Tetris movie trailer stars Taron Egerton in R-rated video game origin story

The first spine-tingling trailer for Tetris, an R-rated Apple TV movie starring Taron Egerton set to explore the origin story of the “perfect game”, is here.

What’s the first video game you ever played? It’s a question that may make you feel that Matt Damon transition at Saving Private Ryan, depending on the answer.

Some might say Pong, others could say Super Mario Bros., and there’s probably a few demented children out there who played Grand Theft Auto before anything else.

For a lot of gamers, there’ll be a unifying answer: Tetris, the shape-twirling, block-placing video game that’s still going strong today – and this is its story.

Tetris movie trailer tells origin story of “perfect game”

You can check out the first trailer for the Tetris movie below:

Taron Egerton stars as Henk Rogers, the video game designer and entrepreneur who secured the rights to Tetris in the ’80s in order for the game to hit America via the Nintendo Gameboy. From there, it became a worldwide household name.

“I still see falling blocks in my dreams. It’s poetry. It’s art and math all working in magical synchronicity – it’s the perfect game,” he tells investors.

The movie will follow Rogers in the lead-up to the Gameboy’s release as he tries to persuade Alexey Pajitnov (Nikita Yefremov) – and by association, the Soviet Union – to partner up.

Matthew Vaughn, a producer on the film, told Collider that he “didn’t believe” a “moron came up with this idea, making a sort of a political Cold War thriller about Tetris.”

“And then I got told everything happened and it was real. So then I went, ‘Okay, we better make the movie then. If this really did happen, let’s make it.’ Then I got to meet the characters in real life,” he continued.

“You know, the Russian that invented Tetris, the crazy American that literally went behind the Cold War curtain and risked everything and stole the bloody thing and brought it back to America.

“I said, ‘This is a great, great original thriller.’ It’s sort of like imagine The Big Short meets Bridge of Spies. It’s sort of a crazy, unique story.”

Tetris will be available to stream on Apple TV+ on March 31.