Yahoo Lifestyle What is the 'Pit'? 'The Hunting Party' Creators Give Everything to Know About the Mysterious Secret Prison (Exclusive)
For NBC's The Hunting Party, it all started with an explosion. Not only is that how the new crime thriller begins, but it's also the first idea that creators JJ Bailey and Jake Coburn had when they started talking about making a show together. The question was what, exactly, was going to explode?
And the answer turned out to be The Pit, a secret prison designed to house and rehabilitate the world's most dangerous serial killers. Only a select few were allowed to know that it even existed, but now that it's exploded, a few more people had to be let in on the secret in order to contain the mess left behind.
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In the first episode, which debuted as a preview on Jan. 19 and re-airs Feb. 3, FBI special agent Bex Henderson (Melissa Roxburgh) is one of those lucky people. She's not only an expert on one of the loose serial killers and the only one who can bring him in, but she's also a skilled profiler who could help corral the rest. Thus, she joins the Hunting Party, alongside CIA agent Jake Hassani (Patrick Sabonqui), prison officer Shane Florence (Josh McKenzie), Army intelligence officer Jennifer Morales (Sara Garcia), and surprise blast from Bex's past, Oliver Odell (Nick Weschler). Everyone appears to have secrets, as well as secrets to uncover.
Bex has a lot to learn about the Pit, alongside the audience. But here's what we can tell you about it now, with a scoop straight from the Vancouver set of the new series.
Related: Everything to Know About The Hunting Party
The Pit is inside a missile silo
After deciding they wanted to start their new show with an explosion, Bailey and Coburn decided they wanted that explosion to be in an underground missile silo, like the ones built in the 1960s near Cheyenne, Wyoming. The Pit is canonically located in one of those Wyoming silos, which were designed for the Cold War to store and launch missiles. You can take tours of these launch facilities in Wyoming, Arizona, South Dakota, and North Dakota.
There are 250 cells in the Pit
Production designer Russell Barnes took the measurements of Wyoming's real missile silo and determined how to fit "approximately 250 cells in a sort of octagon fashion" around the cylinder of the silo, with a guard tower in the center. They used traditional visual effects (as opposed to new tech, like filming in front of a VFX background) to create the structure, but built a couple of cells to use over and over again.
The cells are equipped with bathrooms
"Somebody—I won't mention names—said we don't need a toilet in here," Barnes recalled. "I put a toilet. I insisted. It's all about attention to detail." Other than that little necessity, the cells are very bare, with no cupboards or visible storage. They wanted a sparse, minimalist look, with walls that could easily be switched out if necessary, as some prisoners decorate their walls (with drawings or punches). The entire thing, other than the bathroom setup, was completely fabricated from scratch.
The exteriors of the cells are inspired by the 1970s
The missile silos were built in the 1960s, and the prison was established in the 1970s, so the two decades are both represented in the brutalist architecture of the Pit. Barnes imagined that there would have been updates and additions made to the silo in the 70s and 80s and wanted to play with the "contrast and juxtaposition of time period, good and evil, light and dark."
The "treatments" are not what you might expect
Prisons are not typically known for their humane actions toward violent criminals. But the Pit wasn't just built to punish and torture inmates. They each received treatments designed to fix their particular issues, which also served as experiments that might explain why a serial killer kills. If we know what makes a killer, maybe they can be caught before they actually kill anyone. It's clear that there were some serious moral issues with these experiments, and there are many secrets still to uncover. Bailey and Coburn promised each episode will shed more light on the different treatments and experiments as Bex tries to figure out what's going on.
Each criminal offers clues to the larger story
While Bailey and Coburn hope that anyone could hop into any episode and be entertained by the hunt for a specific escaped serial killer, they also said that viewers will be able to look back and see how each of the treatments and Pit flashbacks plays into the larger story of whatever's really going on in this underground prison.
The Pit takes inspiration from real-life crimes and conspiracies
There are a lot of influences to notice in The Hunting Party, though no real-life case was totally ripped from the headlines. Instead, there are killers only vaguely inspired by people like Scott Peterson, and a secret facility meant to remind you of MKUltra and other mysterious CIA programs from the 60s. This is a "modern version" of that concept, Coburn said, so they felt freedom to get extra creative with the treatments and therapies. Things quickly get bizarre.
We won't meet the most depressing of the criminals in the Pit
The show is purposely dark and scary, but Bailey and Coburn said there is a line they don't want to cross when it comes to the crimes committed by their serial killers. They want viewers to have fun and be on the edge of their seat without feeling uncomfortable.
"I think, on a gut level, you can feel what's fun, scary, twisty, and what's kind of sad and upsetting," Coburn said. "So for us, third rails are anything to do with kids. We don't go near them. We both have kids, and it's the last thing I want to think about. We're not going anywhere near terrorism or political stuff, and we've avoided mass casualty events too. It's just not fun."
The Pit is not related to the new HBO medical drama The Pitt
The Pitt is a medical drama starring Noah Wyle that provides a real-life portrait of the challenges facing frontline workers at a hospital in Pittsburgh. The Pit is a secret underground prison that houses and treats serial killers. Don't get them confused!
The Hunting Party airs Mondays at 10 p.m. on NBC.
Next, here's everything to know about Law & Order: SVU Season 26.
