Nerve

Nerve is a movie that I watched recently. It’s about an introvert, teenager, Vee Delmonico, who is pressured by her friends to play an online game called Nerve, where each player is required to complete a series of dares to win money. The dares are created by ‘the watchers’ of the game and the game has access to all of your information on your computer, including your bank account information, your social media accounts, etc. There are three rules to the game: the dares must be recorded on the players’ phone, and if they decide not to do the dare or fail to do it, they lose the money have earned from the game, and you can’t snitch on Nerve, or else there are consequences. Vee decides to be a player, and her first dare was to kiss a random guy at the diner. She finds a guy named Ian reading her favorite book, and decides to kiss him. It turns out that he was also a player and starts singing to her in front of everyone in the diner. The ‘watchers’ liked them both together so they were both dared to go to the city with each other for $200. She needed the money, since she wanted to go to an expensive Art school outside of the country, and she couldn’t afford to. They continue to complete a series of dares together. Tommy, Vee’s best friend decides to look up Ian online, because he was worried about her. He didn’t find any information about Ian online, so he asks his friend Azhar, who was a hacker, to give him a pass to the dark web. Tommy finds videos of Ian playing Nerve, where he steals a motorcycle and one of the videos was of him hanging from a crane with two other guys, and one of the guys fell. Syd, Vee’s other bestfriend, also plays nerve and is jealous of Vee for having so many followers. Nancy, Vee’s mother is confused when she finds all that money being transferred to her account, so she calls Tommy for help, but he is unable to tell her anything, so he just says Vee got a job and is saving money. Vee gets into a fight with Syd and gets angry and decides to tell the cops about the game, however it turns out that the cop parked outside was a watcher and catches her snitching. Ty, one of the players, knocks her out cold. Vee wakes up inside a huge crate, with “SNITCHES GET STITCHES” painted on the walls. The only way Vee can win, is if she wins the final round. Nancy gets notifications on her phone that she lost all the money on her bank accounts. Vee finds Ian and Ian tells her to win the final round, and she agrees. The final round was between her and Ian and the dare given was the one who shoots the other first wins. Vee and Ian, who were clearly in love, are unable to complete the dare. Ty comes and decides to complete the dare. In the background, Tommy and Azhar are trying to send a poll to the watchers if they wanted Ty is kill anyone. The majority chose Yes, so Ty shoots Vee.Every watcher then has their names exposed and a message notifying them that they are accessories to murder, with the option to sign out. Everyone does, allowing Azhar to crash Nerve’s server and shut it down for good. Vee then reveals she was alive, having orchestrated the whole thing with Ty involved, sine he fired a blank.
Everything goes back to normal, and Azhar makes it so that Vee and Nancy get their money back. Vee and Ian, who says his real name is Sam, decide to pursue a relationship.

This story shows the effect technology has on us. Teenagers are completing impossible dares to get more followers and money, which is similar to what happens in social media. Girls try to post “attractive” pictures of the themselves to gain more followers. Also, Vee, who was a shy person, wanted to prove herself in front of her friends, by completing a series of dares in a game. The watchers were too caught up in the game, that they chose to end someone’s life. The game had access to all the information about the players, which is a representation of how our world is today. Anyone can have access to anyone’s social media accounts, bank accounts, etc. It shows that technology can be dangerous and can easily control someone’s life.