Inside look at 'Billionaire Bunker' reveals alarming details: 'It's a bubble, and no one can get on and off'

In recent years, movies such as Triangle of Sadness, The Menu, and Don't Look Up have illustrated scenarios in which ultra-wealthy characters withdraw from the masses only to see their plans end in disaster.

A new Fortune article about Miami's infamous "Billionaire Bunker" served as an eerie echo of those films' forewarnings.

What's happening?

In early February, the Wall Street Journal exclusively reported Mark Zuckerberg's purchase of a property in Indian Creek Village, a highly exclusive island community near Miami.

Initial media reports claimed Zuckerberg was motivated by a recently proposed 5% wealth tax in California that had yet to be adopted, much less enacted.

While several outlets definitively blamed the tax for an influx of billionaires such as Larry Page and Jeff Bezos to the tiny island, Bezos' first land purchase occurred in 2023, well before a tax was proposed in October 2025.

According to Fortune, Indian Creek Village had a population of just 84 as of 2020, with a "single guarded bridge [that] connects it to the mainland" complete with an ID checkpoint.

The human-made island community is remarkably remote given its proximity to the bustling Miami, with its own police force patrolling the waters "24/7," per Fortune.

Miami-based real estate broker Michael Martirena told the outlet that the isolation made residents "of that caliber feel safe and not bothered," but he acknowledged the sense of security could be considered a double-edged sword.

"It's a bubble, and no one can get on and off, unless you have a reason," Martirena observed.

Why is this concerning?

Bezos, who initially attributed his purchase of property in Indian Creek Village to a desire to be closer to his wife Lauren Sánchez, has since acquired two additional properties.

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Billionaire Bunker residents have caused controversy by tapping public funds to fix their private bridge and by using their vast wealth to impose their wants on neighboring communities. 

When Island Creek Village's billionaires wanted to route their sewage through nearby Surfside, locals fought the plan — only to have Gov. Ron DeSantis override them with a clause in a transportation bill.

Indian Creek Village isn't the only jurisdiction to become an ad hoc mini-municipality run by the ultra-wealthy, which a 2023 study described as "private cities."

Researchers identified myriad "social and environmental impacts" associated with the deliberate concentration of wealth and power in a growing number of private cities, intentionally constructed enclaves that often falsely claim to be ecologically friendly.

"These coalitions tend to exhibit a complete disregard for the social and ecological injustices that their projects induce and sustain," researchers warned.

What's being done about it?

As the conflict between Billionaire Bunker and Surfside demonstrated, billionaires have leveraged their wealth time and again to the detriment of ordinary citizens.

Anti-injustice charity Oxfam has long highlighted the disproportionate impact of the ultra-wealthy's private jets and yachts, calling for a wealth tax to offset the damage they cause.

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