Black Mirror Episodes Most Likely To Happen

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#23 | Black Museum

Black Museum is one of the most acclaimed episodes ever created. It stars break out British actress Letitia Wright as a young woman whose car breakdowns and needs to recharge. Is a deserted ghost town she comes across a museum dedicated to the horrors technology has cast on society (a finale episode to mirror the overall theme of the show). She goes in and gets a tour from a weasely salesman type (Douglas Hodge) that laments not having the crowds he once used to. He takes her through a series of different mini-stories all building to a finale attraction. When this is revealed, it is also revealed that the girl may not be who she seems.

This takes the spot on the list of Black Mirror episodes most likely to happen that deems it the absolutely most unlikely episode to happen and that is because it is another series of stories and they are all very big jumps. There is putting consciousness in a stuffed animal, enslaving yourself to automate you life and transferring of realtime body response information to another person. That is not even the payoff. The build up is to enslaving a man’s consciousness and not exactly doing the greatest things with it. Like any good Black Mirror episode, it has its merit in thought, but it is out there.

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#22 | White Christmas

White Christmas is multiple different stories surrounding a suave confidence man played by Jon Hamm and a broken anti-social man played by Rafe Spall. Hamm is a pickup artist specialist helping men get women by seeing what they see through special contacts and communicating with them through secret and seamless means. Things go very wrong and he is on the hook. Spall is a man in a relationship that gets “blocked” which in this future means completely erased from existence. Desperate to see a child he doesn’t know about he is accused of doing something horrible. The two setups culminate with the men alone in a cabin, but that cabin story too is not what it seemed and a bigger plot to get at something deeper.

This racks up enough points to be almost at the bottom of the list of Black Mirror episodes most likely to happen because it has not one but three different scenarios that are highly unfeasible. In setup one, there is hidden video via contacts. Real time wireless video can’t get that small, at least any time soon. In setup two, people are completely blurred out from peoples actual lives. There are so many things that need to happen before this is even thinkable. And the final payoff is on the exact level of believable as the move Inception staring Leonardo DiCaprio.

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#21 | Metalhead

Metalhead is black and white suspenseful thriller about the end of humanity. A woman and a small group of rebels are hiding from mysterious robot dog-like creatures that are hunting them. They are on an important mission and willing to come out of hiding to commit it. This is there mission to get to a warehouse to complete it. It is in an old style where the silence creates the tensest moments.

This one is very low on the list of Black Mirror episodes most likely to happen because a lot has to go down for this to be real. It appears to be the apocalyptic future where the robots have enslaved the human race. The world is baron and old a few old warehouses remain. Humans are hunted down and killed and there appears to be only a few left. This isn’t just a slight change to society, this is the end. If Terminator has taught us anything, however, its that this is how it will probably go down.

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#20 | Hang the DJ

Hang the DJ is the story of dating apps being really involved and seemingly very accurate. We follow the journey of two individuals through an unusual process of a device forcing them to be with another individual for a set number of days whether a week or three years. Decisions being made are never clear but it always seems to be about the individual learning something about themselves.

This lands towards the end of the list of Black Mirror episodes most likely to happen because it is set in a world where society is almost unrecognizable. You sign up for a program that gives your life over to a machine. That machine tells you that you must be with another person. You get no say in the matter. It also gives you no justification for the decisions and this process goes on for years. The two problems here are a corporation or entity having that much access/control to a life and the second is people going along with all of that and not being able to opt out. Maybe that could be a sociatle norm one day, but change happens slow and this seems so dramatic.

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#19 | Rachel, Jack, and Ashley Too

In Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too Miley Cyrus takes on the role of a worldwide pop superstar. He parents died and she has been taken care of by her aunt / manager for years. The woman has all the markings of the wicked godmother from a Disney flick who is more interested in the money than the wellbeing of her niece. In an effort to squeeze more money, she introduces an AI robot that promises the replicate Ashley. After an accident shifts the balance of power a ragtag team must fight back against the evil company.

This takes the late middle spot on the list of Black Mirror episodes most likely to happen because it requires the futuristic concept of transferring everything a human being is into a little bobblehead sized robot. It is not as far fetched as many of the other technological feats in the Black Mirror universe. The reason it is so low is more for writing. The story itself of a girl knowingly transforming herself only to get into an accident only to take it all down with nothing, is not the series best.

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#18 | Fifteen Million Merits

Fifteen Million Merits is about a future society where a version of Got Talent runs the world. You have to basically pay for everything and then you are indebted to this corporation so then you work for them by riding a stationary bike all day for power and then living in a box where they can’t escape ads or this massive talent show. This is about one man who tries to save a bright eyed girl from being enprisoned to the life of a sex worker.

This takes a lower spot on the list on the list of Black Mirror episodes most likely to happen because it requires a massive society change, moving in a direction of slavery. It is hard to imagine this world, with all the opportunities to speak out, would knowingly let themselves move into a world where they are forever indebted to a company through basically a scam where you would forever be their slave.

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#17 | Be Right Back

Be Right Back is the story of a young woman who loses her new husband and to cope she orders what is ultimately a clone of the man. At first it is too good to be true but then more and more seems like an operant attack on nature. The entire episode is her struggle with what is real and what is naturalal.

This is on the lower side of the list of Black Mirror episodes most likely to happen because it deals with the idea of complex human cloning. This is a hot topic that has been explored for decades but no one has figured it out. Not only that, it has all the memories and idiosyncrasies of the cloned person. Who knows if that is even a thing that can be transferred.

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#16 | Nosedive

Nosedive is one of the most critically acclaimed installments of the show and stars a very bight eyed Bryce Dallas Howard just before she became a big star and household name. It is a story of a future where social media decides everything from your job, to where you can live to who you can talk to. Everything you do can be scored as either positive or negative by the people around you and you have an overall score that everyone can see. The closer to a 5.0 you are, the more successful you will be at life. When an old friend gives a woman who tries too hard a chance to bump up a class or two, she unravels her whole life to try jump at the opportunity.

This takes a lower spot on the list of Black Mirror Episodes most likely to happen because it requires a change to society so massive it seems impossible. The technology of basically a souped up social network is there, but what is not there is that being public information that all aspects of life have the right to make all their decisions based on that. People get up in arms when they are discriminated against based on their age or where they live, think about how uncool this would be with people.

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#15 | The Entire History of You

The Entire History of You is about a man going through a troubled time in his life and having to cope with it and this overall technology that runs society. That technology is that everyone records everything they see and sources, everything from job interviews to airport security, constantly checks it to do everything. Some questionable things come up and the whole method is question.

This takes this mid to late spot on the list of Black Mirror Episodes most likely to happen because it is about a technology that is pretty out there, but at least seems fathomable and reachable. The idea here is basically a contact lens (or worse yet head implant) that records a ton of information. Even if you could get that deep video quality, to store that much information and make it that easily accessible feels very far away.

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#14 | Crocodile

Crocodile is about a world pretty similar to today except as a form of legal evidence, peoples memories can be recalled. When very young, a woman was involved in an accidental murder that was not reported to the police. This haunts her and she spends her entire life ducking everything that may even possibly involve scanning her memory. The time, however, has come and she must reconcile the possible ramifications of her past.

This takes a middle to low spot on the list of Black Mirror episodes most likely to happen because it is all very grounded in reality and seems like a natural progression of the legal system but it still involves a level of technology to take video and then store it on a massive scale that we do not have the technology for. The entire life video recorded of just a small town would require the server farms of Google. Technology is all about being able to fit more in less space though so we shall see.

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#13 | USS Callister

USS Callister is the story of an immersive MMORPG space video game that meets DNA Theft. A nerdy computer programmer, game designer and Star Trek ripoff superfan heads up one of the most popular titles out there. He has this but he gets no respect from his peers, co-workers and women he likes so he creates a pocket in his game with an alter ego of himself. Through discarded coffee cups and the like, he gets the DNA of those who have wronged him and enslaves them as his crew aboard his space ship in this digital world.

On the surface, this seems wildly impossible but it takes this spot on the list of Black Mirror Episodes most likely to happen because the most unbelievable things should be overlooked. This is from the perspective of video game characters, so do not worry about the laser weapons and aliens, that is all happening now in very realistic video games. The freaky idea here is about consciousness and whether it can be transmitted and recreated via DNA. This is a big question that we cannot begin to explain but with all the DNA test kits out there, we are certainly working on this type of thing. Though probably not to have people be space captains.

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#12 | Arkangel

Arkangel is the story of an overprotective parent and the lengths one would go to protect someone they love. When a mother has a child, she is allowed to participate in the brand new “Arkangel” program that put a special implant in the child so they could be tracked and protected from harm. Years go on and the controversial program is shut down but this young child still must deal with it. This is the battle of the mother learning to let go of control.

This takes a spot close to the center of the list of Black Mirror Episodes most likely to happen because it partly seems in the realm of possible both from a technical and societal acceptance standpoint but there are certain mind control things that seem like a strength. Low jacking your child is one thing, and very real, but being able to block a barking dog from what they can see in real life seems lightyears away.

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#11 | Playtest

Playtest follows an aimless traveler in Europe who stumbles onto a video game playtest opportunity. It seems too good to be true but the Willy Wonka of video game designers is going to let him try what is being speculated as the absolute future of gaming. A headset and digital program create a masterful VR world. What ends up happening is a horror-filled world that takes a psychological toll unlike anyone could ever experience. What appears to be a situation gone wrong is much more than what it seems.

This takes a middle spot on the list of Black Mirror episodes most likely to happen because it mainly just deals with the experiences of one very expendable person. So many of the Black Mirror episodes deal with mind control and as far as those episodes go, this is not that outlandish. There is a horror world created completely in his mind but this could technically happen. It doesn’t take some large social acceptance, it is one person disappearing off the street and a rich corporation experimenting on them. This fantasy horror world exists but it is only in one person’s mind and we know from nightmares and dreams that one mind can do crazy things.

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#10 | Men Against Fire

Men Against Fire is the story of an army battalion that is getting ready to go out and defeat the bug-zombie-ish creatures like its the intro of the 1997 film Starship Troopers. The battles are horrendous but when a threat that evil is attacking you must stop the. After a malfunction in a unit changes how one soldier sees things, he investigates. Turns out, spoiler alert, that the chips in their heads that were supposed to make them super-soldiers also made them see another peaceful race of people as they creatures so they could kill them with no remorse.

This takes this spot on the list of Black Mirror episodes most likely to happen because the technology seems not far off and deep state-run propaganda is very real. You have two things here. First, soldiers are mind controlled to think that a certain race of people are bug creatures and they are actually saving the world from a dangerous creature. Implanting a device to make someone see things seems possible, but targeting one race does not. The second thing going on here is that everyone believes this is real. To convince masses to believe there is such a big and crazy threat seems not possible, but it has for real happened. For example, Natzis.

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#09 | San Junipero

San Junipero is about a past world that seems to be filled with metaphors and symbolism. The world is a VR world created in the mind of two women that went an entire life fighting to be together in a world that didn’t want them to be. The different settings, such as the 1980s, speak a larger message about who they are and the journey they both made and need to make.

San Junipero is the line in Black Mirror Episodes most likely to happen between the already happening and the starting to be far out there. That being said, it is very much grounded in what is available now and what they do is very much in the realm of possibility. It is a simulation that seems real and two people share. There are no VR games nearly as cerebrally real was what is happening here, but it is more like we are working with an original Atari and they are running Playstation 5. We are not there yet but we are close.

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#08 | Striking Vipers

Striking Vipers is about two old college friends, played by Anthony Mackie and Yahya Abdul-Mateen, that reunite after their lives had grown apart over the years. A simple gift of a VT fighting game at a family BBQ was a way for them to stay in touch. A simple game becomes a catalyst for an event that is unclear if it is a light on their true selves or something different. This is less about technology and more about how relationships can change, but the game is at the center.

This is near the center of the list of Black Mirror episodes most likely to happen because it deals with something that is already happening, though maybe not exactly in this way, but is a version of the technology that seems far off. Hiding behind an online avatar or being a different character in a video game you want to imbibe is nothing new. And sadly two older men who initiate intimate interactions online may being doing so with a character that is not representative of the human behind it. All very real. What is not real is this hyper sensitive and realistic form of VR. It seems impossible to get to that level of sensation transference.

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#07 | White Bear

White Bear follows a woman who cannot remember anything waking up alone in a strange house in a strange suburb. Yelling for answers, she wonders out to only find hundreds of people not communicating with her but only filming her on their phones. Confused and pleading for help, she come across “hunters” with guns, chainsaws and more coming after her. She has no idea what is going on but runs in terror. Turns out, big spoiler alert, this is all an elaborate staged reality show that is a form of punishment to a kid killer that is done day after day after day for people to watch.

This is still in a pretty likely section of the Black Mirror episodes most likely to happen list because crazy and elaborate reality shows have been going on for years. You could absolutely get a stage as big as they space they used for this daily ordeal and get enough people to participate in a Truman Show like experience. And people can be very cruel, especially to people they deem “celebrities”. The thing that was unlikely was how they were able to control her mind, implant memories, and wipe a controlled amount of things for a controlled period of time seems very far off. We have nothing advanced on mind control yet.

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#06 | Hated in the Nation

Hated in the Nation is a buddy cop adventure of two female agents chasing down a murder using robotic killer spy bees to assassinate one person a day based on a twitter hashtag game. The episode is their journey to unravel the clues and find this person who is playing an even more deadly game than anyone ever thought.

This lands in a believable space on the list of Black Mirror Episodes most likely to happen because all thats happening here is hardcore cancel culture, which is very present today. The futuristic technology here is cyber bee AI beings / assassins. The bees can do some pretty robust things, which seem far out, but we are there on controllable robots of that size.

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#05 | The Waldo Moment

The Waldo moment is about a comic that feels like he is on the cutting edge of politics and really wants to stick it to the man with his humor. No one cares. That is until he uses the voiceover gig for a blue cartoonish character named Waldo to sling his humorous digs and call outs to politicians. That is when people start pay attention and of course things get out of control. It gets to the point where the only place people get their information from Waldo and power struggles ensue.

This is an easy one for the list of Black Mirror episodes most likely to happen because it is about a propaganda machine in the form of a cartoonish and love-able character that is basically the internet trolls of all internet trolls. Considering the president of the united states gets in twitter feuds with everyone from and everyday work to cartoon characters like Marge Simpson, this is like looking into a mirror. What also is very realistic is the fact that they realize that they way to win is not to remove it but to change the overall positioning to move the evil momentum in their direction. And yes, infiltrating the entirely of society and popular culture is easy, just look at the “viral video” or how anyone on TikTok can instantly become a big deal.

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#04 | The National Anthem

The National Anthem is about a horrific and public kidnapping event where all the criminals want is the great embarrassment of the prime minister. They will release their victim if the head of the nation with have sex with a pig on national television. The episode is the back and forth of whether or not he should do it, with the 24 hour news cycle and mudslinging nature of the press going nuts covering the whole ordeal.

This tale of a man’s struggle over his duty to his country takes the #4 spot on the list of the Black Mirror episodes most likely to happen because this is all very representative of exactly where we are today. The whole point the episode is trying to make is everyones lives are digital and present. News is no longer a presentation of facts but a sensationalizing of the trashiest human stories. Things that shouldn’t be covered are covered endlessly, feeding the disgusting beast that is public discourse. Yes a public figure could be blackmailed into doing something horrible, if public opinion is enough of a bullying force to wish it so.

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#03 | Shut Up and Dance

Shut Up and Dance follows a young teenager who does something shameful in front of a computer after installing a virus, leading to the recording of this act. A nameless digital presence warns that if he does not do their bidding, the world would see the blackmail. What starts out as a simple delivery becomes more and more dangerous and seedly. Paying off to a questionable delivery of justice.

This race against the clock thrill ride takes a lower spot on this list of Black Mirror episodes most likely to happen because all that is happening here is good old fashion blackmail. What makes it a scary tale in the series is specifically how real and easy it all is. Tracking with phones, visual confirmation, cameras, everything happening over digital channels. All of this can be so easily manipulated. This isn’t just likely, it has probably happened. There is nothing far fetched here except for the lengths the individuals behind all this have gone.

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#02 | Bandersnatch

Bandersnatch was an aside “Black Mirror Presents” Netflix movie that was the first to use the service’s choose your own adventure type of multiple path narrative technologies. It fit in very well to the premise of making choices and not knowing what is real. The idea of this episode was that the great video game ever to be created was “Bandersnatch” but the original designer never finished it because he went mad and committed suicide. An ambitious kid picks up where he left off and starts to follow the same path.

This special edition takes the runner up spot on the list of the Black Mirror episodes most likely to happen because what’s going on here is someone losing their grip on reality and being emerged into a fake paranoid world that seems as real as anything else to the user. With the state of mental health and the digital world, this is already happening all the time. The interesting map of choices and idea of what are what makes this episode the trippy ride that it is.

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#01 | Smithereens

Smithereems is a very intimate episode of Black Mirror as far as they go. They entire story is two men in a car in a field on an abandoned highway. Something happens to a man’s family that pushes him over the edge and causes him to take an employee of a social media company hostage with a gun on the side of the road. He blames the public company The hostage negotiators show up to deal but so does the social media company. They do not want the bad press. The tenstion filled 90 minutes is basically a heated conversation between all of them.

This takes the top spot on the list of Black Mirror episodes most like to happen because there is almost nothing futuristic about this at all. It fits into the brand because it is about the greater evil of a major technology company and an overall message of responsibility. This is the journey of a man with a gun and hostage in a car, versus the cops and great forces trying to get him out. Nothing crazy or futuristic here.

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Which of the Black Mirror Episodes most likely to happen is your favorite? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!