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Like most kids in the ‘90s, I spent whole days in front of the basement TV, playing round after round of Tetris on my Nintendo. The background music was permanently stuck in my head. Though none of us knew the story behind our favorite game, Apple TV+’s Tetris now explores the deals that brought the game to the world.
Tetris tells the unbelievable true story of the fight for the rights to market the popular video game around the world. Video game manufacturer Henk Rogers (Taron Egerton) first discovers the game at the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas in 1988. Mesmerized by the simple but addictive game, he sets out to secure the rights to license it to Nintendo in Japan. But he soon finds himself in a complicated situation with Nintendo, the owners of British game publisher Mirrorsoft, the Russian government, and the game’s mild-mannered creator, Alexey (Nikita Efremov).
Every day, deals like this one are made all over the world. But the story of Tetris isn’t just a dry drama involving a couple of guys and their lawyers signing some paperwork and shaking hands. More than just a story about a business deal, Tetris plays out like an international spy thriller. It’s a story about business and politics, money and desperation.
There are multiple parties involved in this deal: brokers and billionaires, game companies, developers, and, of course, various members of the KGB. Henk finds himself racing around the globe—from Tokyo to London to Seattle to Moscow—trying to secure the deal that will keep him from losing everything. Along the way, he’s followed, he’s threatened, he’s beaten, and he’s betrayed. He sneaks into the Soviet Union shortly before the fall of communism, to find that doing business in Moscow is nothing like doing business anywhere else in the world—and that just adds to the suspense.
In a way, Tetris feels like a mix of The Social Network and a Bond thriller—just without Aaron Sorkin’s quick-witted dialogue or 007’s sophisticated charm. But the action and intrigue, the wheeling and dealing, are all still here—with a KGB car chase thrown in for extra action and adventure. It’s a whole lot more thrilling than you’d expect a business deal to be.
As it turns out, people’s obsession with Tetris began long before it made its way to your old game console. If you’ve ever spent your weekends trying to line up colorful shapes in just the right positions, you’ll be fascinated by the unlikely story behind you old favorite game.
Tetris makes its way to AppleTV+ on March 31, 2023.
Listen to the review on Reel Discovery:
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