Abhiroop Das
Created by Tom Butterworth, Conor Keane, Peter Lawson, and Damon Thomas, AMC+’s ‘Kill Jackie‘ follows the sudden rupture in the peaceful life of the eponymous art dealer. As it turns out, Jackie Price is an ex-drug dealer who has crawled her way out of that criminal underworld after much bloodshed and sacrifice. However, when she becomes the target of an elite group of assassins named the Seven Demons, everything that she has built up over the years, including her wealth, is threatened. It is here that Jackie introduces us to the Poltergeist Bank, a secret bank rumored to be surrounded by ice and containing data centers buried under snow. Catering to some select clients, like our art dealer on the run, the bank seemingly provides anything and everything when requested, becoming one of the most prized arsenals in the story.
Poltergeist is a Fictional Icelandic Bank That Serves as the Story’s Deus Ex Machina
Poltergeist is an invented bank created by writer Nicholas Cornwell for his novel ‘The Price You Pay,’ which serves as the basis of ‘Kill Jackie.’ In the show, co-creators Tom Butterworth, Conor Keane, Peter Lawson, Damon Thomas, and their writing team add some fresh touches to the bank, bringing it to life on screen.’ Depicted as an in-universe secret bank for billionaires, Poltergeist is likely a loose reference to the fictional archetype of the wealthy elite having secret offshore accounts. Instead of just introducing such a bank, however, the show expands its scope by giving us an inside look into its functioning, or rather, how the bank has the ability to transfer funds anywhere in the world and provide its customers with security and other facilities.
Notably, the show highlights several times that the bank is located in an isolated location in Iceland, which adds a layer of security. While Iceland is home to several popular banks in real life, none of them seem to be a source of inspiration for the show. While the bulk of the filming for ‘Kill Jackie’ took place in the Spanish regions of Bilbao and Biscay, with some shooting also extending to the UK, the crew never went to Iceland to lens any of its Poltergeist sequences. As such, it is likely that the depictions of a wintry Iceland and a towering bank complex nestled amidst glaciers are the work of VFX and CGI artists.
Within the context of the narrative, Poltergeist seems to be a commentary on how the wealthy wield power. Nick Harway, using his pseudonym Aidan Truhen, spoke to Crime Reads about this, adding, “That’s what supervillains do. Gangsters in black and white movies onward: they carve out a space where they can hold their physical environment to their own rules.” The manner in which Poltergeist seems to come to Jackie’s rescue every time makes it closer to what is considered a deus ex machina, that is, a plot device that unexpectedly enters into the story and solves a crisis that was previously deemed impossible to solve. In Jackie’s case, the bank also doubles as a concierge, or as a security and intelligence organization, which serves to further highlight its flexible and ultimately fictional nature.
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