Even if you’re not a video game player, I dare say most people are probably aware of Tetris – the deceptively simple puzzle game that’s also one of the most popular titles of all time – and they’ve more than likely tried to make the pieces that fall out of the game fit together perfectly. What most people probably have don’t know, however, is the Cold War intrigue behind the game or the fact that Tetris was created by a Soviet software engineer – a story that is explored in an upcoming Apple TV Plus film about the game which doubles as a edge of your polar seat.
Tetris upcoming movie on Apple TV Plus
Stick with me here, because I know some of this stuff might sound a little dry. Taron Egerton stars as Henk Rogers, the contractor who brokered a dispute over the rights to the game – which Nintendo eventually allowed to wrap up with the Game Boy handset. You get a little taste of this urgency and the stakes involved in the trailer below, released by Apple just a few days ago.
The film himself, by the way, knocks Apple’s streaming service March 31.
There is a bit of Stop and catch fire mood at times in the trailer, which I hear is the biggest compliment. Specifically, in times like when Egerton’s character and his wife marvel at the sound of silence in their apartment, while their kids are glued to their TV screens playing Tetris. I also love the little design touches, like how you see a car crash at one point in the trailer turn into an animation of Tetris blocks slamming into each other.
The film is directed by Jon S. Baird from a script by Noah Pink, and here’s how Apple describes it:
“Tetris tells the incredible story of how one of the world’s most popular video games found its way to avid gamers around the world. Henk Rogers (Taron Egerton) discovered Tetris in 1988, then risked everything to making it to the Soviet Union, where he teams up with inventor Alexey Pajitnov (Nikita Efremov) to bring the game to the masses.Based on a true story, Tetris is a Cold War-era thriller on steroids, with double-crossed villains, unlikely heroes and a relentless race to the finish.
Two consecutive video game films
It amazes me how much of a messy backstory surrounds this simple game, whose rights were once so complex that a dozen different companies thought they owned it. It’s another way of saying you can see where that kind of mess would lend itself to a dramatic narrative.
And speaking of classic video games: for the average gamer, there are only a handful of titles they would probably name if you asked them the most beloved or memorable titles from their childhood. One is Tetris, which we’re getting this movie from Apple TV Plus at the end of March. Exactly one week later, meanwhile, a film about one of the only other titles with equivalent name recognition will hit theaters: The movie Super Mario Bros.coming April 7.