Tetris, although thirty-nine years old this year, has never left the gaming world. It was released with some of the first few models of the Nintendo Gameboy back in 1989, and it is back again with the movie premiere of Tetris. Tetris, starring actors Taron Egerton, Nikita Efremov, and Ayane, takes viewers through the harrowingly true story of one of Earth’s most beloved video games. 

Tetris was first created by Alexey Pajitnov in 1984 during the Cold War. Pajitnov worked as Soviet Computer Engineer for the Dorodnitsyn Computing Centre of the Academy of Science of the USSR. During his time working for the USSR, he would work on creating his own video games at night. It was created as a series of parenthesis in a simple coding system, with Pajitnov saying that his idea of Tetris comes from “tetra” as in the seven four-block shapes and “tennis” as in the way it is played. 

While Tetris was first released for Amiga in 1988 by Spectrum Holobyte, intended to stir Cold War tensions, it was not mass produced for the markets until its start on the Gameboy in 1989. Henk Rogers of Bulletproof Software was the one to bring Tetris to the future of handheld gaming, becoming personally invested in the expansion of Tetris, willing to do anything to bring it out of the Iron Curtain. The Iron Curtain was the political barrier created by the Soviet Union to shield itself from its surrounding countries after WW2. Rogers, an American-raised Dutch man from Japan, wedged his way inside the Iron Curtain, meeting with Pajitnov himself, forming a deep-rooted friendship. Rogers was able to help Pajitnov bring Tetris to the world, instead of getting scammed through multiple other gaming/computer softwares.

Tetris the movie, having originally appeared through SXSW Film Festival earlier this month, is praised with high regard. Many people attribute Tetris to being a simple, fun game to prevent boredom and reduce stress, per a Wired study, but its extraordinary true story gets to be told through the movie. With stellar storytelling, built anticipation, and video game-like action, Tetris leaves viewers with a new-found interest in all things Tetris, Gameboy, and Nintendo. 

You can watch Tetris today on Apple Tv+