
is grab the people away from him
because I want to have the footage.
We filmed something new.
So, if you have
500 subscribers in Holland, just 500,
this was the moment for us to grow.
And you wanna save
my life because otherwise--
That's the second part.
[laughs]
No, no, no.
Without him, I was pretty dead.
-[eerie, ethereal music plays]
-We jumped him over a-- a roof, right?
I was really scared.
The camera, they hit it really hard.
But we managed to get the tape.
We saved it.
[in Dutch] Okay, that's it. No more!
What we just experienced was insane.
I was scared to death.
[in English] We're sitting in a car.
And we say, "We have gold."
"Let's get out of this war zone."
[engine starting]
[speaks indistinctly]
-[engine revving]
-[bangs]
[people shouting indistinctly]
[Merthe] At some point in the evening
-[tense music playing]
-my dad was told by the police
that two girls had died in the crowd.
-[music fades]
[mournful music plays gently]
[chuckles dryly] Sorry.
So that was tough. [chuckles]
People are dying
on your birthday party, and
somehow the role you played in that,
and it's just an empty feeling.
Like, it-- That's-- You can't, uh
Can't grasp that, I don't think.
[male reporter in Dutch] On Twitter,
there are rumors
that a girl has been crushed to death,
but there are tweets
that say it's not true.
What do you know?
[man] We also read Twitter
and have the same information,
but we have not heard this
from the police.
[in English] I wanted to bike home,
but I just couldn't
because there was glass everywhere.
It looked like a tornado had hit the town.
And I was walking, and I felt guilty.
I'm sad to be associated with this.
[tense music playing]
Later, luckily,
we heard that nobody had died.
But I think
the emotional impact is already done.
[Arnoud] As it got to midnight,
the police finally took control,
and things calmed down.
And then I saw this car.
The windscreen was smashed,
the side mirrors were off.
There were footsteps
on the top of the car.
There was this big triangle-shaped brick,
uh, on the passenger seat.
I was standing there looking at it.
And then behind me,
I-- I heard this voice
of a colleague of mine,
"Is that your car?"
I said, "Yep, that's mine."
[chuckles softly] Um
I've kept the brick
as a sort of a-- a souvenir.
My girlfriend has asked me
a couple of times,
"Are we still keeping that?"
And I'm like,
"Yeah, we're-- we're keeping the brick."
[chuckles]
[dramatic string music playing]
[Giel] We stayed up the whole night,
cutting the film,
and put it on our website.
After one hour, it goes viral.
[music rising]
[music intensifies]
Yeah, that was
the really first big hit for StukTV.
It started with Project X Haren.
And after 12 years, we're one of
the biggest YouTube channels in Holland.
[Bats in Dutch] From initial analysis,
we are dealing with
what I can only call scum
who, in a violent, well-prepared manner,
consciously sought out confrontation.
[Chris in English] The mayor
and the police didn't take responsibility.
He called the kids scum.
I didn't agree with him.
The kids were just coming to Haren
to have a good time.
And they did everything
to not provide that.
[ominous music plays]
[reporter in Dutch] The rioters have left
the people of Haren in shock.
-[gloomy music plays]
-The total cost of the damage is unknown.
All the windows are broken. It's so bad.
We'll have to work hard today
to get Haren clean again.
We're still the best community
in the Netherlands.
Sorry. [sniffles]
[in English] The next day,
I went for a walk with my husband,
and everything was already cleaned up.
I was very, very proud
of the people in my town.
[music becomes more hopeful]
[birds singing]
I woke up with a hangover,
and everything was all over Facebook.
And people were tagging my name
under those videos.
Fucking snitches.
This was gonna come back on me
one way or another.
So I just decided
to go back and return what I stole.
I was like, "Oh, damn, I fucked up."
[ominous music plays]
[news theme music plays]
[in Dutch] On tonight's show,
what are the consequences
of the critical report on Project X Haren
for the mayor and the police chief?
[gloomy, pensive music plays]
The one time he should have been here
and not taken any risks
and just protected the people,
it did not go well.
Things should have gone differently.
Let there be
no misunderstanding about that.
And for that, here today, I apologize.
[church bell tolling]
[melancholy piano music plays]
[in English] A couple of years
after Project X, I was at a party,
and in comes walking Merthe.
[mouse clicking]
And I was like--
I recognized her immediately.
But because of the shame I felt,
I didn't say anything.
[Merthe] His face looked familiar,
but I couldn't quite place it.
She looked at me, I looked at her.
She was like, "You're that guy, right?"
I was like, "Yeah, that's me."
She's like, "Okay, it's fine.
It's in the past. Don't worry about it."
"And we were young and, uh, stupid."
[music becomes more gentle]
[Merthe] I don't think most people
that came to the party
were intending to riot
or to commit a crime.
I think a lot of people came
because they wanted a party.
I think it's sort
of a normal inherent thing
in teenagers around that age,
that they wanna rebel
and take their freedom,
express their personalities.
[mouse clicks]
I definitely would have gone
if it wasn't my party.
-[Merthe and producers laughing]
-[music stops]
[intriguing electronic music plays]
[man 1] Haren is a very calm
and green and peaceful place.
[church bell tolls]
We don't have tourists, uh, here in Haren,
and that's, uh, what we like.
Normally, there's nothing happening.
[ominous music plays]
Apart from that one particular day.
[disorienting music plays]
[shouting indistinctly]
[sirens wailing]
[music stops]
[shouting] Haren!
[exciting electronic music
plays over car stereo]
[man 2] It was Friday night.
We are pumped up to go to the party.
[both yelling excitedly]
We're going to the biggest birthday party
in the history in the Netherlands.
[music continues]
[man 3] The strangest thing,
it was in, like, this small town.
[laughs] It was the first time
I heard of this place, Haren.
[reporter] A Facebook invitation
to a girl's 16th birthday party
went viral.
The girl had posted a message
inviting her friends,
but forgot to mark the event as private.
All I wanted was
just to have a good 16th birthday,
but it really got a bit out of control.
[counter clicking]
Some of my friends said it might be
turning into a Project X party.
-[people cheering]
-[EDM playing]
Project X, that movie, fueled the fire.
-[music continues]
-[man speaking indistinctly]
-[clicking]
-[music fades]
Wait a minute.
17,000 people are invited to my house?
[chuckles] Are they gonna show up?
[suspenseful music playing]
[woman 1] It was a scary situation.
If this Project X escalates,
we will have disaster.
[people shouting, talking indistinctly]
[in Dutch] Let's be clear.
There is no party here.
[in English] Fuck off.
We're gonna do
this real movie in real life.
Let's go.
[chanting in Dutch] Where is the party?
The party is here!
[in English] Everybody was jumping,
drinking beer, having fun.
[EDM playing]
The energy just made a 180
all of a sudden.
-[music continues]
-[people shouting excitedly]
[siren wailing]
People just went berserk.
It was completely out of control.
[people shouting]
Oh my God,
they are gonna destroy everything.
-[flash-bang bursts]
-[people yelling]
[woman 2] I was worried
they'd reach the house
and, um, destroy whatever they could.
Burn it down,
pretty much like in the movie.
[people shouting]
[siren wailing]
[music accelerating]
[music crescendos]
[music distorting, fading]
[train horn honks]
[indistinct announcement over PA]
[woman 1] After everything
that happened with the party,
I left the Netherlands.
[mellow music plays]
Nowadays, I don't come home
that much anymore.
I don't think the Dutch
have forgotten what happened.
People see the Netherlands
as quite a party country.
A lot is permitted here, right?
Uh, weed, prostitutes.
[birds chirping]
But in reality,
the Netherlands is very controlled.
The Dutch don't like it
when people break our unwritten rules.
[bicycle bell rings]
But I never tended to be
someone who conformed.
Sometimes when I talked to my dad,
he would just sort of remind me that
you know, when you stick your head
above the grass
-[music ends]
-it also might get cut off.
[pleasant music plays]
When I turned 16, I told my parents
I would love to throw
a birthday party here at home.
Sixteen is an important birthday
for us in the Netherlands,
especially because
the drinking age then was 16.
Back then,
everyone used Facebook for everything.
Popularity was associated
with how many friends you had,
you know, how many likes you got.
People wanted to show
that they were fun, right,
that they were doing cool things.
So I created the event,
something like "Merthe's 16th birthday."
I invited 78 people, to be exact.
It asked whether
I wanted to make it public or private.
I clicked "public."
[ominous music plays]
[shouting excitedly]
[chuckling]
We met Merthe in 2012
when she joined our volleyball team.
[dramatic string music plays]
She was the new girl.
She didn't know anybody.
We went to different schools.
We lived in the city center of Groningen.
And she was from a smaller town
next to Groningen called Haren.
People living in Groningen
view people living in Haren as,
"They're from Haren.
They're probably posh."
Yes.
Didn't have to be,
but everybody thought it.
-[chuckles]
-Yes.
-[woman 1 grunts]
-[woman 2 laughs]
But, eventually, her personality
was completely different than we expected.
[intriguing electronic music plays]
She could make jokes about herself.
She was very easy to talk to.
She fitted right in.
When she invited us,
we were super excited
to come to her party.
-Merthe was a lot of fun to hang out with.
-Yes.
[Merthe] We all loved
watching Hollywood films.
-Things like Mean Girls, Easy A, Hangover.
-[mouse clicking]
Life in these movies was quite different
from what we experienced
in the Netherlands.
And kids my age wanted
to experience something similar.
[dramatic whooshing]
[school bell ringing]
When I got to school the next day,
now and then, I was looking at my phone.
Ah, the old iPhone.
[chuckling] So small.
I can't remember how we could type on it
with a screen of this size.
I guess it was the first time
when you could use
social media on your phone.
So events were
in the palm of your hand now,
and you always knew what was going on.
[intriguing music playing]
Somewhere around lunchtime,
the number of attendees
was ticking up slowly,
but nothing out of the ordinary.
[man] I was chilling out
in between classes.
[phone chimes]
Suddenly, I got a ping on my phone,
and it was an invite to the party.
I went to school with Merthe,
but I wasn't really friends with her.
She lived in a nice house.
They're a little bit elite.
Everyone in our school
knows where they live.
It looks like a little bit
of the, um, Home Alone house.
And of course it looked like
a good house for a party.
And then I saw it was a public party.
I was a little bit of a rebel.
So I thought, "Wouldn't it be funny
if I invite more people?"
Yeah, but I couldn't invite
all of my people at once.
So I needed to click on every person
who was in my contact list
to invite them personally.
-[mouse clicking]
-It took me a long time to do it.
[spluttering] I sent like 500 invites.
Everyone was so excited
about inviting more friends.
-[school bell rings]
-[footsteps approaching]
[Merthe] After the break,
one of my friends came up to me
to say, "Laurens is crashing your event
and talking about inviting
a lot of people."
That's probably
when I started to check my phone.
There were now
3,000 people invited to my party.
[ominous music plays]
What the hell is going on?
People were very enthusiastic
and were posting things
on the timeline of the, uh, event.
[phones chiming]
And then some of my friends said
it might be turning
into a Project X party.
Mom, Dad, it's me, Thomas.
I wanted to be cool for one night.
The Project X movie
came out earlier in 2012.
[Thomas] Tonight's about
changing the game.
["Pursuit of Happiness" plays, stops]
Every teenager
wants to go to a party like that.
I remember people jumping off roofs.
-[shouting excitedly]
-["Pursuit of Happiness" resumes, stops]
The worst nightmare of a parent.
[glass shattering]
[phone rings]
-Hello?
-Thomas?
-Dad, hey.
-We just wanted to call one last time.
-Make sure you were set for the night.
-[song stops]
[laughing] This is too much
out of control.
[woman screams]
Best party movie ever.
Now, people were hyping each other up,
posting pictures of, you know,
the gnome with the ecstasy.
[song resumes faintly]
Suddenly, I got texts,
messages on my phone,
"What a really good idea."
And then it went rolling and rolling.
[intriguing music plays]
[Merthe] Yeah, it was exciting,
and it was cool.
So I took to Twitter
and tweeted something like,
"Just 3,500 people coming."
I really thought it's just a joke.
It will calm down.
[ticking]
But it just didn't stop.
The number of invites went up and up.
And it was doubling, tripling.
It was crazy.
[clock ticking]
I don't think we had any class at all.
-[phones chiming]
-It was just people hanging over tables
and absorbing this crazy thing
that was happening.
[chuckling] And also
the teacher was sort of into it.
[ticking]
At this point, it's starting to feel like
maybe this isn't gonna stop by itself.
So I looked at my phone and I tried
to find an option to delete the event,
but at that time,
you couldn't from the phone.
It was only possible on a desktop version.
But I couldn't go home yet.
So there was nothing
I could do in this moment.
[school bell rings]
When the class finally finished,
I quickly took my bicycle and went home.
I definitely felt, "I can't hide this,"
like, "I have to ring the alarm bells."
But I don't think my parents
really understood social media.
You know, whenever I posted
anything on Facebook,
they'd say, "Did you send them an email?"
[chuckles]
And so I showed my dad the event.
And he was more like,
"Huh? What-- What happened?"
[ticking]
"17,000 people are invited to my house?"
[chuckling] "Are they gonna show up?"
But he did realize quite early
the trouble that the whole family was in.
So my mom started calling the police
[busy signal beeping]
to see if she could find
someone that could help us.
But I'm not sure the police understood
what the Facebook event was.
So we decided that it would be best
for me to delete the event.
It was a mixed feeling, right?
"Okay, now,
it's a good thing that it's over."
But at the same time,
it's like an anticlimax or something.
[intriguing music continues]
[man] I don't have
any connection to Merthe,
except that I saw
her birthday party on Facebook.
And it was, like, the first event
to explode like this.
I was an 18-year-old kid.
And I just wanted to experience
that one epic party, like the Project X.
I remember getting something to drink,
refreshed my Facebook,
and I saw it was gone.
"404, page not found."
I was a little bit disappointed.
Things don't happen here.
I was having fun.
Everybody was having fun.
And for me,
it felt like it was too early to end.
So that's when I created
the copycat event at Merthe's house.
[eerie sting]
[typing]
I called it Project X Haren.
A surprise birthday party for her.
[suspenseful music plays]
[Merthe] That evening, I had plans to go
to the cinema with one of my best friends.
And so we were standing
in the line for the popcorn
and hearing the people in front of us.
"Oh my God, did you see that event?"
"Project X. Yeah, I'm gonna go."
[chuckling] We're like, "What the fuck?"
"What's going on?"
[phone vibrating, chiming]
My phone is blowing up with messages.
This new event has been created
using a lot of references
to the Project X movie
and inviting everyone to my house.
[chuckling] What the hell?
[inhales sharply] What? Who did this?
[Jorik] It went really crazy and viral.
It was meme after meme
after meme after meme.
[chimes]
The memes is what really did it for me
because I'm a meme fanatic.
I was just balling. [chuckles]
There were other memes of like,
"Where is the party? Here is the party."
One of them photoshopped me.
It was really surreal.
You can't believe it's happening to you.
What on earth was I gonna do?
[intriguing string music plays]
[Chris] I was the first elected
night mayor of Groningen.
And I was responsible
for all the nightlife in the city.
Organizing festivals.
Dealing with bars, with problems.
In the Netherlands, it looks very liberal,
but there's also a lot of structure,
a lot of rules in the background.
We have a city council,
but after five o'clock, they go home,
and I come in.
I was on Facebook,
and I saw this event coming up.
It was a little bit weird
because it was an event in Haren.
It's a little bit of a boring town.
Nothing is happening there.
Only some rich kids living there.
But then I started
to receive phone calls from residents.
They had a bad feeling
there was something not really right.
[ominous music playing]
[Arnold] I really thought
it potentially could go wrong.
But I could not do anything on my own.
I thought action should come
from, uh, local authorities.
[woman] I was just working on my laptop.
[phone chimes]
And then there was this message
popping up on the phone.
[phone chimes]
Somebody had sent me
the Project X trailer.
[music playing over video]
There were streets that were on fire.
My thought then was, "Oh my God,
they are gonna destroy everything."
[woman screams]
If this is going to happen
in a little village like Haren,
we will have disaster.
[dramatic, ominous music plays]
I love Haren very much.
[chuckles] Really, very much.
In fact, I was a member of city council
on the opposite side of the mayor.
I thought, "This is gonna be huge."
So I tried to warn the mayor.
[busy tone beeping]
But he was away for a couple of days,
so I couldn't reach him.
[Chris] I tried to contact the mayor.
I wanted to help.
I wanted to solve this problem.
Something a night mayor has to do.
But he didn't respond.
So every day
I called the city council of Haren.
They were used to dealing
with lampposts, crossings.
So they were not taking it serious.
-We must, uh, find a way to stop this.
-[music stops]
We must find a way-- a way
to protect people in Haren.
[ominous music plays, fades]
[Merthe] My parents at this point
started to get a bit worried.
"Are people actually gonna show up?"
You know, "Will we not have
a house anymore in one week?"
And then we, obviously,
started thinking about,
"Okay, what can we do
in order to take this down?"
[tense music playing]
The admin of Project X Haren
was someone called Jorik Clarck.
So we went back and forth a little bit,
making snarly comments at each other.
[Jorik] I think she liked the attention.
Yeah, I made her, uh, Facebook famous.
[music intensifies]
Jorik didn't understand
that it really had an impact
on my life and on our family.
And I don't think he grasped that.
But I wanted to try
to convince him to take it down.
And so a friend,
who was connected to him on Facebook,
she gave me his number.
[vibrating]
I'm hesitant
to pick up numbers I don't know,
but I was like, "Ah, fuck it."
So I slide it, I pick it up, and it says,
"Hey, is this Jorik?"
I'm like, uh,
"Yeah, who am I speaking with?"
"Well, this is Merthe's dad."
And I was like, "Oh shit." [chuckles]
He was a little mad at me.
He explained to me, like,
people were climbing over their fence
and taking pictures
of them inside their living room.
And that was the point
that it finally hit me.
If I'm actually ruining their life,
that's not something I want.
So that's when I put out the message
saying that the party's over.
[eerie, ethereal music playing]
And people didn't like that.
When he finally took it down,
obviously, there was a lot of relief.
It's over.
[tense music playing]
Then a few hours later,
another event popped up
[computer chimes]
[ominous music plays]
which was crazy.
[Jorik] It shocked me.
It was like an exact copy of my page.
[Merthe] The numbers went up
very, very fast.
[Jorik]
There were already 30,000 people invited.
[music intensifies]
[Merthe] It was a weird name to have.
Der Fhrer obviously has
a very negative connotation
in the German language.
[eerie music plays]
So I thought
I'd try to reason with the admins,
saying how serious it was,
and how really we were urging
and really asking them to take it down
because it was having
a really big impact on our lives,
and, um, it wasn't just a joke.
And the only response
that I got were two words.
"Eat shit."
[eerie music continues]
The rumors about this party
started getting bigger and bigger.
There was gonna be a stage,
and there were artists coming.
Heineken was even gonna sponsor the event,
like it was some kind of festival.
That was crazy.
[mouse clicking]
[Chris] I was listening
to the radio in the car,
and, suddenly,
they were talking about Project X.
[in Dutch] Merthe speaking.
[man 1] It's Timor and Coen from 3FM.
-[Merthe] Hi.
-[man 2] Hi.
[man 1] The party's coming up?
[Merthe in English] Unfortunately,
everyone had my phone number.
And one of the first calls that I got
was from De Coen en Sander Show.
I didn't really know what to do.
I just, sort of, kept talking.
[in Dutch] The party
is definitely canceled.
[man 1] You could've had 6,000 presents.
[Merthe] That'd be great, but it wouldn't
cover the cost of a new house.
[man 1 laughs]
[Merthe] By the way,
am I live on the radio right now?
-[man 1] Yes! Ha-ha!
-[man 2] Yes! 3FM! Merthe!
[line disconnects]
[in English] Then it went huge
in the national media.
[in Dutch] The town of Haren
is getting ready for the arrival
of thousands of unwanted partygoers.
[male reporter] 50,000 invitations
have now been sent via the internet.
[man in English] One, two, three.
Do it! Do it!
[dramatic music playing]
When a crazy video of a poster
rolling off of a building hit the news,
we started realizing, okay,
this is really going to-- to happen.
There were already rumors
about people getting on buses
from different cities in the Netherlands.
[reporter in Dutch]
Residents on the Stationsweg in Haren
are worried.
[phone chimes]
[Mariska in English] There were now
thousands of people coming.
It's even bigger
than I was thinking at the start.
-[dramatic music continues]
-[ticking accelerates]
[Arnold] I had a very nasty feeling.
Uh, we are just not ready
to-- to host all these people.
[music fades]
At this point,
we kept the curtains closed 24/7.
People were always
taking pictures of the house.
[camera shutter clicks]
I couldn't go to volleyball.
I couldn't go to school.
People started making masks of my face.
It's almost like The Purge
where you're trapped in your house,
and people are ringing the doorbell
and trying to get in.
[doorbell rings]
[man] Our target for this year's Purge
is hiding in your home.
[eerie music playing]
[Merthe] It wasn't just, you know,
people making fun anymore.
They also became a little bit scary.
[ominous music plays]
[Chris] The day before the party,
I was getting more and more nervous.
I was thinking this is not a place
where you wanna host
a few thousand people.
It's gonna be very, very dangerous.
If the council doesn't take it seriously,
I had to come up with a plan.
[dramatic music plays]
The only solution was to organize
an alternative party outside of Haren.
I said to the city council,
"I don't wanna make a penny on this."
So they were like,
"Oh, this may be a good idea."
"Uh, can you work that out for us?"
Normally, it takes months
to organize a very big party.
We only had
like 24 hours to organize this.
I sent a plan.
But Mayor Bats had the final say
[music fading]
and I was really praying
that he was making the right choice.
The day before the party,
I was invited
for a meeting with the mayor.
[tense music plays]
And I really hoped
that the mayor would say to us,
"Okay, I made a decision,
and I will close every road to Haren,
so no one can come in."
But the mayor didn't wanna do that.
[Bats in Dutch] I have
a very clear message.
This party is canceled.
Just so everyone is clear,
there is no party here.
[in English] I got a bit angry
when I heard that.
Why don't you take the youth seriously?
There was no kid that thought,
"Oh, well, if he says there's no party,
I believe him."
It was too late. It was the wrong message.
[phone vibrates]
[Chris] I received a call
from the city council.
Uh, the mayor decided
to not do this alternative party
but just work with police.
[music fading]
They were very stupid,
and they were naive.
There was no music, there was no stage,
there was nothing.
And if you don't provide these things,
the kids will find ways
to have a good time.
[disorienting electronic music plays]
[talking indistinctly]
[belches]
Stuk means broken.
[exciting electronic music plays]
We want to break television channels
because they have rules.
We hate rules.
[chuckles]
We do, like, Jackass stuff.
Crazy challenges every fucking week.
-[crackling]
-[screams]
[laughing]
Everybody was texting,
"Hey, are you going to Project X Haren?"
"This party is gonna be epic."
"Everybody is gonna talk about it,
so you need to be there."
We had a dream.
We want to have
the biggest YouTube channel in the world.
-So this was our move.
-[laughing]
Let's fucking film this shit,
and let's have fun.
You wanna go to Haren? Party? Project X!
Here we go.
[intriguing electronic music playing]
[man] It was the morning of the party.
The city council of Haren
asked me to help monitor social media
because they did not have that experience.
I was asked to put the message out
that there would not be a party.
[message whistles]
My boss told me, "Do whatever it takes."
[chuckles]
Just keep telling the public,
"Do not come to Haren."
[chuckles] "There is no party."
But we were just this tiny town
with four likes.
We started to interact, uh,
but it was impossible to do.
[message whistles]
It was a-- a David and Goliath situation.
[ticking]
[Merthe] When I checked Facebook
on the day of the event,
about 350,000 people had been invited.
So the timeline
was just streaming with posts.
[upbeat synth music plays]
People were gearing up to-- to come.
[messages chime]
[Arnold] My youngest daughter
worked in the supermarket.
She told me that there were a lot
of strange people buying a lot of alcohol.
Everyone was just trying
to get their hands on alcohol.
We were 16, and in the Netherlands,
it means you can drink.
We didn't need a fake ID like McLovin.
[music fades]
[ominous music plays]
[man in Dutch] Why did you decide
to get the train here to Haren?
Uh, just out of curiosity really.
It'll be an experience
to see something like this.
[in English] By lunchtime,
there were people really gathering
in front of the house
in large numbers and planning to stay.
[indistinct conversations]
The press was ringing the doorbell a lot.
[man 1 in Dutch] Still quiet at Merthe's.
We'll ring the doorbell.
[man 2] Good afternoon.
[man 3] No cameras.
[man 1] Her father has had enough of this.
[Arnoud in English] I was doing
live coverage for Project X Haren.
When I drove to Merthe's street,
they had taken away the street signs.
-[sign creaking]
-[tense music plays]
I guess it was kind of funny.
People have navigation on their phones,
so it's not very hard to get there.
[Merthe] When I looked outside,
so many people
had gathered in front of the house
that it started to feel unsafe.
So that was the moment
where I said, "I want to go."
[Arnoud] There were too many people
standing in front of her house.
And the police decided,
"Okay, we're going to stop this,"
and they were closing
both ends of the street.
[Merthe] I was very relieved that we left.
When we arrived at my aunt's house,
I don't think we said much.
We just sat there
watching everything as it unfolded.
[in Dutch] Just two more hours,
and the party starts in Haren
for 16-year-old Merthe.
The man next to me now,
police spokesman Paul Heidanus,
stands here with a cautious smile.
Mr. Heidanus, I understand you have
300 police officers on standby?
I won't say anything
about the measures we have taken.
But let it be clear,
we know what we're doing.
[dramatic sting]
[tense string music plays]
[in English] Everything was under control.
My shift ended, so I left.
I was cycling, and then I stopped.
And I saw
this endless line of cars coming in,
and people walking towards Haren.
[ominous music plays]
We were outnumbered.
[line ringing]
So I called the people
at the-- at the town hall,
and, uh, I said,
"This message we put out,
it didn't work."
[dramatic sting]
[people laughing and conversing]
Every time a train arrived,
I saw this stream of people
walking past us.
I didn't know Merthe,
but I'm a party animal myself.
And we were just walking to Haren,
you know, with a big-ass group.
The vibes was nice.
[exciting electronic music plays]
Hey!
When I arrived at the party,
I saw people having fun.
[people singing indistinctly]
[tense string music plays]
[Arnold] We could hear
the shouting and screaming.
We closed the doors and the windows.
You cannot do very much more than that.
Very scary. Very scary.
[shouting and singing indistinctly]
The busier it-- it got,
the-- the crazier it got, really.
-[all chanting indistinctly]
-[dramatic electronic music playing]
[in Dutch] Chaos.
-[chuckles]
-[car horns honking]
This is absolutely crazy. [laughs]
I've never known someone
have so many friends.
Project X Haren can start, we are here!
[Thomas in English] Everybody was jumping,
drinking beer, having fun.
[all cheering]
They were thinking,
"Let's have the best night of our life."
[distorted voice speaks
over stereo indistinctly]
-[music continues]
-[people cheering]
Everybody was screaming
like crazy animals.
[chanting in Dutch] Where is the party?
The party is here!
[in English] I loved it.
[chanting continues]
I still sometimes,
in my head, sing this song.
[in Dutch] Where is the party?
[in English] Because that's
what I heard all night.
A lot of these young people
were really expecting
to find some sort of a party.
And all they found was-- was barriers
and a few police officers
and a crowd that was getting bigger
and bigger and bigger.
-[speaking in Dutch]
-[woman] Oh, sorry!
And every time I was going live,
these strange, stupid things happened.
Arnoud?
[in Dutch] Hey, guys,
what are you doing here?
Good vibes, motherfucker!
[yells indistinctly]
[in English] And I was like, "How long
are we going to keep this going?"
[speaking indistinctly in Dutch]
[in Dutch] A Facebook party attracts
strange people from all over the country.
I've just been showered in whiskey.
-I think it's time to move on from here.
-Good, Arnoud Bodde. Thank you.
[tense music plays]
[Mariska in English] I walked
with the dog to the center
to see what was happening.
[ominous music plays]
Behind me, there was a group of people
[people chanting]
chanting, making noise.
And then, suddenly,
I felt a hit on the head.
And, immediately,
-I heard glass breaking.
-[glass shatters]
They threw a bottle at my head.
-[dog whimpers]
-The dog started to shake.
That's when I felt
that the atmosphere turned around.
You could feel it in the air.
You could see, in a minute,
it can explode.
-[loud bang]
-[people cheering]
[in Dutch] We are now in Merthe's street,
and it's madness.
[in English] It looks like
we entered a football stadium.
-[people shouting]
-Thousands and thousands of young people.
[in Dutch] And we have only ten officers.
[woman shouts indistinctly]
[in English] I saw so many people.
More and more and more.
[people shouting indistinctly]
And I was like,
"No way that there's 300 police officers
in the village right now."
[people chanting]
There was obviously no plan.
These were not riot police.
They were just regular cops
-[air horn blasting]
-who were looking at each other, scared.
[people jeering]
[Merthe] The police,
they were outnumbered by thousands.
And I wasn't sure that
they were gonna hold the line much longer.
-[crowd shouting indistinctly]
-[ominous music playing]
I was very worried they'd reach the house
[people shouting in distance]
and burn it down,
pretty much like in the movie.
[exciting electronic music playing]
They saw the movie Project X.
They want to have the party in the house.
They want to have the swimming pool,
but they don't get it.
And people get really, really drunk.
[speaks indistinctly]
[yelling indistinctly]
[man speaks indistinctly]
And then some people get aggressive.
[ominous music playing]
[people cheering]
-[loud bang]
-[people cheering]
Everybody was screaming.
[imitates screaming]
We thought,
"What the hell is happening here?"
[Chris] I opened up my Twitter.
I saw them start to throw bottles.
[bottle shatters]
And suddenly I hear a lot of sirens.
[siren wailing]
Oh no. Now-- Now it's gonna happen.
[siren wailing]
If you invite the police to a party,
there's only one outcome.
There's gonna be a riot.
-[loud bang]
-[man] Whoa!
[in Dutch] The police have fired
a warning shot.
[in English] The police made
one fucking big mistake.
They were trying to push us away.
-[people clamoring]
-[loud bang]
[in Dutch] Now it's really
getting out of hand.
[people talking indistinctly]
Fuck, it's getting crazy now.
[all clamoring]
[in English] They started
a war they couldn't win.
[in Dutch] It was the police
that provoked this.
[in English] Nothing ever happens here,
and we're not allowed to go crazy.
People tasted that freedom.
And when the riot police
started to take it away,
people just went berserk.
-[people chanting excitedly]
-[suspenseful music playing]
[in Dutch] This is fucking bizarre.
How long will the police let this go on?
[loud bang]
[Merthe in English] I was worried
about my dad because
he had decided to stay.
He wanted to be there for the neighbors.
I hoped that he wouldn't somehow
get caught up in that crowd.
-[loud bang]
-[people shout excitedly]
[Iloe] We didn't go to the party.
And I also didn't want
to contribute to a crowd
that is putting her family in danger.
[Fenna] I remember
the footage from the news.
It was the police hitting people.
The police were getting, also, aggressive.
If somebody
was getting close to the police,
the police would [imitates strike]
smash the guy.
-[ominous music plays]
-[people shouting]
I was filming this. I was like,
"Okay. Oh my God. What's happening here?"
I've never seen this before
in the Netherlands.
Hit people that hard
when they are laying on the ground?
That's wild.
[Thomas] I fell down.
And, yeah,
riot police started, like, attacking
my legs with their bats and stuff.
You know,
but I managed to get up and got away.
And I was like, "Okay,
you wanna treat me like a rioter?"
"Then I'll become a rioter."
[ominous heavy metal music plays]
[music becomes exciting]
I saw people bending down a pole.
So I just decided to help them.
[people shouting indistinctly]
I saw people
running through our garden
to avoid the police.
Normally, you see it on television,
and it's far away,
but now we had it in our front yard.
-[people shouting]
-[loud clack in distance]
People were throwing
Molotov cocktails into the cars.
[exciting electronic music playing]
And I thought,
"Oh my God, this is like Call of Duty."
"This is real."
"This is fucking real."
[tense music plays]
[people cheer]
I saw this very big guy grabbing a pole,
and he just started bashing in
the windows of the supermarkets.
The thing that was going through my head
was, "Free cigarette."
-[security alarm blaring]
-[people shouting indistinctly]
So I put on my hood,
and I was actually
the first one to go inside.
So I just filled up the bag to the brim.
I was living in the moment.
[sucks teeth] I felt alive, I guess.
You know?
We were just filming the robbery.
[ominous music plays]
But that was a wrong decision.
In just one second, shit hits the fan.
"Hey! Hey! They're filming us!
They're filming us!"
-[groans]
-"Grab them! Grab them!"
[microphone thumps]
[exhales] And after a-- a few seconds,
you were laying on the ground.
And people were trying to get his camera,
"Give me the camera!"
I saw these arms with big tattoos,
like, bam, bam!
And the only thing that I could do
is grab the people away from him
because I want to have the footage.
We filmed something new.
So, if you have
500 subscribers in Holland, just 500,
this was the moment for us to grow.
And you wanna save
my life because otherwise--
That's the second part.
[laughs]
No, no, no.
Without him, I was pretty dead.
-[eerie, ethereal music plays]
-We jumped him over a-- a roof, right?
I was really scared.
The camera, they hit it really hard.
But we managed to get the tape.
We saved it.
[in Dutch] Okay, that's it. No more!
What we just experienced was insane.
I was scared to death.
[in English] We're sitting in a car.
And we say, "We have gold."
"Let's get out of this war zone."
[engine starting]
[speaks indistinctly]
-[engine revving]
-[bangs]
[people shouting indistinctly]
[Merthe] At some point in the evening
-[tense music playing]
-my dad was told by the police
that two girls had died in the crowd.
-[music fades]
[mournful music plays gently]
[chuckles dryly] Sorry.
So that was tough. [chuckles]
People are dying
on your birthday party, and
somehow the role you played in that,
and it's just an empty feeling.
Like, it-- That's-- You can't, uh
Can't grasp that, I don't think.
[male reporter in Dutch] On Twitter,
there are rumors
that a girl has been crushed to death,
but there are tweets
that say it's not true.
What do you know?
[man] We also read Twitter
and have the same information,
but we have not heard this
from the police.
[in English] I wanted to bike home,
but I just couldn't
because there was glass everywhere.
It looked like a tornado had hit the town.
And I was walking, and I felt guilty.
I'm sad to be associated with this.
[tense music playing]
Later, luckily,
we heard that nobody had died.
But I think
the emotional impact is already done.
[Arnoud] As it got to midnight,
the police finally took control,
and things calmed down.
And then I saw this car.
The windscreen was smashed,
the side mirrors were off.
There were footsteps
on the top of the car.
There was this big triangle-shaped brick,
uh, on the passenger seat.
I was standing there looking at it.
And then behind me,
I-- I heard this voice
of a colleague of mine,
"Is that your car?"
I said, "Yep, that's mine."
[chuckles softly] Um
I've kept the brick
as a sort of a-- a souvenir.
My girlfriend has asked me
a couple of times,
"Are we still keeping that?"
And I'm like,
"Yeah, we're-- we're keeping the brick."
[chuckles]
[dramatic string music playing]
[Giel] We stayed up the whole night,
cutting the film,
and put it on our website.
After one hour, it goes viral.
[music rising]
[music intensifies]
Yeah, that was
the really first big hit for StukTV.
It started with Project X Haren.
And after 12 years, we're one of
the biggest YouTube channels in Holland.
[Bats in Dutch] From initial analysis,
we are dealing with
what I can only call scum
who, in a violent, well-prepared manner,
consciously sought out confrontation.
[Chris in English] The mayor
and the police didn't take responsibility.
He called the kids scum.
I didn't agree with him.
The kids were just coming to Haren
to have a good time.
And they did everything
to not provide that.
[ominous music plays]
[reporter in Dutch] The rioters have left
the people of Haren in shock.
-[gloomy music plays]
-The total cost of the damage is unknown.
All the windows are broken. It's so bad.
We'll have to work hard today
to get Haren clean again.
We're still the best community
in the Netherlands.
Sorry. [sniffles]
[in English] The next day,
I went for a walk with my husband,
and everything was already cleaned up.
I was very, very proud
of the people in my town.
[music becomes more hopeful]
[birds singing]
I woke up with a hangover,
and everything was all over Facebook.
And people were tagging my name
under those videos.
Fucking snitches.
This was gonna come back on me
one way or another.
So I just decided
to go back and return what I stole.
I was like, "Oh, damn, I fucked up."
[ominous music plays]
[news theme music plays]
[in Dutch] On tonight's show,
what are the consequences
of the critical report on Project X Haren
for the mayor and the police chief?
[gloomy, pensive music plays]
The one time he should have been here
and not taken any risks
and just protected the people,
it did not go well.
Things should have gone differently.
Let there be
no misunderstanding about that.
And for that, here today, I apologize.
[church bell tolling]
[melancholy piano music plays]
[in English] A couple of years
after Project X, I was at a party,
and in comes walking Merthe.
[mouse clicking]
And I was like--
I recognized her immediately.
But because of the shame I felt,
I didn't say anything.
[Merthe] His face looked familiar,
but I couldn't quite place it.
She looked at me, I looked at her.
She was like, "You're that guy, right?"
I was like, "Yeah, that's me."
She's like, "Okay, it's fine.
It's in the past. Don't worry about it."
"And we were young and, uh, stupid."
[music becomes more gentle]
[Merthe] I don't think most people
that came to the party
were intending to riot
or to commit a crime.
I think a lot of people came
because they wanted a party.
I think it's sort
of a normal inherent thing
in teenagers around that age,
that they wanna rebel
and take their freedom,
express their personalities.
[mouse clicks]
I definitely would have gone
if it wasn't my party.
-[Merthe and producers laughing]
-[music stops]
[intriguing electronic music plays]