*Spoiler alert: this post contains spoilers from the movie, Nerve, which does not open until July 27th. Read at your own risk.*
A few weeks ago, Andy got an email offering him a pair of passes to a free pre-screening of Emma Roberts's new film, Nerve. We had both been interested in seeing the movie when we saw the previews while watching Now You See Me 2. So when he forwarded me the email and asked if I was interested, I basically responded, "Well duh."
When the day came, we headed to the Highlands Ranch AMC theater after work, to make sure we got tickets. Passes did not guarantee tickets- the tickets were given out on a first come, first served basis. We were early enough, and claimed our tickets.
While Andy was sad that the movie started with no previews, I thought it was awesome to have a movie just start for once, without sitting through what sometimes seems like hours of theatrical trailers for movies that may or may not interest me.
The opening was more reminiscent of a teen flick than the action thriller that followed, but that was likely the point: things often seem benign enough, but then end up being far, far from it.
18 year old Vee was finishing up her senior year of college, and unhappy about the fact that she was going to have to turn down her admission to an art school on the other side of the country. Her single mom was having trouble making ends meet, and also mourning the loss of her older son, who died just after his high school graduation, two years before.
Vee was also best friends with Sydney, a trust fund, narcissistic drama queen, who cares more about being popular than about the well being of those around her. It was Sydney who introduced Vee to the game of Nerve, wanting Vee to be one of her "watchers." Nerve was an internet game involving two groups of people: watchers and players. Watchers paid to watch, players got paid to pay. Nerve compiled all information about a player- including "secure" information, such as bank account info, etc. The way the technology worked, there was no single server, so it was impossible to find out who was running the game or shut it down. The rules were made very clear: No police. Snitching carried with it very serious consequences. The watchers came up with dares for the players. The players were given financial incentives to complete various dares. The rewards got bigger and the challenges harder. Vee's first exposure to the game was Sydney flashing her bare butt at the crowd while cheerleading at a school game.
After a fight later that day, in which Sydney accused Vee of always being too afraid to do anything. In an effort to prove Sydney wrong, Vee decided to join Nerve as a player, and her first dare was to kiss a total stranger for 5 seconds. She did, and got $100 deposited into her account. As it turned out, the guy she kissed was also playing Nerve. He completed a challenge by singing to her, and then they got challenges sent to them that involved each other, because the watchers loved the two of them together. At that point, things still seemed rather innocuous, so Vee kept going with the challenges, quickly completing enough challenges that continued increasing in value to add a few thousand dollars into her account. Fast forward a few hours, and Vee has managed to complete a challenge that Sydney bailed on, severely damaging their relationship, and shortly thereafter, Vee bailed on Nerve.
She blacks out, and when she wakes up, she's inside a shipping crate, with a video playing and telling her she's not allowed to bail. The guy she's been playing with finds her and fills her in on how Nerve really works. Once a player gets to a certain level, if they bail, they enter the third category of the game: Prisoner. He and another guy who was also playing, and causing some severe issues for Vee, had bailed on the final challenge the year before, which included hanging over the city of Seattle, from some scaffolding. The third finalist didn't bail, but he did fall to his death. Because the other two had bailed, Nerve had destroyed their lives. Threatened their families, emptied all their accounts, etc. The only way out was to win. Vee was now a prisoner, too. Her partner told her she had to win, and he was going to try and knock out the third competitor to make sure she could win.
Vee wasn't willing to accept this, and came up with a plan to bring down Nerve, which everyone had thought was impossible, due to the lack of a central server. With the help of some techhie friends, they put a plan into place. It was a long shot, but it was better than nothing. Vee finds herself in the final round on Ellis Island with her former partner, surrounded by a few thousand watchers in masks, yelling for them to shoot each other. The first to shoot would win. Vee refused to shoot, even though she could have just shot her opponent in the arm, and he'd live, and she'd be free. She started yelling at everyone, "Do you think this is what 'nerve' means? Do you think it takes nerve to stand in an arena and shoot someone? Do you think it takes nerve to shout at us to do this behind your masks and behind your screens? Where no one knows who you are?" When her time is up, the third finalist, from the year before, jumped in the arena and begged to let him shoot her, saying he'd do it. The watchers went for it, and he took his place in the arena, opposite of Vee, while her tecchie friends worked frantically behind the scenes to take down the game. Vee continued to yell at her watchers that they had no idea what nerve really was. The countdown started again, and Vee's new opponent shot her. She collapsed, and the watchers who had approved the challenge all got texts sent to their phones with their names and the message, "You are an accessory to murder." They all scattered, and Vee's partner ran to her, horrified, despite Vee telling him she was fine.
In fact, she had been shot with a blank. Her friends had shut down the game, and they had all made their point. She had managed to get the third player to agree to the plan. Vee was finally free, but in those few, crazy hours, she had learned a lot about herself, and had grown immeasurably. She decided to go ahead and go to her dream school, on the other side of the country, and stop living in fear, and in the shadows of other people.
The movie made some excellent points, and I found myself really loving how Vee stood up and realized what real courage was. She risked a lot to try and bring down a game that fed off of the mob mentality. She also called out the Watchers as weak. They were allowing their better judgment to be overridden by the exhilaration that comes from being a part of a massive group which gives them collective power. That's not real power, and it's not real courage. Real courage is sometimes standing alone for what is right when facing a loaded gun. Real courage is sometimes risking one's life for what is right, and trying to bring down what is wrong. Is it easy? No. But it's worth it.
A few weeks ago, Andy got an email offering him a pair of passes to a free pre-screening of Emma Roberts's new film, Nerve. We had both been interested in seeing the movie when we saw the previews while watching Now You See Me 2. So when he forwarded me the email and asked if I was interested, I basically responded, "Well duh."
When the day came, we headed to the Highlands Ranch AMC theater after work, to make sure we got tickets. Passes did not guarantee tickets- the tickets were given out on a first come, first served basis. We were early enough, and claimed our tickets.
While Andy was sad that the movie started with no previews, I thought it was awesome to have a movie just start for once, without sitting through what sometimes seems like hours of theatrical trailers for movies that may or may not interest me.
The opening was more reminiscent of a teen flick than the action thriller that followed, but that was likely the point: things often seem benign enough, but then end up being far, far from it.
18 year old Vee was finishing up her senior year of college, and unhappy about the fact that she was going to have to turn down her admission to an art school on the other side of the country. Her single mom was having trouble making ends meet, and also mourning the loss of her older son, who died just after his high school graduation, two years before.
Vee was also best friends with Sydney, a trust fund, narcissistic drama queen, who cares more about being popular than about the well being of those around her. It was Sydney who introduced Vee to the game of Nerve, wanting Vee to be one of her "watchers." Nerve was an internet game involving two groups of people: watchers and players. Watchers paid to watch, players got paid to pay. Nerve compiled all information about a player- including "secure" information, such as bank account info, etc. The way the technology worked, there was no single server, so it was impossible to find out who was running the game or shut it down. The rules were made very clear: No police. Snitching carried with it very serious consequences. The watchers came up with dares for the players. The players were given financial incentives to complete various dares. The rewards got bigger and the challenges harder. Vee's first exposure to the game was Sydney flashing her bare butt at the crowd while cheerleading at a school game.
After a fight later that day, in which Sydney accused Vee of always being too afraid to do anything. In an effort to prove Sydney wrong, Vee decided to join Nerve as a player, and her first dare was to kiss a total stranger for 5 seconds. She did, and got $100 deposited into her account. As it turned out, the guy she kissed was also playing Nerve. He completed a challenge by singing to her, and then they got challenges sent to them that involved each other, because the watchers loved the two of them together. At that point, things still seemed rather innocuous, so Vee kept going with the challenges, quickly completing enough challenges that continued increasing in value to add a few thousand dollars into her account. Fast forward a few hours, and Vee has managed to complete a challenge that Sydney bailed on, severely damaging their relationship, and shortly thereafter, Vee bailed on Nerve.
She blacks out, and when she wakes up, she's inside a shipping crate, with a video playing and telling her she's not allowed to bail. The guy she's been playing with finds her and fills her in on how Nerve really works. Once a player gets to a certain level, if they bail, they enter the third category of the game: Prisoner. He and another guy who was also playing, and causing some severe issues for Vee, had bailed on the final challenge the year before, which included hanging over the city of Seattle, from some scaffolding. The third finalist didn't bail, but he did fall to his death. Because the other two had bailed, Nerve had destroyed their lives. Threatened their families, emptied all their accounts, etc. The only way out was to win. Vee was now a prisoner, too. Her partner told her she had to win, and he was going to try and knock out the third competitor to make sure she could win.
Vee wasn't willing to accept this, and came up with a plan to bring down Nerve, which everyone had thought was impossible, due to the lack of a central server. With the help of some techhie friends, they put a plan into place. It was a long shot, but it was better than nothing. Vee finds herself in the final round on Ellis Island with her former partner, surrounded by a few thousand watchers in masks, yelling for them to shoot each other. The first to shoot would win. Vee refused to shoot, even though she could have just shot her opponent in the arm, and he'd live, and she'd be free. She started yelling at everyone, "Do you think this is what 'nerve' means? Do you think it takes nerve to stand in an arena and shoot someone? Do you think it takes nerve to shout at us to do this behind your masks and behind your screens? Where no one knows who you are?" When her time is up, the third finalist, from the year before, jumped in the arena and begged to let him shoot her, saying he'd do it. The watchers went for it, and he took his place in the arena, opposite of Vee, while her tecchie friends worked frantically behind the scenes to take down the game. Vee continued to yell at her watchers that they had no idea what nerve really was. The countdown started again, and Vee's new opponent shot her. She collapsed, and the watchers who had approved the challenge all got texts sent to their phones with their names and the message, "You are an accessory to murder." They all scattered, and Vee's partner ran to her, horrified, despite Vee telling him she was fine.
In fact, she had been shot with a blank. Her friends had shut down the game, and they had all made their point. She had managed to get the third player to agree to the plan. Vee was finally free, but in those few, crazy hours, she had learned a lot about herself, and had grown immeasurably. She decided to go ahead and go to her dream school, on the other side of the country, and stop living in fear, and in the shadows of other people.
The movie made some excellent points, and I found myself really loving how Vee stood up and realized what real courage was. She risked a lot to try and bring down a game that fed off of the mob mentality. She also called out the Watchers as weak. They were allowing their better judgment to be overridden by the exhilaration that comes from being a part of a massive group which gives them collective power. That's not real power, and it's not real courage. Real courage is sometimes standing alone for what is right when facing a loaded gun. Real courage is sometimes risking one's life for what is right, and trying to bring down what is wrong. Is it easy? No. But it's worth it.
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