Draft:Kilmaru
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Kilmaru is the pseudonym used by an anonymous video creator whose first-person videos depict famous cities and public locations as though no other people are present.[1] The account started publishing videos on TikTok in 2021.[2][3] The videos contain no dialogue, and the individual behind the camera never appears on screen.[1]
Videos
[edit]The earliest uploads featured deserted streets, supermarkets and a McDonald's restaurant.[2] Later videos expanded to city centres including New York, London, Rome, Barcelona as well as the Vatican Museums and the Colosseum, each shown without any visible people.[2] Other videos have shown Berlin, Tokyo, Florence and Pisa in broad daylight, with no pedestrians, no museum visitors, and no customers or employees visible inside shops.[1] The locations are places that are usually busy, such as Piccadilly Circus and Times Square. A repeated line appears throughout the videos: "I woke up here and I am alone".[1]
According to the narrative presented on the account, the narrator previously worked as a programmer of artificial intelligence systems and arrived in an uninhabited parallel world after hacking a quantum computer.[4] In June 2021, a five-part series showed the narrator waking up aboard an abandoned cruise ship. Newsweek described the series as a continuation of the "empty world" videos, which had begun in March of that year.[3]
Media organisations in the United State France and Italy have covered the videos.[3][5][1][2][6][7]
Production
[edit]The fact-checking website Snopes examined the cruise ship videos and concluded that they had been filmed under normal conditions before the other people were removed during post-production.[8] Geopop reported the same process, describing the use of object-removal software similar to Google's Magic Eraser together with filming early in the morning, when fewer people are present and need to be removed.[4] The visual effects channel Corridor Crew dedicated an episode of its VFX Artists React series to the videos.[9]
Recognition
[edit]During the 2021 Monaco Streaming Film Festival, the account received the Best Creative Content award. The winners were credited as the duo "Kilian and Maruta".[10]
References
[edit]- 1 2 3 4 5 "Chi è Kilmaru, l'influencer che fa video incredibili in cui sembra rimasto solo al mondo: qual è il trucco?". Corriere della Sera (in Italian). 2024-02-22. Retrieved 2026-08-07.
- 1 2 3 4 "Chi è Kilmaru, il videomaker che dice di essersi svegliato in un mondo vuoto". Wired Italia (in Italian). Retrieved 2026-08-07.
- 1 2 3 Santora, Sara (2021-06-09). "TikToker Claims They're on a 'Ghost Ship' in Latest Video Series". Newsweek. Retrieved 2026-08-07.
- 1 2 "Kilmaru: come fa il tiktoker a realizzare video in cui sembra l'unico essere umano sul pianeta". Geopop (in Italian). 2024-02-26. Retrieved 2026-08-07.
- ↑ "TikTok user shares disturbing tale of waking up in an 'empty world'". In The Know. 2021-06-09. Retrieved 2026-08-07 – via Yahoo.
- ↑ "«Mi sono svegliato in un mondo vuoto»: i video su TikTok mostrano le città dopo l'apocalisse dell'IA". Fanpage.it (in Italian). Retrieved 2026-08-07.
- ↑ "TikTok : les comptes de « voyageurs du futur » prolifèrent sur la plateforme". 20 Minutes (in French). 2022-12-21. Retrieved 2026-08-07.
- ↑ "TikTok Videos Show Life on a 'Ghost Ship' in 'Empty World'". Snopes. Retrieved 2026-08-07.
- ↑ "VFX Artists React to Kilmaru's Empty World Videos". Corridor Crew. Retrieved 2026-08-07 – via YouTube.
- ↑ "Monaco Streaming Film Festival award winners". Monaco Life. Retrieved 2026-08-07.
Category:Living people Category:TikTokers Category:Pseudonymous artists