Undercurrent: The Disappearance of Kim Wall

What Is the Series About?

Undercurrent: The Disappearance of Kim Wall is a two-part HBO Max documentary series directed by Erin Lee Carr that investigates the 2017 murder of Swedish journalist Kim Wall aboard a homemade submarine owned by Danish inventor and entrepreneur Peter Madsen. Premiering on March 8, 2022 on International Women's Day, the series was designed not merely as a procedural account of a sensational crime, but as a deliberate effort to restore Kim Wall to the center of her own story: an accomplished journalist whose life and career risked being overshadowed by the notoriety of her killer.

The documentary draws on trial testimony, expert analysis, never-before-heard audio recordings of Madsen himself, and interviews with people connected to both Wall and Madsen. Across its two episodes, it traces the full arc of the case: from Wall's disappearance to the discovery of her remains, through Madsen's shifting and contradictory statements to police, and finally to his prosecution and conviction in a Danish court.

The Case

In August 2017, Kim Wall, a Swedish freelance journalist with an international profile, arranged to interview Peter Madsen aboard his self-built submarine, the UC3 Nautilus, in Copenhagen harbor. Madsen was known as an eccentric Danish entrepreneur and amateur inventor who had attracted considerable public attention for his DIY aerospace and submarine projects. The interview was intended to profile this unconventional figure.

Wall boarded the submarine on the evening of August 10, 2017. She never returned home.

The following day, after Wall was reported missing, Danish police focused their investigation on Madsen. He was rescued from the water after the UC3 Nautilus sank, and his initial statement that he had dropped Wall off safely on shore quickly unraveled. Over the course of the investigation, Madsen's account changed repeatedly, a pattern the documentary examines in close detail.

On August 21, 2017, Wall's torso was found in Køge Bay near Copenhagen, weighted down. Further searches recovered additional dismembered remains. The case became one of the most widely covered murders in Scandinavian criminal history, generating intense international media attention and, as Vulture noted in its coverage of the documentary, deeply troubling victim-blaming narratives that sought to question Wall's judgment in boarding the submarine at all.

Peter Madsen was tried in Copenhagen and on April 25, 2018, was convicted of premeditated murder, sexual assault, and dismemberment. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. The case was notable for both the brutality of the crime and the extensive forensic and circumstantial evidence assembled by Danish prosecutors.

Production

The documentary was directed by Erin Lee Carr, an American documentary filmmaker known for her work on true crime and social justice subjects. Carr approached the material with a stated intention to counter the sensationalism that had attached itself to the case during its original media coverage.

The production secured access to a striking range of primary materials: never-heard-before audio recordings of Peter Madsen, courtroom testimony from the trial, forensic expert analysis, and personal interviews with individuals who knew both Wall and Madsen. This combination of intimate access and legal record gives the series a texture that moves between the procedural and the personal.

A central editorial decision, highlighted by Rolling Stone's coverage of the series, was to foreground Kim Wall's own life: her journalism, her ambitions, the places she had worked, and the people who knew her. This framing positioned Undercurrent against a broader critique of true crime media that tends to define victims primarily through the manner of their deaths and the personalities of those who killed them.

The two-part format allows the series to balance the criminal investigation and trial narrative with this more biographical focus on Wall herself.

Reception

Critical reception to Undercurrent: The Disappearance of Kim Wall was mixed but acknowledged the seriousness of the filmmaking intent. Rotten Tomatoes lists the series as a TV-MA documentary, confirming its March 8, 2022 release and Erin Lee Carr's direction.

Heaven of Horror described the series as quite underwhelming, suggesting that despite the gravity of the subject matter, the documentary did not fully deliver on its promise as a two-part true-crime series. The criticism reflects a tension common in documentary filmmaking about well-documented cases: audiences already familiar with the story may find limited new ground, while the ethical handling of the material can constrain the narrative momentum that drives more sensationalist productions.

Vulture drew attention to the documentary's engagement with the media failures surrounding the original case, particularly the victim-blaming discourse that emerged in coverage of Wall's decision to board the submarine, framing this as one of the series' more valuable contributions.

Rolling Stone's coverage was notably positive about the series' biographical ambition, praising the effort to restore Kim Wall's identity as a journalist and human being rather than reducing her to a victim defined entirely by her murder.

The IMDb title ID for the series is tt18361656, though a verified numeric user rating is not available from current sources.

The Case Today

Peter Madsen remains convicted and serving his life sentence in Denmark. His case has continued to generate legal proceedings beyond the original trial, and Danish authorities have dealt with additional incidents related to his imprisonment.

For Kim Wall's family and the broader journalistic community, the case has remained a reference point in ongoing discussions about the safety of freelance journalists, particularly women, when covering subjects in isolated or high-risk environments. The Kim Wall Memorial Fund, established in her memory, supports female journalists working on international reporting.

Undercurrent: The Disappearance of Kim Wall is available to stream on HBO Max and is also listed on Hulu depending on regional availability.