NERVE

US, 2016, 96 minutes, Colour.
Emma Roberts, Dave Franco, Emily Mead, Miles Heizer, Juliette Lewis.
Directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman.

Sounds as if it is a horror thriller, geared for people leaping from their seats. Not at all. Not at all for the audience, even though some of the characters have to go through some nerve-racking experiences of the “we dare you” variety.

This is definitely a film for younger audiences, practically all of the characters 20 plus or minus and really only Juliette Lewis as Emma Roberts’ mother (reminding older audiences that that is life, actresses who used to be teenagers now portraying mothers) in an older age bracket. This is also a film for audiences who like computer games – except this is a game in real life, played on the streets of New York (or on cranes or scaffolding high above the city streets) watched by an extraordinarily big following on their phones, computers or large screens.

Audiences are meant to identify with Emma Roberts’ Vee (Venus), quite a controlled young woman who tags along with the much more extroverted Sydney (Emily Meade) an ambitious fan of the game Nerve where dares come from a central IT company and people can join up to be watchers or doers. Sydney is a doer – and when the d is successfully accomplished, substantial winnings are transferred to bank accounts. With an ever-growing audience of watchers, there is extraordinary peer pressure to undergo the dare, which Sydney discovers, trying to cross a data over the span between buildings many storeys high.

It is that peer pressure as well as her image of herself that propels Vee to commit herself – to kiss a stranger in a public place. She does and it wasn’t so bad and then she finds the stranger, Ian, Dave Franco, is also a participant in Nerve and off they go to be a team, starting with Vee going into a fashionable store to try on a dress which costs almost $4000.

And on it goes, with ever more difficult dares, including Ian having to ride his motorbike through the New York streets getting up to 60 miles an hour, blindfolded. Vee steers him through this ordeal and on they go, the bank transfers for the dares accomplished going higher and higher. This puzzles Vee’s mother, a hard-working nurse in hospital.

One of the images that might go through an audience’s mind in watching the ever-increasing danger of the dares as well , as the increasing number of watchers is that of Roman Empire times, gladiatorial combats, the same crowd-think, urging each other on as well as the combatants. And, in the social media age, cameras are continually on the dares, invalid without their being photographed, but also the most private of conversations between contestants being overheard by thousands, Vee unwittingly making judgement or comments about Sydney which she and all her friends listen into.

Not everyone is happy with Nerve and as the pressure increases, into a literal contemporary gladiatorial arena with guns drawn, the danger and illegality come to the fore, watchers being accused of participating and as accessories to murder.

So, by the end, this is a morality play, critical of young people and their succumbing to peer pressure, the low self-image and capacity for making decisions that means they go along with the dares despite the dangers and irresponsibility, and age of social media, it is very easy to be swept along with the excitement without giving much or any thought to personal or social consequences.

1. Title? Location? Computer game? Game performed in public? Watchers? Doers? The dares, the financial rewards?

2. New York City, homes, hospitals, the streets, cafes, buildings and interiors, crowds in public places, motorbike speeding along the road, ladders between buildings, the final gladiatorial scene? The musical score?

3. The reality about this kind of game? The phenomenon of Pokémon Go? Thousands of people involved? The repercussions for the doers, for the watchers?

4. A morality tale about peer pressure, self-image, being goaded to decisions, personal consequences, social consequences? The ultimate accusation that the watchers were accessories to murder?

5. Vee, her story, age, at home, relationship with her mother, her friendship with Sydney, the other friends, the peer group, being together, Sydney and her dominance? The education background?

6. Sydney, extroverted, performance, leadership, her friends? Thinking that Vee was repressed? The game, the possibility of watching or doing, Sydney and her dare? The effect on Vee, moving away?

7. Sydney daring Vee, her friend Tommy, his not approving of Nerve, supporting her, going to the cafe? The decision to dare? Her having to kiss the young man in public, wary, going up, the discussion about Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse, her favourite novel, kissing him? The reaction? His coming to her? His death and playing the game?

8. The next dare, her acceptance, going to the shop, the image of the dress, the high cost, trying it on, Ian arriving, the clothes disappearing, his helping her, the dare to escape the shop in their underwear?

9. The dare about tattoos and Ian deciding on a lighthouse for Vee?

10. The decision to keep going? The different motivations? The crowd watching? The motorbike, 60 miles an hour, blindfold, the Steering? The exhilaration?

11. The various teams, the scores for the couples displayed on the grid? The gradual eliminations? The watchers, their affirmation of the dares?

12. Sydney, her friends, upset with Vee Her accepting the dare on the ladder, the danger, the collapse, failing?

13. Ian and Vee, with their friends, having to finish Sydney’s dare and crossing on the ladder?

14. Ian, his background, the previous competition in Seattle, his rival? The flashback to the boy on the scaffolding and his fall? The rival and his determination to win? Lying on the railway tracks and the train going over him?

15. The increasing amount of money being offered? The suspicions of Vee’s mother?

16. Ian’s explanations, the fact that they should be in the final, his going up the building, hanging by one hand?

17. Everybody gathering in the arena, the overtones of the Roman amphitheatre, gladiatorial combat?

18. The mother, the puzzle about the money, the hospital, a growing concern? The contact with Tommy? Going to the computer centre?

19. Sydney, Tommy, their friends, the computer experts, their infiltrating the Nerve centre, sending out the message to the watchers about being accomplices, their being able to close down the game? (And restore the bank account?)

20. The showdown, the guns drawn, the challenge to shoot Vee, her collapse, the issue of the blanks, the rival and his apology, hurrying away? Ian, his real name, the bond with Vee?

21. A morality tale for the younger audiences?