Tetris (2023): Did an 8-bit arcade game topple Communist Russia?
Apple TV’s Tetris is an exhilarating Cold War drama that pits two game developers from dissenting worlds against the conniving influences of corporate greed and communism. In this, I offer both a review and some historical context to the happenings that fueled a riveting biopic.
The Cold War is one of the more arduous wars in modern history. The 45-year diplomatic conflict between the U.S. and the USSR (and their respective allies) was fueled in part by the atomic dealings of World War II, and also thanks to the United States inter-domestic fear of succumbing to communism. Yes, a phenomenon known as the Red Scare was partial causation of thrusting political goliaths — Harry S. Truman, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Mikail Gorbachev, and Joseph Stalin to name a few — into a war that would decide the foreseeable future of the largest superpowers of the world stage.
Apple TV’s Tetris (2023) tells a more fabricated story of the titular arcade game and its happenings during the final years of Soviet Russia. While a bit dramatized for Hollywood's sake, Tetris will certainly take you for a ride.
Tetris Company co-founder Henk Rogers (Taron Egerton) is a struggling salesman who’s found himself in serious debt. His saving grace came in the licensing rights of Tetris, “the perfect game”, created by Soviet programmer Alexey Pajitnov (Nikita Efremov).
Henk is offered $500 thousand for the rights by gaming conglomerate Nintendo but instead turns it down to be a publishing partner, engulfing him and his family in even more debt. Unbeknownst to him, however, British video game publishing company Mirrorsoft, led by the fraudulent Robert and Kevin Maxwell (Roger Allam and Anthony Boyle) lie and say they've already licensed the arcade rights to Sega in Japan. Henk is forced to ask Nintendo for an advance on his residuals, thrusting him and his family into even more debt.
The revelation of Nintendo’s GameBoy springs Henk into action to get the illegitimate arcade rights from Mirrorsoft. The majority of the movie concerns Henk and Mirrorsoft in continuous negotiation with Elorg, a state body that managed the game licensing rights, and some communist leaders for Tetris’ publishing rights through various platforms (handheld, computer, and arcade).
The movie did stay true to the domestic hostility between Americans and Russians at the time, and just how limited one was under the USSR.
“The filmmakers really captured the bleak feeling of the Soviet Union and the fear that both Alexey and I felt during that time.” said Rogers in a March interview with Forbes.
And Tetris paints a beautiful yet challenging illustration of the different worlds that Rogers and Pajitnov came from. Rogers was, from the jump, full of optimism that resonated with the American Dream. Pajitnov was a programmer for the Soviet Union's Academy of Sciences who saw zero residuals from his own game under a communist regime, subsequently viewing Rogers’ motives as a lost cause. Patnijov, who had everything taken from him, saw Rogers as nothing but a greedy American at first, but through a better understanding of one another they became best friends and business partners true to the movie's tellings.
“It’s been a lasting friendship,” said Rogers in a March interview with USAToday. “Whenever we’re in the same jurisdiction, we meet up for a bottle of wine. There’s no business talk, just friend talk.”
However major details of the movie were fabricated for creative purposes.
“..we’ve represented his [Rogers’] story and Alexey’s journey correctly, but we’ve obviously had to add a bit of Hollywood in places,” said Tetris director Jon S. Baird in an April interview with Gamespot. “Certainly at the end, the rush to the airport, the car chase is a place where we did that” he continued.
The main antagonist of the film and his involvement are the source material for this example. Valentin Trifonov (Igor Grabuzov) was in no way affiliated with the Tetris negotiations. Trifonov was a Bolshevik politician who played a pivotal role in the Soviet establishment in Russia. However, Trifonov’s timeline was much before the history of Tetris. Trifonov was executed during the Great Terror in 1938 by order of an up-and-coming Joseph Stalin, solidifying his rule over the USSR.
So no, Tetris itself wasn't the direct cause of the failure of the Soviet Union. And the final airport chase scene was a lot more “condensed” than the real-life dealings. However, Tetris does tell key details about the release of the titular game's monumental popularity and how its creator escaped the USSR amidst the downfall of the communist superpower.
