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| "USS Callister: Into Infinity" | |
|---|---|
| Black Mirror episode | |
 Promotional poster | |
| Episode no. | Series 7 Episode 6 |
| Directed by | Toby Haynes |
| Written by |
|
| Original air date | 10 April 2025 |
| Running time | 90 minutes |
| Guest appearances | |
| |
"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.[1] The episode received positive reviews.
 | This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. (May 2025) |
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 of their game credits, 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 a previous event.
In the real world, an investigative reporter questions Callister Inc. CEO James Walton 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 Walton look into the rogue players. After reviewing gameplay footage of the clones and examining DNA samples she had stolen from Daly's apartment, she concludes that Daly 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 Walton 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 Walton, Walton attempts to shoot the clones, killing clone Karl Plowman in the process. Captain Nanette kills Walton and orders Nanette to stop Walton from respawning. She disconnects herself, takes away the game and controller, and lambasts him as they leave the office. Nanette 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, Walton used the illegal DNA cloning device to create and trap a clone of Daly in the Heart, forcing the clone to help him and the real Daly 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 Daly, 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, Daly 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, Daly's clone attacks her.
Meanwhile, Walton 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 Daly's clone 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. Captain Nanette wakes up in the hospital to find her consciousness melded with the real Nanette's consciousness, is 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, Walton finds that the whole of Infinity and all backups have been wiped from the server when he calls the real Kabir about what Fatal Content Error 606 is. Then he looks at the cover of the Space Fleet comic titled "All Is Lost".
Three months later, Walton 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.
The episode is a sequel to the Black Mirror episode "USS Callister".[2] Director Toby Haynes returned to direct the episode.[3] 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.[4]
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.[5] 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.[6]
Reviews were mostly positive.[7] Alec Bojalad of Den of Geek rated the episode 4.5 out of 5 stars.[7]
"USS Callister: Into Infinity" ranked below average on critics' lists of the 34 instalments of Black Mirror, from best to worst:
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IndieWire listed the 33 episodes, excluding Bandersnatch, where "USS Callister: Into Infinity" placed 16th.[14] Wired rated it the best of the six episodes in series seven.[15] 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.[16]
