Black Mirror: Bandersnatch (2018)
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A young programmer's life begins to unravel as he adapts a fantasy gamebook into a video game, leading to a series of choices that blur the lines between reality and fiction.
The story
In Britain in July 1984, a young programmer named Stefan Butler is adapting a "choose your own adventure" book owned by his late mother, Bandersnatch by Jerome F. Davies, into a revolutionary adventure game. Stefan pitches it to the video game company Tuckersoft, which is run by Mohan Thakur and employs the famous game creator Colin Ritman. Stefan is given the choice of accepting or rejecting help from the company in developing the game. If Stefan accepts, Colin says he chose the "wrong path". The game is released months later and critically panned as "designed by committee". Stefan considers trying again, and the film returns to the day of the offer, and the viewer is given the same choice.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
In Britain in July 1984, Stefan Butler adapts his late mother's "choose your own adventure" book into a video game. After a failed collaboration with Tuckersoft, he works alone, becoming increasingly stressed and hostile toward his father, Peter. During therapy with Dr. Haynes, Stefan reveals he feels responsible for his mother's death in a train crash caused by his refusal to leave with a stuffed rabbit. The viewer chooses whether Stefan takes prescribed medicine or accepts an invitation to Colin Ritman's flat. There, Colin spikes Stefan's tea with LSD and demands he jump off a balcony to prove theories about government mind-control and alternate timelines. As the deadline looms, Stefan begins to see recurring imagery of a "branching pathway" symbol, mirroring the life of the book's author, Jerome F. Davies. Stefan begins to mentally break down, and the viewer can choose how to explain his situation, including the meta-revelation that he is being watched on Netflix in the 21st century. The film features numerous endings: Stefan might confront his therapist to find he is on a film set, cross through a mirror to his five-year-old self and die, or kill his father and face imprisonment. One ending concludes in the present day with an adult Pearl, now a programmer for Netflix, attempting to adapt Bandersnatch into an interactive film, potentially repeating the cycle.
- First release year
- 2018
- Runtime (minutes)
- 90
- Production countries
- United Kingdom
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- David Slade
- Writers
- Charlie Brooker · writer
- Cast and characters
- Fionn Whitehead · Stefan Butler; Craig Parkinson · Peter; Alice Lowe · Dr. Haynes; Asim Chaudhry · Mohan Thakur; Will Poulter · Colin Ritman
- Genres
- science fiction; interactive film; psychological thriller; horror
- Themes
- free will; authorial control; fate; monitoring; control; postmodernism
- Tone and mood
- psychological thriller; atmospheric; tense
- Premise and plot tags
- interactive film; meta-commentary; time loop; multiverse; science fiction
- Source material / true-story basis
- Bandersnatch by Jerome F. Davies
- Franchise connections
- Black Mirror
- Reception
- Critics praised the technical design but were mixed on the story's characterization and the extent of viewer choice impact. It received average rankings on critics' lists but garnered numerous awards.
- Reported review scores
- Rotten Tomatoes · score: 74% · review count: 72; Metacritic · score: 61 · scale: 100 · review count: 16; The Independent · score: four · scale: five; The Observer · score: four · scale: five; Rolling Stone · score: three · scale: stars
- Awards and nominations
- Nebula Award · Best Game Writing · 2019 · win
- Production trivia
- The film was named after a real video game planned for release by Imagine Software in 1984.; The film opens on 9 July 1984, the day Imagine Software closed.; The term "bandersnatch" originates from a fictional creature created by Lewis Carroll.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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