"Fifteen Million Merits" is the second episode of the first series of the British science fiction anthology series Black Mirror. It was written by the series creator and showrunner Charlie Brooker and his wife Konnie Huq and directed by Euros Lyn. It first aired on Channel 4 on 11 December 2011; it was deliberately aired after The X Factor's series 8 finale.
Set in an enclosed world where most of society must cycle on exercise bikes in order to generate electricity and then earn currency called "merits", the episode tells the story of Bing (Daniel Kaluuya), who meets Abi (Jessica Brown Findlay) and convinces her to participate in a talent show so she can become famous. The episode was inspired by Huq's idea that her technology-obsessed husband Brooker would be happy in a room covered by screens; it additionally drew motivation from the narrative of talent shows leading to fame. "Fifteen Million Merits" incorporates elements of dystopian fiction, science fiction and drama, and offers commentary on capitalism.
The episode received a positive critical reception. The relationship of Abi and Bing drew comparison to that of Julia and Winston in Nineteen Eighty-Four, whilst Abi's objectification was compared to that of female media figures. The episode's ambiguous ending led to discussion about the commodification of dissent. The visual style and music of the episode were praised, as was the romance between Abi and Bing. The acting received a mixed reception, as did the world-building, but the depressing humour and bleak tone of the episode garnered positive reviews. "Fifteen Million Merits" was nominated for a British Academy Television Craft Award but did not win; regarding critics' lists of Black Mirror episodes by quality, it generally places middling or poorly.
Plot Bing Madsen (Daniel Kaluuya) lives in a room surrounded by screens that wake him up, serve as a video game console and feature regular adverts. He rides on a stationary bike to generate electricity in exchange for "merits," which he needs to pay for his daily cost of living. He sits next to Dustin (Paul Popplewell), an obnoxious man who degrades the overweight cleaners as they pass and watches pornography as he cycles.
Overhearing Abi Khan (Jessica Brown Findlay) singing in the toilets, Bing persuades her to enter Hot Shot, a virtual talent show whose winners can live a life of luxury. He offers to buy her entry ticket, having inherited millions of merits from his deceased brother. The ticket costs more merits than he thought, 15 million, almost his entire savings, but he buys it. Bing goes with Abi to the audition and she gives him an origami penguin. Abi is made to drink a carton of "Cuppliance" before performing "Anyone Who Knows What Love Is (Will Understand)" by Irma Thomas for the judges, Wraith, Hope and Charity (Ashley Thomas, Rupert Everett and Julia Davis, respectively). The judges praise her performance, but maintain that being an "above average" singer is not enough, so Wraith offers a place for Abi on his pornography channel WraithBabes. Despite Bing's protests from backstage, Abi, succumbing to pressure from the audience and judges (and the implied psychoactive influence of the Cuppliance), accepts.
While in his room, Bing sees an advertisement for WraithBabes, featuring Abi. He does not have enough merits to skip it, and a high-pitched noise sounds when he looks away from the screens, so he must watch. Increasingly agitated, he smashes a screen out of frustration and then hides a shard of glass under his bed. Bing becomes obsessed with buying another Hot Shot ticket, cycling obsessively and living frugally. He buys a ticket and hides the shard of glass in his trousers. Onstage, he starts performing a dance number, then pulls out the shard and threatens to slice his own neck. Wraith goads him to do it, but the other judges encourage him to speak. Bing passionately and angrily rants about the heartless, artificial system they live under. Hope declares the speech the most heartfelt in Hot Shot history and offers Bing his own regular show on one of his channels.
Bing is shown recording his show, where he rants while holding the shard to his neck. Despite criticising the system on his show, he now lives in a luxury apartment, and the episode ends with him looking out from his room at a view that resembles a vast green forest.
Production The executive producers Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones began work on Black Mirror in 2010, having previously worked together on other television programmes. The programme was commissioned for three hour-long episodes by Channel 4, taking its budget from the comedy department. Brooker's production company Zeppotron produced the show for Endemol. "Fifteen Million Merits" was the first Black Mirror episode to be written, though it aired second, following "The National Anthem".
Conception and writing
"Fifteen Million Merits" was written by Brooker and his wife Konnie Huq; an inspiration for the episode was Huq's remark that Brooker would "basically be happy in a room where every wall" was an iPad screen. Huq had conceived of a future where the walls of every house would be a touch-screen television, whilst Brooker had been inspired by avatars and Miis on the Xbox 360 and Wii. Huq had also had an idea that gyms should be powered by the energy produced by its exercise equipment.
Additionally, Brooker said that the episode is based on a narrative promoted by talent shows where becoming an "overnight star" is "one of the main means of salvation that's held up" for people who "do a job they hate for little reward". At the time, Huq was presenting The Xtra Factor, a reality series companion show. She had previously presented the children's television show Blue Peter and noted that many children wanted to be famous without knowing what they would be famous for. The episode was also influenced by The Year of the Sex Olympics, a 1968 dystopian television play that comments on reality television.
In an article promoting Black Mirror shortly before its release, Brooker mentioned the "1984" ad produced by Apple, Inc. for the Apple Macintosh computer. He said that the advert "implied the Mac might save mankind from a nightmarish Orwellian future", but that such a world would instead "probably" look "a bit like" the one in "Fifteen Million Merits". He and Huq nicknamed the episode the "Screenwipe Story" because of the similarities between Bing's monologues and Brooker's televised rants on Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe.
The ending went through various drafts. One idea featured Bing and Abi living together, both unhappy with their lives; another idea had Bing deliver his stream and anxiously pore over the ratings for it. One ending revealed that the exercise bikes were not connected to anything, contrary to the implication that they are generating electricity; Jones commented that the viewer may think this anyway.
Filming and post-production
Euros Lyn directed the episode; Brooker had written reviews of Lyn's work on the science fiction programme Doctor Who and Lyn was familiar with his articles in The Guardian and his show Nathan Barley. Daniel Kaluuya was cast as Bing Madsen, based on an audition in which he performed Bing's rant on Hot Shot. Kaluuya would later be cast by Jordan Peele in the 2017 horror film Get Out because of the strength of this scene. Jessica Brown Findlay played Abi, having recently finished working on historical drama Downton Abbey. Rupert Everett played Judge Hope, Julia Davis played Judge Charity and Ashley Thomas, known by the stage name "Bashy", played Judge Wraith.
Additionally, characters riding the exercises bikes include Dustin, an unpleasant cyclist played by Paul Popplewell and Swift, a woman with a crush on Bing played by Isabella Laughland. Hannah John-Kamen was cast as the Hot Shot winner Selma, whilst Kerrie Hayes played Glee, a mediocre singer wanting to appear on Hot Shot.
Filming took place in Buckingham, on a disused university campus. Due to the small budget, every scene was filmed on one set, which was redressed for each location. The sets feature working screens, as using visual effects would have required a larger budget and more time. For example, when Kaluuya swiped his hand in front of a screen attached to his bike machine, a crew member would press a button to trigger the screen's response. Digital avatars called "doppels" represented each character on the screens, including in a large Hot Shot audience. An illustrator and a team of animators worked on the doppels, with every cast member being assigned an avatar, and hundreds more avatars appearing in the Hot Shot audience. Many audience reactions were shot so that they could be inserted as appropriate responses to the story and dialogue. The "cycling chamber" shown is one of thousands in the building in which the story takes place; a low budget meant this building could only be shown sparingly.
Bing's screen displays different programmes. Whilst the gameshow Botherguts was fictional and had to be filmed, Endemol allowed their gameshows Don't Scare the Hare and The Whole 19 Yards to be displayed on the screens. Additionally, adverts for the fictional pornography channel WraithBabes needed to be filmed; two real pornographic actresses were hired, with one of the actresses bringing her boyfriend to participate in the shoot. For the WraithBabes video featuring Abi, the team shot some graphic elements that were ultimately not used. The final version has the actor put his thumb in Abi's mouth, giving a sense of "weird violation" rather than titillation.
To inform Kaluuya's portrayal of Bing, Lyn and Kaluuya discussed Bing's backstory in great depth, considering Bing's relationship with his deceased brother. In a key scene, Bing smashes a screen in his cell after seeing Abi in a porn advert. During filming of the scene, Kaluuya accidentally cut his foot, a moment that was included in the final cut. The episode reaches its climax with Bing's appearance on Hot Shot, where he dances before delivering a rant. Kaluuya worked with a choreographer for the dance, whilst the rant was written by Brooker "in a real rush" to imitate Bing's feelings as he speaks. It contains lines that do not make complete sense, such as "You're sitting there slowly knitting things worse". Bing's Hot Shot performance was filmed in two takes, with three cameras on Kaluuya.
Judge Hope was inspired by the talent competition judge Simon Cowell, as well as BBC Radio 1 DJs from the 1970s. Davis and Everett both had the idea of affecting Australian accents, but only Everett was allowed to do so. To distance Judge Hope from the singer George Michael, Everett removed his glasses during his first scene.
Music The episode features an original soundtrack by Stephen McKeon, who agreed with Lyn that the score should use live musicians and sound "natural" as a contrast to the artificiality of the setting. The music for Bing's character is Western in genre, chosen to match his cell's personalised theme and to evoke the symbolism of a hero in Western film, which Bing unsuccessfully tries to embody by "saving" Abi.
The music for pornography channel WraithBabes features voices by Tara Lee, McKeon's daughter, who was 16 years old at the time. The scene in which Bing works hard to achieve enough merits to enter Hot Shot is five minutes long; the music had to build throughout, and McKeon used a sample of an exercise bike in his composition. The song "Anyone Who Knows What Love Is (Will Understand)" by Irma Thomas was chosen by Brooker to stand out from the dystopic setting; he wanted a catchy song with a 1960s style. It recurs in later Black Mirror episodes.
Broadcast