This movie may be loved by teens, but do you have the NERVE to watch it?
Recently, I got the opportunity to see the movie Nerve, which was apparently based off a book with the same name (which I have not read.). The experience in the theatre consisted of me munching down Butterfinger bites while being surrounded with several young people, especially teenagers. I guess that was probably something I should've expected, since tweet after tweet about this movie were tweeted by people who don't look older than 17.
I didn't see how this movie was a "100/10" or worth watching again. I'll get more into as of why... right now! Let's look at this movie together! Doesn't that sound like fun?
The movie starts at a place teens love: A Macbook. Yes, we get to witness a girl log in to her laptop and put on her tunes, and we are introduced to our two main female characters: Venus "Vee" and Sydney. Vee is a hard-working, talented girl who is nervous about taking risks (as shown with her scared about admitting to her grieving mother that she wishes to go out of state for college). Sydney, on the other hand, is a natural risk-taker who plans on playing a game called "Nerve" (which on the outside is truth-or-dare without the truth).
This is Vee, your ordinary shy girl
And this character introduction shows the first problem with the movie. These characters aren't necessarily bad people (okay, Sydney is kind of an asshole, but that's expressed more later), but remember my article about movies last month? Well, people can recycle characters too. Vee is your typical shy good girl, like Bella Swan or Anastasia Steele, and Sydney is your "risk-taking bully with a problem", like Madison Pendleton or bullies from any generic kid show. These are over-done characters that keep getting used over and over and over again, and I really wish for these stereotypes to stop. This character introduction also got me thinking that Vee would accept her invitation from the out-of-state college (which I will refer to as "California School") at the end of the movie. Did that happen? We'll find out
Anyway, Sydney is signing up to play Nerve, and manages to get suspended from school by taking a dare to...moon the audience of a football game (Also, who still plays football in the spring (when colleges send acceptance letters)? I do not live in New York, so correct me if that is the case), I think, and goes to a restaurant with her friends. This scene introduces us to three new characters: Tommy (Vee's tech-savvy friend), Liv (Sydney's friend, who is helping her with Nerve), and JP (Vee's crush). During this scene, Sydney and Liv criticize Vee for not being a risk-taker, and the former takes a risk for Vee and talks to JP. Surprise, surprise, Vee gets rejected, and she runs out of the restaurant in anger after Sydney's actions.
The only photo I could find from that scene.
So, what is Vee to do? Should she cry? Should she scream? No, she signs up for Nerve as a player to prove to the meanie Sydney that she can take risks! She watches a video about the game, which basically explains the rules: You must complete a dare for a specified monetary amount within a certain time span, the final two players have a face-off (Gee, I wonder what it could be), you are eliminated from the game if you "fail" (fail to complete a dare) or "bail" (choose not to complete a dare), you cannot snitch to anyone ("Snitches get stitches", according to the game), and the winner gets glory. And, I have to admit, the game itself is quite a creative concept. I mean, it's not the first game where you have young people facing against each other (like Battle Royale (which is another one of my favorite films, by the way)), but it's a creative way of doing a game like that. I can see how this game could be popular in real life, and I can't think of any book or movie that does the same thing.
Anyway, Vee signs up, puts in her personal information (through a fingerprint), and she calls Tommy about it. Tommy takes her to a local diner, confused about why Vee is playing the game, and we see her first dare: Kiss a stranger in public for $100. She goes around the restaurant, glancing around for the perfect stranger until she finds a guy close to her age reading her favorite book (To the Lighthouse), she approaches him. They talk a bit about the book (and spoil it), and Vee kisses him for five straight seconds. She gets her $100 (though she doesn't know how she'll get it), and she returns to Tommy. A few seconds later, we see the guy she kissed serenading her. Apparently, he (introduced as Ian) is also a player on Nerve! What are the odds? So the two talk again before getting another dare: Drive to the city (New York City, to be specific) together for $500. Vee initially doesn't want to go through with it (she apparently only wanted to do one dare), but quickly changes her mind and rides on Ian's motorcycle on a bridge to the city, leaving Tommy to pay $19.95 to watch the two in the diner. At this point, I predicted the movie's ending: Vee and Ian will be the last two players standing, having played the game together, and will have to fight to the death. Magically, the two will make it out alive and Vee will accept her invitation from California school. We will find out whether or not I'm correct later.
Go with Ian, Vee! You're in the main character chair, after all!
The movie cuts to Sydney, Liv, and a guy who's name I forgot (I'll just call him Dude) in the city already. Liv alerts Sydney about Vee playing and her rising popularity, and Sydney grows upset (because she "didn't intend for [Vee] to start playing"). However, she still has a higher amount of viewers than Vee, so she is pleased about that as the movie shows where other players are in the city (which was a neat effect) and how far they are from Vee and Ian. Speaking of those two, they part ways once they arrive in the city, and Vee gets her next dare: Try on an expensive dress for $1,000. She does so, and she runs into Ian again (who is now wearing some kind of beige suit), they begin chatting again. However, when they return to the dressing room, their belongings are missing and they get a new dare: Leave the Store. They realize that they didn't have to steal the clothes they tried on, and they run out of the store in their underwear.When they leave, they are surrounded by watchers who are fans of them and find a bag with the clothes they tried on. Some watcher paid for them and the two players got to keep them. How convenient! Now they get to be together, which is part of my prediction.
We also meet Ty during this scene. Ty is another player of Nerve for now, but he'll become more important later. Just keep that name in your mind.
To be honest, that scene was pretty entertaining
We then cut to Tommy, who is still in the diner, calling his friend (who I'll call Dudette). Dudette has an access code for a forum in the deep web (apparently Nerve is from the deep web, which brings up a plot hole: How did they get onto the surface without some police officer finding out about it? Police have internet too!), which Tommy asks for. Reluctantly, she gives her the code, and we find out something about Ian.
Want to know what it is? Guess; guess what the writers do.
The writers pull a Battle Royale. Ian apparently played Nerve a year prior to the movie, stealing a motorcycle and being involved in a crane-hanging dare. I know that Battle Royale is not popular reading material among today's youth, but damn. I swear to God that they literally took Shingo (a character from Battle Royale who won a previous, well, battle royale, but scarred for life) and westernized him and made him less scary for Nerve. I know that we need more interesting characters in movies, but Ian at this point feels more like a rip-off.
Anyway, the movie cuts back to Sydney and her gang, still upset about Vee getting more watchers. Speaking of Vee (really, that was the only thing of substance in Sydney's scene), she and Ian are now at a tattoo parlor. The dare is "Let Ian pick [Vee's] tattoo", and Vee begins to talk about why her mom is grieving: Her risk-taking brother dies two years prior to the movie (I'm sorry, but the brother character is pointless. His only purpose is to make the mom grieving. They could've made the mom overprotective, but no, grieving would make her more sympathetic! Bite me, movie. I don't need to sympathize with everyone.). Ian feels sorry about this, and then she gets her tattoo: a lighthouse (because remember the book they were talking about earlier in the movie? We need to add the fact that they have that book in common). Though, to admit, the tattoo artists are pretty funny.
No fire-breathing dragons for Vee!
Speaking of Vee's mother, though, we cut to her at work, getting deposits of money into her account (from Vee's dares). She asks Tommy about this (thinking she's getting hacked), and Tommy claims that Vee got a job (remember: Stitches get snitches). Tommy reassures her that everything is alright, but has to hang up. We need to get back to dares! Ian is dared to get to 60 mph blindfolded with Vee, a stunt that would've probably gotten both of them killed in real life. They accept the dare and Ian is given a bumper sticker to put over his helmet by...someone. Sydney and her friends are now at a party, watching this dare, and are in as much suspense as the movie audience probably was (probably is the key term. I was just thinking that they would be okay and that my prediction would be correct). And guess what? They make it out alive (barely escaping a run-in, though), and Sydney is jealous that they are getting more views and wishes to get "a real dare".
Vee and Ian take a short break from dares, and she talks a bit about Sydney. Remember how I mentioned that Sydney is a "risk-taking bully with a problem"? Well, Vee mentions that Sydney is insecure and projects that on our protagionist, while Sydney and her friends are watching them from a tv at a party. Sydney, hurt, asks for a dare, and she meets Ty. Ty suggests that they pair up, but she declines (and JP shows him our of the apartment). Ian's phone vibrates, and he suggests going to the party where Sydney is, and Vee agrees. Keep in mind that I mentioned that Ian's phone vibrated.
"Anyone listening to me salting my friend?"
"Just the 40,000 people watching you live, Vee."
Speaking of the party, Sydney finally gets a dare: Walk across a ladder from one apartment to another. Being drunk and scared of heights, she fails miserably and drops her phone. She bails, and then we see a montage of other players failing or bailing, with the last clip showing that Ty is still in the game. After that montage, Vee and Ian arrive at Sydney's party, and Sydney calls her out on what she said, initiating a fight that ends in Vee getting Sydney's glory (by completing the dare that Sydney bailes on- with monetary compensation, of course!). Sydney then begins to make out with JP and Vee finds out that Ian was dared to go to the party. Upset at losing her friend and original crush (even though Sydney was a bitch to begin with) for the sake of a dare, she storms out of the party and tries to tell a police officer about Nerve. Though I have to ask- what prompted her to do that? It's not illegal to fight with a friend, and she was okay with taking the deadly risk of riding with a blindfolded motorcycle driver. She really has no point in telling the police anything, but because she did do that, Nancy lost all of the money (not just the monetary compensation from Nerve) from her bank account, and Ty knocks Vee out.
To admit, I didn't see that coming. I mean, Vee had absolutely no purpose in telling the police about Nerve, but I thought if anyone were to snitch, it would've been Sydney (after all, she bailed after doing something that could've killed her). However, on the other hand, my prediction is still correct: Vee and Ian are in the game and have done a lot of it together.
Anyway, Vee wakes up in a freight container and a computer informs her that the game now controls her life. Is there a way to get out of 4 Chan-style torture? Yes, she has to get on a ferry and win the game. So, she gets out of the container and runs into Ian, who explains that he played Nerve the year before and tried to snitch, but bailed (and his dad lost his job as a result). Ian says that he will do a dare to get into the top 2 and leaves. Vee meets up with Sydney (yeah, Vee surprisingly forgave Sydney for projecting her insecurities onto her) and Tommy, and they begin to scheme up a plan to shut Nerve down (somehow, the people behind Nerve didn't see this conversation on their servers). Ian completes a dare to get into the finals, and he and Vee begin to make their way to some coliseum.
I couldn't find a picture of the freight container, so enjoy this instead
At this point, I found a plot hole in the ending. Remember how if you bailed from the game, you would lose? Well, why couldn't Ian just bail after making it to the finals? If he did that, Vee would've technically won Nerve and therefore would've been saved from having her life ruined. They would also both be alive and well and could date. But alas, I guess the good guys have to win.
(This review is getting long and I feel like I'm getting carpal tunnel. I will write part 2 later).
