Is building an underground town like in Disney+ series Paradise feasible?

by Claire Wych, Senior Content Director 

Are you watching Paradise on Disney+? If not, 83% of reviewers on the website Rotten Tomatoes would recommend it, me included.  

Without giving away too many spoilers, it’s a murder mystery set in a town nicknamed ‘Anywhere, USA’. The big twist is that this quaint midwestern town, population 25,000, has been constructed in a vast underground bunker following an extinction level event.   

While most viewers are no doubt focused on “who killed the President” I was enthralled by the idea of whether such a bunker could be created in real life based on existing technologies.  

A quick Google suggests there are natural caverns that are at least the same height and length of the town’s bunker. Hang Son Doong in Vietnam, for example, is the world’s largest cave by volume. At 9 kilometers long and 200 meters, it is said that it could contain an entire New York city block with 40 story high skyscrapers. That said, a manmade dome of this size would likely push the boundaries of what is possible with modern mining, lining and rock bolting techniques.  

About ‘Anywhere, USA’ 

The town has a familiar feel; neat rows of houses, manicured gardens and quaint shops form a picturesque scene. But the details reveal an unusual story. The sky is a vast digital display made up of thousands of panels, and the sun is an enormous, high-powered light. Strikingly, there are no animals – from the plant-based bacon served with breakfast, to the insect noises, to the ducks floating on the pond – everything is artificial.  

Digital technologies, old and new, feature heavily. Rows of tape cassettes line the walls of the library, yet every resident is fitted with a permanent wearable device, to pay for groceries, open doors and track their whereabouts. We also see robots growing plants under artificial light.  

It’s futurist but so far, so believable.  

But what about the infrastructure that quietly supports the town in the background?  

We don’t know how long the residents will be underground for, but we do know they’ve been in situ for three years already. We also know that they have a vast store of liquor, but do they also have a vast store of fossil fuels? Or is the town a blueprint for a successful energy transition, with its energy all renewable? 

How would energy be produced in an underground town?  

Given that the storyline is based around an extinction event, we can reasonably assume that the town planners did not choose to have energy coming from the surface – so no solar PV, wind or hydropower. This leaves geothermal as a highly feasible renewable option which could be used to generate electricity, heat and cooling. Most of the vehicles appear to be electric or hybrids, strengthening the theory that the whole town is electrified.  

Oil and gas are also plausible energy options given the extensive geotechnical surveying, underground expertise and equipment that would have already been engaged to excavate the cavern. We find out later that the President’s Father made his name in oil, at one point referring to Bakken Shale; a subtle nod perhaps. As a sealed ecosystem, air quality would need to be carefully managed. We could reasonably assume that any gas powered, or petrochemicals, plant would be fitted with carbon capture (CCS) technology to minimise the load on the air filtration system. Or that another carbon filtration method such as direct air capture is in play.  

Energy from waste is also a strong contender and would address two issues at once, providing energy and waste treatment. However, there is little evidence of circular economy principles in ‘Anywhere, USA’, nor are there indications of rationing, which is striking given the limited resources. Finally, a small modular reactor could also have been tabled by town planners, although the relative infancy of the technology compared to the alternatives may have ruled it out.  

Another interesting thought to explore is that around water provision. Across the series, we see several bodies of water, but to what extent would they play the same role as nature? A town in a bunker would require water treatment facilities with excellent screening and filtration technologies; any contamination could be catastrophic.   

Biospheres that really exist(ed)  

At first investigation, it appears that the technologies needed to make a sealed underground town do exist and in fact, it has been attempted before. One of the most notable attempts to create a closed ecosystem is that of Biosphere 2, an experiment which first ran between 1991 and 1993. In partnership with the University of Arizona, eight researchers were sealed into a closed ecosystem for two years. The project was considered a precursor to space colonisation but was largely deemed a failure due to low amounts of food and oxygen, as well as species die-off.  

Since that time, there have been several studies of varying lengths, including Hawaii’s HI-SEAS which has been the home to five successful long-duration (4 to 12 month) NASA Mars simulation missions.  

The challenge of operations and maintenance 

When investigating regenerative life support systems, rather than the complexity of their construction, it seems that it is the complexity of their operation and maintenance that is most challenging. Take spare parts for example. In ‘Anywhere, USA’, we know at least that there is a large stockpile of some items, does this include spares for the numerous pumps, compressors, turbines, pipelines, electronics etc? Or is additive manufacturing being relied upon to ensure the reliability of critical equipment? And what about essential building materials like cement and steel? 

We get a glimpse of the control tower in ‘Anywhere, USA’ so we know that many aspects of the town are centrally managed. You would hope that this would extend to proactive monitoring and optimisation of infrastructure assets to get ahead of potential maintenance issues before they arise. Building resilience into critical systems, such as having battery energy storage, or pumped hydro, in the case of an unexpected electricity outage would also be sensible to ensure the availability of critical infrastructure.  

These are just some of the considerations that would go into constructing, operating and maintaining an underground town. It is also an exercise in creative thinking, a capability that we pride ourselves on at Aspectus. We bring B2B communications alive by blending our sector expertise with unique takes and original thinking, sometimes weaving in pop culture references like Paradise to make our clients’ energy marketing and communications memorable.  

So, tell us, based on your experience (and your observations from the programme if you’ve watched it), how would you construct and operate ‘Anywhere USA’?