Summary

• The live-action Bioshock film, anticipated by fans for years, has finally been picked up by Netflix, bringing new life to the long-awaited project.
• Netflix has proven its ability to tell compelling stories based on games, offering hope that they will deliver a worthy adaptation of Bioshock by including key aspects of the story.
• The film should stay true to the game's core elements, including the terrifying Splicers, Jack's iconic wrench, relevant jazz and swing music, prominent villain Sander Cohen, and the game's actual message about unchecked capitalism.

Netflix's live-action Bioshock film is one of the most hotly anticipated video game adaptations and hopefully will include the same core elements that made the game series so beloved. Originally planned to be released way back in 2011, hot off the heels of the success of the first game, the Bioshock film has been trapped in development for years. After all that time in pre-production, the Bioshock film was finally picked up by Netflix, breathing new life into the project.

Video game adaptations do not have the most positive track, although recent releases like Arcane season 1, based in the world of the hit multiplayer game, League of Legends. Knowing that Netflix doesn't shy away from telling mature stories that do justice to their source material, hopes are high that they'll be able to deliver a worthy adaptation of Bioshock by including several key aspects of the story.

10 The Splicers Should Be Terrifying

In the dreary, post-utopian world of the sunken city of Rapture, the biggest threat to the city is the deranged Splicers. Once simple citizens of the laissez-faire undersea metropolis, these savaging fiends were transformed by their rampant use of ADAM, an unstable substance capable of rewriting genetic code. In the time period the first game is set in, the majority of Rapture's inhabitants have become Splicers, hopelessly addicted to ADAM and willing to kill to get it.

One of the most memorable scenes in the game is the first encounter that the player character, Jack, has with a Splicer. Hiding their disfigured faces with creepy animal masks, the many varieties of Splicers Jack faces through his travels in Rapture all share a bloody thirst for ADAM, making Jack a target. Though the Splicers quickly become canon fodder in-game, Netflix would do well to make sure the Splicers are given the respect they deserve as horrifying husks of humanity that caused Rapture's downfall.

9 Jack's Wrench Needs An Action Scene

Following in the footsteps of its previous predecessors, Bioshock had players wielding a separate melee weapon with its own special slot in the inventory. When Jack first arrives in Rapture and is quickly set upon by Splicers, he has to think quickly to defend himself, grabbing the first blunt object he can find nearby. Curiously, he carries this improvised weapon as his primary instrument of melee combat for the rest of the game.

As the first weapon the player equips, Jack's massive monkey wrench has a special place in the hearts of many Bioshock fans. Considering the limited supply of ammunition players could slowly scavenge from the environment, especially early in the game, the wrench saw heavy use in many playthroughs. Netflix would be remiss to not acknowledge Jack's ingenuity in using the wrench with a tense action scene showing just how dangerous such a simple tool can be.

8 The Music Should Be Relevant To The Setting

Though the first Bioshock game takes place in 1960, the signature art deco style of the city of Rapture evokes the 30s and 40s. The game is absolutely dripping with this style, encoming many aspects of the game's visual language from the pause menu to the environments. It goes without saying that Netflix's films should feature art deco furnishings with its visuals, but they would also do well to ensure the soundtrack matched.

Bioshock was able to comprehensively immerse players into its unique setting, and a massive part of this immersion was the game's commitment to its influences in its soundtrack and ambiance. Hollywood has a track record of missing the mark of OST of films set in similar time periods, such as 2013's The Great Gatsby having a distractingly modern soundtrack. Hopefully, Netflix can acknowledge the setting with a great soundtrack featuring jazz, swing, and appropriate big-band music evoking the game's classic opening track, Beyond The Sea.

7 Sander Cohen Should Feature Prominently

Bioshock has had a memorable cast of villains, from the hyper-darwinist Andrew Ryan to the deranged Dr. Steinman. Though Netflix has a lot of antagonists already to squeeze into a single film, Sander Cohen is a must-feature, being one of the most disturbed and memorable characters Jack encounters. Once an esteemed playwright, poet, and artist, Sander Cohen was the king of Rapture's entertainment district. When the city fell, his mind deteriorated into a sadistic sociopath who made pain into an art form.

As far as the general scope of the story goes, Sander Cohen isn't all that important of a character. Still, he's an incredibly memorable fan-favorite villain, and it's up to Netflix to recognize his efficacy in his role as a disturbing display of the worst Rapture has to offer. His unhinged dialogue and macabre "art pieces" Jack discovers make him a haunting antagonist who simply has to make it into the final cut.

6 Every Plasmid Should Be Shown At One Point Or Another

The reason ADAM became so coveted as a source of power is that plasmids are the secret behind Rapture's success, and ultimately, its downfall. Created through experimentation with ADAM, Plasmids refers to a variety of powers the denizens of Rapture could purchase for themselves, leading to a super-powered society of genetic anomalies. In-game, Jack could utilize a variety of Plasmids to help him fight his way through the city.

Though the first game featured 11 different Plasmids, it would be a shame for Netflix's film to omit the inclusion of any one of them. Even if they were only seen in ing in a chaotic action scene, Bioshock players should have a chance to see their favorite Plasmid have some on-screen representation, whether it was summoning a swarm of bees with Insect Swarm or flinging pieces of furniture with Telekinesis. The movie also has a great opportunity to show Rapture in its heyday, with Plasmids being used for their original utilitarian purposes rather than combat.

5 The Movie Should Be Aware Of The Game's Actual Message

Having one of the greatest and most thought-provoking stories in all of gaming, the likes of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged.

In the midst of the survival horror and action-oriented gameplay, it's no surprise that Bioshock's political themes were lost on a large portion of its audience. Many players have even taken away the opposite intended point, seeing Andrew Ryan as a champion of hyper-libertarian ideals rather than a condemnation of them. Netflix has a brilliant chance to tackle these themes with more nuance in a film, clearly illustrating the point of Bioshock once and for all.

4 The Film Should Use The Game's Good Ending

Bioshock wasn't an especially open-ended game, the player being guided along a relatively linear, if complex series of levels without too many huge points of deviation. One key aspect in which the player's choices did make a narrative difference, however, is Jack's ultimate relationship to the Little Sisters. Notably, two distinct endings are possible at the end of the first game, meaning Netflix will have to make a choice in which direction the story goes.

The branching path occurs depending on how a given player responds to the Little Sisters, the small children protected by the Big Daddies tasked with harvesting ADAM. Every time Jack rescues a Little Sister, he has the option to either save her or drain her of her ADAM, killing her in the process. Though Bioshock is a dark story, Netflix would be smart to use a good ending, in which Jack grows old with the humanized Little Sisters as his adoptive daughters. Not only is this a more narratively satisfying ending, but it's the canon conclusion, leaving further room to explore the sequel games in subsequent films.

3 Netflix's Bioshock Must Blend CGI Environments With Practical Effects

One of Netflix's most difficult tasks in adapting Bioshock will be doing justice to the city of Rapture. A lavish undersea city with trappings of the 1930s, making Rapture look good will be no easy task. Not only that, but the fantastic elements of Plasmids, Big Daddies, and automated steampunk robots mean that Bioshock will challenge Netflix's visual effects capabilities.

To make a seamless integration of live actors with this larger-than-life environment, the dark tone of Bioshock will demand a blend of practical effects alongside necessary CGI. Over-reliance on CGI has become more critically damaging than ever, with films like Ant-Man: Quantumania being panned for their excessive green screen environments. Not only will Netflix have to incorporate ing practical effects to sell the world of Rapture, but they'll also have to marry these effects with CGI in a way that doesn't make either feel out of place.

2 Bioshock Must Keep The Game's Big Twist

Since coming out in 2007, Bioshock has become well-known for its shocking twist. Throughout the game, Jack is thought to be a hapless plane crash survivor, finding Rapture by mere happenstance and doing what he can to simply survive. It is revealed that Jack is actually the lab-grown son of Rapture city chair Andrew Ryan, and has been controlled by Atlas, secretly Ryan's rival, Dr. Fontaine, with a series of keywords. The most famous of these is "Would you kindly?", a phrase Atlas continuously repeats to the player before sending Jack on a dangerous mission.

After over 15 years, this twist has become well-known, even to those outside of the Bioshock fandom. Though it may be well known, the reveal of "Would you kindly" as a key phrase and Jack's true role as a pawn to Ryan and Fontaine is too good an opportunity for the film to up. It's also safe to assume many viewers will be completely unfamiliar with the source material, as is often the case for Netflix's big-budget adaptations, meaning the twist has another chance to hit people just as hard.

1 Netflix's Bioshock Movie Must Be R-Rated

A key element to the Bioshock series is the horror, grit, and gore that comes with exploring the ruins of a capitalist utopia. With every entry in the franchise being rated M, it's hard to imagine a film adaptation could hope to do the series justice with anything less than an R rating. Beyond the gore and horror elements, the story of Bioshock also explores heavy themes such as abuse, exploitation, and human experimentation, all difficult topics to asses in the realm of PG-13.

An R-rating has been a major point of contention for the Bioshock film's development woes. Gore Verbinski was only 8 weeks away from shooting his vision for an R-rated Bioshock film before the studio got cold feet, not willing to invest the necessary funds into what they saw as a risky venture. Though Netflix's Bioshock hasn't confirmed an R-rating, the success of films like Deadpool and Joker since the original concept's failed attempts at funding have long-time players hopeful that Bioshock can be realized as a film with all the artistic freedom it deserves.