The Netflix series Black Mirror released the first interactive episode on the streaming platform on December 28, 2018.
In this film, viewers are able to make decisions for the main character, Stefan Butler. Stefan is a 19 year old programmer who is creating his first video game, entitled “Bandersnatch,” in the year 1984. The choices start out light and fun like getting to choose what Stefan eats for breakfast, but over time they become more horrid and gruesome, some decisions involve selecting who you wish to murder and how to take care of the body. Each decision you make for Stefan leaves him feeling more and more out of his own control, driving him insane. The movie has 12 possible endings and it takes about 2 hours to unlock each possible ending. Once the viewer has reached a new ending, a new layer is added to the story or you can choose to skip the credits. There is about 300 minutes worth of footage for the entire Bandersnatch movie.
I personally found the movie amazing but in a psychotic way. Throughout the viewing of the interactive episode, it occurred to me that the creators of this movie, and overall the show, had to be on some serious drugs in order to come up with the concept of the movie. In shorter terms, the creators basically said to themselves, “I’m going to create a movie where the viewer makes decisions for the main character while the main character becomes paranoid that someone is making decisions for him.”
The movie ended up breaking the internet and became Twitter’s number 1 trending topic the days following its release. The show definitely changed the way TV shows and movies will be developed in the future.
5 out of 5 stars!