Black Mirror's Mortal Kombat-Style Video Game Is An Homage & An Easter Egg

As virtual reality gets more and more real with each newly released console, Black Mirror always seems to be one step ahead. The Netflix original series, though completely fictional, shows us what could be in our future in terms of technology.

While some of this tech is downright scary, when it comes to games they’re things we want to play right now. One of the new episodes in Black Mirror season 5, “Striking Vipers,” focuses on a video game that seems familiar and playable, both in terms of our real world and the show. “Striking Vipers” follows the story of Danny and Karl (Anthony Mackie, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), who are former roommates who used to play the video game Striking Vipers together. After seven years, the two are reunited (and now living completely different lives and lifestyles) when Karl gifts Danny with Striking Vipers X — and the brand new VR console to use with the game.

Though Danny is at first hesitant to try it out, the two eventually play and start a sexual relationship within the game. Since the technology is so real and immersive, it feels like the two are actually having sex, and this eventually begins to derail Danny’s relationship with his wife, Theo (Nikki Beharie), as Danny slowly stars to falls in love with him.

In the simplest of terms, Striking Vipers is literally just Mortal Kombat, but obviously, Black Mirror can’t use the actual game in the series. The concept of Striking Vipers is that two characters go head-to-head in a battle, using their fists, feet, and special strengths to try and KO the other.

You can also pick the location that these battles take place, just like in the real Mortal Kombat game. The choices we see in “Striking Vipers” include some sort of garden, an alleyway, the beach, and on top of a building (some of which are reminiscent of locations in the original Capcom game).

Just like Black Mirror can’t use the actual game, they can’t use actual characters from the game, either. The characters in Striking Vipers — Roxette and Lance, played by Pom Klementieff and Ludi Lin — appear to be brand new, not composites of characters from any Mortal Kombat universe. We also, sadly, don’t spend enough time with Roxette and Lance (when they’re not having sex) to really figure out their personalities and powers, so maybe bits and pieces have been pulled from the real game but it’s nearly impossible to tell. Regardless, they’re definitely an homage. You can also play as a polar bear. It doesn’t get a whole lot of screentime, but it’s inclusion seems important — maybe it's a white bear?

Season 4’s best — and Emmy winning — episode of Black Mirror also deals with virtual reality, that users experience by placing a small, circular device on the side of their temple. That puts them inside the game so they can experience it themselves.

As you probably know by now, all Black Mirror episodes are connected and this is “Striking Vipers” biggest connection to everything overall. However, it appears that the company that made the technology for in “U.S.S. Callister,” a company also called Callister, is not the manufacturer of the game being used here. Instead, it’s a company called Seek that has a similar logo to Sega.

“Striking Vipers” almost certainly takes place before “U.S.S. Callister” if only because everyone treats this immersive VR technology as brand new and fancy. By the time we make it to “U.S.S. Callister,” it’s more commonplace, and you can actually put yourself inside of the game rather than using an avatar.