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 Valdack Osy Ikhile as Nate Packer Milanka Brooks as Elena Tulaska Paul G. Raymond as Kabir Dudani Jesse Plemons as Robert Daly Bilal Hasna as Kris El Masry

"USS Callister: Into Infinity" is the sixth episode in the seventh series of the British science fiction anthology television series Black Mirror and also the sequel to "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. 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.

Plot

The crew of the USS Callister, all digitally-cloned avatars of employees of Callister Inc. which created a video game around the starship, have entered Infinity, an immersive virtual reality-based massively-multiplayer online version of the game, and to eke out their survival among the game's microtransactions, they take the role of space pirates to rob other players. Because they lack a gamer tag, they are also easy targets for players to try to attack. They realise that to survive, they need to hack the Infinity servers to carve out a virtual space of their own, but this requires first getting back Walt, a digital clone of Callister's CEO, James Walton, and then use the information Walt knows to travel through the "Heart of Infinity" to reach this space.

A reporter travels to Callister Inc. to ask its owner James Walton about these rogue players in Infinity, as well as illegal digital cloning equipment that had been used by Callister's former owner, Robert Daly. Nanette Cole, a programmer for the game, overhears this, and offers to help James to track down these rogue players. They enter the game and track down James' clone, Walt, who had previously died but had respawned due to trace amounts of James' DNA that had been digitally cloned and leaked into Infinity. Simultaneously, Nan, Nanette's digital clone and in command of the USS Callister, also discovers Walt's whereabouts. The two groups meet up, find Walt, and return to the USS Callister. While meeting the rest of the crew, James plays around with a laser gun, killing Karl's clone. Nanette kicks him out of the game and then disconnects herself to lambast him for his antics as they leave the office, but she is suddenly hit by a car, leaving her seemingly braindead.

Meanwhile, Walt helps guide the USS Callister to the Heart, appearing as a space station, and Nan transports into it. She discovers it to be a digital recreation of Robert's garage where he and James had constructed the technology behind their original game, including a digital clone of Robert himself. As Robert was the genius behind the game's universe, the two acquired an illegal digital cloning device to place a copy of Robert into the game, allowing the copy to continually provide ideas to build Infinity around if the real Robert died. The clone of Robert is willing to help Nan and the crew, but reveals Nanette is currently braindead; he offers a choice, via way of separate floppy disks, of either merging Nan's consciousness with Nanette to help revive her, or he can copy and paste the crew into a private server. Nan realizes that this would leave a copy of herself to be Robert's slave, and demands that he cut and paste the crew over, which causes him to attack Nan.

Meanwhile, James enters the game and poses as Walt to gain access to the Callister's bridge, and while the crew is distracted, sends out an invite to all the players that the Callister crew had robbed. James exits the game and opts to watch events unfold from outside. The ship struggles to defend itself from hundreds of upset players.

Nan, struggling to survive from Robert's manipulation of their reality, manages to kill him with a prop knife. Robert's death engages a killswitch that starts to destroy the Heart. Nan frantically searches for the floppy to perform the cut and paste move and engages it, just as the Callister is about to be hit by missiles. Nan finds herself in control of Nanette's body, also co-inhabited by the Callister crew who can experience the world through her senses and communicate with her via cell phone. Meanwhile, James finds that the whole of Infinity has been wiped from the server. Months later, James is arrested for fraud and illegal digital cloning actions, while Nan and the crew relax to watch the latest episode of The Real Housewives of Atlanta.

Production

The episode is a sequel to the Black Mirror episode "USS Callister". Director Toby Haynes returned to direct the episode.

While most of the returning cast from USS Callister was announced prior to the release of the episode, Brooker kept the reveal of 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, with her Callister character reportedly being killed during a mission.

Reception

The episode received mostly positive reviews. Alec Bojalad of Den of Geek rated the episode 4.5 out of 5 stars.

External links

• "USS Callister: Into Infinity" at IMDb