''Tetris'' is a 2023
biographical
A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or curric ...
thriller film
Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre. ...
based on true events around the race to license and patent the video game ''
Tetris
''Tetris'' () is a puzzle video game created in 1985 by Alexey Pajitnov, a Soviet software engineer. In ''Tetris'', falling tetromino shapes must be neatly sorted into a pile; once a horizontal line of the game board is filled in, it disa ...
'' from
Russia
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
in the late 1980s during the
Cold War
The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...
. It was directed by
Jon S. Baird and written by
Noah Pink. The film stars
Taron Egerton
Taron Egerton ( ; born 10 November 1989) is a Welsh actor. After graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he performed in stage plays before gaining recognition for his starring role as a spy in the action comedy films '' Kingsman: Th ...
,
Nikita Efremov,
Sofia Lebedeva
Sofia Sergeevna Lebedeva (Russian: Со́фья Серге́евна Ле́бедева, also '' tr.'' Sofya Sergeevna Lebedeva; born 14 December 1993) is a Russian actress. She has had roles in BBC One drama ''McMafia'' (2018), Apple TV+ film ' ...
, and
Anthony Boyle
Anthony Boyle (born 8 June 1994) is a Northern Irish actor. A graduate of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Boyle began his acting career on London stage and rose to prominence for originating the role of Scorpius Malfoy in the West ...
. The plot follows
Henk Rogers
Henk Rogers is a Dutch-born American video game designer and entrepreneur. He is known for producing Japan's first major turn-based role-playing video game '' The Black Onyx'', securing the rights to distribute the Russian puzzle video game ''Tet ...
of
Bullet-Proof Software
Blue Planet Software Inc. was an American video game developer and publisher founded by Henk Rogers in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1996. The company was founded as the successor to Bullet-Proof Software Inc. (BPS), founded in 1983 by Rogers in Japan
...
, who becomes interested in the game Tetris, created by
Alexey Pajitnov
Alexey Leonidovich Pajitnov (born April 16, 1955) is a Russian-American computer engineer and video game designer. He is best known for creating, designing, and developing ''Tetris'' in 1985 while working at the Dorodnitsyn Computing Centre un ...
, during an electronics show. Desperate to obtain handheld console rights for Nintendo, he takes trips between Japan, the United States, and Russia to win legal battles over the game's ownership.
Development of ''Tetris'' began in July 2020. Filming began in
Glasgow
Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...
in December 2020, including
Glasgow Prestwick Airport
Glasgow Prestwick Airport (), commonly referred to as Prestwick Airport, is an international airport serving the west of Scotland, situated northeast of the town of Prestwick, and southwest of Glasgow, Scotland. It is the less busy of the two ...
. In February 2021, filming took place in
Aberdeen
Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...
at locations including the
University of Aberdeen
The University of Aberdeen (abbreviated ''Aberd.'' in List of post-nominal letters (United Kingdom), post-nominals; ) is a public university, public research university in Aberdeen, Scotland. It was founded in 1495 when William Elphinstone, Bis ...
's
Zoology Building. Filming took place for 7 days in and around the former (RAF) military base at Balado in Perth & Kinross. Production wrapped in early March 2021.
''Tetris'' premiered at the
SXSW Film Festival
South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has continued growing in both s ...
on March 15, 2023, and was released on March 31, by
Apple TV+
Apple TV+ is an American subscription over-the-top streaming service owned by Apple. The service launched on November 1, 2019, and it offers a selection of original production film and television series called Apple Originals. The service w ...
. The film received generally positive reviews from critics and was praised by Pajitnov and Rogers.
Plot
At the 1988
Consumer Electronics Show
CES (; formerly an initialism for Consumer Electronics Show) is an annual trade show organized by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). Held in January at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Winchester, Nevada, United States, the event typi ...
in Las Vegas, Dutch video game designer
Henk Rogers
Henk Rogers is a Dutch-born American video game designer and entrepreneur. He is known for producing Japan's first major turn-based role-playing video game '' The Black Onyx'', securing the rights to distribute the Russian puzzle video game ''Tet ...
of
Bullet-Proof Software
Blue Planet Software Inc. was an American video game developer and publisher founded by Henk Rogers in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1996. The company was founded as the successor to Bullet-Proof Software Inc. (BPS), founded in 1983 by Rogers in Japan
...
discovers ''
Tetris
''Tetris'' () is a puzzle video game created in 1985 by Alexey Pajitnov, a Soviet software engineer. In ''Tetris'', falling tetromino shapes must be neatly sorted into a pile; once a horizontal line of the game board is filled in, it disa ...
'', a captivating puzzle game developed by Soviet programmer
Alexey Pajitnov
Alexey Leonidovich Pajitnov (born April 16, 1955) is a Russian-American computer engineer and video game designer. He is best known for creating, designing, and developing ''Tetris'' in 1985 while working at the Dorodnitsyn Computing Centre un ...
. ''Tetris'' is owned by the Soviet Union's
ELORG
Elektronorgtechnica (also spelled ''Electronorgtechnica'', ), better known abbreviated as ELORG (Элорг), was a state-owned organization with a monopoly on the import and export of computer support and hardware and software in the Soviet Unio ...
. Rogers learns that the worldwide licensing rights were sold to British entrepreneur Robert Stein, who sublicensed them to
Robert Maxwell
Ian Robert Maxwell (born Ján Ludvík Hyman Binyamin Hoch; 10 June 1923 – 5 November 1991) was a Czechoslovakia, Czechoslovak-born British media proprietor, politician and fraudster.
After escaping the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, ...
's
Mirrorsoft
Mirrorsoft was a British video game publisher founded by Jim Mackonochie as a division of Mirror Group Newspapers. The company was active between 1983 and 1991, and shut down completely in early 1992.
History
In the early 1980s, Jim Macko ...
, headed by Maxwell's son,
Kevin
Kevin is the anglicized form of the Irish masculine given name (; ; ; Latinized as ). It is composed of "dear; noble"; Old Irish and ("birth"; Old Irish ).
The variant ''Kevan'' is anglicised from , an Irish diminutive form.''A Dictiona ...
. Rogers acquires the rights to distribute Tetris in Japan for PC, console, and arcade.
Rogers pitches a partnership to Nintendo CEO
Hiroshi Yamauchi
Hiroshi Yamauchi (; 7 November 192719 September 2013) was a Japanese businessman and the third president of Nintendo, joining the company on 25 April 1949 until stepping down on 24 May 2002, being succeeded by Satoru Iwata. During his 53-year t ...
, proposing to adapt ''Tetris'' for the
Famicom
The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on 15 July 1983 as the and was later released as the redesigned NES in several test markets in the ...
console and arcades. Yamauchi agrees, and Rogers secures a $3 million loan from bank manager Eddie, using his family home as
collateral. However, Kevin informs Rogers that
Sega
is a Japanese video game company and subsidiary of Sega Sammy Holdings headquartered in Tokyo. It produces several List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises for arcade game, arcades and video game cons ...
has already been promised arcade rights, complicating Rogers's ability to move forward with the Famicom version. Rogers desperately presses Nintendo for an advance on residuals, hoping to buy enough time to secure the needed rights, but is instead redirected to Nintendo's Seattle headquarters. There, Rogers proposes ''Tetris'' as the launch title for Nintendo's upcoming
Game Boy
The is a handheld game console developed by Nintendo, launched in the Japanese home market on April 21, 1989, followed by North America later that year and other territories from 1990 onwards. Following the success of the Game & Watch single-ga ...
handheld console instead of ''
Super Mario Land
is a 1989 platform game developed by Nintendo Research & Development 1, Nintendo R&D1, the same team that designed the Game Boy. It was published by Nintendo as Game Boy#Launch titles, one of the first four games released for the console. I ...
''.
Nintendo of America
is a Japanese multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles.
The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi founded the company to p ...
's President
Minoru Arakawa
is a Japanese businessman best known as the founder and former president of Nintendo of America, and the co-founder of Tetris Online, Inc.
Biography
Minoru Arakawa was born on 3 September 1946 in Kyoto, Japan, the second son of Waichiro Araka ...
and
General Counsel
A general counsel, also known as chief counsel or chief legal officer (CLO), is the chief in-house lawyer for a company or a governmental department.
In a company, the person holding the position typically reports directly to the CEO, and their ...
Howard Lincoln
Howard Charles Lincoln (born February 14, 1940) is an American lawyer and businessman, known primarily for being the former chairman of Nintendo of America and the former chairman and chief executive officer of the Seattle Mariners baseball tea ...
agree, provided Rogers secures handheld rights.
Rogers negotiates with Stein in London, offering $25,000 for the handheld rights. However, Stein later promises the rights to
Atari
Atari () is a brand name that has been owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by French holding company Atari SA (formerly Infogrames) and its focus is on "video games, consumer hardware, licensing and bl ...
for $100,000. Realizing he must deal directly with ELORG, Rogers travels to Moscow despite the risks of operating in a tightly controlled Soviet system. At ELORG, Rogers meets chairman Nikolai Belikov and learns that his Famicom version of ''Tetris'' is considered illegal because Stein exploited ambiguous contract language to sublicense rights beyond PC versions. Rogers reveals these manipulations, leading Belikov to draft a new contract defining platform-specific rights.
Rogers meets Pajitnov, and they gradually develop a friendship. The growing potential of ''Tetris'' attracts scrutiny from Valentin Trifonov, a corrupt
Communist Party official with
KGB
The Committee for State Security (, ), abbreviated as KGB (, ; ) was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, Joint State Polit ...
connections. Trifonov attempts to leverage ''Tetris'' as a political and financial asset, threatening Rogers, Pajitnov, and their families. Trifonov pressures Belikov into selling Tetris to Mirrorsoft. Belikov tells Kevin that Mirrorsoft can have ''Tetris'' if they are
wired
Wired may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Music
* ''Wired'' (Jeff Beck album), 1976
* ''Wired'' (Hugh Cornwell album), 1993
* ''Wired'' (Mallory Knox album), 2017
* "Wired", a song by Prism from their album '' Beat Street''
* "Wired ...
$1 million within a week. Belikov then privately talks to Rogers about making his own offer within the week and gives him a separate
letter of intent
A letter of intent (LOI or LoI, or Letter of Intent) is a document outlining the understanding between two or more parties which they intend to formalize in a legally binding agreement. The concept is similar to a heads of agreement, term she ...
. Back in Tokyo, Rogers faces personal strain when his dedication to the Tetris deal causes him to miss his daughter
Maya
Maya may refer to:
Ethnic groups
* Maya peoples, of southern Mexico and northern Central America
** Maya civilization, the historical civilization of the Maya peoples
** Mayan languages, the languages of the Maya peoples
* Maya (East Africa), a p ...
's concert.
Ordered by Belikov, Pajitnov
fax
Fax (short for facsimile), sometimes called telecopying or telefax (short for telefacsimile), is the telephonic transmission of scanned printed material (both text and images), normally to a telephone number connected to a printer or other out ...
es Mirrorsoft's letter to Rogers at his job, showing that Mirrorsoft failed to obtain ''Tetris'' rights on the agreed upon deadline. Nintendo tells Rogers of Atari releasing their ''Tetris'' version. Rogers says Stein and the Maxwells lied and that the letter expired the day before, meaning Atari has zero rights to ''Tetris''. He urges Arakawa and Lincoln to finalize the deal in Moscow. Stein furiously confronts Kevin for dealing with ELORG behind his back, leading the Maxwells to personally warn Soviet leader
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet and Russian politician who served as the last leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country's dissolution in 1991. He served a ...
against selling to capitalist interests. Gorbachev dismisses their concerns but orders Trifonov to be monitored. ELORG ultimately accepts Nintendo's $5 million offer for console and handheld rights.
Tensions escalate when Robert Maxwell offers Trifonov a 50% stake in Tetris in exchange for blocking Rogers. A high-stakes car chase ensues as Trifonov tries to intercept Rogers, Arakawa, and Lincoln en route to the airport. Sasha, Rogers's interpreter and a covert KGB agent, intervenes to arrest Trifonov, allowing the trio to escape.
''Tetris'' becomes a global phenomenon following its release on Game Boy and other platforms. Rogers returns to Tokyo, reconciling with his family and showing his wife Akemi the $5 million check to Bullet-Proof Software. In his homeland, Pajitnov watches the
Singing Revolution
The Singing Revolution was a series of events from 1987 to 1991 that led to the restoration of independence of the three Soviet-occupied Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania at the end of the Cold War. The term was coined by a ...
and receives a Game Boy with Tetris from Rogers. Rogers helps Pajitnov and his family relocate to the US. An epilogue reveals Rogers and Pajitnov co-founded
The Tetris Company
The Tetris Company, Inc. (TTC) is the manager and licensor for the ''Tetris'' brand to third parties. It is an American company based in Nevada and owned by the ''Tetris'' creator Alexey Pajitnov and Henk Rogers. The company is the exclusive lic ...
, of which Maya later becomes CEO, and remain friends.
Cast
Production
Development
In July 2020, it was reported that a biopic was being made about the making of ''
Tetris
''Tetris'' () is a puzzle video game created in 1985 by Alexey Pajitnov, a Soviet software engineer. In ''Tetris'', falling tetromino shapes must be neatly sorted into a pile; once a horizontal line of the game board is filled in, it disa ...
'', which would delve into the legal battles that took place during the
Cold War
The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...
over ownership of the game, with
Jon S. Baird directing and
Taron Egerton
Taron Egerton ( ; born 10 November 1989) is a Welsh actor. After graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he performed in stage plays before gaining recognition for his starring role as a spy in the action comedy films '' Kingsman: Th ...
cast to portray the game publisher
Henk Rogers
Henk Rogers is a Dutch-born American video game designer and entrepreneur. He is known for producing Japan's first major turn-based role-playing video game '' The Black Onyx'', securing the rights to distribute the Russian puzzle video game ''Tet ...
. Egerton confirmed this report in an August 2020 interview, explaining that the film would mirror a tone similar to ''
The Social Network
''The Social Network'' is a 2010 American biographical drama film directed by David Fincher and written by Aaron Sorkin, based on the 2009 book '' The Accidental Billionaires'' by Ben Mezrich. It portrays the founding of social networkin ...
''. In November 2020,
Apple TV+
Apple TV+ is an American subscription over-the-top streaming service owned by Apple. The service launched on November 1, 2019, and it offers a selection of original production film and television series called Apple Originals. The service w ...
acquired the film.
Baird explained that the appeal of the film's script lay in its focus on the legal battle over the rights to the game, set against the backdrop of the
Cold War
The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...
.
With a background in politics and international relations, Baird was drawn to the high-stakes, thrilling nature of the story, which he likened to a "fast-paced, high-stakes thriller on steroids." He emphasized that, unlike typical video game adaptations, the film centers on the real-world drama surrounding the game's distribution rights rather than trying to adapt the gameplay itself.
When asked why the film was made now, Baird remarked that, while the story had been in development for years, the current geopolitical situation—particularly the
Russian invasion of Ukraine
On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...
—provided new resonance. He noted that the film's portrayal of East-West relations during the Cold War would be more meaningful now than it might have been in the past, as modern audiences have a clearer understanding of how dangerous and politically charged that period was.
Filming
Filming for ''Tetris'' originally planned for Moscow was disrupted by the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
in 2021, prompting the production to relocate to various locations in
Scotland
Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
, including
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...
,
Ayrshire
Ayrshire (, ) is a Counties of Scotland, historic county and registration county, in south-west Scotland, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. The lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area of Ayrshire and Arran covers the entirety ...
,
Glasgow
Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...
, and
Aberdeen
Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...
. Director Jon S. Baird, a native of Aberdeen, described filming in his hometown as a special experience, highlighting the region’s untapped cinematic potential and the enthusiastic local reception. Producer Gillian Berrie noted the serendipitous connection between Moscow's architecture—partially influenced by Scottish designers—and the Scottish filming locations, which helped create a convincing stand-in for the Russian capital. Lead actor Taron Egerton remarked on Scotland's "abundance of greyness" and architectural similarities to Moscow, particularly in parts of Glasgow. The production was supported by £500,000 from Screen Scotland’s production growth fund.
Filming began in Glasgow in December 2020, including
Glasgow Prestwick Airport
Glasgow Prestwick Airport (), commonly referred to as Prestwick Airport, is an international airport serving the west of Scotland, situated northeast of the town of Prestwick, and southwest of Glasgow, Scotland. It is the less busy of the two ...
on the Ayrshire coast. In February 2021, filming took place in Aberdeen at locations including the
University of Aberdeen
The University of Aberdeen (abbreviated ''Aberd.'' in List of post-nominal letters (United Kingdom), post-nominals; ) is a public university, public research university in Aberdeen, Scotland. It was founded in 1495 when William Elphinstone, Bis ...
's
Zoology Building, which was used as the headquarters of Soviet firm
ELORG
Elektronorgtechnica (also spelled ''Electronorgtechnica'', ), better known abbreviated as ELORG (Элорг), was a state-owned organization with a monopoly on the import and export of computer support and hardware and software in the Soviet Unio ...
, and Seamount Court which was used for several scenes. Filming took place for 7 days in and around the former (RAF) military base at Balado in Perth & Kinross; particularly internal scenes for a quasi-military backdrop. Production then returned to Glasgow for a few days, before wrapping in early March 2021.
Visual effects
Coffee & TV was tasked with creating motion design for the Tetris film, incorporating a "blocky" pixel art style to align with the film's
1980s
File:1980s replacement montage02.PNG, 335px, From left, clockwise: The first Space Shuttle, ''Space Shuttle Columbia, Columbia'', lifts off in 1981; US president Ronald Reagan and Soviet Union, Soviet General Secretary of the Communist Party of ...
retro gaming
Retro gaming, also known as classic gaming and old school gaming, is the playing and collection of computer game, personal computers, video game console, consoles, and video games from earlier decades. Usually, retro gaming is based upon syste ...
aesthetic. The project began in the post-production phase, where Coffee & TV was commissioned to design various graphic and animation assets, including titles, scene establishers, and maps to enhance the storytelling.
The team faced a challenge in rendering the pixelated aesthetic in 4K resolution, initially attempting to pixelize graphics made at 4K, but finding the results unsatisfactory. To maintain control over pixel placement, they scaled the designs to approximately 1:10, creating artwork 400 pixels wide.
The artwork was developed on small canvases using Adobe Photoshop, Aseprite, and Pixaki, the latter two being specifically designed for retro, 8-bit pixel art. In Adobe After Effects, the team discovered a simple method to preserve the pixelated look by disabling a specific checkbox that otherwise smoothed out lines and gradients, contradicting the desired aesthetic. For the animations, they ensured that movements felt blocky, adjusting motion to maintain the pixelated style even in high resolution.
Coloring was approached with some flexibility, using different color schemes to set the scene contextually—red for Russia, blue for London, and green for Tokyo—while still drawing from Tetris' extensive visual history.
The original game’s simple, bracket-like visuals served as inspiration, challenging the designers to make concise decisions about storytelling and character design within the pixelated constraints.
Reflecting on the project, Boyle highlighted the rewarding nature of working within these boundaries, emphasizing the creative discipline required to convey narrative and visual elements in a minimalist style.
Music
The movie's
soundtrack
A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television show, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of m ...
features original score cues from the film composed by
Lorne Balfe
Lorne Balfe (born 23 February 1976) is a Scottish composer of film, television and video game scores.
A veteran of Hans Zimmer's Remote Control Productions, Balfe's scoring credits include the films '' Megamind'', ''Penguins of Madagascar'', ...
and songs performed by
Aaron Hibell
Aaron Hibell (born April 9, 1996) previously known as Hibell, is an English DJ, record producer, composer and electronic artist.
He's best known for his distinct music production which has been described as a cinematic blend of orchestral produc ...
,
aespa
Aespa ( ; , stylized in Letter case#All lowercase, all lowercase or as æspa) is a South Korean girl group formed by SM Entertainment. The group consists of four members: Karina (South Korean singer), Karina, Giselle (singer), Giselle, Winter ...
, Polina,
ReN, as well as remixes of yesteryear songs newly produced for the film. The album was released on 31 March 2023 by
Parlophone Records
Parlophone Records Limited (also known as Parlophone Records and Parlophone) is a record label founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch of the label was founded on 8 August 1923 as the Parloph ...
and
Marv Music, and was led by two singles — "Benevolence" by
Aaron Hibell
Aaron Hibell (born April 9, 1996) previously known as Hibell, is an English DJ, record producer, composer and electronic artist.
He's best known for his distinct music production which has been described as a cinematic blend of orchestral produc ...
and "Hold on Tight" by
Aespa
Aespa ( ; , stylized in Letter case#All lowercase, all lowercase or as æspa) is a South Korean girl group formed by SM Entertainment. The group consists of four members: Karina (South Korean singer), Karina, Giselle (singer), Giselle, Winter ...
released on 17 and 24 March.
Release
The film premiered at the
2023 South by Southwest Film & TV Festival
The 2023 South by Southwest Film & TV Festival took place from March 10 to 19 at several venues in Austin, Texas, as part of the larger South by Southwest annual event. The film program opened with fantasy heist comedy film '' Dungeons & Dragons: ...
on March 15, 2023.
It premiered on Apple TV+ on March 31, 2023. According to a
Samba TV
Samba TV is a television technology company that offers real-time insights and audience analytics. It was founded in 2008 by early employees of BitTorrent, including Samba TV's current chief executive officer, Ashwin Navin. The company develops ...
research panel of 3.1 million smart television households who tuned in for at least one minute, ''Tetris'' drew in 88,000 viewers in its first two days.
Reception
Critical response
Several reviewers contrasted the film with the real-life events. Matthew Jackson of ''
The A.V. Club
''The A.V. Club'' is an online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was created in ...
'' wrote, "Tetris doesn't cast the same spell as its namesake, but it will at least make you look at those falling blocks in a new way." In contrast, Vince Mancini of ''
UPROXX
Uproxx Studios (stylized as ''UPROXX'') is an American music, entertainment and popular culture website and content studio. It was founded in 2008 by Jarret Myer and Brian Brater. The website was acquired in 2014 by Woven Digital (which later ...
'' found the film "mostly entertaining and simplifies an impossibly complex story admirably, but it also loses some its most important themes in the process." "The legal battle over Tetris has been thoroughly dissected in the decades since," wrote Ollie Barder of ''
Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...
'', "and while this movie sticks to the spirit of that, there are some inevitable film related exaggerations." Tim Robey said "Tetris is best when it’s geeking out right in front of us... There's no nostalgia quite as addictive, this proves, as the 8-bit kind." ''Jeannette Catsoulis of
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' said ''Tetris'' is, "Fast and fizzy and relentlessly buoyant, "Tetris" finds its heart in the connection between
ajitnov and Rogers the game's modest creator and its tenacious evangelist."
Henk Rogers, the entrepreneur who played a key role in securing the rights to Tetris, and Alexey Pajitnov, the game's creator, shared their thoughts on the impact of the film and their personal connections to the game.
Rogers expressed excitement that the origin story of Tetris would be revealed to the public, as many people play games without knowing the behind-the-scenes history of their development. Pajitnov, meanwhile, praised the filmmakers for capturing the most significant moment in the Tetris story, noting that it was a pivotal point in the game's journey to global popularity.
In a 2023 interview,
Alexey Pajitnov
Alexey Leonidovich Pajitnov (born April 16, 1955) is a Russian-American computer engineer and video game designer. He is best known for creating, designing, and developing ''Tetris'' in 1985 while working at the Dorodnitsyn Computing Centre un ...
admitted that the film "didn't make an actual biography or an actual recreation of what actually happened", but was "close enough and very right emotionally and spiritually".
Accolades
Lawsuit
In August 2023,
Dan Ackerman,
the chief editor of ''
Gizmodo
''Gizmodo'' () is a design, technology, science, and science fiction website. It was originally launched as part of the Gawker Media network run by Nick Denton. ''Gizmodo'' also includes the sub-blogs ''io9'' and ''Earther'', which focus on pop ...
'', sued Apple for "illegally copying" his 2016 book ''The Tetris Effect: The Game That Hypnotized the World''. Ackerman asked the court for monetary damages of $4.8 million, which was 6% of the film's $80 million production budget.
The claim was rejected by the court later.
Historical accuracy
In an interview prior to the film's release, Henk Rogers said that he and Alexey Pajitnov reviewed the script and made suggestions. Rogers noted, "It's a Hollywood script, a movie. It's not about history so a lot of
hat's in the movienever happened." Some events in the movie were true. For instance, Rogers notes that he convinced Nintendo to bundle ''Tetris'' with the Game Boy at launch in place of ''Super Mario Land''. Rogers emphasized that the producers wanted to "capture the darkness and the brooding" that he felt during his time trying to get the rights to ''Tetris'' in
Soviet Russia
The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR or RSFSR), previously known as the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and the Russian Soviet Republic, and unofficially as Soviet Russia,Declaration of Rights of the labo ...
. For dramatic effect, the interpreter in the film was a KGB agent, which Rogers had already been aware of. In the end of the film, a car chase is depicted, although this did not happen when Rogers left the Soviet Union.
See also
* ''
Tetris: The Games People Play'', 2016 graphic novel
References
Notes
Citations
Further reading
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External links
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{{Apple TV+
2023 films
2023 thriller films
2020s American films
2020s British films
2020s biographical films
2020s business films
American biographical films
American business films
American historical thriller films
Apple TV+ original films
Biographical films about businesspeople
British biographical films
British historical thriller films
Cold War films
Cultural depictions of Mikhail Gorbachev
Films about companies
Films about the KGB
Films about video games
Films directed by Jon S. Baird
Films produced by Matthew Vaughn
Films scored by Lorne Balfe
Films set in 1988
Films set in Japan
Films set in London
Films set in Moscow
Films set in Seattle
Films set in Tokyo
Films set in the 1980s
Films set in the Las Vegas Valley
Films set in the Soviet Union
Films shot in Glasgow
Marv Studios films
Tetris
Works about Nintendo