Josh Hartnett, Kate Mara on Their Lockdown-Inspired ‘Black Mirror’ and Why It’s Set in an Alternate 1969

[This story contains major spoilers from the Black Mirror season six episode “Beyond the Sea.”]

Charlie Brooker warned that some of the season six Black Mirror episodes were going to be the bleakest yet. And “Beyond the Sea,” starring the trio of Aaron Paul, Josh Hartnett and Kate Mara, certainly fits that bill.

In the 80-minute space saga, Paul and Hartnett play astronauts aboard a spaceship on a six-year mission. The episode, however, takes place in an alternative 1969 where technology exists so the astronauts can beam their consciousness back down to Earth via a space-travel link and walk among their families as a mechanical replica while their real bodies sleep in a spacepod.

But things go horribly wrong for Hartnett’s astronaut, David. In the middle of the night, a hippie-like cult (led by Rory Culkin) invades his family home and brutally murders David’s free-spirited wife (Auden Thornton) and children in front of his (replica’s) eyes, before destroying his replica. The scene — which echoes the infamous Charles Manson-led murder of Sharon Tate, which took place in 1969, and subsequent Manson Family murders — is motivated by their view that David’s “machine man” defies nature and is an abomination.

The unimaginable tragedy leads to complications. David’s replica was one-of-a-kind, so he’s stuck in space without a link to Earth for four more years. When Mara’s sympathetic and lonely character Lana, the wife of Paul’s distant astronaut Cliff, suggests David borrow her husband’s link, his visits spark a complex love triangle. David, in Cliff’s replica, pursues Lana, and when he is ultimately rejected, he makes the vengeful decision to steal Cliff’s replica, visit Earth and brutally murder Lana and her son; delivering Cliff the same horribly tragic hand he was dealt.

Brooker, the creator and writer of Netflix’s Emmy-winning sci-fi anthology series, has long maintained he is pro-technology, recently reiterating that Black Mirror episodes are “worst-case scenarios” that show how flawed humans can make terrible decisions amid emerging science. “Beyond the Sea” represents that, as David’s flawed choice leads to a bleak and tragic ending.

Below, Hartnett and Mara speak to The Hollywood Reporter about Brooker’s pandemic-era inspiration for the story, the specific reasons why “Beyond the Sea” was set in an alternate 1969 and the most awful day of filming: “If you are completely taken away from [love and connection], it will atrophy your soul.”

It’s been a four-year wait for season six; Charlie Brooker said the world felt a little too dystopian to do more Black Mirrors and now he’s back with episodes that upend what a Black Mirror is. What insight did you get about what inspired him to write “Beyond the Sea”?

Josh Hartnett: When I spoke to Charlie about it, and to John [Crowley, director] about why Charlie wrote it, it was that he wrote it during lockdown as a reaction to lockdown. He was feeling isolated and — he probably won’t say this — but I think he was feeling a bit of FOMO (laughing) looking at other peoples’ lives out in the world. And he thought that maybe you’re comparing your own situation to someone else’s situation; everybody seems to have their chickens roosting and, why is it always sunny in that part of England and not in my part of England? That’s a thing people get into when they’re isolated on their social media, and I think this was a reaction to that social media feeling of separation, but being there in a way. And also obviously, isolation.

The thing that really got me, and I think he had said something about this, was the idea of love and connection being a resource where if you are completely taken away from it, it will atrophy your soul. He didn’t say exactly that, it’s me rambling a bit. But I think that happens to David; he is stuck on that ship and there’s no chance and no hope for his future. And the only hope he ends up having is in a very elicit relationship that he doesn’t know how to handle. And then things go very, very wrong.

Charlie also said this season contains some of the bleakest episodes yet. This one certainly is. It’s set in an alternate time period, but speaks to universal themes around marriage, ego and technology. Kate, what do you think are the ultimate sins that led to tragedy for these characters?

Kate Mara: Well, I don’t think any sin should lead to what some of them, or any of them really, had to experience. It’s so horrible. But I think the episode really is very, very relevant and universal. It doesn’t matter when it takes place. I think it was as relevant in the ‘60s as it is now; the theme of connection. Human connection and how important it is for all of us to survive and love. Not just in a romantic relationship, but to feel loved and to experience love. That’s what I found so fascinating about it; and then to watch these two men experience isolation and also watch my character, Lana, experience isolation in her own home. All of those things I think can be very relatable.

Hartnett: The sins that lead to their horrible outcome. … I think that’s partially why Charlie set it in 1969. Their sin is basically hope and optimism. Those are the things that are quashed by this Manson-esque murder.

Because at that point, the space program was the great hope of the American people and humanity’s hope, in a way. It was the very bleeding edge of technology at the time; people going to space meant something, like we were all going to be colonizing the moon or living in some Jetsons future. And I think that’s why he wanted to set it then, because it was just before the Manson murders. I was talking earlier with Kate that her character reminded me of Joan Didion because she had said or written at that time: The ‘60s ended all the optimism, all the hope. All the experimentation ended with the Manson murders. That was it. That was the end. And I think that great experiment ended so long ago, that Charlie wanted to go back to that time to reinvent why, and to then of course have this helmet of isolation put in place. [Brooker says the “Demon 79” episode, which has a companion “Red Mirror” label, inspired him to travel back in time for “Beyond the Sea,” a “retrofuturistic” episode like a “lost science fiction story of the ’60s.”]

I was thankful the actual murders weren’t shown. Josh, what was it like filming the Manson-esque murder scene?

Hartnett: It was a truly awful day, I have to say. I think that was the worst, honestly. We didn’t have much time to shoot this, so that was at the end of a very long night of shooting in Valencia. We were only there for three nights of filming. You have to imagine this [murder], and then John kept asking for another take and then at the end of it, he wanted to do this spinning shot zooming in on my face. I have kids and you just have to go to a place that you don’t want to go. I was so exhausted by the end of it. It was not fun. But that’s part of the job. But there was nothing seen, which is the good bit; there was nothing for me to see. It was all in my head. I don’t think John shows much of any violence in this. I think the most violent thing that happens is when Aaron punches me in the face, rather weakly. That’s about it.

Kate, Charlie has done complicated love stories around consciousness. This one had two layers, with your husband not only being a different person but also a machine. What did you make of the love triangle in this story and of loving a person who isn’t defined by what they are on the outside? 

Mara: I thought the aspect of love in this was so intriguing and complicated. I thought, “Well Aaron has a really difficult job to portray both of these men, but really be one man feeling very different things.” But for me, when we were doing all of our scenes — because all of my scenes are with him — it was easy to know which character he was playing, because one is so much more present with Lana. And the other is very much not. He’s gone, in so many ways. So it was an interesting thing and interesting themes to explore.

Interview edited for length and clarity.

Black Mirror season six is now streaming on Netflix.