USS Callister: Into Infinity

"USS Callister: Into Infinity"
Black Mirror episode
Promotional poster
Episode no.	Series 7 Episode 6
Directed by	Toby Haynes
Written by	Charlie Brooker Bisha K. Ali William Bridges Bekka Bowling
Original air date	10 April 2025 (2025-04-10)
Running time	90 minutes
Guest appearances
Cristin Milioti as Nanette Cole Jimmi Simpson as James Walton Billy Magnussen as Karl Plowman / Valdack Osy Ikhile as Nate Packer Milanka Brooks as Elena Tulaska Paul G. Raymond as Kabir Dudani Jesse Plemons as Robert Daly Gwion Glyn as Mohawk Helder Fernandes as Space Cowboy Ebenezer Gyau as Ninja Bilal Hasna as Kris El Masry Iolanthe as Pixie Bunkin Rita Estevanovich as Doctor Garcia

"USS Callister : Into Infinity" is the sixth and final episode in the seventh season of the British science fiction anthology television series Black Mirror and also the sequel to the fourth season episode "USS Callister". Several of the cast of USS Callister return to reprise their roles, including Cristin Milioti, Jimmi Simpson, Billy Magnussen, Milanka Brooks, Osy Ikhile, and Paul G. Raymond while Jesse Plemons portrays a digital clone version of Robert Daly. Written by series creator and showrunner Charlie Brooker, Bisha K. Ali, William Bridges and Bekka Bowling, and directed by Toby Haynes, it premiered on Netflix on 10 April 2025, with the rest of series seven. The episode received positive reviews.

Plot

Three months after the events of “USS Callister”, the digitally cloned crew of real people, led by Captain Nanette, have been surviving in the Infinity game universe by robbing players which earns little reward at high risk. Due to them not having gamer tags, players think they are cheating or glitches and complain about them on the Infinity game forum. After a player encounter that nearly kills the whole crew, Nanette concludes that the crew needs to gain access to the game’s source code in order to send themselves into a private server to ensure long term survival. To do so, they need to get back Lt. Walton, who had died in previous events.

In the real world, an investigative reporter questions James Walton, CEO of Callister Inc, about the players without gamer tags and Robert Daly’s use of an illegal DNA cloning device. Nanette Cole, the real life counterpart of Captain Nanette, spies on the interview. She offers to help James look into the rogue players. After reviewing gameplay footage of the clones and examining DNA samples she had stolen from Robert’s apartment, she concludes that Robert had cloned various co-workers who had infiltrated the game. She shares her findings with James.

The crew figures out that Lt. Walton had respawned shortly after the crew entered Infinity, and manage to locate which planet he is on. Simultaneously, Nanette chooses a planet that the clones might be on, which happens to be the same planet that Lt. Walton is on. Nanette and James enter the game. The two groups encounter each other, retrieve Lt. Walton, and reboard the USS Callister. While Captain Nanette explains the situation to Nanette and James, James attempts to shoot the clones, killing clone Karl Plowman in the process. Captain Nanette kills James and orders Nanette to stop James from respawning. She disconnects herself, takes away the game and controller, and lambasts him as they leave the office. She is suddenly hit by a car, leaving her in a coma. The crew later discovers what happened after attempting to call Nanette.

Lt. Walton explains the truth behind the “Heart of Infinity”, where the source code is kept. To procedurally generate planets for game content, James used the illegal DNA cloning device to create and trap a clone of Robert in the Heart, forcing the clone to update and expand Infinity indefinitely in solitary. The crew travels to the Heart and Captain Nanette teleports inside it alone. Inside, she meets the clone of Robert, who is willing to help the crew after she explains the situation. He then shows her he has access to Nanette's body in the hospital via cerebral implant. He offers a choice: he can merge her consciousness with Nanette's to revive her and re-enter the real world but doing so would erase the crew, or he can create a private server for the crew. After Captain Nanette chooses the latter, Robert says she passed his test and he can actually do both options and starts to copy and paste her. However, she realizes that this would leave a copy of herself to be Robert's companion and demands that he cut and paste instead. Infuriated that she plans on leaving him to be alone again, Robert attacks her.

Meanwhile, James enters the game and poses as Lt. Walton. He sends out an invite to all the players the crew had robbed, and exits the game. The crew struggles to defend themselves from scores of angry players.

Captain Nanette manages to kill Robert, and his death triggers a dead man’s switch that starts to delete the entire game. She manages to execute the cut and paste command right before the Callister is destroyed. She wakes up in the hospital to find her consciousness melded with the real Nanette's consciousness and in control of real Nanette's body, and is also co-inhabited by the ''Callister'' crew who can experience the real world through her senses and communicate with her via cell phone. Meanwhile, James finds that the whole of Infinity and all backups have been wiped from the server.

Three months later, James is arrested by the FBI on numerous charges, including fraud and “digital human rights abuse”. After Nanette and the crew inside her watch the news, the crew complain about their predicament and Nanette assures them she is working on a solution. Reluctantly, she plays the latest episode of The Real Housewives of Atlanta, allowing them to watch through her eyes.

Production

The episode is a sequel to the Black Mirror episode "USS Callister". Director Toby Haynes returned to direct the episode. Originally, Brooker and Haynes planned to develop the sequel to "USS Callister" as a series, which was about to enter development in 2023 when the plans were derailed by the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. The ideas for the series were then reworked into a single television film.

While most of the returning cast from USS Callister was announced prior to the release of the episode, Brooker kept Jesse Plemons's return as a clone of Robert Daly a secret. Michaela Coel, another actor from USS Callister, had schedule conflicts and did not return for this episode. Her Callister character was reported as being killed during an earlier mission.

Reception

Reviews were mostly positive. Alec Bojalad of Den of Geek rated the episode 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Episode rankings

"USS Callister: Into Infinity" ranked below average on critics' lists of the 34 instalments of Black Mirror, from best to worst:

• 11th – Jackie Strause and James Hibberd, The Hollywood Reporter
• 18th – Lucy Ford, Jack King and Brit Dawson, GQ
• 18th – Ed Power, The Daily Telegraph
• 20th – James Hibbs, Radio Times

• 25th – Charles Bramesco, Vulture
• 31st – James Hibberd, Christian Holub, and Randall Colburn, Entertainment Weekly

IndieWire listed the 33 episodes, excluding Bandersnatch, where "USS Callister: Into Infinity" placed 16th. Wired rated it first-best of the six episodes in series seven. Instead of by quality, Mashable ranked the episodes by tone, concluding that "USS Callister: Into Infinity" was the ninth-least pessimistic episode of the show.

External links

• "USS Callister: Into Infinity" at IMDb