“Black Mirror”’s first feature film, Bandersnatch, is out now. Watch it on Netflix. Billed as the streaming service’s first adult-oriented interactive feature, the movie includes various permutations which viewers navigate by selecting a path at key moments, like a choose-your-own-adventure gamebook. There are five main endings including several possibilities within each. Taking every permutation into account, there are over a trillion possible routes through the film, according to Netflix.
“In 1984, a young programmer begins to question reality as he adapts a sprawling fantasy novel into a video game and soon faces a mind-mangling challenge,” the synopsis reads. Fionn Whitehead, Will Poulter, Craig Parkinson, Alice Lowe, and Asim Chaudhry star. Watch the trailer below.
Speaking to The New York Times, series writer and creator Charlie Brooker said, “I think some people will judge it just on a narrative basis, some people will judge it as a game. It’s not up to us. It’s down to them.... You are making decisions. You are actively guiding it.” Of the multiple possible endings, he added, “There’s a ‘Groundhog Day’ aspect where it keeps cycling around, deliberately so.”
While the Times reported that Bandersnatch would replace season 5, Netflix confirmed to Ars Technica that a fifth season will arrive later in 2019.
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