From books to videos to television, the idea of the viewer being given the ability to choose the fate of the main characters has gotten very popular with the release of Netflix’s Bandersnatch.

Choose Your Own Adventure is pretty self-explanatory, the term is usually trademarked in the book series, Choose Your Own Adventures which was 184 books all with the ability to make decisions that will get the reader further or closer to the main plot and Bandersnatch is no different.

Black Mirror: Bandersnatch is an interactive movie released on Dec.28, that allows the viewer to select the fate of a young programmer named Stefan Butler and his journey to make a successful game, based around a book called Bandersnatch, by any means necessary.

The viewer is given only 10 seconds to select very carefully for the choices can range from something very small such as which cereal to eat in the morning to whether to chop up or bury a body.

With decisions one wrong decision can completely shift the endings and hints, Bandersnatch was designed in placing tons of pressure in every choice. Generally the movie has five main endings but it has more hints and clues that will make the viewer want to go back.

Even though the title is Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, it is not at all connected to Black Mirror. Bandersnatch is taking place in the past in 1984 and other episodes of Black Mirror set in the future.

The possibilities within decisions and paths are really endless and it is all based on how far the viewer will go and also how much time they have to spare. The movie says it’s only an hour and 29 minutes but that is not really correct. Again it only depends on how far the viewer wishes to go and the multiple endings, the movie can last 15 minutes or three hours.

Generally Bandersnatch had refreshing storyline that was fantastic with Dunkirk actor Fionn Whitehead and Maze Runner Will Poulter as the main characters of this awesome mind blowing thriller.

There is no actual book named Bandersnatch, however Netflix may have been inspired by Imagine Software. Imagine Software was an actual British video game programming company in Liverpool in the early 80’s.

Imagine Software was known for very popular games like Arcadia, and it was founded by a man named Mark Butler, which ironic since the protagonist is named Stefan Butler. It was not until 1983 when the company started to slip, for unpaid bills and ads for its new games Psyclapse and Bandersnatch.

However because of the advertising had gone unpaid, bills and debt had started to rise. Then, Imagine Software was then forced to sell its rights to Beau Jolly, and Bandersnatch was never released.

It’s clearly obvious that Netflix took upon itself to have Bandersnatch adapted into a Choose your own adventure movie, and Netflix had amazing success as the first interactive movie of many in the future.

But it was not the first movie nor idea for the audience to decide their fate, about 20 years ago an film called Tender Loving Care, it’s intention was to ask the audience an list of questions and it totalled to the fate of the movies but it was unpopular during that time, and it flopped.

Many Youtubers and apps and games had took their spin on choices. Many games like, Choices or the ability to give the audience the free will in many games by Telltale Gaming.
The idea itself is genius and an wonderful way to get the audience involved in the game and the player can always play it again to select different paths which the company receives more money. Bandersnatch set a bar to the future of media, set a bar that not only games can be interactive but also the viewer television screen.

Back in April, FOX announced they were currently in the works of an interactive film based on the Choose Your Own Adventures, with the help of an app, the viewer watching the film will change the process of the film and different fate rom the person next to them. Netflix set a bar high for not only games can be interactive but now movies as well.