Wondering If You've Found Bandersnatch's Best and Wildest Ending? Here's Our Ranking

This ending occurs probably somewhere close to the midway point in the complex web of choices. Stefan, on the edge of a breakdown, is obsessively trying to finish his game. When he snaps and yells at his father, he finds himself at the doors of the treatment center where he sees his therapist, R. Haynes. After he spots Colin walking by, you have two choices: follow Colin or go see the therapist.

If you pick the latter, Stefan winds up with a heavier dose of his medication, which you can then opt to make him take. If he follows directions, he ends up a bit numbed out, but he finishes the video game. The reviewer on the TV screen gives him an average rating, saying it felt like the game was made on autopilot.

This one's my least favorite because it's so bland and paint-by-numbers. Sure, Stefan maintains his sanity, but at what cost? He doesn't create the game he's been dreaming up for years! This certainly feels like the path of least resistance, and the path of lots of yawns.

There are two major occasions in which you can decide to destroy Stefan's computer (and his dreams). The first is mentioned above, when his father is trying to coax him out for lunch. If you decide to pour tea over the computer instead of yelling at his father, that's it, game over.

The second is a bit later; Stefan has one last weekend to make the game perfect, and his computer crashes. You can either smack the desk or smash his computer. If he smashes his computer, though, the jig is up. This ending is only slightly better than zombie medicated Stefan, just because there's a tinge of crazy there. At least there's a bit of passion in his motives! And hey, maybe he could buy a computer and start over. Or something.

The first huge decision in the film comes when Stefan must decide whether or not to create his game at Thakur's fancy new offices. If you agree to make the game in-house, with a big desk and a fancy creative team, everything goes off without a hitch . . . except the game sucks. It gets a terrible review. As a funny wink to the interactive elements at play, Stefan says he needs to "try again," and we the viewer must go back to that moment and refuse Thakur's offer, opting instead to work at home.

I know, I know. This one's even more boring than the medicated ending. I've bumped it up a few slots because it happens so early on, and it's a very short, no-frills ending. And it's a dead end, so you don't get any sense of FOMO as you move forward. You just get to snap back and make the other choice. Easy.

Going back to that first (and in my opinion, the worst) ending, let's say you follow Colin instead of sending Stefan to see his therapist. Stefan confesses how lost he is to his idol, and Colin takes pity, saying he must be "in the hole" and in a creative slump. Happens to the best of us.

Back in Colin's apartment, we meet his wife Kitty and his daughter Pearl. In a separate room, Colin offers Stefan a puff of weed and a psychedelic drug that sends him on a wild trip. Colin waxes poetic on the nature of the universe, how there are multiple realities and paths and nothing really matters. (Cue another wink to the audience.) To prove his point, he says someone must jump from the balcony. If they die here, they'll live on in another reality.

So who will jump? You must pick Colin or Stefan. If Stefan jumps, we reach an end in which his game was abruptly finished, with the reviewer alluding to his tragic accident. If Colin jumps, we go back to the therapist and move forward. But after that, Colin tends to be conspicuously absent, and at other times aware of the greater forces at play.

This ending is pretty interesting to me. It's the first heavy moral dilemma you can encounter, and it's a pretty gruesome finish. Plus, it's interesting to see Colin philosophizing about the very thing he's participating in. Makes me dizzy. Of course, I still wanted to move further, into the juicier endings.

The points of the story seem to always converge on Stefan murdering his father. That's where things really pick up, obviously. You have two choices at this point: chop up the body or bury it. If you decide to bury the body, Stefan gets interrupted by Thakur. Time's up, he needs the game now. Will Stefan have it done by the end of the day?

I said yes. Thakur then sends Colin over to check in, at which point I made Stefan kill Colin as well. Can't have witnesses. According to other murmurs on the internet, there are threads in which Stefan kills Kitty (Colin's wife) and Thakur as well. In all of these cases, though, Stefan always ends up in jail. The game gets sh*tty reviews, and that's that on that.

Obviously, this is a fun one to watch. First, to see Stefan trying to deal with his dad's body, then with a possible murder spree as he unravels further and further. It's almost turning into some kind of murder thriller, but the fact that Stefan ultimately ends up in jail makes it feel more like a fizzle. Still fun, though.

Instead of burying Dad's body, you can chop it up! Flash forward to a very zen Stefan who has finished his game, has turned it in on time, and is glowing as he talks to his therapist about it. We get flashes that Stefan sawed his dad's flesh, and now his severed head is just casually hanging out in Stefan's room. The game gets a perfect score, five stars! Then Stefan's dark secret comes out, he gets hauled away, and the game is quickly pulled from the shelves.

Flash forward: Pearl, Colin's daughter, is has decided to update the game for a new generation, and may have a hush-hush deal with Netflix. when her computer crashes, we have a familiar choice: smash it or pour tea over it?

This, to me, would be the ultimate satisfying ending for Bandersnatch if it were a simple, linear Black Mirror episode. It's poignant and unsettling that Stefan ends up like his hero, Jerome F. Davies, insofar as he goes mad and decapitates his father. And the bit with Pearl at the end, proving we never really learn, is the icing on the cake. So, it's a pretty great ending, but there are two more that are much more fun to watch.

One of the biggest subplots is Stefan's trauma over the loss of his mother. During an early therapy session, we learn that Stefan had a favorite rabbit growing up. One morning, his dad took the rabbit while he was sleeping, and Stefan's desperate and prolonged search for the rabbit forces his mother to miss the train she was planning on taking to visit her parents. The next train, which she catches, ends up crashing, leaving her dead. It's part of why Stefan is so messed up: he secretly blames himself for her death, and he resents his father for his hand in it as well.

Through a fun web of choices, you can opt to "retrieve" the rabbit from Stefan's father. This involves sneaking into his father's office and unlocking the safe. You have two password options: "TOY" or "PAC." With the latter choice, Stefan discovers that his father is not his father at all, but a scientist who is studying his experience with trauma. And his trauma is manufactured — they created the moment on a set when he was very young, as a way of "scarring" him. You can follow the conspiracy thread even more from there, or you can try the safe and use the other password.

If you input "TOY," all is normal and the trauma is real and the bunny is there. Through some strange time lapse we end up back at that moment, when Stefan loses his mother. Only this time, you have the option to board the train with her. Young Stefan dies on the train, causing present-day Stefan to instantly die in his therapist's chair. Which sequel to The Butterfly Effect is this, anyway?

I love this ending because it's incredibly hard to find, and it's probably the most "out there" choice you can land on. It renders the entire film useless, because Stefan never grows up in the first place. Time play has always fascinated me, and it's cool to see this take on it. A mind boggler for sure.

Just before Stefan kills his dad, he realizes the game: he can feel us, the viewer, influencing him. If you send him a sign from the Jerome F. Davies book, that's when he goes off the rails and commits murder. But if you tell him Netflix is behind the whole conspiracy, things get interesting.

First, you try to explain to Stefan what, exactly, Netflix is. This is funny, since he's a kid in the '80s and can't possibly wrap his mind around a "digital streaming platform." He goes to his therapist at his wit's end. His therapist is the voice of reason: why would anyone want to watch Stefan's life? It's so boring. That's when the fight scene breaks out. Yes, the fight scene! R. Haynes literally pulls lethal weapons out of her drawer and eggs Stefan on.

Two choices: do you fight the therapist or jump out the window? If you fight the therapist, you witness a wild action sequence in which Stefan literally goes fist to fist with his therapist and his dad, who eventually drags him out of the center screaming. If you jump out the window, there's a fourth wall break: we pull out. We're on the Black Mirror set. The director storms over and tells the actor who plays Stefan that that's not what the script says to do. The actor insists he is Stefan, and the medic takes him away.

Even though there are other endings that are arguably better, I think this ending captures the true thrill and excitement of a project like Bandersnatch. As soon as I told Stefan the truth, I was enthralled. I leaned in. Stefan's computer tells him what Netflix is, and for a brief moment, it all feels like reality.

It feels like you really are watching and controlling an actual teenage boy in the '80s, like this moment has somehow ripped the fabric of the universe to make it all real. Plus, the fight scene and the fourth wall break are simply just fun and exhilarating! It's almost like Black Mirror lets things go truly off the rails and leans into the crazy. It's refreshing, and that's why I loved it so much.