Playtest (''Black Mirror'')

"Playtest"
Black Mirror episode
Cooper (Wyatt Russell) experiences SaitoGemu's holographic technology.
Episode no. Series 3
Episode 2
Directed by Dan Trachtenberg
Written by Charlie Brooker
Featured music Original Score by
Bear McCreary
Original air date 21 October 2016 (2016-10-21)
Running time 57 minutes
Guest appearance(s)

"Playtest" is the second episode of the third series of British science fiction anthology series Black Mirror. Written by series creator and showrunner Charlie Brooker and directed by Dan Trachtenberg, it premiered on Netflix on 21 October 2016, together with the rest of series three.[1][2]

The episode tells the story of Cooper (Wyatt Russell), an American stuck in London during his travels around the world, who accepts a one-time job offer from a video game company, SaitoGemu, to be able to afford his return to America. Hannah John-Kamen co-stars as a journalist Cooper meets in London.

Plot

Cooper (Wyatt Russell) is travelling around the world, following his father's death from early-onset Alzheimer's. His mother calls him frequently, but he ignores this as he feels that he can no longer connect to her after his father's passing. While in London, Cooper spends a night with tech journalist Sonja (Hannah John-Kamen). The next day he discovers that his credit card has been stolen, and the money he needs for a return trip misappropriated. While waiting for the bank to rectify the situation, Cooper returns to Sonja and browses through "Oddjobs" with her, an app for short-term job listings; he spots a local opening with successful video game company SaitoGemu, known for their survival horror games. Cooper gets the job; Sonja urges him to take a photograph of the company's games technology while he's there, hoping to land a scoop.

Cooper meets Katie (Wunmi Mosaku) at SaitoGemu's building, where he is directed to a white room to test a new technology. Katie instructs Cooper to turn his phone off for security reasons, but he surreptitiously switches it back on while she's out of the room in order to send Sonja a picture of the technology. Katie returns and implants a miniature computer called a "mushroom" into the back of his neck. The initialization process is interrupted by a call from Cooper's mother, which Katie cancels. Cooper proceeds to play a game of Whac-a-Mole, his senses being altered by the mushroom's augmented reality technology to facilitate the experience. With the test successful, Cooper is invited to participate in a beta test of a further technology. Cooper meets the company's owner, Shou (Ken Yamamura), in his office, where he demonstrates that the mushroom implant can probe the recipient's brain for information, which is used in horror games to develop a personalised scary environment. Katie takes Cooper to a mansion, leaving him alone with just an earpiece with which to communicate with her. He explores the mansion and endures some minor jumpscare events interspersed with nervous conversation with Katie; however, Cooper soon finds his earpiece malfunctioning.

Sonja shows up at the mansion unexpectedly and tries to convince Cooper that the game is dangerous. He initially thinks she is another hologram, but soon she stabs him with a knife. Cooper fights Sonja and manages to kill her, but not before he rips the skin off her face. Cooper, deeply distressed and in physical pain, suddenly notices that the knife and his wound have disappeared, as has Sonja's body. Katie resumes talking in Cooper's earpiece, telling him he needs to go to the "access point" in order to stop the test. He does as ordered, only for Katie to reveal that there actually is no access point. Katie begins interrogating Cooper with basic questions, and he realizes that he doesn't know the answers and is losing his memories, a reflection of his own fear of his father's senility. Cooper desperately removes the earpiece, but still hears her voice. He smashes a mirror in the "access point" room and attempts to remove the mushroom with a shard of glass. Katie and Shou appear, saying the technology has gone too far into his brain and cannot be shut off, and will reduce him to a childlike state.

Cooper wakes up, back in Shou's office where they started the second experiment; according to Katie and Shou, only one second has passed since the test began. Shou apologizes for the pain he caused Cooper, saying the game was not designed to go that far, and they remove the mushroom safely. Cooper leaves and uses his reclaimed funding to return home to his mother, but she does not recognize him and starts dialing his number on her phone. Cooper wakes up again, and it is then revealed that he has been in the white room from the first test all along; all the events subsequent to him putting on the mushroom, meeting Shou, the mansion, returning home, all were part of the "playtest". When Cooper's phone rang during the upload, the game was fatally interfered with and Cooper dies in the white room after a 0.04-second test, shouting for his mother in his final moments. Katie notes that he "CALLED 'MOM.'"

Production

Hannah John-Kamen appears in this episode as Sonja, after appearing briefly, in an unrelated role, in the series one episode "Fifteen Million Merits". In an interview in October 2016, Charlie Brooker revealed that they were initially going to have the song John-Kamen's character sang in "Fifteen Million Merits" playing on the radio in the background in the episode but were unable due to a licensing issue.[3]

The extra twist at the end of the episode was not in the original treatment, but Brooker decided to add it after conversations with Trachtenberg.[4] He also admitted that the extra twist was partly inspired by Daniel Mallory Ortberg, who wrote in an article: "Next on Black Mirror: what if phones, but too much?".[4] Trachtenberg also revealed that the casting of Wyatt Russell as Cooper led to the character's arrogance being toned down so that the audience is "rooting for him to learn a lesson".[5]

Cultural references

The episode contains a number of video game-related references, as both Brooker and Trachtenberg were former video game journalists before becoming names in the television and film industries.[6][7][8][9]

The video gaming magazine Edge helped Brooker to create a number of fictional covers of their magazine for the episode.[7] Trachtenberg included several of his favorite video games as props on a shelf in Sonja's room.[5] When Cooper is told to enter a room with the access point by Katie, she tells him "Would you kindly open the door?" The "would you kindly" is a phrase from BioShock, used by the antagonist to facilitate mind control of the player-character. According to Brooker, Trachtenberg insisted on including this reference within the episode.[8] Cooper's last name is revealed to be Redfield, which Brooker used as a nod to the characters of Chris and Claire Redfield from the Resident Evil franchise.[8]

Critical reception

Adam Chitwood of Collider described the episode as one of the major highlights of the season in a "genuinely terrifying video game-centric episode".[10]

References

  1. ↑ "Black Mirror Season 3 Will Premiere Sooner Than We'd Thought". The Verge. 27 July 2016.
  2. ↑ Fullerton, Huw (July 28, 2016). "James Norton and Jerome Flynn join the cast of Black Mirror as Netflix release date is revealed". Radio Times. Retrieved July 28, 2016.
  3. ↑ "Black Mirror's Charlie Brooker interview: 'I'm loathe to say this is the worst year ever because the next is coming'". The Independent. 21 October 2016. Retrieved 21 October 2016.
  4. 1 2 "Black Mirror postmortem: Showrunner talks season 3 twists". Entertainment Weekly. 21 October 2016. Retrieved 24 October 2016.
  5. 1 2 "10 Cloverfield Lane Director Dan Trachtenberg on His Easter Egg-packed Episode of Black Mirror". Vanity Fair. 21 October 2016. Retrieved 24 October 2016.
  6. ↑ Stolworthy, Jacob (21 October 2016). "Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker: 'I'm loath to say this is the worst year ever because the next is coming'". The Independent. Retrieved 15 October 2017.
  7. 1 2 Miller, Matt (25 October 2016). "The Many Game Easter Eggs Of Black Mirror's "Playtest"". Game Informer. Retrieved 15 October 2017.
  8. 1 2 3 Weber, Rachel (21 October 2016). "'Black Mirror': 'Playtest' Episode Is Horrific Take on HoloLens, Gaming". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 15 October 2017.
  9. ↑ Bishop, Byran (25 October 2016). "Playtest is Black Mirror's terrifying glimpse at the future of gaming". The Verge. Retrieved 15 October 2017.
  10. ↑ "'Black Mirror' Season 3 Review: The Future Is Slightly Sunnier on Netflix". Collider. 4 October 2016. Retrieved 4 October 2016.
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