What's Fact And What's Fiction In Apple TV+'s Tetris Movie

Tensions are high throughout Apple TV+’s Tetris, but all hell breaks loose in the movie’s final moments. Henk Rogers (Taron Egerton) has just closed a major deal to distribute Tetris, and now has to leave Moscow ASAP before the KGB catches him. Throughout the film, the Russian security agency has had one goal in mind: to keep the rights for the video game developed by Alexey Pajitnov (Nikita Yefremov) within the Soviet Union. Since the dogged Rogers is on a mission to make Tetris a global hit–and will be that much closer to doing so when he boards a plane–the agents frantically pursue him in a nail-biting car chase.

Tetris is based on Rogers’ real-life licensing of the video game, and the lasting friendship he built with Pajitnov along the way. Rogers, who is an executive producer on the project, said the trek to the airport was significantly condensed in the film. “It became much more exciting in the movie than it was real life,” Rogers told GameSpot. But the Dutch game designer said the scene captured much of the emotions he and Pajitnov experienced. “We were very careful to make sure that the Soviet Union’s accurately depicted,” Rogers said. “If you can imagine going to North Korea today and trying to sneak into some ministry, I think that would put you in prison as a spy.” The game designer said that was always in the back of his mind. “Alexey knew it was true, and we were taking big chances,” he added.

Director Jon S. Baird recalled Rogers saying that Tetris “100% is true on an emotional level,” and felt the line summarized the approach to the film. “He’s basically saying we’ve represented his story and Alexey’s journey correctly, but we’ve obviously had to add a bit of Hollywood in places,” Baird said. He gave the example of the final climactic scene: “Certainly at the end, the rush to the airport, the car chase is a place where we did that.”