Abstract

Bandersnatch, the first Black Mirror full-length movie aired by Netflix on December 28, 2018, allows viewers to choose how the actions unfold by picking one or more options at certain points using the remote control. This sets the foundation for exploring its branching narrative technique, allowing viewers to make choices that shape the story’s outcomes, creating a unique interactive experience with multiple forces at play. These choices allow for an expanded experience that possess the freedom to break away from the designed purpose of the creator of the narrative. Thus, applying a postmodernist approach, namely, of Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault, provides a unique perspective to Bandersnatch, as their concepts of deconstruction and power and control are evident throughout the film. The non-linear narrative offers layers of meaning that derive from the allusion of the title to Lewis Carol’s, Through the Looking Glass, while traveling through a future where the protagonist realizes his reality as part of a computer game. Within this context, the analysis of Bandersnatch offers a model of the dynamics of branching narratives that lies at the core of digital immersive storytelling. The significance of the analysis is relevant to the current digital immersion applications and future applications. Current applications include virtual reality, augmented reality, 360-degree videos, and interactive fiction, while future fields include artificial intelligence, biometric integration, and multi-sensory experiences. This article argues that Bandersnatch goes beyond traditional literary analysis and transcends the gaming schema where audiences can choose different paths for winning. Allowing audience immersion by choosing different paths achieves a moral responsibility characteristic of human–technology relations.