This Movie is the Perfect Reflection of the Current Virtual Society
The storyline and analysis of the movie, Nerve for those who already watched it.
Nerve begins with a high school girl, Vee, logging into her computer, just like how many of us start our days today. And even from a few seconds of observing her screen, we can easily grasp her interests, family dynamics and life stage. From socializing with a friend to receiving a college acceptance letter, majority of life tasks are done digitally.
Sydney, a classmate of Vee’s, enjoys the company of an online audience. As a cheerleader, she has different audiences to choose from — the crowd in front of her on the bleachers or the “watchers.” She often decides to “dare” and entertain possibly the more convivial and attentive ones, which are the latter.
After being criticized by her “daring” friend Sydney, Vee signs up to become a “player” in a whim. When she meets Ian, and changes into a stolen, overpriced dress, she becomes someone else. Someone people cheer for. Someone all the cool teenagers root for.
There is something to be noted about the scene where Vee and Ian are getting changed. If they show Vee getting changed, why didn’t they show Ian? When Vee is recording herself in the fitting room, the emphasis is heavily put on the comments about her appearance, most of them innuendos. This is true for any women who are present online. When they present themselves with or without intentions of getting opinions from others, they are bound to be objectified.
While Vee and Ian seem to be sharing a genuine friendship after what could’ve been the last dare of their lives, Sydney dares to cross a makeshift-bridge of a ladder in between the two apartment buildings. In a dire situation like this, listening to others may seem helpful. However, in this case it is the only thing that inhibits Sydney from completing the task. Too many opinions from too many people. This scene is true to the online community where the broadcaster receives criticisms and suggestions from all ends, whether good or bad. Not being able to endure all of the “comments”, Sydney bails out.
Later, Vee is challenged to do the dare Sydney wasn’t able to finish. After the dare, Vee realizes she herself or Sydney could have died, and becomes terrified. She talks to the policeman who happened to be parked right in front of the apartment building about what has been going on – all the dares and the watchers. To her dismay, the officer’s response is, “is there a crime being committed?” No matter how brutal or explicit a content is, if it is not considered a crime, it’s not deemed inappropriate or immoral. This is the standard many online platforms stay true to and live up to.
The scene before the final round is quite significant for Vee’s character development. Vee gathers up her nerves to become a player for an online game. But before the final round, she gathers up the nerve to stand up for herself in front of strangers, which is something she couldn’t do even in front of her friends. She changes out of the dress, a façade that makes her look perfect but feel empty on the inside. And instead, she changes into a red hoodie, a colour she was wearing before the dress. She was herself again. She wasn’t pretending to be someone “cool,” who could be accepted by everyone.
Vee, Ian and TY all meet in the final round, where the crowd is wearing masks. This symbolizes the anonymity online, which is often misinterpreted as authority, and misused. They are able to dare others and put them on the spot because they are a group, and they don’t have anything to lose. They are also easily swayed by TY, who with hesitation, takes a stance on violence. But when they are pointed at for having contributed to a crime, they immediately quit. People are wired to do whatever pleases them.
When Ian and Vee first met, Ian was assigned by Nerve to read The Lighthouse. And this is not a random assignment of books for a character to read. Vee and Ian were searching for their own lighthouses, and they get to it together.
We all sign up to what may seem temporary or thrilling at the time, but the consequences are always unbeknownst to us. Especially for our generation, where social media and the breach of privacy is a normality.
Nerve is an unexpected package of surplus symbolism and satirical elements. And if you get them, you enjoy the movie that much more.
