Warning: spoilers ahead for Tetris.

The AppleTV+ movie Tetris is based on the true story of the rights war over the iconic video game, but the release takes a ton of creative liberties. Tetris follows Taron Egerton as Henk Rogers, a video game designer who discovers Tetris, learns that the rights to license the game in Japan do not belong to anyone, and attempts to sell the game to Nintendo. Henk's master plan is to have Nintendo package the game with the revolutionary handheld Game Boy console. In order to do that, however, he must first get the rights to the game himself, which proves to be an almost impossible task.

Tetris depicts the life-threatening, globetrotting, espionage mission of Henk getting the rights to Tetris closer to Mission: Impossible than The Founder. Epic car chases in the USSR, betrayal in the KGB, and the constant threat of death fill the AppleTV+ release, but it is hard to believe that a game as simple as Tetris caused such a riotous legal battle. While the core story of Henk's struggle to win Tetris is based on a true story, the movie's plot greatly exaggerates to the point where creative liberties far outweigh the real moments.

10 Tetris Is Based On The Game's Real-Life Origin Story

The puzzle game was created by Alexey Pajitnov, a citizen of the Soviet Union in the 1980s, played in the Tetris cast by Nikita Yefremov. Pajitnov was not allowed to sell the rights or profit from the game whatsoever, as any intellectual property was owned by the state. This led to confusion over who had the rights to publish the game. Robert Stein, the Maxwells, and Henk all really did fight over the rights, and Henk really did travel to the Soviet Union to win them. In the late 1980s, that was like traveling to North Korea today, meaning the element of danger in Tetris is based in reality.

9 Alexey's Original Tetris Concept

While the movie's story is not primarily about the creation of Tetris, the opening act depicts Alexey's thought process behind the game and its initial development on an extremely old computer. Alexey creates each square of a Tetris piece with open and closed brackets, as that was the only way he could bring his vision to life. That is exactly how the game's conception happened in real life too, but there is one missing piece to the story - literally, as the real creator originally designed Tetris with pieces made of five squares. Alexey eventually abandoned that idea because it was too complicated and there were too many pieces.

8 The Game Boy's Release

When Henk visits Nintendo's head office, he is introduced to two developers, Ken Miles' Howard Lincoln and Ken Yamamura's Minoru Arakawa, who are working on a top-secret project. They unveil the Game Boy, and tell Henk that he is one of only ten people in the world who has seen it. While it makes for a euphoric, awe-inspiring moment where everything perfectly ties together, it is completely untrue. In real life, the Game Boy had already been released in Japan before Henk met with Nintendo. However, the console had not been released in the United States yet, and Henk did convince Nintendo to package Tetris with the Game Boy's U.S. release.

7 Alexey And Henk's Friendship

Though Tetris is an exciting espionage thriller, it works just as well as a heartwarming, feel-good buddy movie when Henk and Alexey form a close friendship. The two bond over video game development, but not until Henk forces his way into Alexey's life after Alexey initially wanted nothing to do with him. Alexey is depicted as fastidious and closed off - a product of his environment and growing up in the USSR. This makes sense, as it shows how grueling an upbringing in such a place could be. However, when Alexey and Henk first met in real life, they immediately hit it off and became inseparable.

6 Henk's Interpreter Being A KGB Officer

Some Tetris movie changes, such as how Alexey developed the game, make sense to keep the movie's runtime down and let the narrative flow, but Tetris starts to make huge artistic leaps when Henk lands in Moscow. Henk works closely with an interpreter called Sasha, played by Sofya Lebedeva, who helps him access government buildings and find the right people, but Sasha is later revealed to be a KGB officer spying on Henk. In reality, Henk did hire an interpreter, but she certainly was not a KGB officer. However, the real Henk did note that he was suspicious, explaining, "She knew immediately where everything was, so that was fishy" (via CNN).

5 Henk's Globetrotting

Tetris jumps between many different countries, and in total, Henk steps foot in four different locations around the world, traveling to Russia, the U.S., Japan, and the United Kingdom. In reality, Henk only traveled to one country during his attempt to win the rights to Tetris. Henk left Japan for Russia, and while the movie sees him travel to Russia twice, he only ever went once. In the late 1980s, Henk spent his week in Russia speaking with government officials in Elorg and bonding with Alexey. At the end of those seven days, he had successfully attained the rights to Tetris.

4 The Car Chase With The KGB

Tetris' final act turns into a full-on action movie. After getting the rights to Tetris, Henk, Alexey, Howard, and Minoru speed to the airport whilst being chased by the KGB. It's a high-speed pursuit full of crashes and stunts that would not look out of place in a Bourne movie. Unsurprisingly, none of this car chase actually happened. Rogers commented on this moment in the movie, explaining, "They tried their best to accept our changes when they had to do with authenticity. But when it started getting into the car chase and all that, it was like, ​'OK, now it’s all them.'" (via Canary Media).

3 Alexey & Henk's Reunion In San Francisco

At the very end of Tetris, Henk sends Alexey a ticket to San Francisco, which is packaged with a Game Boy, and it ends with them reuniting at San Francisco airport and embracing each other with open arms. This provides a satisfying moment following their growing bromance throughout the movie, but while it remains unclear if this actually happened in real life, the location is totally wrong. Henk did help Alexey sort out his visa and move to the U.S., but it was not to San Francisco. Alexey left Moscow for Seattle in 1991, two years after he first met Henk.

2 Other Tetris Details May Or May Not Be True

Many other details in Tetris are completely unbelievable, and although it is hard to say for certain, are very likely false. Characters like the KGB officer Valentin, who is attempting to go against what is best for the state, and Henk putting his whole life on the line with the bank, are probably untrue. However, as neither Henk nor Alexey has commented on them, it becomes impossible to know for sure. Given how transparent Henk Rogers has been in real life, those elements of the movie are almost certainly more creative flourishes that never happened.

1 Why The Tetris Movie Can't Be Completely Accurate

Even though Henk's story is true, it is only his version of the story, and the Tetris movie is based on that account alone. As there were so many people involved in trying to get the game's rights, they would all have their own differing versions of the tale. Everyone wants to come off great in a true story, and each account is likely a completely different version of the truth, making it impossible for Tetris to tell a perfectly accurate narrative.

As Tetris is a Hollywood movie with a primary function to be entertaining, almost every aspect of the true story must be exaggerated, such as Robert and Kevin Maxwell, who almost come off like cartoon villains. Interestingly, however, the real Kevin Maxwell did say that the depiction of his father was actually toned down. Speaking with director Jon S. Baird, Maxwell noted, "The one thing I would say is, you’ve not gone hard enough on my father. My father was way worse than you’ve got him" (via Polygon).

Sources: CNN, CanaryMedia, Polygon.