Brits have been left shocked after spotting an eerily futuristic ‘animal’ crossing a busy London street, with some claiming it looked like something out of Charlie Brooker’s hit sci-fi series Black Mirror
A futuristic-looking ‘animal’ has left Brits shocked after they claimed it looked like something out of Black Mirror.
A video posted to Reddit showed a robot dog crossing the street at Oxford Circus in Central London as astounded commuters watched on. The android, which appeared to have some kind of screen strapped to its back, scuttled across the road at the traffic light before disappearing behind a bus.
Sharing the clip to the thread r/london, the original poster wrote: “What in the Black Mirror…” while other users were eager to identify the “creature”. One wrote: “Looks like one of the cheap (relatively speaking of course, ~$2,500 vs. ~$75,000) Chinese clones of Boston Dynamics Spot.”
“Basically just a drone on legs,” said another. Meanwhile a third chimed in: “That’s not one of those flamethrower dogs is it?,” to which a fourth responded: “I saw a pack of them walking around hackney yesterday.”
It is unclear what the dog is or when the footage was filmed.
Futuristic TV show Black Mirror depicts what creator Charlie Brooker imagines would happen if technology became too advanced or fell into the wrong hands. The show launched in 2011, with the most recent series having been released on Netflix last year – with one episode, Metalhead, even featuring robot dogs.
As well as 27 regular episodes Black Mirror also features a special, interactive episode called Bandersnatch. The choose-your-own-adventure game, set in the 1980s, follows game developer Stefan – played by Fionn Whitehead – as he turns his favourite book into a video game.
The troubled 19-year-old runs into plenty of stumbling blocks along the way as viewers select from two options at a time in order to reach one of five main endings, each of which has different variations along the way. Stefan’s success or failure depends on what viewers choose to do.
Weeks after its 2017 release creators revealed the choose-your-own-adventure game had a secret ending not many viewers had managed to find. Posting to X (then Twitter), Netflix teased fans with a cryptic message that read: “Think you’ve seen everything there is to see in bandersnatch? try picking up the family photo, twice.”
We won’t spoil it for you, but if you’re thinking of giving the game one more play-through, don’t say we didn’t warn you.
