With the new hitting theaters soon, or even that video game movies rarely live up to actually playing the games. Fortunately, someone took a very different tactic when they decided to make a movie. Rather than being 90 minutes of falling colored blocks, Tetris instead tells the story of how a number of parties tried to claim the rights to the '80s video game that's still quite popular 40 years after its introduction. Maybe this concept doesn't sound too exciting on paper, but in the hands of director (), the movie was delivered more in the vein of a political thriller with a fair share of twists and even a car chase.

In this 2023 Apple TV+ movie, , the star of , fresh off portraying Elton John in , plays Henk Rogers. The head of the independent Bullet-Proof Software is putting everything at risk to acquire the rights to the addictive title game for Nintendo, but instead, he gets caught between the machinations of corporate billionaires and the Russian government. Produced by , the film follows Rogers' journey to try to find out who owns the rights, vying against a number of people who think they have those rights sewn up. Along the way, Rogers encounters people who want to help him, like the game's original creator, , played by

We meet Egerton's Henk Rogers at the Consumer Electronics trade show in Las Vegas in the '80s, as he first witnesses the wonder that is Tetris, and that begins the blocks toppling, as Rogers signs a deal for the game to be released in Japan through the Nintendo company who have hit it big with Donkey Kong. Rogers eventually traces the origins of the game back to Cold War-era U.S.S.R., As is the case with the best political thrillers, Tetris is indeed an international affair that takes place in Japan, Russia, and England, as well as the United States, as Rogers tries to uncover the truth about who actually owns the rights to the game as Nintendo is preparing to launch its handheld game unit, the Game Boy, .

People soon learned from playing the Tetris game that staring at a screen with falling blocks for a long period of time with the concentration required to place them properly is something burnt into many minds from that time. But it was also. It may sometimes be confusing for those who don't know how video game rights worked at the time, but it's also a movie that's funny and heartwarming, as it deals with Henk and Alexey's families and how they adapt to their fathers taking on the insurmountable Russian government.

Tetris premiered at the SXSW Film Festival in March 2023, and from the start, reviews were fairly positive, with an 81% Fresh rating from film critics on Rotten Tomatoes, and an even higher Audience Score. Many have considered it to be one of the stronger films to debut on Apple TV in the few years that streamer has been around, partially because it's such an unexpected story. Tetris also tapped into one of 2023's hottest trends. That very same year, movies like the -directed , Flamin' Hot, and The Beanie Bubble all took a behind-the-scenes look at popular trends from the '80s and '90s, whether it be sneakers, snacks, or plush dolls. Baird's film managed to tap into the public's interest in knowing about the backstories of these well-known items, and when it comes to video games, there aren't many that have been played as widely as Tetris has been. As with most biopics, some might watch Tetris wondering whether the filmmakers took artistic license to make Rogers' story more exciting, but it just might be one of those rare cases where truth is far more entertaining than any fiction could ever be.

Studios will continue making movies based on video games as long as they continue to offer a sizable amount of built-in audiences due to the popularity of the source material. 2023's Tetris successfully captured something in the zeitgeist that was more than just about nostalgia, offering a unique and little-known story in a truly captivating way, and shedding light on an aspect of video games that few ever get to experience. It's doubtful that many other video games have nearly as interesting a backstory as Tetris offers, but that's why the movie is such a different video game movie from others we've seen.