‘Black Mirror: Bandersnatch’ is the latest addition to Netflix that comes with a new and exciting feature. It is the first interactive film to hit Netflix and has at least 5 alternate endings as we know. As someone who has spent at least 3 hours on this film, it’s safe to say that I found it to be a great form of escapism and believe it is a great first entrance into a choose your own adventure film. Set in the 1980s, this multi-path story follows Stefan Butler (Fionn Whitehead), a young programmer who is given the opportunity to turn Jerome F. Davies’ ‘choose your own adventure’ novel ‘Bandersnatch’ into a video game for Tuckersoft, one of the biggest gaming companies in the world. Charlie Brooker’s ‘Bandersnatch’ challenges the concepts of free will, alternate realities and how our past decisions impact our future.
One of my favourite scenes in the film is where Stefan decides to follow Colin back to his house in hopes to get out of ‘The Hole’, which seems to be a programmer’s version of writer’s block. After Stefan accepts a drug that’s supposed to help him ‘see the bigger picture’, Colin comments on the theory of free will and the fact that he believes time is a construct, where whatever we choose to do affects our later life and that through flashbacks, we can go back and change our decisions. This scene stuck with me as it challenges the widely known debate of free will vs determinism and comments on the possibility of parallel realities – two concepts that have always fascinated me. Throughout the film, you are given two options that range from what cereal you have in the morning to whether to murder your own father or not. When watching this, I questioned almost every choice I made and found myself going back to previous parts of the film and choosing the other option just to see where it would take me. ‘Bandersnatch’ has always been a great conversation piece for myself and many other people. I remember comparing alternate endings with friends and instantly wanting to go back and reach the endings I missed. David Slade did an excellent job directing this film, who works up a strong feeling of dread and horror at the sight of the some of the things that poor Stefan is forced to do. The performance of Fionn Whitehead as Stefan Butler is phenomenally executed and really causes us to suffer his mental distress with him – although we are, as viewers, predominantly the ones causing it. With its dark turns, Bandersnatch certainly feels like a Black Mirror episode, as it rightly should – even the smallest decisions determine what happens later on in the film. Charlie Brooker has created another amazing addition to the ‘Black Mirror’ franchise that opens a door to the interactive future and I, along with many other people, cannot wait to see what he comes up with next.