‘Black Mirror’: Is it Possible to “Beat” ‘Bandersnatch’?

Netflix’s first true “Choose Your Own Adventure” movie, Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, offers viewers the unique ability to take control of that they’re watching. While it’s filmed and presented as a movie, many users actually feel that Bandersnatch is more like a video game, eerily similar to the one that main character Stefan is trying to develop. This makes you wonder, like a video game, is there a way to beat Black Mirror: Bandersnatch?

WARNING: This article contains major spoilers for Black Mirror: Bandersnatch! Continue reading at your own risk…

Black Mirror: Bandersnatch tells the story of Stefan, a young man who is trying to develop a video game called Bandersnatch, based on a book of the same name by Jerome F. Davies. Stefan spirals further out of control as the game’s deadline draws closer, and he starts to feel like someone or something is actually making his choices for him (which is true).

There are several different endings to Bandersnatch, all with varying outcomes for Stefan and his game. None of them are particularly happy or uplifting, as they almost all end in death and/or failure. But if the number one goal of the film is to make the best game possible, then there is one outcome that could be considered a victory, though it will come at a great moral cost to the viewer.

In one particular ending, Stefan creates the perfect version of his Bandersnatch game, earning a 5 out of 5 score from a top game critic on TV. In order to reach this finale, there are two key decisions to be made in the third act of the film. When Stefan confronts his father, you have to tell Stefan to kill him. It’s dark, but not nearly as dark as what comes next.

If you choose to kill the father, the very next decision tasks you with choosing to chop his body up, or bury it. As much as it might make you cringe, choosing to chop up the body is best for the game. This creates a parallel between Stefan and the original Bandersnatch writer Jerome F. Davies, who chopped his wife into several pieces while writing the book. If you make this choice, Stefan goes back to his computer to finish the game while his father’s severed head sits on the shelf on the other side of the room.

This is incredibly twisted, but it puts Stefan in the same mental state as his demented idol, allowing him to create the “perfect” version of the game. Unfortunately, the good times don’t last very long for Stefan. A few days after the release of the critically-acclaimed Bandersnatch game, the body of Stefan’s father is discovered and the game is quickly taken off the shelves. Decades later, Netflix attempts to recreate Stefan’s game as an interactive movie, bringing everything full circle.

Which Bandersnatch ending did you reach first? Which one has been your favorite so far? Let us know in the comments!

Black Mirror: Bandersnatch is now streaming on Netflix.