Film of The Month: Lose Yourself in Chances & Choices with World’s First Interactive Movie, Late Shift
PUBLISHED May 5th, 2021 11:20 am | UPDATED May 11th, 2021 01:18 pm
Released in 2017, Late Shift was the first ever interactive movie-game, available on Steam and the App Store. It received positive reviews not long after, and it’s evident why. Now that the movie theatre experience is overshadowed by COVID-19 precautions, and the idea of an interactive movie isn’t as far-fetched as we thought it seemed, Late Shift is seeing a revival of popularity.
New to Singaporean cinemas in 2021, the movie focuses on British university student Matt (who you play as), who is forced into working with armed robbers to steal an artefact from a London auction house. And, as with every heist/crime film, things go awry – and fast. But the best part about this movie, is that you decide how things unfold. The danger is imminent throughout the movie, so the uncertainty of dying or living feels as if it’s only partly up to you, and partly up to writer of Late Shift, Tobias Weber’s cinematic vision. You may never know though, because the film doesn’t let you in on anything. The fun part is choosing to act as you would in real life or descend down the rabbit hole.
Part game-part film, the writing, direction, and acting beats some movies that are released today. The premise follows a pretty standard film trope – where the robbers pull off a robbery only to find themselves in more trouble than they expected. The plot that follows after is where things get fun, with over 180 outcomes and chances to choose. Fast-paced and edgy from the constant ominous soundtrack, Late Shift starts out bleak and continues on throughout, leaving you feeling unsure of whether the moves you make were smart or not, which isn’t revealed until the last scene.
Because of this, the gameplay is exciting. It’s not as strenuous as MMO games, but the choices aren’t trivial either. The plot is convoluted from the start, and is only aided by the choose-your-own-path aspect, inevitably leading to more game pathways. In this way, viewers get to decide how complicated things get and how much they’re willing to risk it all.
Perhaps the greatest achievement of Late Shift however, is the ability to balance its gameplay with its storyline – something which other interactive movie-games like Black Mirror: Bandersnatch failed. The characters are all flawed in some way, especially protagonist Matt, who fixates on maths and numbers to rationalise his decisions. This of course, gets thrown out the window, not only because audiences are now deciding his fate, but also from the danger he finds himself in. In a way, playing as a developed, three-dimensional character raises the stakes far more than it would in regular games.
Throughout, we’re constantly taking chances and calculating probability. There’s no obvious right or wrong choice, only strategic decisions. The movie allows you to make as many enemies or allies as you’d like, even to escape the danger or sacrifice everything. You may not end up with the ending you wanted, and that’s part of the movie’s addictiveness, making you want to go back to the start and try again. By the end of it, you walk away with only one consolation – the decisions you make, whether moral or immoral, aren’t real. It’s just a game (or rather, movie).
Late Shift is playing at Golden Village cinemas. See website for showtimes. Download the CtrlMovie app for interactive play, available on the App Store and Google Play.
