Summary
- "Playtest" episode of Black Mirror is emotionally impactful, with a devastating twist ending inspired by a tweet mocking the show's dark themes.
- The episode's portrayal of cell phone interference causing a serious issue hits close to home, highlighting the potential dangers of technology.
- Actor Wyatt Russell's portrayal of Cooper and his interpretation of the ending add depth and emotional impact to the episode's storyline.
The Black Mirror season 6 dropped a new batch of episodes in the popular anthology story, but "Playtest" still stands out as one of the most emotionally impactful ones.
The episode follows an American abroad named Cooper (Wyatt Russell) who decides to partake in an experiment that will have him testing out an immersive augmented reality video game. The game specifically targets the player's unique fears, causing a hyperrealistic immersive therapy situation. After seeming to escape the nightmare, he returns home to his mother who calls his cell phone only to reveal Cooper is still inside the game and the phone call in real life shorted his VR connection, killing him. Fans can thank writer Mallory Ortberg for that idea that made it into the "Playtest" Black Mirror episode.
The Inspiration For Black Mirror "Playtest"
According to Junkee, in 2015, Ortberg composed a tweet directly making fun of the show's dark technological themes. She tweeted, "Next on Black Mirror: What if phones, but too much?" The tweet caught Brooker's eye, and he found it to be amusing. As the Black Mirror creator is known for his dark sense of humor, he decided to incorporate it into the show. Ortberg's message became the foundation for the twist ending in Black Mirror "Playtest."
The sci-fi horror show typically tackles storylines about technology similar but slightly more advanced than what currently exists. In "Playtest," Black Mirror does this with the video game Cooper tests out. While augmented reality video games exist, they're not as intelligent as portrayed. That allows the audience to breathe a sigh of relief — it probably couldn't happen at this moment in time. But that last-minute twist is a real punch to the gut. Most people who have cell phones have them on their person 24/7.
So who's to say a situation like this, in which cell phone interference causes a serious issue, couldn't happen in real life? It's a prime example of the show at its best. Visions of how technology will destroy humanity are Black Mirror's bread and butter, so it's meant to scare its audience a bit. There's nothing scarier than realizing the dangers of a piece of technology people rely on so much – there's a reason Airplane Mode exists, after all.
Playtest's Link To Reality Is In The Speed Of Cooper's Death
To make "Playtest" even more chilling, it's not just the use of a common smartphone that makes it realistic, but also the speed at which Cooper dies. Once the fatal signal interference has occurred, he's killed in a split second. This might seem dramatic, but phones really do transmit information that quickly, especially of the unsavory kind. "Playtest" is meant as an exaggeration, but people are actually being bombarded with a vast and instantaneous stream of negative information from the internet and phones in real life.
It's hard to cope with this much input, and in "Playtest," Black Mirror chooses to visualize this with Cooper's shockingly swift demise. This is just one more way in which the Black Mirror episode hits uncomfortably close to home – something the series always manages to excel at despite its somewhat fantastical storylines.
What Wyatt Russell Said About The Playtest Ending
Actor Wyatt Russell has done a lot of great work since starring in the "Playtest" Black Mirror episode, including playing John Walker in the MCU. However, this episode remains a standout in his career, and his performance as Cooper is a big part of the reason the ending of "Playtest" is so impactful. When speaking about his Black Mirror experience (via THR), Russell revealed Cooper was originally written as more of a jerk, but he and director Dan Trachtenberg reworked it, explaining that "when you’re following one lead character the entire time, you have to like him."
If Cooper had been an unlikable character, the ending would have come off more like someone learning a lesson at the cost of their life. Instead, the audience is rooting for Cooper to get out of this nightmare scenario only to be devastated to learn his entire struggle has been in vain. However, Russell has a darker reading of the ending and suggests that, even after the Black Mirror "Playtest" episode ends, Cooper's torment is not over. Russell explains that "I viewed it that he was trapped in this world of hell, but everyone else on the outside of the world thought he was dead."
