With only a few seconds to make significant plot decisions, “Bandersnatch” displays how interactivity may be the next step in the entertainment industry. Netflix gives the power to the people in this technology thriller that offers viewers a number of unique storylines. Set in the 1980s, the main character, Stefan, works to create a video game from a choose-your-own-adventure novel and begins to question reality in a similar way that “Black Mirror” consistently has us doing. Many rumors disagree about the number of different endings, both happy and sad, that viewers decide based on the choices made for Stefan and his friends.
One scene that highlights “Black Mirror’s” themes of immersive technology is when Stefan yells to his psychiatrist that he feels like he is being controlled (which he is). He is in full panic mode and thinks he is living in a movie. Stefan’s rage increases and we are presented the option to either fight the psychiatrist or jump out the window. If you choose the fighting scene, the movie ends with Stefan being dragged out of the office. If you choose to jump out the window, you see Stefan struggle to perform this action while the camera moves back to reveal the director explaining that Stefan is filming a fighting scene for a movie. The window he wants to jump out of is part of the movie set, revealing the validity of Stefan’s paranoid feelings of being controlled. Stefan is portrayed as an enraged programmer who is losing his mind, but he is really cracking the code of the controlled reality he is living in and we are conducting.
Making decisions for the story felt lighthearted at first, such as choosing between Sugar Puffs or Frosties for breakfast, but “Bandersnatch” took a drastic turn when it went from deciding between breakfast cereals to burying or chopping up Stefan’s father. Stefan killing his father and cutting him up, jumping off the balcony and burning the body in the woods were some notably gruesome scenes in “Bandersnatch” that definitely surprised viewers with more horror than they were expecting.
Unable to look away, making the choices to get to these dreadful parts made the movie more personal. However, this interactive movie does not exactly give the viewers as much power as they think they have. Certain choices caused the story to circle back to previous moments at several points throughout the movie, ultimately pushing the viewer towards a different path. Despite the innovative idea Netflix has brought to the table, the movie seemed a little bit forced. The first time I watched “Bandersnatch,” I was amused by the interactivity and was excited to see where I would end up, but when I went to watch the movie again, I felt as though I was playing to get to an outcome instead of playing to experience the story line. With that said, “Bandersnatch” has presented viewers with a media platform that gives us control, and although this is not Netflix’s first time using interactivity, they really know how to get us talking about it.
