What is free will? Is free will all that it seems to be? Or is everything already set up for us, and we’re just being guided through it? Is someone controlling our actions down to what we eat for breakfast in the morning?
Black Mirror’s most recent installment, “Bandersnatch,” explores this concept with more depth than one would think that this concept would need. I first began watching this at 5:30 in the morning after getting no sleep. I can say with certainty that if you want to avoid having a complete existential crisis, then don’t repeat that mistake of mine. This hour and a half long episode of the Netflix series Black Mirror is interactive- it lets you choose the actions that the main character of the story, Stefan, takes as he tries to get his choose your own adventure game in the mid-80s.
It’s interesting to see all the choices that you can make, down to the more minute details of his life, and how they can affect the story in a drastic way. If you choose a certain cereal for Stefan to eat, you see the commercial later on a tape before the intended recording plays. If you choose a certain style of music, you hear music from that artist during the introduction and sprinkled throughout the rest of the film.
When you go to the gaming company for Stefan to pitch his game, you meet two new people: the sleazy owner of the company named Mohan Thakur, and a famous video game developer (who also enjoys getting high) named Collin. You can agree to work under the company to develop the game; however, this results in the game getting a lackluster review because of its poor quality. You can choose to start over, and when you go back to the company… Collin insists that you’ve met before. This is our first hint that not all is as it seems with this particular character.
Now, we know the correct choice: say no to working under the company- rather, have Stefan insist that he can get the game finished by himself, and the company can publish the game. Now, the story can continue properly.
As Stefan continues to work on his game, he begins to spiral more and more into a state of anxiety and stress. This comes to a breaking point, and his dad tries to take him to a therapist. However, you can choose to go with Collin instead. And this path brings us even more questions than we already had.
Collin tells us about everything that he seems to have learned everything about the meaning of existence. He reveals that he knows that nothing is truly his own choice: everything has already decided for him. The government is planning their lives, they put drugs in their food, they record you no matter what you do.
I won’t spoil anything else for you, but this show does make you start questioning your reality. It’s definitely a strange feeling, to be intervening with the life of a relatively normal person. This feeling of existentialism will cause people who watch this show to start viewing reality in an entirely new light. Overall, I highly recommend this episode, and the series Black Mirror as a whole. Maybe I’ll dedicate another blog post to this series… as long as someone doesn’t choose a different path for me.
