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Black Mirror

Black Mirror's Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Movie Is Causing Moral Dilemmas All Over The Place

Apparently none of us can handle the responsibility of controlling a fictional character's life when we're forced to witness the consequences.

Warning: this article contains spoilers.

Black Mirror’s interactive movie Bandersnatch was released on Netflix last night, and the internet is abuzz. With good reason – having played the movie through with several different endings, I can confirm it was an entertaining, but mildly anxiety-inducing, experience.

The movie is about a video game that’s based on a choose-your-own-adventure book, Bandersnatch, and the teenager, Stefan (played by Fionn Whitehead from Dunkirk), who’s creating it.

From the first choice, Sugar Puffs or Frosties, people were stressed.

The first choice that really matters is whether you decide to create the game at Tuckersoft or at home. If you choose Tuckersoft, Colin will inform you you’ve chosen the wrong path, the game will flop, and you’ll try again, waking up to the sounds of Frankie Goes To Hollywood once more.

So basically, to get anywhere interesting, you have to choose to work on the game at home, where Stefan can slowly and progressively become more troubled and sleep-deprived.

Being able to control a TV character’s fate is evidently too much pressure for many of us. Many people, including me, initially tried to play through to the best outcome for Stefan, only to remember that this is Black Mirror and there are no happy endings.

Once you realise that, it becomes easier to make Stefan choose the most destructive path.

Deaths aside, the weirdest parts of the episode were definitely the times when it broke the fourth wall, and let you talk to Stefan (almost) directly.

I don’t know why Netflix opted for the most confusing definition of itself for someone from the 1980s, though. Just say ‘it’s TV’ and be done with it. Someone from the 80s isn’t going to know what a ‘streaming entertainment platform’ is.

As Kanye once said, no one man should have all that power. Even though it forced us to reckon with our newfound power, Bandersnatch is entertaining, and Fionn Whitehead does a fantastic job as Stefan.

Despite enjoying it, I think I prefer when scriptwriters make the decisions for me. I don’t want to have a crisis of conscience every time I watch something new. Can you tell I was never into choose-your-own-adventure books as a kid?