The Terror’s horrifying monster is based on real Inuit legends

Few small screen monsters are as frightening as the one featured in The Terror, and it turns out this otherworldly beast has a real-life inspiration.

Now part of Netflix’s slate of new TV shows, The Terror has been making the rounds as the horrifying survival tale it truly is. Telling a fictionalized account of Franklin’s lost expedition – a very real tragedy – the show puts a supernatural spin on the historical mystery.

After two Royal Navy ships become icebound in the Northwest Passage, their crews must outlast not only the harsh Arctic conditions, but an unseen beast that stalks the survivors and hunts them down one by one.

It’s a historical event that turns into a story worthy of the best horror movies. With the mystery surrounding the show’s main villain, here’s everything you need to know about the monster in The Terror, otherwise known as the Tuunbaq. (Spoilers ahead!)

What kills the men in The Terror?

After the crews of the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror become icebound during their expedition in the Canadian Arctic, they are hunted and killed by a “spirit bear” known as the Tuunbaq.

In the show, the Tuunbaq is described as “the thing made of muscles and spells”, and “the thing that eats on two legs and four.” It’s also revealed that the creature was made by the shamans.

The Tuunbaq has an appearance similar to that of a polar bear, and the men actually believe they’re being stalked by a bear at one point. However, on closer inspection, the creature is far larger than a bear.

It also has more human-esque features, with a head and mouth that appears more like that of a person. All this gives the Tuunbaq a mutated, eerie appearance.

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The Tuunbaq makes its first on-screen appearance in Episode 2, attacking a sledge party from the HMS Erebus and killing Lieutenant Graham Gore. The crew then attempts to slay the creature (believing it to be a bear) by luring it into a trap using dead rats.

However, the plan doesn’t work, the the Tuunbaq rampages and kills more crew members, including Captain Franklin.

Across the ten episodes, the Tuunbaq continues to attack and brutally kill the crew, including those on the ships themselves.

The Tuunbaq’s origins explained

While the Tuunbaq is a fictional creature created by The Terror author Dan Simmons, the godess that created it, Sedna, is based on real Inuit mythology.

The goddess of the sea and marine animals, Sedna is also known as the Mother of the Sea or Mistress of the Sea. Different versions of her story have developed over time, though most involve her murder (or attempted murder) at the hands of her father before she gains her powers.

Sedna is credited with creating the Tuunbaq, but there is another creature in Greenlandic Inuit religion that draws similarities: the tupilaq. The tupilaq is an avenging monster, made using objects like animal bones or parts taken from child corpses.

The tupilaq can be created to destroy a specific enemy, though if the target in question had great powers, they could force the tupilaq to return and kill its own maker.

Tupilaqs can also be carvings of monsters, and were often made from sperm whale teeth or other animal-based materials, like tusks and antlers.

In The Terror’s case, the tupilaq would be the Tuunbaq, sent by the shaman to hunt down members of the expedition. When the crew murders the shaman in Episode 2, Lady Silence (the shaman’s daughter), becomes the Tuunbaq’s master.

Do they defeat the Tuunbaq?

The survivors fight back against the Tuunbaq over time, causing it extensive injuries, but they ultimately kill the creature by strangling it with a chain and unknowingly poisoning it.

As the battle between the men and the Tuunbaq becomes more bloody and more personal, they attempt to attack the creature in various ways. By the finale episode, it is bloodied and wounded.

The final showdown comes when the men lure the Tuunbaq onto the plain by singing loudly for it to hear. When it arrives, it accidentally swallows a chain after killing various crew members.

Prior to the fight, Goodsir poisons himself and cuts his wrists to hide his true cause of death. The crew then resorts to cannibalism, unknowingly poisoning themselves. (Crozier only survives this because he eats the soles of Goodsir’s feet.)

There’s a failed attempt to claim the beast when Hickey copies the same ritual Lady Silence enacted (cutting off his tongue!), but Crozier ultimately gets the best of the Tuunbaq when he, despite being brutally wounded, pulls on the chain stuck in its throat.

He strangles the creature until it dies, marking the end of a long and horrific battle for survival. It’s not clear whether it was purely the strangling or poisoned crew members the Tuunbaq ate that killed it, but either way, it meets its end.

Nasty stuff! For more, check out our guide to all the best TV shows of 2024. You can also catch up on all the new true crime and documentaries for something darker, or take a look at the best serial killer documentaries of all time.