‘Tetris’ review: Iconic video game origin story gets fun, Cold War thriller treatment and a winning Taron Egerton | SXSW

In journalism, it’s never just the story. There’s also the story behind how it got published, how the people behind the scenes worked to get it, and what kinds of challenges were met that were invisible to the general public. Similar to the story in the published article, a video game can hold all the spotlight and media attention, but who knew that the story behind one of the most iconic games ever made – Tetris – would be this complicated, absurd, and terrifying?

Video game entrepreneur and salesman Henk Rogers (Taron Egerton) certainly had no idea what he was in for. All he knew was that his company Bullet-Proof Software was on its last leg and he needed a big break. One day at an electronics show in 1988, he got to play this small little game called Tetris and decided to risk everything in his business and personal life to get the licensing rights for the game. This sends Henk on a convoluted, frustrating globe-trotting adventure, as he comes to learn that Tetris is fought over by several companies at several territories on several platforms.

Several phone calls and meetings later, Henk finds himself on a flight to Moscow, at a time when the Soviet Union is on the brink of collapse. As the real Henk Rogers himself said, he didn’t even think about the political situation, describing his move to go to Moscow as “20% stupidity, 80% determination.” Very quickly, he befriends Alexey Pajitnov (Nikita Efremov), the inventor of Tetris, and attempts to make an agreement with ELORG, the government-owned organization responsible for the licensing of Tetris as well as all imports and exports of computer hardware and software in the Soviet Union.

With the pacing consistently fast and the dialogue zipping back and forth on contracts and logistics, the script – written by Noah Pink – borrows a lot of the comedic thrills from The Social Network and the horrifying twists and dangers from Spotlight or The Post. The first act can seem convoluted at first, since it takes a while to figure out who owns what part of Tetris, only to then discover later that is not the case and someone is lying. For a while, it can feel like a constant struggle to “keep up” with the film. 

But director Jon S. Baird keeps the drama tense and compelling by fixing the film in the present tense with Henk. Had the film also adopted the editing style of The Social Network, we could’ve been totally lost and it’s game over. But here, we learn of revelations the same time Henk does. We learn about someone who screwed him over. We learn about a lie or a cover-up. It’s a constant stream of information that keeps the film fun, entertaining, but also suspenseful and thrilling.

Holding it all together is Egerton in the front lines, carrying Henk Rogers’ determination to figure out a deal with the director of ELORG, Nikolai Belikov (a lovely performance by Oleg Stefan), as well as getting to know Alexey better and seeing if the inventor of Tetris can also benefit from this licensing deal. Meanwhile though, shady agreements are made behind the scenes, between the ELORG and Mirrorsoft. All entities seem to be puppets, with Nikolai finding his hands tied behind his back by the Soviet Union and Henk can’t beat the billionaire owner of Mirrorsoft that is Robert Maxwell (Roger Allam).

But this is where Tetris takes an extra step in its script. Deep within its political thriller tropes and its dirty entanglement of webs and deceit, the film at its heart is a story about integrity and honesty, as we see Henk and Alexey – and even a few Russian allies – come together to do the right thing. The film spends just enough time contextualizing the historical backdrop of our story, from the political side with the waning years of the Soviet Union to the cultural side with Nintendo getting ready to announce the Game Boy. Any geek, owner of a Game Boy, or active player of our pop culture would know that the Game Boy is one of the best-selling video game consoles of all time… and two of the biggest games that launched with it were Super Mario Land… and Tetris. How did a cultural phenomenon get here? Would you believe that it is crazier than the phenomenon itself?

Tetris is my kind of a “true story” film. It’s silly enough to embrace the absurdity in the story but is also mature enough to respect and acknowledge the real danger at the time. Aside from some overly complicated exposition and a couple visual 8-bit aesthetics that sometimes work with the tone and sometimes don’t, Baird pushes all the right buttons.

By the time the third act finale came via crazy car chases across the streets of Moscow to the Russian cover of Bonnie Tyler’s “Holding Out For A Hero,” followed by an orchestral cover of the classic Tetris theme, I knew two things then and there. Firstly, that Tetris the game is still a banger, and secondly, that Tetris the film had won me over.

Grade: B+

This review is from the 2023 SXSW Film Festival. Apple Original Films will release Tetris on AppleTV+ March 31.