Bandersnatch Endings: A Comprehensive Analysis

[00:00:03]hey everybody welcome to found flicks on this ending explained or really endings explained as there's several to cover we will be looking at Bandersnatch the latest installment of the sci-fi series black mirror with an interactive element if you're going Bandersnatch what in the world is that well it refers to two separate yet connected things that also relate heavily into the story of the film originally the Bandersnatch was a character in the classic Alice in Wonderland sequel through the looking-glass which of course prominently features the idea of alternate worlds outside of our own and is also the title of a troubled game from an 80s company that was developing what were referred to as mega games intended to greatly push the boundaries of video games at the time in terms of complexity in size but financial troubles doom the game to remain unfinished and tell another company picked it up releasing it in 1986 under a different name both of these core concepts of multiple realities and mega games heavily influenced Bandersnatch presenting a twisted world full of multiple timelines and realities all presented through the development of a game during the same 80s era that revolutionised gaming our story follows young programmer stefan who has been working solo on his very own complex choose your own adventure style game filled with many branching paths and possibilities which is perfectly appropriate for how the episode itself is presented giving us the audience binary choices at many points which as the story progresses leads to darker and bizarre directions for Stephane and is increasingly tenuous grip on reality this is the main draw of how the story unfolds putting the audience in the driver's seat along with our hapless protagonists clearly their intent is to evoke the feeling of playing a choose-your-own-adventure game and they do a really excellent job pulling this off and it is a lot more complex and intricate than I could have ever possibly imagined with over five total hours of footage to discover with apparently one trillion different permutations to his choices it's obvious that just the production process to put Bandersnatch together was a huge undertaking and I really enjoy how much creativity they've injected into the format I'm surprisingly as a choice to spiral into a variety of different directions things become increasingly insane depending on the choices made leading to several different endings with their being considered by Netflix to be five but there's actually at least double that so my intent with this video is to breakdown all ten of the main possible endings though there is one in particular that I feel is the most indicative of the show and most satisfying in this sense so to me this would be the main ending but we will be covering all of the endings that we encounter along the way as well as all the major branching paths that lead to each outcome so let's take an 8-bit trip into madness with Bandersnatch breaking down the story and explaining all of the endings including the only recently discovered secret ending stefan's day begins simply enough being awakened by the sultry sounds of Frankie Goes to Hollywood before downing a dose of prescribe meds as we learn he has been suffering from strange vivid dreams and is unable to sleep his the pills to keep him on the level called to breakfast by his father who has seen mysteriously locking the door to a room before joining Stephane and it seems there is quite a sense of awkwardness between them beyond this making a brief mention of his mother who it turns out is at the heart of Stefan's journey but his journey is only about to begin as he has big news for his dear old dad a big-time video game publisher Tucker soft where his hotshot programmer Idol Colin Rickman works is interested in his game demo and he has the opportunity to showcase the demo that he's been slaving over Bandersnatch based on a choose your own adventure book by Jerome F de Diez Stephane has been attempting to adapt the complex story and many dissonant stories together within the limited means of a 1980s computer game which would be a huge breakthrough for the time and just as to fajn flows back and forth through his massive tome after making a choice we here are presented with our first choice the very mundane decision of which serials to fajn will have for breakfast I assume everyone correctly picked frosted flakes or Frosty's as they're known in the UK right we're soon given another mundane choice in his life selecting which cassette to listen to on the bus starting how we influence to fons life on a very innocuous level for now arriving at the massive Tucker soft building he meets the core who has big dreams for the burgeoning company wanting to be a Hit Factory of games akin to Motown Records but Stefan's even more interested in meeting his idol Colin seeing coding away on his latest game nosedive Stefan praises it for its polish and smooth sprites but it appears to not quite be ready yet getting a visual overload glitch that crashes the game then in Stefan's turn to present his demo for Bandersnatch the idea of an on text adventure game already blowing sucker is mine coming to an encounter and choice paths stop by the demon packs resembling a lion and clearly are referenced to the original Bandersnatch description from through the looking-glass and the core is on board from what he's shown offering Stefan on the spot a chance to develop the game here at Tucker saw and now we're given a much bigger choice in Stefan's life to accept or reject the offer I initially figured sure yeah that sounds good and chose to accept only to come to an abrupt ending seeing on TV a video game review show called micro play posted by a mob headed manchild in a suit who gives his thought on the newly released completed game complaining of it feeling it was created by a committee and felt unfinished awarding it a measly two and a half stars out of five apparently this was the wrong choice and I was kicked back to try again reliving in a quick recap Stefan's day up to that point but what was really cool and interesting is when it returned to him meeting Colin their interactions changed the character is making allusion to them already having relived this moment Colin at first thinking he's Mets too fond before and when nose-dive crashes this time Stefan knows the exact glitch that caused it in both cases it's as though the characters have experienced this meeting and been here before but are being forced to relive it because of my choice which was crazy impressive and bizarre to think about they put a lot of thought into this thing when returning to that pivotal choice instead choosing to reject the offer Stefan convinces the two to let him complete the game on his own and they decided to go forward with taking on the game with a deadline of September to get it on shelves by Christmas at the past of his father's Stefan has been seeing a psychiatrist played by the always welcome to see Alice low as in dr. Liz Asher in dark place and the star director and writer up revenge after boasting about his new success with the game she congratulate him in a way that oddly reminds to fawn of his death and declares that he's fine and no longer in need of therapy or perhaps not describing feelings of paranoia and that he feels as though he's being watched here if we choose to do so Stefan opens up about his mother giving us insight into the most traumatic and difficult to let go of part of his life Stefan begin that he keeps reliving that fateful morning over and over flashing back to him as a child looking for his missing rabbit stuffed animal an important object always kept with him that was given to him by his mom when he was a child the doll has even more importance than we could know which to fons parents begin arguing over his reliance on his father thinks that dolls are for sissies and takes rabbit away from his son on this day little Stefan was supposed to join his mother on a train to visit her parents but the whole missing rabbit Fiasco wound up delaying her requiring her to take a different train which turns out to be quiet a fateful change learning on the news that the train derailed and his mother was killed in the crash ever since then blaming his father taking rabbit for her death this is also what directly led to his obsession with the Bandersnatch book which belonged to his mother everything in his life stemming from this one moment after picking up a record with Collins advice he says to work on building his elaborate game spending the summer becoming increasingly engrossed in the ever-expanding branches and stories that seemed to have no end and consuming Stefan his dad coming in worried that he hasn't been sleeping or eating frustrated we were given the option to pour tea all over the computer or yell at your dad if you pour the tea you destroy all your work and the story ends don't do that deciding instead to yell at him he drags to find along to what he says will be a nice pub lunch only to really take him to dr. Haynes office again voicing concerns over his disposition quite conveniently Collin passes by at this moment and we were given the choice to pursue him rather than go to the doctor's where we meet Colin's wife Kitty and their baby daughter pearl Colin vows to help Stefan work through his mental block with the game and what better way than hallucinogens if you say yes or no the to take tabs of LSD marked with paksas face and once the effects kick in Colin goes on a huge monologue about the nature of reality the people believe that there's only one choice but there are actually many others playing out as well before going into drugged out conspiracy talk about all the various entities out there that control us and here in fact references many of the other alternate possible endings to put his idea into practice lets him go out on the balcony expressing that they're only in one timeline insisting they could leap off the balcony without consequence even if they die here they can always go back and try again in a nub time line if you choose to take the leap of faith Stefan plummets off the side of the building to his death cutting to four months later at Christmas this time the suit Weiner is so disgusted he doesn't even issue the game of score going into a nauseatingly long list of the many ways of just how horrible the game is okay well that didn't work either so we're forced back to dr. Hanes Stefan's starting to lose himself feeling like he's not in control and that someone is making his decisions for him hmm worried he's beginning to dissociate hangs ups the dosage of his meds promising that we're in this together at home if you choose to take the pills were given another abrupt ending caused by us continuing to take the medication cutting to Christmas and the game's review this time the guy complaining that he feels the Creator was on autopilot handing out a zero score man you cannot please this guy it's all we have to find flush the pills and resume work on the game and on the day of the deadline shows it off at Tucker soft running into a moment that crashes the game Stefan was trying to add yet another storyline important to the book of a conspiracy theory asking for the weekend to get it finished and here would be a documentary on the author of the book Bandersnatch we learned that hands too fond are starting to have more and more in common the author Jerome also became obsessed with completing his ornate book which led to his own mental collapse eventually losing it completely and murdering his wife the leading Hugh is being controlled by packs from his story yikes hopefully Stefan is able to avoid a similar fate to his inspiration but it's not looking good so far the game continues to glitch every time Stefan tests it giving us the option to again pour tea on it or to hit his desk he hits his desk as commanded but seems confused by his action startling Stefan whose attention is suddenly drawn to a book in a family photo nearby let's first look at choosing the photo which actually helps us understand the other choice a little more Stefan awakens in a dreamlike hallucination entering the bathroom and putting his hand through the mirror another reference alice-in-wonderland allowing him to travel back in time and emerges on the other side as a child in his old room though this version of things doesn't impact the story too much when choosing the book things are quite different leaning this too fond stealing his dad's keys while asleep busting into his permanently locked room presented with a large file cabinet locked by a multi digit code the options are random out of four different possibilities but if toy is chosen the safe opens and Stefan is finally able to retrieve as precious rabbit doll after all these years and then traveling through time assumedly again using the bathroom mirror is able to put the rabbit back under his childhood bed though he was able to change this one moment his fate becomes more twisted as a result in the end his mother still misses her original train however this time we are presented with the option to join her if we do the train still crashes resulting this time in Stefan's death in addition to his mother's in a very surreal moment at dr. Hanes office Stefan simply fades away from existence so he was able to fix that important moment from his childhood but it also led to his undoing and death and all the timelines which to me feels the most resembling a black mirrors usual twisted kind of outcomes though here since Stefan stopped existing after dying as a child the game never even existed in the first place let alone getting another two and a half stars so it's back to that code choice at the safe this time choosing paths leading us to seeing in this version of reality the big conspiracy aspect of the whole thing turns out to be true inside the safe finding folders including his own file inside photos of Stefan under surveillance throughout his entire life discovering tapes of his sessions with dr. Hanes his whole life under the thumb of an elaborate program and control project led by his dad and doctor seeing even his source of pain was artificially created called trauma inception his room was merely on a soundstage all being watched by his father even his trauma was orchestrated by others he later confronts his father about it resulting in him bashing in his head with an ashtray then calling dr. Hanes warning her that she's next but he doesn't get the chance cutting to micro play and another two and a half star review which the phone is watching from prison obviously caught for murdering his father here his life is being controlled by an elaborate conspiracy its intention seeming to be able to attempt to control someone's entire existence whizzed upon as their case study however another set of endings show us the possibility of someone else controlling his actions us that's right things go full meta when Stefan is given order of destroying his computer after crashing yet he holds himself back stopping himself physically from doing so seeing that even his actual physical actions are being controlled by an outside force has he screams out for a sign of who is behind it his computer blinks on with a few options the most surprising being Netflix I was trying to explain to Stephane that we were watching him on a 21st century streaming platform and controlling his every move but will during Stephane who in a shocked state is asked to be taken to dr. Hanes who also doesn't understand what a Netflix is either but considers that if this all was for someone's entertainment why would they be in such a mundane scenario a woman and kid in a basic room wondering if the audience would want to see a little more action of course we do any splashes coffee and Hanes face who pulls out a pair of weapons ready for battle giving us the option to leap out of the window or fight her choosing the window leads to another surprising twist the font finds himself actually on a soundstage chided by a director who shows up saying he wasn't supposed to do that so Fon has stepped into our reality but here even instead of using the actor's name he continues to believe himself to be staff on his break with reality complete and a massive meta overload alternatively if we choose to fight her we were treated to an over-the-top shaky-cam Throwdown including his dad coming in for a piece out of nowhere - allowing us to kick him in the balls which was pretty satisfying but he still gets a hold of Stephane who cackles insanely as he's dragged outside saying that we brought you some fun in the future eh the realisation of him merely being a Netflix character for our amusement causing him again to completely lose his marbles his reality stretched well beyond the fourth wall so with all these crazy endings is it possible to even get a perfect review in the game or what there's only one darker alternate path that allows us to get the highest possible score back when presented with the options on his computer of who's controlling him choosing the Bandersnatch binary symbol leads to a confrontation with his dad but instead of backing down if you kill him again with the ashtray and make sure to chop up the body parts rather than bury them this gives two fun enough time to properly finish the game getting a rapturous five stars out of five from the suit dick well huh we did it the perfect game but all doesn't turn out well as Stefan is caught for the murder and the game is quickly pulled from shelves leave the legacy of the game as a strange and odd curiosity flashing forward many years to present-day it seems that someone else has been inspired by Stefan Collins grown-up daughter pearl seen hard at work on her own modern reboot version of Bandersnatch and she looks to already be experiencing similar obsession and madness as to fajn before after the game crashes getting one final choice to spill her tea or not parking back to Stefan's previous frustration over the broken game and letting us know that pearls journey into madness is only beginning those are the extent of the main endings that I have found though there are a few slightly alternate endings where you end up killing Colin kitty or at the curb but I'll end up with the same outcome of Stefan and jail and the game getting two and a half stars so these are only really slight variations of what we covered already though there is one so-called secret ending that if you follow the clues it gives you allows you to play one of the games featured in the movie you have to make a lot of specific choices to trigger it which brings us back to the early scene of Stefan on the bus choosing which cassette to listen to but this time without us even choosing Stefan pulls out another tape which is the completed Bandersnatch game and when we hear what's played back it's definitely not a pleasant sound more like a random series of high-pitched data noises these sounds it turns out were actually dated for a ZX spectrum computer the same one used by Stefan in the movie to make his game so by taking the audio and putting it through a CX emulator a QR code is created scanning this takes you to a hidden section of the fake Tucker soft website with posters for more games displayed there but if you click on nosedive you can play a real version of Colin's game he was working on pretty cool how they tied it into the real world like that so with this final secret ending we have reached the conclusion of this video covering the mini endings of Bandersnatch what I really enjoyed is that there isn't one correct ending but in fact every ending is indeed a true ending based on how the movie tackles its concepts of reality each one of these different timelines are real and play out independently of each other thusly leading to so many different endings for each particular timeline and reality pretty cool stuff and I can't wait for the rest of season 5 of black mare to premiere most likely sometime later this year and remember you can send your request for movies or TV shows you'd like to see me cover by sending them my on any of my social media accounts at bound flicks thanks guys what did you guys think a banner stand is choose your own adventure style which ending do you like the best let me know your thoughts in the comments below make sure to LIKE subscribe and follow thanks for watching conflicts see you next time