Common Sense Media Review
By JK Sooja
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Language, violence, drinking in Dutch teen party disaster.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 14+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
Videos and Photos
Trainwreck: The Real Project X
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's the Story?
In TRAINWRECK: THE REAL PROJECT X, Merthe Weusthuis is a 16-year-old Dutch teenager in 2012 who wants to have a fun birthday party. On Facebook, she invites some friends and makes the invite post "public." Soon, thousands of people have invited their friends, who've invited their friends, and before Merthe can stop it (and she tries), over 300,000 people are invited to a small town of 18,000 in the Netherlands.
Is It Any Good?
It's hard to blame Dutch teens for what happened in Haren, the Netherlands, in 2012. Even some of the initial characters in Trainwreck: The Real Project X who later realize the danger of their actions were ultimately still just being teenagers. This documentary does a decent job of building toward the eventual day and night of the party, but, like reality, the actual "party" is anticlimactic. Thousands of teenagers arrive expecting the best party ever, only to instead find gates, partitions, police, and nothing else. And in many ways, this film follows the same trajectory.
This documentary isn't really about this "tragic" event proper; instead, it ends up providing a relatively fascinating snapshot of technological culture back in the early social media days. How did this transition period into social media hurt Dutch authorities' ability and capacity to prepare for and deal with this kind of "threat"? Indeed, many people at the time in Holland didn't understand Facebook posts, invites, likes, and the potential dangers and risks that not policing these kinds of things might lead to. How do you stop thousands of teenagers wanting to flood a small town of 18,000? Clearly, throwing police at the problem is not the way to do it.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about violence in documentaries. Did any of the teenage behavior in Trainwreck: The Real Project X surprise you?
Do you think this kind of thing could happen today? What lessons were learned from this almost tragedy?
Do you think you would have gone to this party if you were a teen in Holland in 2012? Why, or why not?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming : July 8, 2025
- Cast : Merthe Weusthuis , Jorik Clarck , Chris Garrit , Rob Bats
- Director : Alex Wood
- Studio : Netflix
- Genre : Documentary
- Run time : 48 minutes
- MPAA rating :
- Last updated : July 21, 2025
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