"Tetris"

[00:00:00] Speaker A: The game you couldn't put down, the story you couldn't make up. We are the Spy Fi guys, and this is Tetris. Welcome to the Spy Fi guys. [00:00:15] Speaker B: So I apologize to the universe for that. [00:00:17] Speaker A: Yes. Wow. [00:00:19] Speaker B: Justice for Denison. [00:00:21] Speaker A: Is it though? [00:00:23] Speaker B: I laughed and then I hated myself for laughing. [00:00:33] Speaker A: Welcome to the Spy Fi guys, where we cover spy facts, spy fiction, and everything in between. I'm Christian. [00:00:38] Speaker B: And I'm Zach. [00:00:39] Speaker A: And today we have Tetris, starring Taran Egerton. Wait, how do you pronounce his last name? [00:00:46] Speaker B: Taran? Edgerton, I think. [00:00:47] Speaker A: Edgerton. Yeah. And he's the pretty much the only recognizable face to me. How do you recognize any of these other actors? [00:00:54] Speaker B: I did not. Now I remember when this movie came out, I heard a lot of good things about it. So my expectations were pretty high going in. [00:01:02] Speaker A: Okay. [00:01:03] Speaker B: In spyfy guys tradition, we always talk about how familiar are you with the subject matter. Sure. [00:01:08] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:01:08] Speaker B: Should we say how familiar we are with Tetris, the game? [00:01:11] Speaker A: Yeah. I've spent many hours on Tetris. I don't know if you. You had to use these back in high school and college as well. I had a TI83 graphing calculator, and you could put games onto those. So I had Tetris as one of those games. [00:01:25] Speaker B: Excellent. I also had a graphic calculator, but I did not have Tetris. I had Brick Attack. That was the one I played a lot. [00:01:32] Speaker A: Yeah. But, yeah, I actually never had a Game Boy, but I had that. So that's what I played Tetris on. How about you? [00:01:38] Speaker B: So my feeling with Tetris is apparently they've made it over and over again. There's been many different variations, but I have never liked it. And I'm not saying this. I'm not saying this just to be contrarian. I'm not saying this just to be difficult. I mean it. I have never liked Tetris. It's pointless because you just do the same thing over and over again. There's no story. And it's too, like, difficult. Like, you never get the right blocks that come down in the right way. I just don't find it fun. I played it for, like, maybe five minutes, and I did not get sucked in like Taran did in the movie. Not even close. Nope. Never liked it. [00:02:18] Speaker A: Fascinating. All right. All right, now. So what did you know about this movie? [00:02:24] Speaker B: So the movie. Yeah, I knew it was about the making of Tetris, which is a subject that I actually like. I like the history of things that exist and how they came to be, which is another reason why I was excited about the movie. And I heard there was some sort of espionage, spy, Cold War, Soviet Union angle, but that's all I do about it. [00:02:46] Speaker A: Okay. So I was wondering if you were expecting this to be some sort of adaptation, like Pixels. Pixels, yeah, or something like that. So I didn't actually know if you knew that it wasn't really about the game and it was about how they got the rights to the game. [00:03:03] Speaker B: You know, I did pick up that that was what the subject of the movie was, that it was about the real life story of the creation of the game and not some kind of adaptation like the Mario movie or. [00:03:14] Speaker A: Yeah, whatever. What would that even have been like? That's. How would you do that? I don't know. [00:03:19] Speaker B: I don't know. We get into our plot synopsis if there's nothing more to be said about the movie. [00:03:24] Speaker A: Yeah, well, I guess I'll just say that I did see this. Well, not in theaters, because it was a. Did this actually get released in theaters? [00:03:30] Speaker B: Not as far as I'm aware. [00:03:31] Speaker A: Okay. So I saw it when it came out as Apple. I think it was an Apple TV exclusive. That's right, yeah. So I did see it when it came out. This is not my first time watching it, but yeah. So let's get into it. Plot synopsis. [00:03:48] Speaker B: All right, so now it is time for our plot synopses. As always, the spoilers begin right here. So if you still intend to see the movie, here's your chance to jump out. So first we have our haiku based on Tetris. Falling Russian blocks, Globetrotting business adventure, Corporate fat cats. [00:04:05] Speaker A: All right, all right. [00:04:07] Speaker B: I feel like that sums up the movie pretty well. And then we also have a limerick. Here is our limerick about Tetris. This game could make us a mint. Just so long as you're willing to sprint. If you're willing to chance that you might lose your pants. And you'd better read the fine print. All right, Here is the IMDb plot summary. Video game designer Hank Rogers seeks to secure global rights for Tetris 1984, leading to tense negotiations in the Soviet Union involving creators, government and corporate intrigues. [00:04:39] Speaker A: All right, all right. So we start our film off at the computer electronic show in Las Vegas in 1988. We meet Hank Rogers, played by Taran. I can never call him Taran. [00:04:53] Speaker B: Did you notice the music is the original Tetris music? [00:04:57] Speaker A: I actually did not notice that. [00:04:58] Speaker B: Like the Russian folk song. [00:05:00] Speaker A: Well, we'll get into that. So he is there hawking his computer game version of Go. Have you ever played Go? I've never played Go. I know it's played it. [00:05:09] Speaker B: I think I've maybe played it like once. [00:05:11] Speaker A: Yeah. I know it's supposed to be complicated and that'll take a lot of thinking, but I've never actually tried it. [00:05:17] Speaker B: Yeah. But he says it's very popular in Asia, which it is, but unfortunately he's not in Asia. That's a bit of a problem. [00:05:23] Speaker A: Yeah. His booth bunny gets distracted by playing Tetris at another booth. He. He gets sucked into it. And we sort of cut to this framing device of he's telling his banker about how he bought the rights to Tetris in Japan, but he already owes the bank money for his failed version of Go. [00:05:41] Speaker B: The beginning of this movie, Christian is quite good. Interesting moves, very nice. Like a block falling down the screen. But something that bugs me is how much people glaze Tetris in this movie. Okay, look, I'm not trying to be a contrarian again. I know. [00:05:59] Speaker A: I'm like, you are a contrarian. [00:06:01] Speaker B: That is your nature. Well, did you see the movie the Disaster Artist? [00:06:05] Speaker A: I did, yes. [00:06:06] Speaker B: So do you remember how they would be telling the story of how they were making the room, and every now and then a celebrity guest star would jump in to say how much they love the room, how great the room is? Yeah, I found that very frustrating because I already like the room. That's why I'm watching your movie. Stop telling me over and over again how good the room is. That's kind of how I feel about Tetris. If you watch the movie, you like Tetris. Most people, you don't need to say it over and over and over again that Tetris is good. We know it's good. [00:06:33] Speaker A: I think it's more trying to emphasize how much of a gamble this was. Especially like, well, one, he has to prove it to the bank. So the banker, I don't know if he have the banker ever has a name, but like I said, he's already in debt and he's wanting to borrow more money. And so he has to prove that Tetris is actually a hit. And he tells him how Tetris is already hit in Russia. So I think you can't underscore how revolutionary it was. Really? [00:06:58] Speaker B: Certainly compared to something like Mario. [00:07:00] Speaker A: Well, no, I'm not gonna. I will not argue that point, but. [00:07:03] Speaker B: Well, it's just very different from Mario. [00:07:05] Speaker A: True. Alright. Yes. It's different than a lot of games. Yeah. [00:07:08] Speaker B: Yeah. Do you like how he explained how Tetris got its name? [00:07:12] Speaker A: Yes, yes. So it's what, a combination of tetra, which is because each. Which I never really realized, each piece is made up of four blocks. And then tennis, because Alexei likes tennis. [00:07:24] Speaker B: Yeah. Even though Tetris itself isn't that similar to tennis. He just likes the word, I guess. [00:07:28] Speaker A: So, speaking of Alexei, we meet the inventor of Tetris, Alexei Leonorovich Pajitkov, or Pajitnov. And he's a programmer for the Soviet government. And he invented games at night for fun. [00:07:42] Speaker B: These really old computers. [00:07:44] Speaker A: Yep, yep. Now he managed to convert it from his computer at home to PC and made copies that spread all over Russia. And this is where we meet another one of our main players, Robert Stein. Actually, I recognize this guy. [00:07:58] Speaker B: Of course. He's Arnim Zola. He's very distinctive. [00:08:01] Speaker A: Actor's name. I do. [00:08:03] Speaker B: Actor's name. Let me just check on IMDb really quickly. Toby Jones. [00:08:08] Speaker A: Ah, Toby Jones. He's in. He's in other stuff too. Yeah, he's in the most recent Indiana Jones movie. That's right. Yes. He plays Robert Stein. He would license games that are made in the Soviet bloc into the west to make money. [00:08:22] Speaker B: Yeah, I appreciate that, Eddie. His contact at the bank said, so you're gonna go to the Soviet Union to get the rights? He said, no way. I'm not that crazy. Somebody else is crazy enough to do it. I'll let him do it. [00:08:31] Speaker A: So, yeah. So he's the one who actually discovered Tetris, which I think the movie does underplay. That is him discovered for the West. [00:08:38] Speaker B: That's right. So he deserves more credit than I think he probably gets. He's willing to gamble on it too. So, Christian, are you familiar with the book Red Notice? [00:08:47] Speaker A: Vaguely. [00:08:48] Speaker B: So the Spy museum has done a couple of events with them and people recommended it to me. So it is very similar to this story, actually, because it's about a guy who the Soviet Union breaks up and he's the first one to realize there's these. There's money to be made in the Russia if you're willing to go in and take some chances. So the first half of the book, which is my opinion the best part, is about him going in and being willing to take some chances on investing in Russian companies and things like that and making a lot of money doing it. It does end up turning into a spy story, which actually wasn't quite as good. But if you read the book, you'll be surprised how similar it is to this Tetris. [00:09:30] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. All right, so we find out that Robert Stein works closely with Robert Maxwell. [00:09:37] Speaker B: Maxwell? The Robert Maxwell? [00:09:39] Speaker A: Yes. They say, although he primarily works with his son Kevin, who is the president of Mirrorsoft, their video game licensing division. Hank lives in Japan. He goes to Nintendo and meets with the CEO, and he does a little sneaking, bypassing the secretary. [00:09:54] Speaker B: Yeah, classic. And I was very amused by the sight of an. I don't want to call him elderly. Maybe we'll just say older. Pretty old Japanese guy playing Tetris on, like, this tiny little controller. I found the visual of that to be pretty funny. [00:10:09] Speaker A: Yep, yep. And yes, he sucks. He gets all sucked in, too, and offers to buy him out for $500,000. [00:10:18] Speaker B: But he knows there's millions to be made. [00:10:20] Speaker A: Exactly. Hank turns them down, so wants a partnership and actually gives all these examples of Mario has Luigi, Link has Zelda, and Mike Tyson has whoever he's knocking out and punch out. Yeah, I like that. [00:10:35] Speaker B: So, yeah, so we're back to Eddie. I was pretty invested at this point, at least. I was like, come on, Eddie. Come on, Eddie, do the right thing here. [00:10:44] Speaker A: Hank and his game company, Bulletproof Games, will publish Tetris, but he needs 3 million. So he puts his house down as collateral. [00:10:51] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:10:52] Speaker A: Which Eddie definitely says the smart thing and says, shouldn't you check with your wife for this first? And he's like, no, she's on board. She's our cfo. [00:11:03] Speaker B: Yeah, that's right. [00:11:04] Speaker A: And yeah, good times. Now, of course, she's skept. His wife, Kemi is skeptical, but I like how he, Hank, is like, have you ever heard his house this quiet and because his, you know, kids are playing Tetris and they are addicted. [00:11:18] Speaker B: That's right. [00:11:19] Speaker A: So there's your proof in the pudding. And we go to level 2. I like how there were levels and like the 8 bit graphics for each sort of scene change. [00:11:28] Speaker B: Yeah, it was reminiscent of Ready Player One. A much worse movie. [00:11:32] Speaker A: Yeah, this does. I mean, yeah, this. This is better, though. Yeah. [00:11:35] Speaker B: The music is also good. They play I Need a Hero and it's like the 80s. Feels like the 80s. [00:11:41] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So we go to Moscow where Alexei is visited by. He said he gives some long title, but this guy's actually kgb. Valentin Trifonov. [00:11:53] Speaker B: Yeah, our so evil villain. Our mustache curling villain. He's so evil. [00:11:57] Speaker A: Now I find out that apparently a lot of government workers were playing Tetris instead of working, and so they had. The KGB had to create a program to block Tetris on Government computers. [00:12:08] Speaker B: Nice. [00:12:09] Speaker A: Yeah. So he wants to know about the profits because the company he worked for and his boss, Belikov, what's the company? I haven't written down here. Elorg licensed it to Stein and he, Valentin, wants to know about profits, but there have not been any yet, which is suspicious. [00:12:27] Speaker B: Yeah, he's like, how is this game so popular but you haven't made any money off of it. Yeah, it's because he's a communist maybe. [00:12:33] Speaker A: Well, no, it's because Robert Maxwell's not paying out any profits. [00:12:38] Speaker B: Yeah, he got a bad deal from Stein. [00:12:41] Speaker A: Yeah. No. Well, who got a bad deal from Stein? [00:12:45] Speaker B: Well, didn't Alexi get paid $10,000 by Stein for the rights? [00:12:49] Speaker A: Alexi didn't get. Elorg got paid. [00:12:51] Speaker B: Elorg. Yeah, go. There you go. [00:12:54] Speaker A: But Elorg has not received any profits yet either. That's which is very suspicious. Kevin Maxwell is on a private plane. He's calling Hank, talking about the licensing and tells him that, oh yes, even though you already signed us, you know, you signed a contract for arcade rights, we've already actually licensed those arcade rights to Sega. But you still have PC and video game rights in Japan. [00:13:16] Speaker B: That's right. So it's safe to say that Kevin, not Mr. Maxwell, as he wants to be called over and over again, is screwing him over. [00:13:23] Speaker A: Yep, yep. So Hank desperate now realizes because arcade is a cash business and. And he was hoping to use that to produce the video game and PC versions of Tetris. So now he's a little screwed. So he goes to meet with Mr. Yamauchi, CEO of Nintendo, and tells him what what happened to Kevin or what the deal with Kevin, and asks for an advance on his royalties. And Mr. Yamauchi says, no, I've got something better for you. Go meet with our Nintendo developers in Seattle. So that's Nintendo America. [00:13:53] Speaker B: That's right. Boy, these Nintendo guys are just so squeaky clean and nice, just like the company itself. [00:13:59] Speaker A: Right, so. And this is where Hank did this get bring you some nostalgia? [00:14:05] Speaker B: I would love to say yes, but. [00:14:07] Speaker A: No, because you're dead inside. [00:14:09] Speaker B: That's not why. It's because when I was a kid I did do a lot of gaming, but my parents. And this is right out of this movie, by the way. This movie all about loopholes. They were like, you can't play video games because they rot your brain. Sure, yeah, no games. But you can play computer games because they teach you how to use a computer. So I played shit ton well, but like a lot of computer games, but I never Owned a console or a handheld until I was a teenager. [00:14:36] Speaker A: Huh. So we got the same story because I didn't own one until the first Wii. But I played on other people's consoles and played on other people's Game Boys, so I still had that nostalgia. [00:14:45] Speaker B: Yeah, I would. I played very, very brief on other people's consoles. [00:14:50] Speaker A: All right. [00:14:51] Speaker B: Until I was probably like middle school. And then we went over my friend's house, played a lot of Halo, Halo 2, stuff like that. All right, the point, to answer your question, I don't have any nostalgia for the Game Boy specifically. [00:15:03] Speaker A: Okay. But yeah, so Hank gets a first look at the Game Boy and I like how instead of the cartridge, they have all these wiring going to it so that they can just program right into it. So Hank shows them Tetris and like, is he able to somehow very quickly modify it, his version of the Tetris from the SNES to work on the Game Boy? [00:15:23] Speaker B: Yeah, it just hit some buttons on a computer and it works like perfectly, which is pretty funny. So I have two observations about this scene. The first is I like how this movie is really literally and figuratively moving. Like there's a lot of like momentum. Things are changing, happening very quickly, which is nice. However, this part with the Game Boy feels like a commercial in the way that the rest of the movie, the movie in general does. Doesn't feel like a commercial for Tetris, but this part specifically does feel like a commercial. [00:15:51] Speaker A: I don't agree. I mean, again, just like with Tetris, the Game Boy was revolutionary. Like the fact that, and we'll get to this later, that everyone's questioning what handheld. What are handheld rights? [00:16:03] Speaker B: Yeah, that's true. Nobody knows what it is. And a Lego Movie makes you want to go out and play with some Legos. This did not make me want to go out and play Tetris. I don't know about you. [00:16:15] Speaker A: I did look up briefly. Alright, I'm sure there's some version of Tetris on Apple Play Store. But then I was like, but it's probably. You know what this movie did make me nostalgic for? [00:16:25] Speaker B: What's that? [00:16:26] Speaker A: When video games were just video games, they weren't play services. You don't have to pay subscription fee. You didn't have any in app purchases. You could just buy the game and that's it. [00:16:36] Speaker B: That's true. That's very true. No wonder nostalgia Gaming is so popular right now. [00:16:41] Speaker A: Yeah, when I look buying. Well, not even buying. When I try downloading games for my phone or Wherever I have to look. Is there any in app purchases? Because I want to play a complete game, even if I'm paying for it, rather than having to pay out incrementally over however long I'm playing the game. [00:16:59] Speaker B: Well, that's another difference between why I like something like Mario more than Tetris. Because, like I said, Tetris is pointless. I like games that have a story. Okay, because then you know when to stop playing, which is nice, but sometimes the story can be a bit much where it's something like Baldur's Gate 3, where it's like 80 hours long and it's just a lot. Where the classic games are simple, which I appreciate anyway. [00:17:24] Speaker A: So speaking of the appeal of Tetris, Hank convinces the Nintendo America guys they were gonna package it with the Game Boy with Mario, which would appeal to a bunch of kids. But if you package it with Tetris, you'll appeal to everyone, so you'll sell even more units. [00:17:40] Speaker B: Yeah, I was trying to remember, like, I feel like Tetris came packaged with something else. I thought it was another game, but it was the Game Boy. [00:17:46] Speaker A: As it turns out, it was the Game Boy. Yep. But now he needs to get the handheld rights, which he doesn't have. So Hank goes to see Kevin, and in the meeting, we. We see a meeting with Robert Stein and Robert Maxwell and Kevin, and he needs to pay the Soviets for the licensing, but Maxwell hasn't paid Stein yet. And so Hank comes in and tells them, I license the game from you for at ces. Here's the copy according that you need to send to Elorg as per my contract. And I need to find. I would like to buy handheld Tetris rights to controls those. And they're all like, wait, handheld? What? [00:18:21] Speaker B: He immediately breaks his NDA. At least they admit that in the movie. They don't just let it go by. [00:18:26] Speaker A: Well, he doesn't say no. He doesn't break the NDA. He just says, I can't speak to it. He gives the Glomar response, basically, yeah, that's right. So Stein says that they own the handheld Tetris rights, but Hank doesn't really believe them, and so he leaves. Stein is sent to get the fully executed contracts from Elorg, you know, and we find out that Robert Maxwell is friends with Gorbachev, the Premier of the Soviet Union. And so he. They shouldn't have to worry about anything because, you know, I'm friends with Gorbachev. [00:18:53] Speaker B: That's right. [00:18:55] Speaker A: And then Kevin, on a different note, he heard something about Some missing money from the employee retirement funds. But Maxwell just brushes it off saying, no, don't worry about that. [00:19:04] Speaker B: Yeah, more corporate dealings. The whole movie's like that. [00:19:08] Speaker A: So Hank gets a call from Dento America that Stein sold handheld rights to Atari. And Kevin also finds out that Stein sold handheld rights to Atari behind his back. So. So now Stein's going back on both of them. So Hank is going to go to Moscow to deal with Elorg himself. Kevin is also on his way to Moscow. And Nintendo tries to warn Hank about the KGB and going to the Soviet Union and says they can't protect him. [00:19:39] Speaker B: Yeah, but of course he does what he wants to anyway, as he always will. [00:19:43] Speaker A: Yeah, well, they call him a cowboy at a certain point and that's why they make him sign. The end. [00:19:48] Speaker B: Yeah, that's right. Probably good at ditto. So this is where our spying begins. [00:19:53] Speaker A: So Hank goes in on a tourist visa, even though he really needs to get a business visa at customs. They make a copy of his passport, which is shown to Valentin or his henchman Boris. They look very similar, and I kept getting confused between the two of them. [00:20:08] Speaker B: Yeah, I did see that. And he takes a look around Moscow and there's a port with a bread line. So my significant other, who I watched the first half of this movie with before she fell asleep, she was like, what is that? [00:20:21] Speaker A: Oh, interesting. [00:20:23] Speaker B: I guess I shouldn't have assumed that everyone would know what a breadline is. [00:20:26] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:20:26] Speaker B: But for those of you in the audience who are not aware of what a breadline is, Soviet Union controlled the prices of food and they would set it artificially low. And then they would run out and there would be scarcity, which is why millions of people would starve to death in Ukraine and things like that. But another example is even in Moscow, people would line up for food. When they ran out, they run out. You don't get any more like in the movie. [00:20:48] Speaker A: Particularly rare items like meat and fruits. [00:20:51] Speaker B: That's right. [00:20:52] Speaker A: Yeah. So Hank tries to find a lorg on his own. He goes to like to, you know, looks in the phone books or tries to ask hotel desks or other libraries. No such luck until Hank meets Sasha, who's a translator. [00:21:07] Speaker B: So, Christian. What? Which movie is another. More trivia for you. Which spy fi guys movie did this remind you of? A man driving around Russia with a translator and her telling him what is. What he's looking at. [00:21:21] Speaker A: Is this the Benedict Cumberbatch movie? [00:21:24] Speaker B: I don't remember a translator in that. [00:21:26] Speaker A: Okay. [00:21:26] Speaker B: I was thinking of the man who Saved the world. [00:21:29] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, yeah. That's a good one. All right. Well, I was reminded of. What was that one called? The Courier. [00:21:35] Speaker B: Yeah. This is a lot of similarities with that, too, because you have business people in the Soviet Union. [00:21:39] Speaker A: Yeah. Sasha finally brings him to Elorg, where he meets with Alexei's boss, Belicov. And the whole time, the KGB is listening in, and Sasha's translating for both Hank and Belicov. And we find out that Elorg actually never licensed video game rights, only computer game rights. And he's told to leave and they'll return at 9am when they can discuss. [00:22:03] Speaker B: Well, there's a very interesting part where the guy says, you don't have the rights to make a video game, so this is an illegal copy, and I should send you to prison. This was good tension. But then I don't understand how he was able to convince the guy not to just arrest him. [00:22:17] Speaker A: I think because he mentioned that he licensed it from Stein, and I'm trying to remember exactly what it was, but he says enough that he's like, all right, we need to invest where Belicoff is. Said, okay, we need to look into this further and see what's going on. Hank needs to call his wife, and Sasha tells him they need. He needs to wait in line because there's only so many lines that go, you know, outside of the Soviet Union for an international call. And the KGB speak with Hank outside of Elorg and threaten him, tell him to go home. [00:22:47] Speaker B: That's right. So the threats begin almost immediately. As you might expect, the movie moves quickly, though it's starting to slow down in this middle bit. But I appreciate that they take the time to actually do the trick translations instead of having the guy always speak English or doing subtitles or something like that. Make you wait. [00:23:07] Speaker A: They also have some. Some fun with the translator, in that Belicoff will say a whole big thing, which is very threatened. Some include some threats. And then Sasu would just say one piece of it. It's like, not to worry Hank for the rest of it. [00:23:17] Speaker B: Yeah, the shogun joke. [00:23:19] Speaker A: Yeah. We also see that Kevin has arrived in Moscow now, and he's met by Valentin. But, of course, Kevin expected to be met by Gorbachev, but Valentine's like, well, you are not your father. [00:23:31] Speaker B: Yep. [00:23:32] Speaker A: This is where Alexei and Belicov meet again with Hank, and Valentin arrives, too, and again threatens Hank, but Hank says he won't go home without a deal. So Belikov and Valentin leave to talk, and Alexei stays. This is where Hank finds out that Alexei doesn't receive money from the game, which Hank doesn't, you know, doesn't think is right. And we find out that not only are Hank and Kevin in Moscow meeting with the Lorg, so is Stein. [00:23:58] Speaker B: That's right. Everybody's there. Alexei is too. [00:24:01] Speaker A: Yeah. And Valentin tells them to keep them all separated but play them against each other. [00:24:06] Speaker B: Mm. [00:24:07] Speaker A: So Hank finds out that the only version of Tetris that was ever licensed was PC. And Belicov finds out that Maxwell was selling rights for handheld console and Arcade for Tetris worldwide. And so, as they're switching between all the rooms, Belikov confronts Kevin about console rights, and Hank gets to read the contract that Stein signed with Elorg. [00:24:31] Speaker B: So, Christian, this is the part where the movie began to lose me. [00:24:34] Speaker A: Really? [00:24:35] Speaker B: Yeah. These corporate stuff, it can either be boring or confusing. And I found it confusing. [00:24:42] Speaker A: I mean, like, I read a lot of contracts for work, so it's like contract stuff is interesting. They dumb it down for the audience. Yes, they do. They make clear. All right, legally, what's the difference between a console and a personal computer? And it's. There's no keyboard. [00:25:01] Speaker B: Well, yeah, there's a few differences, but that's the major one. This also reminds me of an era in time when people, especially moms, would call all video games Nintendo's. [00:25:14] Speaker A: Yeah. So legally, because there's no definition of what a console is, they did actually sell console rights to Stein and Maxwell, but there's nothing in there about arcade. So now Belikov tries to get Stein to sign an amended contract, which Stein says, no, I need a knight to read it. And it's increased prices. And also actually cleverly defines what a personal computer is. [00:25:38] Speaker B: Right. [00:25:39] Speaker A: So Hank and everyone else are all dismissed for until tomorrow. [00:25:42] Speaker B: Yep. [00:25:43] Speaker A: And so he asks Alexi for a lift back to his hotel. Wants to get to know Alexi. Yeah. [00:25:50] Speaker B: There's an interesting part where he says, I've lived in this apartment my whole life, so I guess he's an only child. [00:25:56] Speaker A: Seemingly. Yeah. We find out KGB was not only spying on Hank's meeting, but also Kevin's meeting Valentin, meets with Kevin, wants to know how much the rights are worth. We get a bit of Valentine's backstory about how he was sharecropper's son and he knows that communism is dying and wants a bribe. Yeah. [00:26:17] Speaker B: I liked how this was indication of the rise of the oligarchs in Russia. The people who were able to roll with the changing times and make money off of it. [00:26:27] Speaker A: I like the how Kevin de He refuses outright for the bribe. But then Valentin calls Maxwell, and he was willing to bribe him, but says Kevin doesn't need to know about this. Hank is trying to get to know Alexei better, so asks, can I come to your house for dinner? He's like, no, it's illegal to have unapproved foreigners in your home, so just call. But instead of writing a phone number, he actually wrote down his address and tells him what time to come. So Hank goes to Alexei's house for dinner. Apparently, Hank went to the University of Hawaii in Manoa. He's an alumni of that, which, as somebody who grew up in Hawaii and went to school right across the street from there, is a fun fact. And that's where he met his wife. [00:27:06] Speaker B: So many connections in these five movies. I've never seen a single connection in Connecticut. [00:27:12] Speaker A: He gets to know Alexei. They talk about programming and how, you know, what they. What programming languages they use. And then Hank really, you know, butters him up and tells him how good that Tetris is. And Hank gets to see the original Tetris that was programmed on his computer. I, like, didn't we really talk about it earlier? But how on his original Tetris, there's no graphics card of the computer. The blocks are made up of open and closed square parentheses. [00:27:38] Speaker B: So is it like what you had on your graphing calculator or even more familiar? [00:27:42] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, I think it was more. The graph calculator was more advanced because they were able to use pixels, like, individual pixels, rather than. [00:27:50] Speaker B: Yeah, that's right. [00:27:51] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:27:51] Speaker B: Brick attack on mine was actual bricks. They weren't. Yeah, they weren't, like, underlines or anything like that. But I also like that Hank is the one who comes up with the idea for removing two and then having the blocks go faster. [00:28:03] Speaker A: Yep. And then also having them go up to maximum of four. Well, at once. Yeah. But as they're nerding out together, there's a loud knock on the door, and they have to hide Hank in a closet. And. Because they think it's the KGB who been watching them, turns out it's just a neighbor who was asking for some salt. [00:28:20] Speaker B: That's right. [00:28:21] Speaker A: And so they tell Tank, you have to leave and say, okay, but, Alexi, come with me. I want to go out. I want to see where locals hang out, not some hotel bar. So they go out to this, you know, club that looks like it's in a warehouse. [00:28:35] Speaker B: That's right. And the Russians here just. They just want freedom, man. Freedom is on the way. [00:28:42] Speaker A: And they hear about like these protests in Estonia. This woman is making a big speech about how they want Coca Cola and Levi jeans. [00:28:50] Speaker B: That's right. [00:28:50] Speaker A: And then they play the final countdown. Great song. [00:28:54] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. This is a good friendship bit. I don't really completely buy the friendship between Alexei and Hank, but this one part is good. Yeah. [00:29:03] Speaker A: Look, when people have shared interests, immune across all these borders and barriers, they can bond like that, I feel like. Especially if they're nerds. [00:29:14] Speaker B: Right? [00:29:15] Speaker A: Yeah. Valentin is giving. Is given pictures of Hank going to Alexi's house. And I like this. We see men entering a warehouse, and it looks like we're led to believe that they're going to the, you know, the warehouse bar to catch Hank instead. These are actually Russians from the embassy in Tokyo. Definitely. Who are definitely really just kgb who are threatening Aemi, his Hank's wife, in. In Tokyo. [00:29:40] Speaker B: Yeah, that's right. So the stakes get raised. It's pretty good. [00:29:44] Speaker A: Now, coming back from the bar, Hank is captured by Boris. He's beaten and told to go home. And they take his Levi jeans. And his hotel room is ransacked. And then Sasha arrives in his room. She's all dolled up, not looking like she usually does, and says that they searched her room, too. She kisses him, but he immediately pulls away. No, I'm married. [00:30:08] Speaker B: So, Christian, I gotta say, I kind of like the part where he gets beat up and they take his pants because he finally gets some comeuppance for all the rule breaking that he's been doing. He just keeps saying, screw the rules, screw the rules over and over again, even though he's in this totalitarian country. And finally something actually happens to him. [00:30:25] Speaker A: Sure, sure. You know, Valentin catches Alexei bringing his kids to school and threatens him with what happened to Alexei's father, which we'll find out a little bit later. What happened? The next night, he's told that the international phone is finally available for him. He calls Akemi, tells her to send all these contracts, and she tells him that the Russians threatened her. Now, as Hank is on his way to back to Elorg, Hank and Stein see each other and realize what's going on. Right. Belikov continues to play them against each other. Hank, you know, gives a lower offer than Stein does for arcade or for handheld, but includes royalties of like 25 cents per game. Now, Valentin has been following along all these negotiations and tells Belikov that the state has decided to go with Mirrorsoft. And. But the way that mirrorsoft is doing it, they're trading rights to their encyclopedias for the rights of Tetris, so there's no actual money being exchanged. [00:31:30] Speaker B: Speaking of money, there's a part around here where Hank says it's not about the money anymore, which almost made me laugh out loud. [00:31:37] Speaker A: I mean, it is about the money, but it's also about he's invested in Alexei. [00:31:42] Speaker B: Yeah. Or he's a big smooth talker. Or both. [00:31:45] Speaker A: Belikov makes the point of. All right. It doesn't seem right to go with the deal that offers no money. So Kevin says, we'll send you a million dollars in one week as part of the deal. [00:31:55] Speaker B: Yeah, that's an easy promise for him to make. [00:31:58] Speaker A: So Belicov walks Hank out and takes him out a back entrance of the regular entrance. He tells Hank that he has a week to send a formal offer for handheld and worldwide video game rights. [00:32:08] Speaker B: Before that, $1 million for doing this. Like risking going to prison is because it says it's best for the country. Why is it best for the country? [00:32:16] Speaker A: Well, because he asks. He, you know, tells asks Hank he's gonna make more money with the deal that Hank has if he actually gets royalties as opposed to a one time fee to get more. So it is actually a better deal. [00:32:31] Speaker B: But I guess he doesn't have the power to decide for the state, so he's just kind of do backwards. Okay, that checks out. [00:32:37] Speaker A: Yeah, well, it's not. It's. It's basically, you have to. You need to submit this before we get the $1 million from Mirrorsoft. [00:32:44] Speaker B: That's right. [00:32:46] Speaker A: So Alexei picks him up and takes him in a taxi back to this hotel. He tells the story of his father, how, you know, one of his father's colleagues, he wrote a book that was sold in the west, and then he was blacklisted. And his father tried to speak up for his friend. And even just speaking up for his friend got him blacklisted as well. [00:33:04] Speaker B: That's right. [00:33:05] Speaker A: And then before they go to the hotel, he takes them to outside KGB headquarters. Now, this is a little shot. This is very shoddy on Valentin and Sasha's part that you're just talking out in the open if they're supposed to be the KGB just outside. But we find out that Sasha's KGB and now takes. Sorry, Alexi takes Hank to the airport. [00:33:28] Speaker B: I think we all saw this hash. Been kgb. [00:33:31] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. Now Hank is trying to call the Nintendo folks, but they're told, oh, no, they're meeting now, it turns out where they're meeting with Maxwell. [00:33:39] Speaker B: That's right. [00:33:40] Speaker A: Just trying to, you know, cut Hank out of the deal again. [00:33:43] Speaker B: I found all of this very difficult to follow. I don't know about you, I found. [00:33:48] Speaker A: It pretty easy to follow. Velikov is being beaten by Boris, who was, you know, Valentine's henchmen. And we found out that Hank missed his daughter's recital, that his daughter was all excited about back at home. Hank gets a fax that his rights to Tetris have been terminated. And also, he's got blackmail photos. [00:34:06] Speaker B: So this is interesting, but they never do anything with it. It never goes anywhere. And I also. I don't understand who keeps threatening him and why. I don't know. Why don't the KGB just, like, get rid of him then? If they can just do whatever they want? [00:34:19] Speaker A: I mean, they can't when he's at home. They could if he was still in Russia, but now that he's left their jurisdiction, they could. They can. They really just have a threat that. To get him to drop out of the deal? [00:34:32] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a threat, but they never go through with that, even though he just keeps right on going. And I don't understand why not? Also, the guys who threatened his wife, like, they never come back either. Also, and this is skipping ahead a little bit, in the movie, it becomes revealed that Valen Kov is acting on his own. So it's not clear what exactly he can do and what he can't. Presumably, all these threats are coming directly from him because he's the one who wants to deal with mirrorsoft. But it also, like you just said, it's coming from the KGB in general. [00:35:00] Speaker A: Well, I mean, But. Well, I'm. When I say kgb, I mean Valentin as the head, as the figurehead we have here. [00:35:05] Speaker B: No, but that's. What I'm saying is, like, I wasn't clear, like, who. What's KGB and what's just him. [00:35:10] Speaker A: Mostly just. It's all just him, really, because he's doing the deal with. He's being bribed by Maxwell. [00:35:16] Speaker B: Okay, yeah, we'll put a pin in that. We'll get back. [00:35:19] Speaker A: All right. All right. So Belicov goes to see Alexei, who sees that he got beaten, and tells him that Tetris is going to Mirrorsoft and that Belikov will be terminated after the deal goes through. But Alexei can make this right. He needs to get this paperwork to Hank. And we're told earlier in the movie that there's fax machines and international phones are only in government buildings. So it's. Alexei starts a fire in the office to distract the worker who mans the Fax machine and sends a fax to Hank. [00:35:48] Speaker B: This is some spy stuff. [00:35:50] Speaker A: Yeah. So Hank gets the fax with the letter of intent. Kevin starts his wheels turning. Kevin trying to meet with his dad and sees that he's shredding a bunch of papers. [00:36:01] Speaker B: Is this the insider trading, like, subplot? Yeah, the corruption deal. [00:36:05] Speaker A: Yeah. And then accounting apparently told Kevin they don't have the million dollars to send to Elorg for the bid. And Maxwell says, don't worry about it. We just need to untie some money. So Hank barges into a Nintendo meeting and they reveal to him that Atari is selling Tetris. Basically, Atari hacked their cartridges and now can sell games for the Nes even without being approved by Nintendo. [00:36:32] Speaker B: Yep. Interesting. [00:36:34] Speaker A: And he tells them that, you know, note rights for Tetris for handheld were granted and actually that the worldwide rights are up for grabs, but he needs them to come with Moscow and bring their checkbooks immediately and to tell no one. [00:36:46] Speaker B: And this is where the movie was. Oh, I don't know. [00:36:48] Speaker A: Really? I like this part. Yeah. KGB sees that Hank is back, and Alexi comes, goes into his office and sees that his desk is packed up. [00:36:57] Speaker B: Christian, I have a question. I'm sorry. I'm sorry to interrupt. They say earlier in the movie it takes months to get a business visa. So he lies and goes on tourist visa. So are these guys also lying and are going on tourist visas? [00:37:10] Speaker A: Yep. [00:37:11] Speaker B: Okay. For some reason, I was really bothered by everything involving these Nintendo guys. [00:37:17] Speaker A: Okay. [00:37:19] Speaker B: I like the Nintendo guys, but so much crazy stuff happens to them in the last half an hour of the movie, and they have no reactions to any of it. [00:37:28] Speaker A: Well, I mean, is the dialogue left. [00:37:30] Speaker B: On the cutting room floor or something? Like they're risking going to prison in the Soviet Union. Do they have any thoughts about that? Like, any feelings? Anything at all? [00:37:40] Speaker A: Something. [00:37:41] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:37:41] Speaker A: Interesting. It never occurred to me because the movie goes so fast that I don't really worry about it too much. [00:37:46] Speaker B: Okay, that's good. [00:37:48] Speaker A: There's a lot going on here, so I. I don't really think about it. Alexi, he's starting getting. Looks like he's getting blacklisted just like his dad was. They goes home and sees them packing up his house, too. And Sasha's there as well as Valentine. And they have this threat with the kids about a gravity experiment and threatening to basically to throw his kids off a balcony. [00:38:08] Speaker B: So this is good. But I have in my notes. Okay. We're about to reach the end, right. They're on their way to get the rights. Lexi's getting evicted. What do you mean? There's still 33 minutes of movie left. Like, what's gonna happen? [00:38:20] Speaker A: A lot, apparently. So Hank meets with Belikov, and Sasha's there, and we find out the mirrorsoft deal expired, but Nintendo has upfront money that they can give him as well as royalties. So Maxwell gets a call from Valentin and tells him, all right, you need to wire the 1 million now. And Sasha is starting to question, like, wait, you. Nintendo will give us, like, $5 million and royalties, but Expo is giving us only a million dollars. Why is this the best for the country? [00:38:52] Speaker B: Yeah, she's looking very severe now, now that her KGB status has been revealed to the world. [00:38:59] Speaker A: So back, you know, at. In the mirrorsoft offices, Stein bursts in and confronts them, punches Kevin, and realizes that he's being cut out of the deal. [00:39:08] Speaker B: There's so much punching on this part. [00:39:11] Speaker A: I like how Kevin tries to punch Stein, but Stein really easily dodges. And, like, they have to get security to break them up. And Maxwell is looking at the new contract that Stein signed, and he's gonna go to Moscow now. And so he and Kevin meet with Gorbachev and tell him, you know, you need to try to block. Block this deal. This is setting a dangerous precedent that communism. That is dead. He's like. Well, kind of is. [00:39:35] Speaker B: Yeah. He admits it. [00:39:36] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:39:37] Speaker B: Yeah. Because my significant other was wondering why the Soviets didn't want to license this game and have it go out across the world because of communism. Well, they explained their country's not for sale. [00:39:49] Speaker A: Yeah. So we have this big Russian ceremony. There's a tank parade. This is such a cliche. It's a cliche, but I'm pretty sure it was real life. [00:40:00] Speaker B: I don't know. It's just funny how every movies set in the Soviet Union, they have to have a military parade that are East Germany. [00:40:07] Speaker A: Anyway, so outside the parade, Hank sees Alexi, but Alexis upset because he is getting blacklisted. [00:40:13] Speaker B: Right. [00:40:13] Speaker A: And doesn't come from different worlds. I'll stay in mine. You go back to yours. Boris tells Valentin that Hank is on his way to Elorg and the KGB are now following. So Belikov meets with Maxwell, and Hank and Nintendo come in and make their offer. And that's when they realize that Maxwell is back bankrupt. [00:40:29] Speaker B: Right. [00:40:30] Speaker A: If he can't even send a million dollars for the deal. So Belikov signs with Nintendo and tells him, you need to leave Moscow immediately. [00:40:38] Speaker B: So the idea was he was gonna make some of their money that they were giving him. [00:40:42] Speaker A: Who? Belikov no. [00:40:45] Speaker B: So why do they have to leave it so quickly? [00:40:48] Speaker A: Wait, what do you mean they have to leave? Because the KGB will capture them to make the deal not go through. We'll threaten them. That's why they have to leave quickly. [00:40:55] Speaker B: Yeah. Okay, let's check that. [00:40:58] Speaker A: So Valentin arrives at Elorg and also realizes that Maxwell has no money to bribe him now, so doesn't trust any more, you know, his any more bribery money from. From Maxwell and wants 50% owner of Tetris. [00:41:13] Speaker B: Yeah, that's not going to happen, obviously. [00:41:15] Speaker A: Well, he makes Maxwell says deal. Valentine sends his men to go stop them from getting out of the country, so. So that they can't go through with the deal. [00:41:25] Speaker B: Yeah. So things start to waver a little bit here. What's the case, Valentin? So this is when it seems it gives it. He's like acting on his own of his own authority. [00:41:34] Speaker A: It's hinted at way before. Once he starts taking the bribe, that's when he starts acting on his own. [00:41:39] Speaker B: Well, sure. Well then. Okay, I'm bringing up the Nintendo guys again because this is the crazy escape. [00:41:45] Speaker A: Yep. [00:41:45] Speaker B: So again, these Nintendo guys, it keeps bugging me. Why do they have nothing to say, this call? They're just kind of there. They're like these hapless little puppies that. [00:41:58] Speaker A: Like, they're there for their checkbooks. [00:42:01] Speaker B: I guess so. [00:42:02] Speaker A: I mean, literally, Hank says, bring your checkbooks. [00:42:04] Speaker B: Right. [00:42:07] Speaker A: But yeah. So Alexei comes to save them in their car. There's a nice car chase. We get the holding out for hero. I like the 8 bit crashes. Anytime that the car crashes, turns 8 bit. We also get a few top views of the car trace made to look like the screen from Tetris. [00:42:23] Speaker B: There's a part where Hank somehow knows there's enough room between a giant truck and a wall. [00:42:28] Speaker A: The Tetris effect. [00:42:29] Speaker B: Okay. Have you heard of Tetris? [00:42:32] Speaker A: Yeah. The Tetris effect is like basically, if you start to play so many games in whatever video game, you start to see it in real life. So he's thinking like Tetris in real life. [00:42:40] Speaker B: Yeah. So they almost die like four times. [00:42:44] Speaker A: Yes. But it'll be worth it for the millions of dollars. So I like this. They arrive at the airport. [00:42:52] Speaker B: This is the Argo part where they get to the airport. [00:42:55] Speaker A: It's very much that they need to get on the next flight out. And we overhear overhead that the next flight, Tokyo, is boarding. The KGB arrive. Alexei wants to stay until they leave, but Hank says, no, you need to get out of here. But I promise You. I'll see you again. Also, I like in this part, someone is singing. What is that? Koro beniki. Which is the Russian folk song. [00:43:19] Speaker B: So I'm sorry to be difficult again, but I have another question. [00:43:22] Speaker A: Sure. [00:43:23] Speaker B: So this is actually the same question I had in Argo. [00:43:25] Speaker A: Okay. [00:43:26] Speaker B: Which is the bad guy, Valentin, knows they're going to the airport. Why doesn't he just pick up a phone and call the airport and say, don't let those foreigners leave now? It's because he's acting on his own. Yes, it's explained that as well. But I feel like he could still get away with that. [00:43:43] Speaker A: He could, but. Okay. Also, where is he gonna get a phone to do that? [00:43:48] Speaker B: There's phones everywhere. [00:43:50] Speaker A: Huh. [00:43:51] Speaker B: I mean, it's really easier than doing a car chase. Like, just pulls into the nearest, like, store or whatever. [00:43:57] Speaker A: I like. [00:43:57] Speaker B: I know it's a Soviet Union and they don't have anything, but I'm pretty sure he can find a phone faster than they can get to the airport. [00:44:03] Speaker A: And then prove his credentials. Ahal. [00:44:05] Speaker B: On the phone to say national security. [00:44:08] Speaker A: Yeah. I don't know. I think. Right. One. It gives us, you know, some excitement in the movie other than just all the intrigue. And also, too. I don't. I just don't think it works. [00:44:20] Speaker B: Okay. [00:44:21] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:44:22] Speaker B: This is a movie. [00:44:23] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:44:24] Speaker B: Plot reasons. [00:44:24] Speaker A: Yeah. So Valentin notices Hank going on a plane or going through customs. Hank gets on a plane. Valent and Valentin demands where's the plane to Tokyo? And they point him the way. But turns out Hank and the Nintendo guys are actually on the flight to Zurich. They were on the first flight out, not the first flight out to Tokyo. So they stopped the wrong plane. [00:44:46] Speaker B: Yeah. That's pretty smart. Okay, Christian, this is the last time I will bring it up. [00:44:50] Speaker A: I don't believe you. But. Okay. [00:44:52] Speaker B: I mean, this time I'm serious. There's a part where it shows them sitting on the plane, all three of them. No dialogue. No dialogue. I wanted something, please. Something from these Nintendo guys. All this crazy just happened to them. They have nothing to say about it. Nothing. [00:45:12] Speaker A: So here's my theory. The white Nintendo guy. Because there's a white guy and there's a Japanese guy. He's the one who's, you know, all worried about the KGB in his warning Hank. So maybe he's had some dealings with this before and that's why he's not so worried. [00:45:27] Speaker B: I do not. [00:45:28] Speaker A: Like. I don't know. I don't know. [00:45:30] Speaker B: I appreciate the effort. I really do. [00:45:33] Speaker A: Yeah. After he's Failed to stop the deal. Valentin goes back down the tunnel and sees that Sasha's there, and she's there to arrest Valentin on the order of Gorbachev. So he gets his comeuppance. [00:45:46] Speaker B: That's right. [00:45:48] Speaker A: Hank is back at home, and he set up a makeshift stage for his daughter to perform her song that he missed. And shows his wife a check for $5 million to produce all the versions of Tetris other than PC. [00:46:01] Speaker B: So he somehow ended up with all the rights. [00:46:03] Speaker A: Yeah. So Nintendo don't produce games most of the time. Most of the time. So they need someone to do it for them and license it. So he. He has the license, and now he gets. He gets to do that. And then we get our ending montage with. I like the intercutting of, you know, Game Boy commercials with the fall of Berlin Wall and fall of communism. Soviet Union. [00:46:24] Speaker B: That's right. [00:46:25] Speaker A: And zooms out from there to see that Alexei and his wife are, you know, watching the tv and they see a package from Hank, and it's an original Game Boy. And on the back of the box, there's also tickets to San Francisco. [00:46:37] Speaker B: That's right. [00:46:38] Speaker A: And we see Eddie comes back. [00:46:40] Speaker B: I like that they remembered him. Eddie from the bank. [00:46:43] Speaker A: And it says, you know, welcome to your new home. And then we get the where are they now? Montage at the end where we find that Alexei and Hank formed the Tetris company, who now control all licensing for Tetris. [00:46:55] Speaker B: Yeah, they just make the same game over and over for 40 years. [00:46:58] Speaker A: Hey, it still sells. [00:47:00] Speaker B: It's like a board game in that respect. [00:47:02] Speaker A: Yeah. Stein continued to license games from the Soviet bloc or from the east, but he never got over the loss of Tetris. Maxwell stole $900 million from employee pension funds and died mysteriously. And Kevin was arrested in connection, but later acquitted. [00:47:23] Speaker B: And Tetris remains popular. [00:47:25] Speaker A: And the daughter, Maya, Hank's daughter, was appointed, you know, the new head of Tetris company. [00:47:32] Speaker B: That's right. [00:47:33] Speaker A: And with that, our move ends. [00:47:35] Speaker B: Yeah, I guess Tetris is popular. I don't know about you. I don't think. [00:47:39] Speaker A: I can't believe that this is your sticking point, that Tetris is popular. [00:47:43] Speaker B: No, I mean, obviously it is. To me, Tetris is like bagels, where it just has always existed and always will exist. [00:47:51] Speaker A: Okay. [00:47:52] Speaker B: But it's not something I ever, like, think about. You know what I mean? Actually, you know what? It's more like Monopoly. Like, it always existed and always will exist. [00:48:01] Speaker A: All right, all right. Shall we move into our spy Fact versus spy fiction. Spy fact versus spy fiction. [00:48:12] Speaker B: Yes, let's. So I have a lot. [00:48:15] Speaker A: All right, let me go first then. All right, so we've got a little bit on Robert Maxwell. That's from Wikipedia. Maxwell was a very famous famous British media proprietor, politician and fraudster. And so he, as said in the movie, he stole from his employee pension funds. When he died, he was like $9 million or billion dollars in debt. Wow. His daughter, Gise Maxwell or Ghislaine Maxwell, you may remember from being involved with the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking. [00:48:51] Speaker B: Oh, that's the same Maxwell. [00:48:52] Speaker A: Exist. Same Maxwell. [00:48:54] Speaker B: Wow. Crazy. [00:48:56] Speaker A: Now, we've actually dealt with someone who's inspired by Robert Maxwell before in a Spotify guys. Now, Maxwell, in addition to Ted Turner and Rupert Murdoch, was used as an inspiration for villainous media baron Elliot carver in the 1997 James Bond film, Tomorrow Never Dies. Oh, now, all right, so Maxwell died mysteriously having fallen off his yacht. Now, if you remember, the end of Tomorrow Never Dies tells Moneypenny to spin a cover story saying that, you know, Carver is believed to have committed suicide by jumping him off his yacht in the South China Seas. Very similar to Maxwell's death. [00:49:40] Speaker B: Yeah, I do remember that. Yeah, that's right. [00:49:43] Speaker A: Now, this is from Kevin Maxwell, who gave an interview to Express British newspaper. He actually said he read the screenplay and actually told the director, I think it's a good script. There are a couple of things in there you could have changed. But all in all, I like the script, but I think you could have gone way harder on my father, Robert Maxwell. And the director added, I won't tell you the words he actually used, but he said, we could have gone way harder. It turns out that Kevin also thought the Soviet Unions were pretty spot on, but the KGB were actually probably scary with all of the following recording they were doing. I also have something on the Consumer Electronics show, which is where we start our movie. [00:50:21] Speaker B: Actually. Hang on really quick. I actually thought Kevin came off way worse in the movie than his dad, so I'm surprised he said that. [00:50:27] Speaker A: Well, actually, I think if you look at how he comes off, sure, he tried to cut out Hank from the deal, but everything other than that, he was mostly above board. He was a little scheming, but he refused to do the bribery. He didn't know anything about it, so supposedly didn't know anything about the pension funds. So he was just an 80s businessman, as opposed to his father who was actively stealing from his employees. [00:50:50] Speaker B: Right. But he was also bratty and immature. [00:50:52] Speaker A: Sure, as a person, that's not, you know. Yeah. He might have been, you know, a terrible person, but his father is way worse. [00:51:00] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I mean, actual person versus action, Right. [00:51:04] Speaker A: In the movie, I see Robert Maxwell as being worse. [00:51:08] Speaker B: Yeah, of course. But. [00:51:10] Speaker A: Well, that's what you just said. [00:51:11] Speaker B: Kevin's pretty unlikable. [00:51:12] Speaker A: He's unlikable, sure. But I think with seemingly he's experienced some personal growth. I guess being arrested and then acquitted will give you. Hopefully give you some growth in that respect. [00:51:24] Speaker B: The idea, anyway. [00:51:25] Speaker A: All right, so the Consumer Electronics show, this from Wikipedia, is an annual trade show organized by the Consumer Technology Association. So it's held in January in Las Vegas, and it typically hosts, you know, presentations of new products and technology in the consumer electronics industry. Now, if you remember in the beginning, you know, his. I called her a booth bunny. And that is what they, you know, used to be called is, you know, they'd always have attractive women to draw in, you know, the audience to whatever booth that they're in. Now that practice stopped in. I'm trying to remember what year. [00:52:03] Speaker B: I don't know about the electronics show specifically, but when I was growing up, they were called booth babes at things like New York Comic Con. And I remember when PAX east officially banned them. And by banned them, they meant you could still have attractive women selling your game. They just couldn't be dressed, like, scantily or anything like that. They had to be dressed normally. [00:52:24] Speaker A: Now, I've actually been to CES before. I actually worked the show, and so it is a ridiculous show. It is like 180,000 people on top of everyone else who's already in Vegas. It takes up basically every single hotel in Vegas, has a room block for CES as well as even small displays for it. [00:52:42] Speaker B: Nice. [00:52:42] Speaker A: It's the biggest conference I've ever worked or attended. They'll frequently have celebrity guests. I forget what year it was before I arrived. I was there. I think it was maybe 2010. They actually had Tom Cruise as a guest at CES. [00:52:58] Speaker B: Okay, that's a big deal. [00:53:00] Speaker A: Yeah. When I was working there, they had a picture of him framed on the wall of people of attendance, like, if only. All right, Last thing I've got is about the folk song Korobeniki, which is the. Otherwise known as the Tetris theme or type, also billed as a type theme. Now, the song is based on a poem of the same name, which tells the story of a meeting between a corobinic or a peddler and a girl describing their haggling over goods as a Metaphor for seduction. Okay, now I have a fun story about this. So the closest I've ever been to Russia was Alaska. I don't remember if it was in Juneau or one of the other places I went on Alaskan cruise and they had this Russian shop set up. Oh, okay, let's go pop in. And I bought the sea on a whim, the CD of Russian folk songs. And the very first song like, wait, this is Tetris. And I had no idea it was a Russian folk song. [00:53:55] Speaker B: So you could see Russia from your front porch? [00:53:57] Speaker A: Is that what you're saying? But yeah. So it's, you know, it's a very popular, and there's been multiple covers of it. Now, the Tetris company actually holds a trademark on the variation of song that's used in the video game. Apparently it's memorable enough that they were able to get a trademark on it by itself as opposed to just the regular folk song. [00:54:17] Speaker B: Nice. [00:54:18] Speaker A: Yeah. And that's what I have for spy fact versus Spy fiction. [00:54:22] Speaker B: So I love doing these recent direct to streaming movies because a website called History vs Hollywood does all the work for me. Historyversushollywood.com and they ask questions and then they answer themselves. They say, did the real Hank Rogers wear cowboy boots? I don't remember him wearing cowboy boots. [00:54:38] Speaker A: I don't remember him wearing cowboy boots either. [00:54:41] Speaker B: But they say, no. He said, I didn't wear them. I have a ranch. I do have them, but I stopped wearing them as soon as I didn't have a horse. Okay. Is it true that Alexei couldn't profit from his game? Yes, that's correct. How did it first make its way outside Russia? Alexei Pajitnow's boss sent Tetris to a similar organization in Budapest, Hungary, called the Institute for Computer Science and Control Control. And they liked it. And then they ported it to the Commodore 64 and Apple too. Hungary was also a communist society, but it had passed reforms to create a more open market. One of its most popular exports was the Rubik's Cube, invented by erno Rubik in 1974. Was it Hank Rogers's idea for intended to package Tetris with the Game Boy? Yes, it was all right. In 1988, it was standard to package with the game. I remember the NES game with Mario Brothers and Duck Hunt, but not the gun for Duck Hunt. So thanks, Nintendo. He did say, if you include Mario, the Game Boy will be for little boys, but if you include Tetris, it'll be for everyone. Was Sasha based on a real person? Yes, she was a woman named Ola. And it's true that she was a KGB agent. Hank was aware of this from the moment he hired her. [00:55:54] Speaker A: Interesting. Okay, I assume you didn't watch all the way through the end of the credits. [00:55:59] Speaker B: No, I watched a little bit in case there was a mid credits scene. [00:56:02] Speaker A: But I didn't know if you go. If you watch all the way to the end. I just happen to have it on there, actually some video of when real life Hank went to Moscow. [00:56:11] Speaker B: Okay. [00:56:12] Speaker A: And you actually see the beta translator. All right, Like I was wondering, oh, did. Was she actually KGB or not? Because it's not addressed in that little brief clip that you see. But that's interesting to know that she was. That she was. [00:56:25] Speaker B: Yeah. I don't have this written down, but Hank said something like there was one who clearly stood out from the rest, spoke English really well, was way more attractive than everybody else. It was pretty clear that it was kgb. So yes, we were really friends. Did Hank Rogers fear that the Russians might punish him for selling a console version of Tetris? Yes. Once he knew that the Russians knew that they had never actually sold the console rights, he had a bigger problem on his hands. He feared that he could end up in some gulag since he'd been illegally selling the console version via Nintendo. According to the gaming historian, his wife Akimi really was approached by KGB agents, but they didn't like talk to her. They showed up at her office and hung around for a little bit. [00:57:03] Speaker A: That's almost even creepier. [00:57:04] Speaker B: Yeah, I know, right? So the. The double agents did not exist, nor did the car chase, to nobody's surprise. And finally, did Hank really have to race against the clock to secure the deal before the fall of the Soviet Union? No. Him becoming trapped in the Soviet Union, having to make it out with the rights to Tetris before the fall of communism wasn't part of the true story, which mainly involved contract negotiation, bickering over terminology. So actually the movie is more accurate than I was expecting. [00:57:29] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:57:30] Speaker B: All things being equal. Favorite quotes. All right, so now it's time for our favorite quotes. Christian, would you like to go first again? [00:57:42] Speaker A: All right, so I have a few. I've got. I liked. One of the first lines is I played Tetris for five minutes. I still see falling blocks in my dreams. I also like from Stein. Have you ever negotiated with a Soviets? Do you know what it feels like to be in a country where everyone is watching you, Alexei? And you know, when they're. When Hank is, you know, amazed that everyone knows the lyrics to Final countdown says, good ideas have no borders. [00:58:04] Speaker B: Cute. [00:58:05] Speaker A: From Valentin, he says to, I think it's the Belikov, I don't remember. Oh yeah, Who? He says, cross me again and you will no longer exist. [00:58:13] Speaker B: Yep. [00:58:15] Speaker A: KGB threat. And then from Gorbachev. You know, communism was never meant to prevent free freedom. Unfortunately, human greed got in the way. [00:58:23] Speaker B: Yeah, like, what a likely story. [00:58:24] Speaker A: And that's what I've got. [00:58:26] Speaker B: Okay, so I did like when he says, that's why Mario has Luigi. We mentioned that before. I found it very amusing when Valencop says Central Committee. Communist Party. Did he really need to say communist party in a one party state? I found that amusing. He also says to later someone else, we are not chums. The word chum immediately makes me think of either the Hardy Boys or Batman 66, no matter what the context is. Sure. There's a part where the white guy with the white hair from Nintendo says, you know how much we hate those motherfuckers. Referring to Atari. It's like, wow, sorry, sorry. There's a part where I think Hank says to Alexei, it's not fair that you're not making any money off your game. And he says, no, it is communism. [00:59:10] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:59:10] Speaker B: There's a part where somebody says, it's not tit for tit, it's tit for shit. I'm surprised you didn't get that one, Christian. [00:59:16] Speaker A: I thought you'd get that one. Yeah. [00:59:18] Speaker B: And then finally Valenkov. [00:59:20] Speaker A: Why do you keep calling him Valenkov? [00:59:22] Speaker B: Valentin. Valentin. Channels. Judge Dredden says I am the law. [00:59:28] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. Ratings. [00:59:35] Speaker B: Okay, so next it is time for our ratings. On a scale of 1 to 10 martinis, one being Avengers 1998 level bad and 10 being Mission Impossible. Ghost Protocol level good or even better, how would we rate Tetris? All right, let's go first. So the beginning is great, but towards the middle, when they start running back and forth between the rooms, it started to lose me. I found it confusing. And them bickering and arguing over contract rights didn't do that much for me. I know you like that contract stuff. Stuff. And then the car chase at the end was exciting, but I was rolling my eyes because I knew it wasn't true. Not even close to true. So the movie didn't do that much for me. However, first of all, it's True story history of things that exist, which I found to be interesting. And it's mostly accurate. So I'm going to give it a lot of credit for that. I'M going to give it a six out of ten. [01:00:27] Speaker A: All right. All right. I, I like this movie. I enjoyed this, you know, my second time watching it. Here's the question, because we love to stretch the definition of spy movie. Do you consider this a spy movie? [01:00:40] Speaker B: No. [01:00:41] Speaker A: Okay. All right. [01:00:43] Speaker B: And I remember your criteria for a movie that I won't mention in the past being you judge it by how much spying is in it. But to be fair, we've done movies like First Class, which the criteria is only a spy must be in it to meet the spy fi. Guys requirements. So I'm not going to be too technical about it. [01:00:59] Speaker A: Yeah, I would say yes because the KGB does play a significant role in the film. [01:01:05] Speaker B: Yeah, no, I totally agree about that. [01:01:09] Speaker A: Just because our main protagonists are not spies doesn't mean it's not a spy movie. I mean, what. Oh, yeah, yeah. [01:01:15] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. I would, I would never say otherwise. [01:01:18] Speaker A: I enjoyed here was just the overwhelming sense of dread that you feel when you're, you know, when you're in Moscow. Like you, you, you. They do a good job in giving the atmosphere of like the state controls everything and that you, you know, you gotta, you need to watch your step and you don't know who to trust. Like, I've watched other movies and, you know, maybe we'll get into it one day. The Russia House with John Connor. Even though they actually filmed in the Soviet Union, I didn't get any sense of dread at all. So I, I appreciate the sense of dread here. I also enjoyed Tetris as a game. It's not my favorite game, but it's a fun time sink and getting to see the behind the scenes of it. Because I always wondered as a kid, you see Tetris and you see the opening screen, it's like, oh, it's got the Kremlin or on it. Yeah. [01:02:03] Speaker B: St. Basil's Cathedral. [01:02:05] Speaker A: Yeah. St. Basil's the. What is it called? [01:02:08] Speaker B: The onions. [01:02:09] Speaker A: I see, I've heard the onions. I've heard the soft serve. [01:02:12] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, I can see that too. Absolutely. [01:02:14] Speaker A: So I was like, what is that connection there? Why is it, why is it Russian? And you know, you have the backwards R. The. Yeah, Tetris. I'm like. So I didn't, I don't know. I don't know why. I just never looked it up. What, you know, what's the Russian connection? So seeing here the story of it and the fact that it is, you know, other than obviously the, the car chase at the end, a lot of it is accurate or in the case of Robert Maxwell. Apparently it was not as bad as it was in real life. So I'm gonna Give this a 7 out of 10 martini just about bit higher than you. I enjoy, I enjoyed it. If it, you know, if I caught it on TV or cable, I'd probably watch it, you know, turn it on, watch it again. [01:02:53] Speaker B: Very nice. [01:02:53] Speaker A: Cool. [01:02:54] Speaker B: Anything else to discuss? [01:02:55] Speaker A: All right. As always, thank you to our listeners for joining us. You can find us on social media at the Spy Fi Guys on Facebook, Blue Sky, YouTube and Instagram and our merch store@redbubble.com until next time. I'm Christian. And I'm Zach and we are the Spy Spy Fi Guys signing off. Thank you for listening to the Spy Fi Guys. If you enjoyed our podcast, please be sure to give us a five star rating on itunes. The theme song from this podcast is Mistake the getaway by Kevin McLeod from Incompetech.com licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0. Films, books and television shows reviewed by our podcasts are the intellectual property of their respective copyright holders and no infringement is intended. [01:03:43] Speaker B: This is a personal podcast. Any views, statements or opinions expressed in this podcast are personal and belong solely to the participants. They do not represent those of people, institutions, or organizations that the participants may or may not be associated with in a professional or personal capacity. Unless explicitly stated, any views or opinions are not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company or individual. [01:04:08] Speaker A: You can find our podcast on social media at the Spy Fi Guys on Facebook, Blue Sky, YouTube and Instagram.