I went expecting a film on a hostage crisis, but Netflix's iHostage left me with an extended ad for Apple

The suspenseful, crime-drama film iHostage was released on Netflix on April 18, 2025, in the United States. Spanning 1 hour and 42 minutes, the film presents a dramatized version of an actual event that shook the residents of a bustling Amsterdam neighborhood back in 2022.

According to Time, on February 22, 2022, a man in his late twenties wearing camouflage clothes entered the Apple store situated in Leidseplein, Amsterdam. Upon entering, he held a Bulgarian man at gunpoint and demanded from the authorities that he be paid €200 million in bitcoins. He also asked the authorities to be granted a safe exit from the building after acquiring the demanded amount.

Disclaimer: This article reflects the opinions of the author and contains spoilers.

Having said that, several people have expressed their grievance towards Netflix's iHostage, highlighting that the film made them feel like they were watching an extended Apple advertisement. As a viewer, I also felt the same in certain parts. This was especially true for portions where the film focused on the surroundings of the Apple store, the Apple logo, and people interacting with Apple devices.

To top it off, I was suddenly hit with a wave of Apple advertisements across social media platforms. We are all aware of how cookies and targeted ads work, and in my opinion, this incident was an example of the same.

---

Netflix's iHostage falls flat in a lot of departments, including impact

Although Netflix's iHostage depicts a real-life incident, it does so without creating a significant impact. As previously mentioned, the film presents a dramatized version of the real incident. Unfortunately, every scene in the film acts as a reminder of the same, not allowing people to completely immerse themselves in what is happening on screen.

Specific scenes in the film seem extremely stretched. Although certain scenes are packed with nerve-wracking character interactions and intense narrative building, they fall flat in the end. The camera angles in specific scenes are also very disruptive and amount to low impact.

In my opinion, iHostage would have worked better if the filmmakers had taken a different approach. I believe, presenting the narrative in a documentary form would have been able to effectively communicate the intensity of the incidents happening on the screen. This is primarily because the filming and narrative styles adopted for a true crime documentary movie are very different from those adopted by their fictional counterparts.

---

The acting in iHostage could have been better

Netflix's iHostage is a decent watch if you are casually swerving through content and wish for a light watch. However, if you approach the movie expecting it to move or shock you, you are in for a disappointment.

As previously mentioned, the film does not create the same kind of impact you would wish a crime thriller to create. While the direction, editing, and cinematography play a huge part in that, so does the acting.

As someone who is not well-versed in Dutch, and still tried to watch the film in the language, I believe the actors could have done a better job. Personally, the person who hijacked the Apple store did not come off as a harmful person at all. In some parts, the performance fell flat, leading to a reduced effectiveness of the scene.

That said, the actor who played the Bulgarian hostage did an impeccable job. In every scene that he was in, as a viewer, I felt the helplessness and the fear up until the very last moment when he managed to escape.

---

iHostage is currently streaming on Netflix.