A man is currently claiming he’s stranded on an island off the coast of Argentina, and the internet has begun treating his updates like a real-time survival diary. His videos show him disoriented on a beach, drinking from streams, clashing with fellow “castaways,” and pleading for help. At first glance, the clips feel raw enough to make viewers wonder whether something serious has happened. But beneath the drama is a story that unfolds differently once you begin pulling at the threads.
The shipwreck story he’s telling, and how it began
The saga started on 14 October, when a man named William Banks posted a shaky clip of himself waking up on a strip of coastline, wearing a life jacket and still somehow holding his blue boxing gloves. He points the camera toward himself and shouts: “I’m lost on an island!” Seconds later, still breathless, he adds: “If you can see this video, we are lost on an island and we don’t know where we are.” Just a day earlier, he had posted a night-time clip showing him and his crew floating in the dark with life jackets on, shouting and whistling for help, cracking glow sticks and trying to stay together in the rough water. The footage is shaky, chaotic and candid, and it appears to show their boat overturned as they drift disoriented in the waves.Soon after, he changed his Instagram bio to:“I am lost on an island off the coast of Argentina, please rescue me and my friends -35.70544° S, 51.53172° W.”Those coordinates place him not by Argentina, but closer to Uruguay’s waters. It’s the kind of detail that lends legitimacy at first glance, the sort of thing a casual viewer wouldn’t question.Over the next few days, Banks posted near-daily clips of himself drinking from freshwater streams, cracking coconuts for water, catching fish, dragging tree branches to build a makeshift shelter and even attempting to assemble a makeshift raft. He showed waterfalls he had “discovered,” lit bonfires, fired flares, and claimed to signal passing ships with reflective material. In some clips, he could be seen shadowboxing on the beach with his gloves on, as though still training. His belongings were shown soaked and ruined, and by late October he appeared visibly sunburnt, all of which added another layer of realism for viewers who believed the storyline. As the narrative escalated, the group of supposed survivors held a “vote” and banished Banks from their camp on 12 November, taking what he called the “emergency phone.” His appearances became more sporadic. In comments, he insisted his phone had solar chargers, allowing him to post despite having no signal for calls. The whole thing was framed with just enough uncertainty for people to wonder whether it might actually be happening. But once we look more closely at who William Banks is, the entire story takes on a very different shape.
Who William Banks actually is, and the pattern behind his online performances
Banks is not an unknown castaway, he is a Brooklyn-based comedian, method actor and amateur boxer well known online for creating tightly scripted fictional sagas that deliberately blur truth and performance. This isn’t his first storyline. His previous long-running arc, known as the Jail Saga, depicted him serving time in prison for several months. Viewers believed it because the filming was consistent, the tone was serious, and the environment looked convincing. It later emerged the entire thing had been shot on a set as part of a production called Backstage. The line between fiction and reality blurred again when it became public that Banks did, in fact, face a real larceny charge in Connecticut. According to The New York Magazine, he said the charge was cleared after completing 200 hours of community service and two years of probation, but the “escape” footage was staged. He’s pulled similar narrative experiments before: a surreal sci-fi storyline called Car World, a freezer-entrapment saga named People’s Pops, and a crypto stunt where he was accused of running off with funds before the project was revealed to be linked to a donation. In a Channel 5 interview titled “Andrew Interviews a Cult Leader,” Banks is directly referred to as a “method actor.” It’s a label he has earned through years of producing content that looks authentic right up until the moment he admits it wasn’t. In that context, this “island survival arc” doesn’t appear out of nowhere, it fits neatly into a well-established playbook.
Why this storyline is almost certainly a hoax, and what it’s building toward
Banks’s shipwreck storyline began exactly as promotional material for his next major event started circulating. He is scheduled to fight on 20 December in Buenos Aires at Párense de Manos III, an influencer boxing event. His face, and those blue boxing gloves he wore in the very first shipwreck video, appear on the official posters. The event’s own account on X leaned into the storyline, posting: “@williambanks_, the man who has been imprisoned and stranded on an island in the middle of the sea, will live their greatest adventure on December 20 at the Ducó.”In other words: the organisers are fully playing along, framing the entire storyline as the tale of a man who survived being washed ashore on an island Banks’s posts before the shipwreck even foreshadowed the entire arc. One video reads: “we are thinking of taking a sailboat trip tomorrow.” Another: “i wish this trip together would never end!” The fact that he and his friends can upload content almost every day more than a month into the “shipwreck” is another obvious clue. Remote islands with no infrastructure do not allow consistent posting, comment replies, and multi-camera storytelling. And yet, viewers remain divided, just as with his earlier sagas. Part of Banks’s skill is that he blurs the line between fiction and reality without ever confirming either side. He creates just enough ambiguity that audiences feel like they’re investigating alongside him.The island arc fits the pattern perfectly: a real fight approaching, a viral narrative building around it, and a character who refuses to break the illusion. In the most recent episodes of the castaway storyline, he and his friends have “discovered” a conveniently weathered treasure map, turning the scenario into a full-blown island treasure hunt. The saga has included dramatic moments such as the camp voting to banish him, scenes of him facing the elements alone, and improvised story beats clearly meant to keep the audience engaged. He continues posting daily, remaining firmly in character, and at this point it is difficult to ignore how manufactured the whole thing feels, especially given how closely it mirrors his previous long arcs. If this were real, one might expect a plea to authorities or a tagged message to the US Embassy or Coast Guard, the obvious first steps for anyone genuinely in distress. In an actual emergency, people instinctively reach out to formal rescue services, not just followers. Yet he maintains the performance, never acknowledging that it might all be staged, which is perhaps the most consistent feature of his work. Whatever the truth, the shipwreck story says as much about online performance as it does about Banks himself, and about how easy it can be for an audience to fall into the rhythm of a narrative that is engineered to feel authentic.
