‘Tetris’ The Movie Trailer Teases A Thrilling Origin Behind The Stacking Bricks
Images via Apple
We know what you’re thinking: “Tetris, the movie? Couldn’t we just watch videos of someone playing Tetris?” Contrary to some video-games-turned-movies out there, this one has a rather compelling plot. It’s also based on a true story.
Categorized under thrillers, Tetris chronicles the insane building blocks that led to the unputdownable puzzle game’s success. It follows Dutch video game salesman and designer Henk Rogers (played by Taron Egerton) on his journey to obtain the game’s distribution rights.
“Journey” isn’t an exaggeration, because it’s the year 1988 and Rogers has to travel to the Soviet Union, amid tensions from the Cold War, to meet software engineer and Tetris inventor Alexey Pajitnov (Nikita Efremov).
“When [Rogers] sets out to bring the game to the world, he enters a dangerous web of lies and corruption behind the Iron Curtain,” Apple teases.
Communist law dictated that the game belonged to the Soviet Union, forcing Rogers to negotiate with the Soviet regime himself. Russian authorities also could not grasp the concept of intellectual property rights at the time. Furthermore, they didn’t care for the gameplay.
The trailer throws in some dynamic surprises, like a shot of main battle tanks. However, the arguably most interesting tidbit for creatives comes at the end, when Rogers explains that the name Tetris is a portmanteau of “tetra,” the Greek word for four, and “tennis.”
Tetris will first premiere at the South by Southwest (SXSW) film festival next month. Following that, everyone at home can find out if the film stacks up when it hits Apple TV+ on March 31.
[via Neatorama and TechCrunch, cover image via Apple]
