Black Mirror: Bandersnatch (Interactive Film)

Netflix has released its first interactive movie "Bandersnatch". The show has different paths depending on your choices. If you were born in the 90s, you are familiar with the concept in which you make decisions that lead to different paths on books. But this is the first time that they applied this to a movie. In this regard, Bandersnatch has established a precedent.

Bandersnatch, Netflix

The movie sets in 1984 where a young video game programmer named Stefan tries to create a video game of a novel titled Bandersnatch. The author of the novel, Jerome F. Davies, killed his wife after experiencing a mental breakdown. During the creation process of the game, Stefan experiences a mental breakdown just as the author did. He starts to think that he doesn't control his life and believes someone else is making the decisions for him. In a way, it can be said that he has broken the fourth wall.

In fiction, "breaking the fourth wall" often means having a character become aware of their fictional nature. However, the most direct violation of the fourth wall would be a character openly acknowledging they are in a video game or even directly speaking to you, the player, instead of to your character. (Urban Dictionary)

Making decisions for Stefan on Bandersnatch, Netflix

Like I mentioned before, there are different ends for different actions. Although you are the decision-maker of the adventure, what you can do is sometimes limited. Most decisions lead to a loop where you end up in the same place. Someone on Twitter mapped out the decision-consequence paths. (You can find the picture below.) You can clearly see that you end up in the same ending most of the times.

I can't say the scenario was the best one I've ever watched. But that's not important, because that's not the case. The thing here is that for the first time you're allowed to make decisions for characters due to technologic developments. Netflix has been a game changer in the industry so far. And I believe it will be for a very long time.

I enjoyed watching the movie & making decisions for Stefan. Besides, 1h 30 min passed in the blink of an eye.

Emel

Jan 2018

Bandersnatch Paths, Netflix.