Nerve (2016)

Movie poster Nerve

Nerve is an iPhone game in which you are either a "player" and you complete dares for money or a "watcher" in which you watch, come up with the dare and pay the players.

Vee (Emma Roberts) is a shy high school senior who signs up for Nerve to prove the she can be a risk taker. The game lasts twenty-four hours and the top player at the end of the day gets to keep all the money collected. The app gathers information from ALL available online accounts from bank to social media. It is scarily accurate to the way many people manage their online presence and is a warning to all.

Of course things get scarier the more Vee plays the game. It starts off okay, the dares are mostly harmless. The watchers team her up with Ian (Dave Franco) and it is thrilling to be part of this game. The more dares she and Ian complete, the more watchers watch and the more the dares get dangerous. Nerve makes it all the more scary as the watchers are anonymous, and people who know they are anonymous tend to think they can get away with more. Soon the watchers quit wanting to see risky dares completed, they want to see blood.

Promo pic for Nerve

The ending did get a little too over the top, but the overall message is a good one. People do crazy things for brief internet fame, and people are all too willing to give it to them at a major price.

Nerve is a reminder that the internet is a scary thing. Sometimes we are all too willing to share private information with the world, forgetting it comes at a cost. We don't realize the implications until it is too late.