In 2023, Tetris the movie brought to the screen not a straightforward video game adaptation, but rather a high-stakes Cold War-era thriller, chronicling the real-life legal and political drama behind the worldwide release of the iconic video game. Directed by Jon S. Baird and starring Taron Egerton as Henk Rogers, the film dives deep into the tangled legal battle to secure the distribution rights of Tetris—a puzzle game invented by Soviet computer scientist Alexey Pajitnov—at a time when international politics and intellectual property laws clashed.
Unlike what many might have expected, Tetris is not a visual explosion of falling blocks or a nostalgic ode to retro gaming. Instead, it is a tense, fast-paced film that explores how one of the world’s most beloved video games escaped the Iron Curtain and became a global phenomenon. The movie combines drama, suspense, and a surprising amount of humor, with a tone reminiscent of historical espionage thrillers like Argo or The Social Network, though laced with uniquely 80s charm and retro stylization.
The Plot
At the center of the film is Henk Rogers, a Dutch-American game designer and entrepreneur who discovers Tetris at a Las Vegas trade show in the mid-1980s. Immediately captivated by its elegant simplicity and addictive gameplay, Rogers recognizes its immense potential. However, he quickly learns that the rights to the game are mired in confusion, overlapping claims, and deceptive contracts spread across multiple countries, including Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, and, most significantly, the Soviet Union.
The crux of the drama lies in the murky question of who really owns the rights to distribute Tetris and on what platforms—arcade, console, computer, handheld, etc. Rogers embarks on a high-stakes mission to secure these rights for Nintendo, just as the Japanese company is preparing to launch its Game Boy handheld console. The problem? The game’s originator, Alexey Pajitnov, developed Tetris while working for the Soviet Academy of Sciences, and at the time, anything developed by a state employee belonged to the Soviet government, not the individual.
The plot thickens when Rogers travels to Moscow, risking his safety in the USSR during the height of the Cold War, to meet with the Soviet agency ELORG (Electronorgtechnica) and try to negotiate rights directly with the officials. What unfolds is a high-octane legal and political chess match involving corporate trickery, KGB surveillance, double-dealing businessmen, and a genuine friendship between Rogers and Pajitnov.
Themes and Tone
While Tetris is fundamentally a story about a video game, it is more accurately a story about people, ambition, and the collision between individual ingenuity and monolithic systems. The film carefully contrasts the entrepreneurial spirit of the West with the bureaucratic rigidity of the Soviet regime, but it avoids cartoonish propaganda. Instead, it presents characters on both sides as human beings navigating a complex world of changing ideologies and loyalties.
One of the film’s central themes is the concept of ownership—not just of intellectual property, but of one’s future. Henk Rogers is portrayed as a tenacious believer in the game, not just as a product to sell, but as a work of art that deserves to be experienced by the world. Meanwhile, Pajitnov, despite being the game’s creator, finds himself powerless under Soviet law, watching others profit from his invention.
The film also plays with identity and duality. Rogers, a man caught between cultures (Dutch, American, and Japanese), represents a hybrid of East and West. Pajitnov, while proud of his country and its intellectual culture, begins to yearn for creative freedom and personal recognition. The Cold War backdrop reinforces this dichotomy—freedom versus control, risk versus obedience, creativity versus state authority.
Performances
Taron Egerton delivers a charismatic and heartfelt performance as Henk Rogers. His portrayal balances charm, determination, and occasional vulnerability, capturing the spirit of an entrepreneur chasing a dream against overwhelming odds. Egerton has a unique ability to imbue his characters with sincerity, which works well here in portraying Rogers as a family man, a businessman, and a loyal friend.
Nikita Efremov plays Alexey Pajitnov with quiet intensity and warmth. His performance brings depth to a character who might have easily been sidelined in a lesser film. Efremov conveys the inner conflict of a man who sees his creation being distorted and exploited, yet cannot directly intervene due to the political climate in his country.
Supporting performances by Toby Jones (as Robert Stein), Roger Allam (as media mogul Robert Maxwell), and Anthony Boyle (as Kevin Maxwell) add layers of tension and deceit, portraying the British parties entangled in the distribution web. Igor Grabuzov, playing the Soviet negotiator Valentin Trifonov, offers a menacing yet restrained performance, emblematic of Cold War tensions.
Style and Direction
Director Jon S. Baird brings an energetic and stylistically rich vision to Tetris. The film includes playful visual nods to 8-bit graphics, digital transitions, and retro title cards, which help ground it in the gaming era while enhancing its storytelling. The choice of using pixel-style transitions and game-inspired visual cues helps to break the tension at times and remind the audience that, at its heart, this is still a movie about a game.
The cinematography captures both the vibrant colors of Tokyo and the grey, surveilled gloom of Soviet Moscow. The editing maintains a brisk pace, appropriate for the thriller-like structure of the narrative. The score, laced with synthesizers and echoes of the Tetris theme, amplifies the nostalgic yet dramatic tone of the film.
Historical Accuracy vs. Fiction
While Tetris is based on real events, it does take creative liberties for dramatic effect. The core facts are rooted in truth: the legal battles, the role of ELORG, the confusion over rights, and the involvement of various international players all happened. Rogers and Pajitnov did indeed develop a friendship and eventually co-founded a company to manage the game’s rights more fairly.
However, the cloak-and-dagger sequences, near-arrests, car chases, and spy-thriller elements are heightened for cinematic appeal. Rogers himself has confirmed in interviews that while the film dramatizes certain moments, the essence of the story—the struggle for rights and the surreal experience of dealing with Soviet bureaucracy—is very much authentic.
Cultural Impact
What makes Tetris an effective film is its ability to transcend its video game origins. It’s not just a film for gamers or fans of the title. It’s a gripping human story that stands on its own merits. At the same time, it provides a fascinating look into the business of gaming at a pivotal moment in history. The story of Tetris is emblematic of a larger tale—the globalization of digital entertainment and the complexities of bringing art from one world to another.
In retrospect, Tetris the movie serves as a reminder that even simple games can have extraordinary backstories. The cultural reach of Tetris—a game about fitting falling blocks together—becomes a metaphor for individuals from vastly different systems finding common purpose and aligning their goals. Pajitnov and Rogers, despite coming from opposite sides of the geopolitical divide, built a partnership based on mutual respect and love for the game.
Conclusion
Tetris (2023) is not just a biopic or a period piece; it is a vibrant, thrilling tribute to the resilience of creativity and the power of persistence. By blending real-world political tension with the personal drama of business negotiation and intellectual ownership, the film crafts a narrative that is both entertaining and enlightening.
It’s a story of how a simple idea—conceived by a Soviet programmer in a cubicle—sparked a global sensation, tested the boundaries of politics, and redefined what it meant to win the game.
