Nerve (2016 film)

Nerve
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Henry Joost Ariel Schulman
Produced by	Allison Shearmur
Screenplay by	Jessica Sharzer
Based on	Nerve by Jeanne Ryan
Starring	Emma Roberts Dave Franco Juliette Lewis
Music by	Rob Simonsen
Cinematography	Michael Simmonds
Edited by	Madeleine Gavin Jeff McEvoy
Production company	Allison Shearmur Productions Keep Your Head Productions Supermarche
Distributed by	Lionsgate
Release dates	July 12, 2016 (2016-07-12) (SVA Theater) July 27, 2016 (2016-07-27) (United States)
Running time	96 minutes[1][2]
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$20 million[3]
Box office	$81 million[4]

Nerve is a 2016 American thriller film directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman and written by Jessica Sharzer, based on the 2012 novel of the same name by Jeanne Ryan. 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 $81 million.^[4]

Plot

High school senior Venus "Vee" Delmonico (Emma Roberts) longs to leave her home, Staten Island, for college, but is afraid to tell her mother (Juliette Lewis) about her admission to California Institute of the Arts, as the mother is still grieving from the death of Vee's brother.

Vee's friend Sydney (Emily Meade) becomes popular in Nerve: an online reality game where people either enlist online as "players" or pay to watch as "watchers". Players accept dares from watchers, receiving money rewards. 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. Furious, Vee signs up for Nerve as a player.

The game collects her personal data and explains the three rules: 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. Vee leaves with him while her friend Tommy (Miles Heizer) secretly follows.

After performing a series of dares, Vee and Ian are among Nerve's top players. Sydney is distraught at Vee's rapid rise above her; she accepts a dare to walk across a ladder suspended between two buildings. Whilst performing the dare, she drops her phone and bails.

Ian takes Vee to Sydney's party and Vee catches her in bed with J.P. After arguing with Sydney, Vee receives and completes a dare to finish Sydney's dare, both risking her life and ending their friendship. Tommy reveals that he was watching Ian's profile; Ian had accepted a dare to make Vee and Sydney fight. Furious, Vee ends their partnership and reports the game to the police. As punishment, all money is drained from Vee's bank account, and her mother's. She is then attacked by elite player Ty (Machine Gun Kelly).

Ian confesses that he and Ty were players before, until their friend was killed in a dare. When they tried to alert the authorities, their families' jobs, bank accounts, and identities were confiscated, trapping them in the secret third category of the game: "prisoners". Vee is now a prisoner too, and only the winner of the final round can regain their identity.

Vee, Tommy, and Sydney recruit Tommy's computer hacker friends to alter the game's online code. After hanging from a crane for five seconds (the same dare that killed his friend), Ian too earns a a spot in the finals, which take place in an abandoned stadium. Vee and Ian are each given a revolver; one must shoot the other to win. Ian offers to throw the competition, but Ty jumps from the audience and takes Ian's place. The watchers then cast a vote regarding if Ty should kill Vee. The majority vote is "yes", and Ty shoots Vee.

Tommy and his hackers modify Nerve's source code to decrypt the watcher's code names and send them a message: "You are an accessory to murder". All watchers immediately log out of Nerve, ending the game. Vee reveals she is unharmed; she and Ty had staged her murder to scare the watchers into disbanding Nerve. Everyone's money and identities are restored.

A few months later, Vee and Sydney have reconciled, Vee and Ian are a couple, and Vee is attending California Arts. Ian reveals that his real name is Sam.

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 in 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 attended.^[5] It was also screened on July 21 at Comic-Con.^[15] The film was originally scheduled for September 16, 2016, but was eventually theatrically released on July 27, 2016.^[16]

Reception

Box office

Nerve has grossed $38.6 million in the USA & Canada, and $42.9 million in other countries, for a worldwide total of $81,406,585 against a budget of $20 million.^[4]

Nerve was released in the United States and Canada on July 27, 2016 and was projected to gross around $10 million in its opening weekend and $15 million over its first five days from 2,538 theaters.^[17] The film grossed $3,727,584 on its opening day.^[18] The film finished 8th at the box office in its opening weekend, grossing $9,445,456 (a five-day total of $15,496,743).^[19]

Critical response

Emma Roberts' lead performance was praised.

Nerve received mixed reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 64% based on 118 reviews with an average rating of 5.7/10. 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 33 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]

Accolades

See also

• Daemon (novel series)
• Postcyberpunk
• 13 Sins

References

External links

• Official website
• Nerve at the Internet Movie Database
• Nerve at Rotten Tomatoes
• Nerve at Metacritic
• Nerve at AllMovie
• Nerve at Box Office Mojo
• Nerve at the TCM Movie Database