How historically accurate is AMC’s The Terror?
Did you watch the first season of AMC’s terrific series The Terror when it debuted back in March of last year? If you didn’t, we highly recommend it. The premiere season was inspired by the real-life Franklin Expedition, which vanished without a trace while searching for the Northwest Passage from1845 to 1848. The series is very grounded and realistic in depicting the hunger, disease, and desperation the men went through. And also there’s an arctic bear monster thrown in, which is always fun.
For the Game of Thrones fans out there, the series features a couple of alums in the forms of Ciaran Hinds (Mance Rayder) and Tobias Menzies (Edmure Tully), both in major roles, plus a cameo appearance by Clive Russell (The Blackfish). We reviewed the entire series episode by episode here at WiC, and we loved it.
A lot of archaeological work has been done in the years since the Franklin Expedition met its doom on the icy northern wastes of the Canadian Arctic about 170 years ago; researchers have found graves, artifacts, campsites, a cairn with written messages and the watery resting place of both the Terror and her sister vessel the Erebus. How true was the AMC series to the known historical facts of the event?
The Terror’s first season is an adaptation of a historical fiction novel by Dan Simmons, so it’s got plenty of room for creative license. YouTuber History Buffs teamed up with Curiosity Stream to produce a really cool video investigating how true AMC’s show was to the established record. It’s a fun watch:
History Buffs does a great job of setting the historic background, employing nice graphics and clips from the actual show to explain the how and why of the Franklin expedition and to suggest it was doomed from the very beginning.
Doomed? Yes. It’s been established that the expedition suffered horribly from all kinds of failures, both natural and man-made. From the Arctic being locked in a brutal, five-year super freeze nobody expected (and the ice didn’t melt in the summer) to weak steam engines and scurvy, the men of the Terror and Erebus were walking sailing into disaster. They also suffered from lead poisoning which aside from the awful physical ailments can also result in delusional bouts and paranoia, not a good thing when you’re stuck on a ship for years in a strange environment.
Having pieced together the archaeological artifacts along with accounts of the local Inuit population, researchers have been able to assemble a fairly detailed record of the movements and fate of the Franklin expedition, including evidence of cannibalism among last survivors at the very end.
According to History Buffs, AMC’s The Terror stuck pretty close to actual history, despite a few small anachronisms here and there (Victorian sailors had pipes, not cigarettes, and can openers weren’t invented at that time). Sure, the lumbering supernatural horror was invented, but you’ve gotta sell tickets somehow, right?
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Anyway, The Terror will return to AMC soon enough, this time with a completely new story about Japanese internment during World War II and featuring Star Trek’s own George Takei. We can’t wait to see what the team does with it!
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