Tetris trailer introduces viewers to “the perfect game”… and the KGB
The surprisingly gritty origin story of Tetris stars Taron Egerton and premieres March 31 on Apple TV+
Film News Tetris
Between The Last Of Us (great!) and upcoming The Super Mario Bros. Movie (no comment!), it’s very clear that big-budget, in-universe video game adaptations are THE hot ticket right now. With this in mind, one could be forgiven for thinking that a movie called Tetris was somehow going to eke out a goofy plot line about falling geometric bricks threatening a suburban town, with Taron Egerton (Rocketman) voicing the “L” brick, or maybe even the “T” brick.
That is not what this is. Tetris is, more than anything else, about the KGB. We bet you three nice “I” bricks you didn’t see that one coming.
Egerton stars in the true origin story (also an incredibly popular genre right now) as video game salesman Henk Rogers, a man whose dreams are haunted by falling bricks after stumbling across what would later become Tetris at a Las Vegas electronics show in 1988. (As someone who has played a little too much Tetris in her time, this author can confirm that the Tetris Effect is very, very real.)
Immediately recognizing the IP’s potential—he declares it to be “the perfect game”—Rogers sets out on a path to bring his beloved Tetriminoes (yes, that is the official name) to the masses. Unbeknownst to the salesman at the time, this is a path that will tie him intimately to one of the most important technological advances of his time, the GameBoy, as well as the crushing force of the Soviet Union.
It turns out that Tetris was created by a Russian designer (Nikita Efremov), and the Soviet Union isn’t too keen on parting with the rights to the game just yet, despite his and Rogers’ best efforts. Rogers’ ensuing life-threatening, R-rated war with one of the most dangerous forces on earth looks like it will be a gripping, gritty, heart-pumping romp. Almost as exhilarating as the game it’s based on.
Tetris premieres March 31 on Apple TV+.
30 Comments
OK, this actually looks kinda awesome. I was expecting something along the lines of Halt and Catch Fire with Tetris, but I’m here for late 80s Soviet espionage madness.
It sounds like it’s about as accurate as HCF (which I still liked for Lee Pace’s smarmy Steve Jobs-like character with little talent but with charisma) — which is to say not very accurate. 1988 wasn’t the depths of the Cold War with KGB agents defending Communism. It was peak Gorby glasnost and perestroika. They *wanted* to do business with the West.
I would’ve loved to watch a movie about the history of Tetris, but this looks like it applies artistic license so heavily that I was put off.
Wait, are you telling me that the outcome of the Cold War WASN’T decided by Taron Egerton and Reanimated Stalin playing Game Boy Tetris against each other in VS mode, on a giant screen while thousands of terrified people watched and when Egerton came from behind to win the match his father shed a single tear and a puppy was given the gift of speech just long enough to utter the word “freedom?”Surely you must be mistaken.
Yeah, I kind of want this story from the perspective of the actual Soviet/Russian designer who made the game, and was at the center of the legal battle for rights to it after the collapse of the Soviet Union, rather than the story about the American guy who brought it to the west and tried to copyright it. Adding a bunch of KGB stuff just kind of feels like typical Ameican propaganda inserted into what would be an otherwise pretty great – somewhat standard, but with the added tension of major geopoliticla changes going on – underdog story.
The real Henk Rogers is Dutch, not American, but who knows if the movie will do much, if anything, to acknowledge that. They seem dead-set on portraying him as the Determined Guy With a Vision Who Proved Them All Wrong and Single-Handedly Gave Us Beloved Product, which is a pretty American trope.
And yeah, in this case it’s even weirder because a huge part of Tetris’ identity comes from the fact that it was created in the Soviet Union, by a Russian. But the movie seems to be minimizing Alexei Pajitnov’s role, which is a shame. Surely the guy who invented the game deserves more recognition than the guy who put it up for sale?
Not only was he a Dutch citizen, but he was ethnically Indonesian, so this is a case of whitewashing.I agree that Pajitnov deserves recognition, but he doesn’t make a great main character. After creating the game he basically had no control over it. He was mostly uninvolved in the legal battle over the game. Henk is a good choice for main character. Most descriptions of the movie say that it’s about their friendship, so hopefully Alexei gets his due.
The only reason Pajitnov got the rights to Tetris back is because Rogers helped him. You can’t really tell the story of Tetris without it being about both guys. They still own Tetris together today.Henk Rogers (not actually American) is a very interesting guy on his own as well. He created the first JRPG. He flew into Russia by himself and just wandered into the ELORG offices without an appointment. There we’re definitely KGB agents watching him at this time, and he could easily have never been heard from again.It actually is a really crazy story, and although the trailer seems to be showing some scenes out of order and out of context, it seems pretty close to the truth.
I’VE BEEN EATEN ALIVE.
VLADIMIR.JUST REMEMBER THAT I AM EXIST
THE DAVIL.Yeeeeeeeeeeah, it didn’t end well for some of ‘em.
I finally caught all of H&CF a few years ago when it was on Netflix, and I am happy to go on the record that it’s one of the best shows I’ve seen in years. Woefully underappreciated.
I just wish that it had been made by people who actually used computers in the 1980s. The whole thing felt like something made by people who never touched one until the 1990s. Commodore 64’s with “C:>” prompts like they were MS-DOS PCs, people worried about online viruses, the idea in the first season that making a PC-clone was near the start of home computers instead of all the actual pre-IBM home computers…
the idea in the first season that making a PC-clone was near the start of home computers instead of all the actual pre-IBM home computers…I’m not sure that’s how it’s framed, though. If I remember correctly, they’re all industry veterans in the pilot (even Cameron, who’s still in college!). A more historically accurate version might be more interesting (if it ever gets made), but I’m willing to bet it’d be more ambitious—and I’d argue this is a show that tries very hard to transcend its own mundane choices, and succeeds in some interesting ways. As a period drama, I didn’t find it quite as irresistible as The Americans—and I don’t think it’s as well-written as Mad Men—but, overall, I’d say it’s pretty scrappy. And the cast is solid.
The KGB were involved in the sale of Tetris, although not in the way this trailer implies. I don’t think it will play out this way in the actual movie. They got involved once they realized that 3 major companies (Nintendo, Atari, Mirrorsoft) were interested in the game. They weren’t defending communism. They were defending the country’s financial interests.The one guy who actually had to fear for his life was Belikov, who was negotiating the deal. If he had botched it and given away the Tetris rights for not enough money, Gorbachev himself had threatened to deal with him.
I’m here for late 80s Soviet espionage madness.These two also in Las Vegas that week.
Can anyone explain to me why Taron Egerton is doing his best Leonardo di Caprio impression in this movie?
Taron’s Acting Coach: This is how you win awards, Egerton! This is how you get Scorsese and Tarantino to cast you in all their shit! You want an Oscar, don’t you? Then just be Leo! That’s our motto here at Dicaprio Acting Plagiarism Academy!
Taron: I’m amazed you guys haven’t been sued yet.Taron’s Acting Coach: Oh, we have. Technically it’s a felony for me to even be talking to you.
So wait, Tetris really WAS a KGB tool to crater the productivity of US workers?!?!? I thought that was just an urban legend being spread around my college campus at the time!
I haven’t even watched the trailer and the music is in my head.
When it started, I was disappointed they were going with Final Countdown, rather than the obvious choice. But then it turned into a mash-up, and I was satisfied.
Even without spicing it up the story up with some sexy kgb car chase dramatisation its a pretty interesting story . Mirrorsoft , who were owned by Rupert Murdock alliterative rival Robert Maxwell (I’m guessing he’s the large Englishman in the tux) sold the home computer version , and in turn licenced the console rights (which they didnt realise they didn’t own) to Atari …who in turn released an NES game under the publishing name Tengen. Meanwhile the creator sold the console rights to Nintendo with Henk Rogers (which may be part of the frantic faxing being shown).Nintendo did that thing they love doing , releasing the lawyers ..and forced Mirrorsoft/Atari/Tengen to recall and destroy their version …making it pretty collectable . Its a pity as its arguably a LOT better than the ‘official’ version Nintendo made with Rogers .Also there’s a great documentary about it from the BBC
We had Tengen Tetris when I was a kid. Definitely better than the official Nintendo version. Wish we still had the cartridge!
Maxwell of course being the pension fund stealing crook who slipped overboard his yacht the Lady Ghislaine, never to be seen again, leaving his family to cope with his mess. The yacht of course was named after his daughter, whose own attempts to evade justice were both less fatal, and ultimately less successful.
Is there a name for this trend of films/shows that follow the generic biopic template but are about the invention of some random thing rather than one person’s life? Because, holy crap, I’m so tired of these already. I just simply can’t force myself to care how fucking Tetris or Chippendales or Air Jordans or The Godfather or any of that shit came to be, no matter how hard I try, especially since the stories seem to be so heavily fictionalized. We need to stop turning Wikipedia pages into hard-hitting dramas.
Oh, so it’s just gonna be made up red scare bullshit? No, thanks.
I assure you that the story as presented here is mostly accurate. I think the trailer is showing a few things out of order, but the KGB was involved, and initially did follow Henk Rogers. It became a much more normal business deal very quickly, but things could have gone very wrong.
Just a reminder that the perfect Tetris short film has already been made:(It also includes the best rhyming of the word “tesselate”.)
Gaming Historian did a great doc on the story behind how Tetris was brought to the West.
At the very least more engaging than a biopic about Air Jordans.
Wow, they finally did it! I’ve been fascinated with the dramatic potential of tetris’ backstory for a couple years now (even worked on and quickly aborted a couple terrible story treatments for it, haha). I’m really looking forward to this. The Youtube channel “Gaming Historian” did a great archive-based documentary on it too about 5 years ago:
Oookay, this make sense. A few years back there was talk of a Tetris trilogy screenplay that was getting greenlit. Lots of buzz. This was around the same time as Rampage and Detective Pikachu were being released, so people were wondering how they would make 6+ hours of content around falling bricks.
I’m guessing (hoping) that the screenplay was something akin to what we’re seeing now.