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Nerve (2016 film)

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Nerve
File:Nerve 2016 poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Screenplay byJessica Sharzer
Produced byAllison Shearmur
Starring
CinematographyMichael Simmonds
Edited by
  • Madeleine Gavin
  • Jeff McEvoy
Music byRob Simonsen
Production
companies
  • Allison Shearmur Productions
  • Keep Your Head Productions
  • Supermarche
Distributed byLionsgate
Release dates
  • July 12, 2016 (2016-07-12) (SVA Theater)
  • July 27, 2016 (2016-07-27) (United States)
Running time
96 minutes[1][2]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$20 million[3]
Box office$20.1 million[4]

Nerve is a 2016 American crime techno-thriller survival film directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman and written by Jessica Sharzer, based on the 2012 novel of the same name. The film stars Emma Roberts, Dave Franco and Juliette Lewis, and revolves around an online objective truth or dare video game, which allows people to enlist as "players" or "watchers" as the game intensifies.

The film premiered at the SVA Theater on July 12, 2016,[5] and was theatrically released on July 27, 2016 by Lionsgate. It received mixed reviews and has grossed over $20 million.[4]

Plot

High school senior Venus "Vee" Delmonico (Emma Roberts) receives an email from California Institute of the Arts reminding her to either accept or reject admission that day. Vee longs to leave her home, Staten Island, for college, but she is too cowardly to tell her mother about her admission. Her mother (Juliette Lewis) expects Venus to attend a local affordable college and commute home every night, as the mother is still grieving from the recent death of her son, Venus's brother.

Venus's friend, Sydney (Emily Meade), becomes popular in Nerve: an online reality video game of objective-focused "truth or dare" where people either enlist online as "players" or pay to watch as "watchers". Players accept the watchers' dares, receiving money rewards that increase with the danger of the dare when completed successfully. At Venus's disinterest, Sydney and her other friends chastise Vee's unadventurous nature. When Vee refuses to talk to her crush J.P., Sydney approaches J.P. herself and reveals that Vee is interested in him. J.P. rebuffs her, and Venus leaves, mortified.

Furious, Vee signs up for Nerve as a player. The game collects her personal data, including bank information, and explains three rules of the game: all dares must be recorded on the player's phone, earned money will be revoked if a player fails or "bails" a dare, and a player must not report the game to law enforcement. In addition, the top two most-watched players will compete in a highly sought-after final round. Her first dare is to kiss a stranger at a diner for five seconds. Vee kisses Ian (Dave Franco) because she noticed him reading To the Lighthouse, her favorite book. Ian reveals that he too is a Nerve player. The watchers dare Ian to take Vee to the city, as they think they make a good couple. Vee leaves with him while her friend Tommy (Miles Heizer) secretly follows.

As Vee and Ian take on increasingly risky dares—including near-shoplifting, public near-nudity, and tattoos—Vee's friends discover her presence on Nerve and her increasing popularity. Ian's new dare tests his trust in Vee: reach 60 miles per hour on his motorcycle while blindfolded. To her reluctance, Ian drives blindly while Vee instructs him. Vee and Ian barely complete the challenge and earn the top-two players with the most watchers, to Sydney's jealousy.

Meanwhile, Sydney is dared to cross a ladder laid across two ten-story-high windows. Sydney drops her phone while crossing, failing the dare and losing the game. Upon arriving at the party, Vee finds Sydney in bed with J.P, leading to an argument between the two girls about their friendship. Vee receives a dare to complete Sydney's challenges and finishes it successfully. She decides to end Nerve and report it to a nearby cop due to its dangerous dares. The cop does nothing, and subsequently, all of Vee's money is drained from her bank account. Player Ty (Machine Gun Kelly) then punches her unconscious to keep her out of the competition for the final round.

When Vee reawakens, Ian confesses that while playing Nerve previously with Ty, another friend fell from a crane during a dare and died. Ian and Ty reported the game to the authorities, losing their money, identities, and subsequently becoming the third category of the game: prisoners. Prisoners have no ability to opt out of dares and can only save themselves by winning in the finals. Ian decides to get in second place to face Vee in the finals and spare her life.

Meanwhile, Vee meets with Tommy and Sydney, who has since regretted fighting with Vee, and composes a plan to end the game another way. Tommy turns to friend Azhar (Samira Wiley) to help overwrite Nerve's open source code.

Vee and Ian meet in an arena filled with masked watchers, both dared to shoot the other with a handgun. Ian insists that Vee shoot him non-fatally, but she refuses. Ty offers to shoot Ian himself. Vee accuses the watchers of being cowards, hiding behind masks and anonymous usernames while they expect others to show "nerve." She shields Ian's body with her own, and watchers nationwide vote whether to kill or spare her. The majority votes to shoot her, and Ty fires. Thanks to Tommy and Azhar's efforts, a message appears on the watchers' phones, replacing usernames with their real names and reading "You are an accessory to murder." The message also prompts them to sign out. Thousands of Nerve watchers sign out of the game while Ian tearfully cradles Vee. When Ian points his gun at Ty, Vee, still alive, stops him. She reveals that she and Ty, with the help of Sydney, orchestrated the "killing" with fake blood and blanks in Ty's gun.

Ian calls the day their "first date" and reveals that his real name is Sam. They embrace as an anonymous stranger surreptitiously takes their picture.

Afterward, Vee and her mother are shown joyfully accepting admission to CalArts. Vee graduates, moves to California, and continues her friendships with her peers. She and Sam maintain their relationship and visit each other often.

Cast

Production

Directors Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost had previously dealt with similar themes in their documentary Catfish.[6] On their attraction to a film based around the Internet, they stated, "Most things aren’t black and white. The Internet is neither good nor bad; it just depends on how you use it",[7] giving the example that the Nerve game could be both "a really empowering game, and it’s also the most awful thing that you can possibly imagine."[7] The directors strived for a PG-13 rating, with Schulman stating "we wanted to make sure that younger teenagers could see it. We think it has an important message and they’ll dig it", with Joost adding "We weren’t interested in making a gross torture movie."[7] In trying to keep the rating down, the directors axed a "sex dare" that "was ultimately just too dark and weird."[7]

The team stated that the fast-changing nature of the internet made it a tough subject to make a narrative feature about, with Joost noting that the app Periscope came out during the film development, which Joost called " like half-way to being Nerve".[6]

In January 2015, it was announced that Emma Roberts and Dave Franco were set to star in the film.[8] In April 2015, it was announced that Kimiko Glenn had joined the cast of the film, portraying the role of Emma Roberts' character's worried friend.[9] The same day, it was announced that rapper Colson "Machine Gun Kelly" Baker had also joined the cast.[10]

Filming

Principal photography on the film began on April 13, 2015 in New York City.[11][12] Production on the film concluded on June 5, 2015.[13][14]

Release

The film premiered at the School of Visual Arts in New York City on July 12, where the cast, along with Casey Neistat, attended.[5] It was also screened on July 21 at Comic-Con.[15] The film was theatrically released on July 27, 2016.[16]

Reception

Box office

Nerve was released in the United States and Canada on Wednesday, July 27, 2016, and was projected to gross around $10 million in its opening weekend and $15 million in its first five days from 2,538 theaters.[17] The film grossed $1 million from its Tuesday night preview screenings.[18] The film finished 8th at the box office in its opening weekend, grossing $9.4 million (a five-day total of $15.5 million).[19]

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 56%, based on 75 reviews, with an average rating is 5.6/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Nerve's fast pace and charming leads help overcome a number of fundamental flaws, adding up to a teen-friendly thriller with enough energy to occasionally offset its muddled execution."[20] On Metacritic the film has a score of 58 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[21] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.[22]

Scott Tobias of Uproxx gave the film a positive review, writing: "Though the ending surrenders to a tsk-tsk-ing morality play that turns on the mob the game (and the film) has so smartly orchestrated, Nerve is the rare virtual thriller that understands how social media actually works and the addictive little subcultures that can spin out of it."[23] Dave Palmer of The Reel Deal gave the film 7/10, saying, "It is a lot of fun, and not even in a turn-your-brain off kind of way. The film actually has some smart things to say about teenagers, their phones and what people will do to get internet famous and it is all delivered in a colorful little package."[24]

Many critics have compared the film to the popular augmented reality game Pokémon Go.[25][26][27][28]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Nerve (15)". British Board of Film Classification. July 18, 2016. Retrieved July 19, 2016.
  2. ^ "Nerve". Lionsgate. Retrieved June 12, 2016.
  3. ^ "Box Office: Dave Franco, Emma Roberts Thriller 'Nerve' Scores $1.1 Million on Tuesday Night". Variety. July 27, 2016. Retrieved July 27, 2016.
  4. ^ a b "Nerve (2016)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved August 3, 2016.
  5. ^ a b "'Nerve' premieres in New York City - Photos - UPI.com". UPI. July 13, 2016. Retrieved July 16, 2016.
  6. ^ a b Puchko, Kristy. "Nerve Directors On Technology Advancements & Future Projects". Screenrant. Retrieved July 13, 2016.
  7. ^ a b c d Bell, Crystal. "NERVE DIRECTORS REVEAL THE VOYEURISTIC DARE THAT WAS TOO 'GROSS' FOR PG-13". MTV. Retrieved July 13, 2016.
  8. ^ Kroll, Justin (January 27, 2015). "Dave Franco and Emma Roberts to Star in YA Thriller 'Nerve'". Variety.com. Retrieved January 10, 2016.
  9. ^ Pederson, Erik (April 17, 2015). "'Married's Kimiko Glenn Joins 'Nerve'; Kino Lorber Acquires 'Gueros'". Deadline.com. Retrieved January 10, 2016.
  10. ^ Halperin, Shirley (April 17, 2015). "Machine Gun Kelly Joins Emma Roberts, Dave Franco In 'Nerve'". TheHollywoodReporter.com. Retrieved January 10, 2016.
  11. ^ "Emma Roberts and Dave Franco begin filming 'Nerve' in NYC on April 13". onlocationvacations.com. March 31, 2015. Retrieved April 27, 2015.
  12. ^ "Emma Roberts and Dave Franco spotted filming 'Nerve' in NYC". onlocationvacations.com. April 18, 2015. Retrieved April 27, 2015.
  13. ^ Joost, Henry (June 5, 2015). "Last day shooting #NerveNYC 😢 #davefranco #denim #triplets 📷 by @orleeroses". Instagram.com. Retrieved January 10, 2016.
  14. ^ "On the Set for 6/15/15: Martin Scorsese Starts Shooting "Free Fire", Matthew McConaughey Finishes "Free State of Jones" & More". SSNInsider.com. June 15, 2015. Retrieved January 10, 2016.
  15. ^ "Emma Roberts-Dave Franco Thriller 'Nerve' To Sneak At Comic-Con". Deadline.com. July 19, 2016. Retrieved July 18, 2016.
  16. ^ Busch, Anita (May 10, 2016). "Lionsgate Moves YA Title 'Nerve' Into Summer, Schedules 'The Woods'". Deadline.com. Retrieved May 10, 2016.
  17. ^ "'Jason Bourne' Should Lead Box Office, But Not Ladies Looking For 'Bad Moms' & 'Nerve' – B.O. Preview". Deadline.com.
  18. ^ "'Nerve' Box Office Starts With $1M In Tuesday Previews". Deadline.com.
  19. ^ Brad Brevet (July 31, 2016). "'Jason Bourne' Tops Weekend with $60M; 'Star Trek Beyond' Suffers Big Second Weekend Drop". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved July 31, 2016. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help)
  20. ^ "Nerve (2016)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved August 3, 2016.
  21. ^ "Nerve reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved July 29, 2016.
  22. ^ "CinemaScore". cinemascore.com.
  23. ^ "'Nerve' Finds The Creators Of 'Catfish' Crafting A Social Media-Savvy Cyberthriller". Uproxx. July 26, 2016. Retrieved July 26, 2016.
  24. ^ "'Nerve' Colorful, Manic Summer Fun". TheReelDeal.com.
  25. ^ Travers, Peter (July 27, 2016). "'Nerve' Review: It's 'Pokemon Go' as a Gonzo Horror Movie". Retrieved July 29, 2016.
  26. ^ Bahr, Lindsey (July 28, 2016). "'Nerve' is a dark thriller for the Pokemon Go generation". Retrieved July 29, 2016.
  27. ^ Dowd, A.A. (July 26, 2016). "Nerve is a techno teen movie for the Pokémon Go era". Retrieved July 29, 2016.
  28. ^ Truitt, Brian (July 27, 2016). "'Nerve' stars explore darker side of social media". Retrieved July 29, 2016.
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