We’ve all seen movies and TV shows about killer robots.
Such viral videos were the inspiration for “Metalhead,” a grippingBlack Mirrorepisode, which began streaming Friday.
Below,series creator Charlie Brooker answers a few of our burning questions.
Credit: Netflix
The robot is full of lethal tricks, ranging from operating a car to recharging from the sun.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Loved this episode.
It’s inspired I assume by those Boston Dynamics videos on YouTube crossed withNight of the Living Dead?
CHARLIE BROOKER: That’s actually scarily correct.
It was from watching Boston Dynamics videos, but crossed with have you seen the filmAll Is Lost?
I wanted to do a story where there was almost no dialogue.
Is anybody controlling them?
Did you figure that out and is there any backstory it’s possible for you to share?
We sort of deliberately decided not to flesh out a lot of the backstory.
But it felt a bit weird and too on the nose.
It kind of felt superfluous.
We deliberately pared it back and did a very simple story.
Why did you shoot black and white?
Was it just to be evocative?
Or did it also save on CG costs to render the dog?
That was the director, David Slade.
He wanted it to be black and white.
I don’t think it saved money on CG.
It felt like something I hadn’t seen beforedoing lots of CG in black and white.
In the end, the crate sought by the humans is revealed to contain teddy bears.
Other than the lost humanity and a possible callback to another action-filled episode, “White Bear”?
We went back and forth on what should be in that warehouse.
Originally in the script, it just said “toys.”
The idea was a box of toys for a dying child.
David wanted it to be the only soft and comforting thing that we saw in the entire piece.
He wanted it to be something softer and more immediately comforting.
So we went for bears.
Which is probably just as well because a crate full of fidget spinners would have been ridiculous.
MoreBlack Mirrorseason 4 postmortem interviews:
Black Mirrorseason 4 is streaming now on Netflix.
