From producer-director Jeong Jong-yeon (The Genius, The Great Escape), The Devil’s Plan brings together 12 savvy contestants to face off in mind-bending games of wit and strategy to determine who’s the brainiest of them all. They need to be cunning, they need to create alliances, they might even need to backstab — and they’re all stuck together 24/7 without their phones. Think Survivor, but it’s a chess game that takes place in a house with bedrooms that double as jail cells. Oh, and an anonymous masked man with a creepy pixelated face hosts the show.
Read on to find out which smarty-pants made it onto the show — yes, there was an entrance exam — and what the game’s all about.
Check it out at the top of this article.
Though their backgrounds vary, every contestant selected to compete in The Devil’s Plan is a brainiac or an overachiever — or both. This (hopefully) sets them up to form strong alliances and foolproof strategies throughout each challenge.
For one week, 12 contestants live — and compete against each other — in a huge rectangle built inside a soundstage that serves as their living space. Their accommodations look hip at first glance, but these walls have secrets. Over the course of seven days, participants compete in battles of intelligence twice a day until the final round, when one of them is crowned victor and rakes in all the prize money. (More on that below.) In this game, they can do absolutely everything and anything they want — without violence or stealing — in order to win.
At the beginning of the week, participants are given what the show calls “pieces,” which are treated like currency and can be lost or won at the end of each round of the game. Pieces are used to purchase items to use in the games, as bargaining chips, or in negotiations between contestants. Those who lose all their pieces are eliminated, and only two contestants — the ones with the most pieces — make it to the last round. The winner of that final round will be crowned victor.
To eliminate contestants ahead of the final, there’s a “main” match and a “prize” match every day. In the main match, the two who lose are sent to jail, disqualified from playing in the prize match and locked in their cell until morning. In the prize match, contestants must work together toward the same mission. These matches are how the final round’s prize money is determined — which at the outset is set to zero. If they play their cards right, participants can get up to ₩500,000,000 (equivalent to about $350,000).
Season 2, The Devil’s Plan: Death Room, will premiere May 6 on Netflix.
Check out the trailer for The Devil’s Plan: Death Room below.
