Adventure-seekers, outdoor enthusiasts and frequent devourers of real-life stories may have already binged all of Gold & Greed, a fresh Netflix docuseries about a modern-day treasure hunt.
Gold & Greed: The Hunt for Fenn's Treasure delves into details behind Forrest Fenn -- an art dealer who became larger-than-life when he hid a chest with dazzling contents at age 80 -- and the devoted fortune chasers who tried to be the first to find the elusive, million-dollar prize in the mountains north of Santa Fe, New Mexico. If you've watched it, you may have a few questions.
"To me, this story was just as close of a story as I could find that would match to Indiana Jones or those Goonies movies," the series' director, Jared McGilliard, told CNET. "Like a true modern-day adventure and treasure hunt."
Forrest Fenn speaking
Forrest Fenn, the treasure hunt orchestrator, in the Netflix docuseries. Netflix
Complete with suspense, danger and some wide-ranging interpretations of a cryptic poem, Gold & Greed details the highs and lows of the decade-long hunt -- obsession, treasure seeker deaths and a Fenn family stalker came into play -- and what happened when it ended in 2020. While you can no longer take up the original quest for Fenn's hidden gold and jewels, one of the treasure hunters featured in the doc, Justin Posey, teases a tantalizing new prize.
McGilliard said the Netflix series has been in the works for about five years, beginning when Fenn announced the chest was found. "Without the ending, it's just a bunch of people walking through the woods," he said. Ahead of the premiere of Gold & Greed, CNET chatted with the director about who nabbed Fenn's fortune, Posey's new undertaking and what he hopes people get out of watching.
"I think taking a chance and pursuing something that feels adventurous, born from the movies of your childhood, something that just takes your life in an unexpected direction -- I think that the value of that is something that we should all sort of seek out in our life," McGilliard said.
A man sits in a chair in front of a bookshelf
Fenn responded to treasure hunters and teased clues in TV interviews. Netflix
Before embarking on the rest of this article, watch episodes 1-3 of Gold & Greed.
spoiler alert
What about Jack Stuef, the treasure finder?
Hundreds of thousands of people took part in the hunt for Fenn's treasure, according to the docuseries. But only one walked away with the valuable chest. That person, Jack Stuef, isn't among the main prize-hunters audiences follow in the series. So did McGilliard attempt to interview him?
"I did," McGilliard said. "I reached out to him via email ... he very politely declined and said, 'No thanks,' which wasn't surprising, right? In the very beginning, he didn't want to be named anyway. He definitely was not seeking attention from this for the most part."
McGilliard said he asked him a few other times -- checking in at different stages of production -- and Stuef's perspective hadn't changed.
"To me, that was fine," McGilliard said. "You know, I think what makes stories worth telling are people that want to sort of, they have no limits as far as what they want to share."
How the Justin Posey treasure hunt came to be part of 'Gold & Greed'
In the first episode of Gold & Greed, Fenn treasure hunter Justin Posey reveals that he strategically hid clues in an interview setting and various spaces filmed in his home. He shares that he's planning on hiding a treasure -- hopefully Fenn's.
A man sits in a chair in front of laptops and monitors
Justin Posey, a Fenn treasure hunter, says that he's also planning to hide a treasure. Netflix
In the doc's final minutes, audiences learn Posey did ultimately tuck away some impressive items. Posey gives a rundown of the valuables, including 1 kilogram gold bars, rubies and even some Fenn goodies, such as a dragon bracelet. Posey says he snuck in hints for treasure hunters during the filming of the series.
McGilliard said the process of including Posey's new treasure in the Netflix show "really played out like it did in the doc." Posey did not have Fenn's treasure at first but aimed to get it and hide it. Because things were up in the air, there was a chance that it wouldn't be a part of his story.
"Up until the very end, and especially after he didn't buy Forrest's treasure, I was sort of like, 'Oh man, I don't think this is going to happen,'" McGilliard said. "And all these cool clues that he's supposedly hidden all throughout the interview or throughout our filming process, they might not really matter. And obviously, he ended up hiding the treasure, which is pretty cool."
A gold dragon bracelet
The docuseries offers viewers a glimpse of objects from Fenn's treasure, like this dragon bracelet. Netflix
The real treasure in Gold & Greed
According to McGilliard, Posey wasn't alone in wanting to hide Fenn's treasure again.
"Many, many treasure hunters had the idea of, 'If I find it, I want to hide it,'" McGilliard said. "I think what was such a unique aspect of Forrest Fenn's treasure hunt is that people didn't want it to end. Treasure hunters even talked about, through the years, leaving it there if they found it so that it could continue."
Fenn fortune hunters Posey, Cynthia Meachum and members of the Hurst family may not have stumbled on Fenn's chest. But in the doc, they talk positively about the experience.
"The cheesy line is, 'The treasure isn't what you find at the end but the treasure is the journey along the way," McGilliard said. "But I do think that that is the lesson here ... and it changed every single one of these people's lives for the better, I would say."