Black Mirror: Bandersnatch's 5 Main Endings

WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, streaming now on Netflix.

Rather than a standard, episodic fifth season of Black Mirror, Netflix took fans of the anthology series on an interactive adventure with Bandersnatch, its first full-length feature. It allows viewers to make decisions for a young computer programmer, Stefan (Fionn Whitehead), as he works with a software company in 1984 to bring his video game to life.

Depending upon how you control the geeky teen, Bandersnatch can be completed in just under an hour, or it can continue to the 90-minute mark, with dozens more divergent minor storylines materializing, depending upon which paths Stefan takes. However, there are five main endings set in stone.

THE META ENDING

Early on, once users allow Stefan to work for the software comp;any Tuckersoft, but from home instead of at the office (which sees the game fail commercially), his mental health declines. That's because he blames his father for his mothers death, and the deadline to deliver the final Bandersnatch code is heaping pressure upon him. The tipping point comes when his machine reveals he's being controlled by Netflix.

As he breaks mentally, and snaps at his dad, Stefan is taken to his psychologist, Dr. Haynes (Alice Lowe). After she lashes out at him for his absurd Netflix claims, the viewer prompted to have the teen jump through the window to escape. However, when Stefan attempts to do that, the window doesn't open, which leads a director to yell cut, revealing he's actually in a movie.

The crew tries to tell the teen he's really an actor named Mike, but he believes he's Stefan, which drives the crew to call for medical aid on set. Conversely, if you don't make Stefan try to jump out the window, he and Dr. Haynes engage in a brutal fight, which ends with his father entering to forcibly remove his son from the brawl.

STEFAN DIES

One of Stefan's mentors, the genius programmer Colin (Will Poulter), spends time filling his head with sci-fi theories about alternative timelines and different realities, which helps to make the young man paranoid. That leads the viewer to direct Stefan on how to handle confronting his father. It turns out that, when Stefan was a boy, his father hid a toy from him, and the search delayed his mother's train. She then boarded a later one, which derailed and killed her.

After a drug trip with Colin, an older Stefan discover the toy in his father's safe and, by some mysterious time-travel mechanism, the younger version of him also is able to find his toy after it was hidden. That still results in a delay, forcing Stefan and his mother board the second train, which ends in similar disaster.

Shockingly, with the young Stefan dead in that timeline, the camera cuts to the older Stefan in Dr. Haynes' office, also dead. His father and paramedics are there to confirm the death, which occurred when he closed his eyes during his therapy session.

NEXT PAGE: The Bandersnatch Game Becomes a (Bloody) Hit

THE FIVE-STAR FINISH

In all other endings, once Stefan's game is made, it doesn't receive great reviews. However, in one bloody timeline, Bandersnatch gets a perfect score, and for a pretty dark reason. When he confronts his father, Stefan hits him with an ashtray and kills him, allowing the viewer to choose between burying the body or chopping it up.

Once Stefan chops up the corpse, there's no remaining evidence, and so he's finally free of his burden. With all his anger gone, he's able to finish Bandersnatch at home, even making his father the villain of the game. His mind is clear, and the final product earns rave reviews, even doing better than Colin's games. What's even scarier is Stefan keeps his dad's severed head in his room as a token of his triumph.

Eventually, he's caught for his crime, and the game is removed from sale. However, years later, Colin's daughter, Pearl, tries to reboot the title. But just as she's about to finish the code, she sees the beginning of the Bandersnatch movie on her screen, and Stefan waking up. Her monitor glitches and she begins to run into the same problems that began Stefan's descent into madness.

STEFAN GOES TO JAIL

After Stefan kills his father, everything goes awry with the decision to bury the body. In one scenario, the neighbor's dog digs up the grave in the backyard, and Stefan is sent to prison. In other sub-scenarios, the user can have Stefan call Dr. Haynes and confess; bring Tuckersoft's boss Mohan (Asim Chaudhry) home, where Stefan also kills him; or bring Colin over so Stefan can kill him or use him as an accomplice to remove the body.

All of those paths end in Stefan going to prison. In the ensuing weeks, the game either bombs, or isn't released at all. But two outcomes remain consistent: Stefan's life is ruined as he's imprisoned for life, and Tuckersoft goes out of business after taking hits to its finances and reputation.

Each of these scenarios concludes with Stefan scribbling into the wall of his prison sell the "White Bear" symbol that's been a staple of Black Mirror. It's a sad ending, but one you can't help but feel the programmer deserves.

THE RITMAN SPOTLIGHT

Pearl in Bandersnatch looking at computer monitors

The way Stefan and Colin's paths intersect influence the end of the movie deeply. If Stefan chooses not to follow Colin home and take drugs with him, he simply ends up medicated, and makes a mundane game that receives an average review. Other scenarios have him unable to overcome his coding problems, which leads to the game never being produced.

In the scenarios in which they do use drugs, Stefan leaps off a building to end the movie, or else Colin commits suicide to become a gaming martyr -- all because they believe in alternate realities. Either way, the result is that Colin remains the world's most famous programmer, and Stefan never fulfills his potential.

However, the ending in which Pearl (Laura Evelyn) reboots Bandersnatch has one more layer of surprise: Just as she encounters the same problems that Stefan did, she also begins to mentally struggle, as it's revealed she's working on the game for Netflix under a tight deadline. The user is then presented with options for her that are similar to Stefan's, which allows her to throw tea on the keyboard or destroy the computer. But no matter which choice is made, there's no more story, leaving viewers to wonder whether Bandersnatch is setting up a sequel.

Directed by David Slade, Black Mirror: Bandersnatch stars Fionn Whitehead, Will Poulter and Asim Chaudhry. It's streaming now on Netflix.