June 6, 1984. Alexsey Pajitnov launches a game in the Soviet Union without realizing that it was about to change everything. literally everything. The game was called ‘Tetris’ and it was only five years away from taking over the world when it came out as a bundle with the Game Boy. But the story in between is the most exciting of all. Now, a new Apple TV+ movie will explore the path of the man who made it possible for the Soviet Union and the United States to understand each other… thanks to a video game.
Three sad Tetris
He March 31stApple TV + will try to gain muscle in the delicate and fragile ecosystem of streaming with the story of Henk Rogers, the person who got Hiroshi Yamauchi, the then president of Nintendo, to play ‘Tetris’ for the first time. And the most fans of video games are in luckbecause looking at the trailer it does not seem that the film is going to avoid these pivotal moments in the history of the eight bits.
‘Tetris’, which was previously titled ‘Falling blocs’ (no, it’s not a typo, it refers to the blocks during the Cold War), is directed by Jon S. Baird, an expert in biopics in his own way, who directed ‘El gordo y el flaco’ five years ago. The story, in this case, will not focus on the creation of the game (according to the legends it is not that exciting and Pajitnov programmed it in a single day), but on negotiations to bring communist intellectual property to American capitalism.
Taron Egerton (‘Rocketman’, ‘Kingsman’) stars in the film, in which there will be many references to video games. For example, part of it will have 8-bit images and the acts will be differentiated by levels, with a soundtrack that reminds us of chiptune. Hopefully, when it’s done, we’ll be able to see something in our sleep other than pieces falling all the time: Vietnam memories with the Game Boy.