Tetris

"The game you couldn't put down. The story you couldn't make up."

2023 1h 58m EN

🙌

7.8

BANGER

★7.8TMDB · 2,065

ThrillerHistoryDrama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

In 1988, American video game salesman Henk Rogers discovers the video game Tetris. When he sets out to bring the game to the world, he enters a dangerous web of lies and corruption behind the Iron Curtain.

“The game you couldn't put down. The story you couldn't make up.”

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Where to watch · US

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Cast

Taron Egerton
Henk Rogers
Nikita Efremov
Alexey Pajitnov
Sofia Lebedeva
Sasha
Anthony Boyle
Kevin Maxwell
Ben Miles
Howard Lincoln
Ken Yamamura
Minoru Arakawa
Igor Grabuzov
Valentin Trifonov
Oleg Stefan
Belikov

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Jon S. Baird
Writers: Noah Pink
Languages: English, Hungarian, Japanese, Russian
Countries: United Kingdom

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 3 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 4 languages: English, Hungarian, Japanese, Russian.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Jon S. Baird, shot by Simon Hayes. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Lorne Balfe. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Col Goudie shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Taron Egerton and Nikita Efremov and Sofia Lebedeva carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "The game you couldn't put down. The story you couldn't make up.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt12758060 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Jon S. Baird directs. Simon Hayes behind the camera. Lorne Balfe scores. Col Goudie cuts. Produced in United Kingdom. Dialogue in English, Hungarian, Japanese, Russian.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Released 3 years ago.
2Dialogue crosses 4 languages: English, Hungarian, Japanese, Russian.
3Directed by Jon S. Baird, shot by Simon Hayes. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Original score by Lorne Balfe. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
5Editor Col Goudie shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Taron Egerton and Nikita Efremov and Sofia Lebedeva carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "The game you couldn't put down. The story you couldn't make up.".
8IMDB entry: tt12758060 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9The top-rated still from this film on TMDB has 10 community votes — a signal the frame composition stuck with viewers.
10Classified under 19 themes, including "race against time", "video game", "nintendo", "cold war".

The technical file

Cinematography: Simon Hayes
Original score: Lorne Balfe
Editing: Col Goudie
Production design: Daniel Taylor
Costume design: Nat Turner
Makeup / hair: Jan Sewell
VFX supervisor: Jody Johnson
Sound: Chris Burdon
Stunt coordinator: Ben Wright
Runtime: 118 min · 1h 58m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Tetris (2023)

Also by

Jon S. Baird

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Manuel São Bento2023-03-30
★ 7/10
FULL SPOILER-FREE REVIEW @ https://insessionfilm.com/movie-review-tetris/ "Tetris offers a fun, informative true story about one of the most popular videogames of all time. Filled with delightfully pixelated transitions and just the right amount of humor, as well as the game's iconic music, it's a film that makes its two hours go by in no time. It may not feature the most innovative storytelling in the subgenre, nor will it totally blow your mind, but whether you're a fan of the game or not, it's a home viewing that I highly recommend!" Rating: B
Peter McGinn2023-04-16
★ 7/10
This is a fictionalized story of how Tetris left the Soviet Union and became a worldwide phenomenon. How fictional I don’t know as I haven’t read much on the fact-based side of the story. I see there is a documentary out there featuring many of the people depicted in this film version, so that might be interest to watch. But this slice of entertainment is fast-moving and engaging so I would forgive it for any slight lapses in accuracy. Oddly, when I first watched it the subtitles weren’t working and with all the languages and interpreting going on, it took me a while to realize I was missing dialogue I wasn’t supposed to miss, so I started over after making sure the captions were there. So yes, you do need the captions to get the entire story.
Louisa Moore - Screen Zealots2023-04-23
★ 7/10
You probably would expect a film about the origins of a simple stacking block computer game to be bland and dry, but director Jon S. Baird and writer Noah Pink give “Tetris” the glossy Hollywood treatment. The movie tells the unbelievable true story of how one of the world’s most popular video games found its way into the hands of players all over the globe. It’s a story of greed, lies, manipulation, and control, playing fast and loose with the facts in order to create an embellished espionage thriller. After video game designer and publisher Henk Rogers (Taron Egerton) discovers TETRIS in 1988, he sees a lot of potential. Henk tracks down the inventor in the Soviet Union, Alexey Pajitnov (Nikita Efremov), hoping to become partners to bring his game to the masses. Putting everything on the line, Henk travels to Russia during the height of the Cold War and isn’t welcomed with open arms. When big money players like Nintendo and Atari get involved, his mission becomes even more complicated. Even worse, Henk attracts the attention of the shadowy KGB, who want to secure the rights to TETRIS for their home country. The elaborate story is far-fetched and silly, and it goes to unexpected places because the history of TETRIS is turned into a crazy circus of a thriller. There are so many twists and turns that it’s exhausting to keep up, but the film keeps things interesting by raising the stakes with fictional scenarios. After all, there are only so many talky negotiations, licensing, contracts, business deals, and under the table government conversations that one can endure without a few harrowing car chases or scenes of our hero being harassed by KGB men in black. The result is a narrative that’s complicated, with everybody lying to everyone else while they argue over the rights to a computer game. Baird’s directorial choices may feel questionable to some, but I found his use of retro 8-bit animation to tell parts of his story to be breezy and fun. There is a good sense of comedy too, which breaks up the more monotonous aspects of the movie. And while the action and thriller elements are admittedly corny, most everyone loves a story of an underdog taking down “the man” with a bit of Cold War espionage thrown into the mix. Egerton holds much of the film together, and he gives a solid, enjoyable performance. He’s an understated actor with a ton of unexpected charisma, and he’s well-suited to the leading man role. If you don’t know the story behind the birth of TETRIS, this film is an interesting way to get a decent outline of how it came to be. You’ll want to research what really happened, of course, and spoiler alert: you are going to be disappointed by just how much of the story as presented on screen is fiction. But if you’ve ever played one of the most addictive puzzle games in history (and even if you have not), you’ll find “Tetris” not only interesting, but a lot of fun, too. By: Louisa Moore / SCREEN ZEALOTS / www.ScreenZealots.com