Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
There are over one trillion storytelling combinations in Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, the interactive choose-your-own-adventure movie from Netflix and series creators Charlie Brooker and Annabelle Jones, but one choice that never made it into the finished version would’ve tricked viewers into watching an unrelated feature film. Brooker revealed in a recent interview with HuffPo the Bandersnatch choice that never made it.
“The one thing that I really wanted to put in, that I really wanted but we didn’t have time to do, was, there’s a bit where Stefan gets a VHS tape and watches a documentary,” Brooker said. “And I wanted, early on, to do a bit where you got the choice of two video tapes, and one is essential for the story, and the other is just, like, a film that he’s taped off the telly, and you can watch the whole thing. Literally just putting on, and you could watch a whole film, from beginning to end, but at any time you could press a button to stop it. Which we could have done, it would have been great.’
Jones was clearly never into the idea, responding to Brooker, “No. No.”
The idea of embedding an entire feature film into Bandersnatch would have certainly driven some viewers crazy. Many “Black Mirror” fans obsessively watch the show for easter eggs that connect to other episodes in the show’s universe, as well as for clues within the episode’s narrative, so it’s easy to assume numerous viewers would have sat through the entire feature film to figure out what its deeper meaning is to the story. The joke, as Brooker explained, would’ve been the film is just a random feature with no connection to larger Bandersnatch story threads. Only the choice to watch the essential tape would’ve led viewers in the right direction.
Black Mirror: Bandersnatch is now streaming on Netflix.
