Tetris is a righteously entertaining movie about the stampede to secure the rights from within the Soviet Union to what would become the world’s bestselling video game. The question you’re going to be asking yourself time and again – especially during the Lada-ZiL chase scene through the streets of Moscow in which our heroes try to elude the hatchet-faced KGB agents – is: ‘How much of this is true?’ And the honest answer is: ‘Not very much, actually.’
The star of the show has to be Roger Allam in a possibly career-best performance as Robert Maxwell
Yes, there is a game called Tetris (which has sold 520 million copies and which you’ve probably played: it’s the one where geometric objects fall from the sky and you have to rotate them so they land to form satisfyingly full, even rows). Yes, it was invented by a Russian, Alexey Pajitnov, a computer scientist at the Moscow Academy of Sciences who created it in his spare time in the summer of 1984.
Get Britain's best politics newsletters
Register to get The Spectator's insight and opinion straight to your inbox. You can then read two free articles each week.
Already a subscriber? Log in
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in