"Beyond the Sea" is the third episode of the sixth series of the anthology series Black Mirror. It was written by the series creator Charlie Brooker and directed by John Crowley. Alongside the rest of the sixth series, it premiered on Netflix on 15 June 2023. Set in a retrofuturistic 1969, it follows two astronauts, Cliff (Aaron Paul) and David (Josh Hartnett), who inhabit replicas of their bodies on Earth. The astronauts grapple with an unfathomable tragedy that occurs on Earth.
Brooker conceived of the episode as a story about working from home. It was influenced by the Manson Family cult active in the 1960s. The title comes from an English version of "La Mer", a song prominent in the episode. Filming took place for three weeks in summer 2022 across multiple locations; namely Whitstable, Rye and Dungeness in England. Filming also took place across both London and Spain. Aaron Paul, a fan of Black Mirror, plays both Cliff and David inhabiting Cliff's replica. He had agreed to a cameo in the fourth series opener "USS Callister" in 2017 under the condition that he could appear in the series again.
Critics identified the episode as character-driven: Cliff is more strict and uptight than David. The masculinity of each character is explored, as is Lana's experience of isolation. The acting was widely praised by reviewers, as was the episode's emotional, contemplative tone, although the plot and pacing garnered a mixed reaction. Overall, many critics considered it the best episode of the sixth series.
Plot In an alternate history 1969, Cliff Stanfield (Aaron Paul) and David Ross (Josh Hartnett) are astronauts two years into a six-year mission. They can transfer their consciousness to artificial copies of their bodies on Earth when not needed on the ship for routine checks and exercise.
As Cliff and his wife Lana (Kate Mara) recently moved to the countryside with their son Henry, Lana suggests a garden party to meet neighbours, but Cliff rejects the idea. David goes to the movies with his son, daughter, and wife Jessica (Auden Thornton) for his son's birthday. He dances to "La Mer" with Jessica and they share an intimate moment. David and Cliff are both interrupted by an alert, leading the two to return to their real bodies. On the station, Cliff repairs the solar coating of the station while David supervises. They then return to their replica bodies on Earth.
At night, David hears intruders and approaches with a baseball bat. The four intruders—led by Kappa (Rory Culkin)—comprise a cult that oppose artificial humans. They tie David up; he watches as they kill his family and destroy his replica.
Restricted to the spaceship, David falls silent in grief and is at risk of suicide, which greatly worries Cliff, as it takes two people to run the ship. At Lana's suggestion, Cliff lets David use his replica to walk through the forest. David, in Cliff's replica, breaks down in tears and Lana embraces him.
Back on the ship, Cliff is heartened by David's drawing of his house from memory and allows David to use his replica for an hour per week to recreate it as an oil painting.
David and Lana grow more familiar during his visits; he becomes infatuated with her and she enjoys his attentiveness. When David runs out of linseed oil, he convinces Lana to take a trip into town. They buy a book he recommends; the shopkeeper mistakes David for Cliff and offers condolences to David. Later, David dances with Lana to "La Mer", but she rejects his sexual advances. Henry vandalizes David's painting, so David hits him. Lana demands he leave and tries to convince Cliff not to allow him back.
Cliff discovers nude sketches of Lana in David's room on the ship. Cliff punches David, who believes Cliff is unappreciative of what he has. When Cliff confronts Lana, she confesses to her feelings of neglect and to David's advances, which she insists she rejected. The couple reconcile.
Days later, Cliff responds to an alert and takes a spacewalk, but discovers there is no problem. Meanwhile, David uses Cliff's replica to kill Lana and Henry. Cliff discovers his replica is covered in blood and finds the bodies. When Cliff returns to the ship, David wordlessly offers him a seat.
Production Black Mirror went on hiatus after its fifth series was released in 2019. Its executive producers, Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones, departed from the production company House of Tomorrow and joined Broke and Bones, leading to negotiations for production rights. During this time, Brooker took a break from Black Mirror and worked on more comedic projects. In May 2022, Netflix announced that a sixth Black Mirror series was in development. Broke and Bones produced the series, while House of Tomorrow's parent company, Banijay, retained ownership.
Brooker was the screenwriter for "Beyond the Sea". He wrote the episode as a reaction to COVID-19 lockdowns in the UK, viewing it as a story about working from home. On its initial conception, a character's family are killed by a climate change-induced forest fire. However, the setting was changed to 1969—inspired by the historical setting of "Demon 79", the first episode in the sixth series to be written. "Beyond the Sea" was influenced by science fiction of the era, and the Helter Skelter predictions of the Manson Family cult active in the 1960s. Brooker wrote the characters to follow behavioural norms of this period, saying they act differently due to the lack of mobile phones.
The episode title "Sea of Tranquility" was considered, in reference to a fictional television show referred to throughout Black Mirror. The final title "Beyond the Sea" references an English version of "La Mer". Brooker said the song was "haunting" and "timeless". Brooker mentioned a number of books in his script that are shown onscreen, including The Illustrated Man (1959)—as the 1969 film had scared him—and Valley of the Dolls (1966), as a joke about Lana living with a replica.
First reports in July 2022 revealed the casting of Aaron Paul, Josh Hartnett, Kate Mara, and Auden Thornton, with the casting of Rory Culkin announced in April 2023. The director was John Crowley. Udo Kramer designed sets for all series six episodes. The soundtrack was composed by Volker Bertelmann and released on 21 July 2023.
Casting Aaron Paul is among the few actors to have two appearances in Black Mirror, after a voice cameo appearance in the space-themed series four episode "USS Callister". He accepted the cameo under the condition that it not preclude him from future appearances, since the series has a nearly-unbroken policy of never using the same screen actor or actress twice in separate episodes. He had also auditioned for a different episode, and was approached for a series five appearance, but could not appear due to other commitments. Paul was a big Black Mirror fan and stated that the show had encouraged him to limit his use of technology and social media—to the point of not owning a computer. Paul was friends with Mara prior to filming and had met Hartnett before. He had spent a lot of time on farms and had stargazing as a hobby since childhood.
Paul described Cliff as "heavy-handed", but imagined that Cliff saw himself as a "sweet, delicate, nice, loving father" in comparison to his father. In comparison to Paul, Cliff is "standoffish" and "by the book". He said Cliff had "deep-rooted baggage" and an inability to communicate, but realised this and "started to go down the right path" once learning of David's love for Lana. When filming Cliff's discovery of his family's murder, Paul avoided viewing the set to give realism to his reaction, asking only to know the camera locations.
Mara was also a fan of the series and was keen to work on "Beyond the Sea" because of its exploration of relationships. Mara saw that David, Cliff and Lana all experienced isolation. In Lana's case, she lacks options due to her status as a housewife in the 1960s, but wants her husband to feel present. Hartnett was not present for filming of the scenes where Paul plays David in Cliff's replica. Instead, rehearsals and discussions focused on this element. According to Hartnett, the key was for Paul to embody David's "internal machinations", not to impersonate him. Mara said it was always clear which character Paul was playing as David is "much more present with Lana" while Cliff is "gone, in so many ways". Paul said he studied Hartnett's manner during rehearsals and wanted to capture his "inherent charm". Paul and Mara had dance lessons together in preparation for their dance to "La Mer".
Hartnett was offered the role a week before filming began. He said that David is an optimist who represents society's hopefulness towards space exploration. Commenting on David's situation, Hartnett said that a person's soul will "atrophy" if "love and connection" are taken from them. Paul believed David's oil painting plan had no initial ulterior motive. According to Hartnett, David ended up with three choices: to kill himself, Cliff, or Cliff's family. The middle choice would lead to his death indirectly. David decides on the last option as a way to "actually connect" to Cliff, as both of their families will have been murdered.
Filming
After rehearsals in London, three weeks of filming was done in Whitstable, England, in the summer 2022 heatwaves. To represent Cliff's rural American house, the production used a house in Whitstable designed by a homesick American. They let the grass grow to give it an "untouched feeling", added a barn, and redesigned the interior to fit the 1960s. Filming for David and Lana's shopping trip took place at Rye, East Sussex, England.
The spaceship's interior was built in Twickenham, London—on the same soundstage where the Beatles recorded "Get Back" (1969). It was designed with NASA's Skylab in mind, which was launched in 1973. Kramer also took inspiration from the film 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), but avoided the "flashing buttons and blinking lights" used in futuristic fiction of the era. According to Hartnett, it was designed to be "a little too small", so his height of meant that he struggled to get through doorways. This brought claustrophobia to the atmosphere.
Three nights of filming took place in Valencia, Spain, where a midcentury home was used for David's residence. According to Kramer, the house was built around a swimming pool and incorporated period details. Walls were added to change its layout and furniture was replaced. Kramer said the design had to be "very serious so that the drama pays off". Red tiling was replaced by a cream carpet to heighten the "off place" aura of the intruders and the effect of the red hue during the violence. Hartnett said the scene where David's family are killed was filmed "at the end of a very long night", time-limited, and emotional for him as a parent.
Analysis "Beyond the Sea" is a science fiction and a horror story. It is an example of retrofuturism, showing futuristic technology in a past setting. According to Den of Geeks Louisa Mellor, its setting is used "as the stage on which to tell a domestic tale". Ed Power, writing in The Daily Telegraph, found it reminiscent of the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Adi Robertson of The Verge believed that the 1960s period allowed suspension of disbelief by the viewer, as its more limited technology creates capacity for its characters' isolation. Hartnett noted that the killing of David's replica and his family mirrors the Manson Family's murder of Sharon Tate in 1969, the same year the episode is set. Kappa, the leader, represents Charles Manson.