15 Most Disturbing Black Mirror Moments
11. They Were People All Along
Men Against Fire set itself up to be a straightforward soldiers versus zombies story. But when are things ever that simple in Black Mirror?
It was in fact about mind control and misinformation. If read into from the right angle, many of the themes of this episode are symbolic to a fault.
The soldiers in this story are implanted with a neural tinkering device known simply as MASS. It seems on the surface like MASS provides all benefits with no cons, as all senses of the subject are heightened, rendering them an ultra-tough asset in the battlefield.
But the main character Stripe begins to see cracks in the clarity of this implant, as the supposedly monstrous looking enemies known as 'roaches' begin to look suddenly all too human.
It turns out that MASS is actually an implant designed to make the designated human target seem inhuman, and therefore easy to kill. Worse than that, is that it also serves a larger and wholly fascist genocidal agenda.
Even worse, rather than stand up for basic principles, Stripe goes for the mind-wipe option to forget his crimes, forever living in a bubble of mental luxury which is anything but the truth.