‘BlackBerry’ film hails the must-have gadget that the iPhone turned into a forgotten relic

Almost everyone knows Steve Jobs’ uncanny vision, relentless drive and technological wizardry hatched the iPhone, a breakthrough that continues to reshape culture 16 years after the late Apple co-founder introduced the device to the world.

But, when Jobs unveiled the first iPhone in 2007, another smartphone was the must-have gadget. It was the BlackBerry, a device so addictive that it became known as the ‘CrackBerry’ among tech nerds and power brokers hunched over a tiny keyboard that was best operated with both thumbs clickety-clacking.

Now the BlackBerry is “that phone people had before they bought an iPhone”, a relic so irrelevant that the Canadian company that made it is now valued at US$3 billion — down from US$85 billion at its 2008 peak when it still controlled nearly half of the smartphone market.

But its legacy is worth remembering — and audiences will get a chance to learn more about its origins in the new film, BlackBerry. The film is the latest movie or TV series to delve into technology’s penchant for ground-breaking innovation, blind ambition, ego clashes and power struggles that turn into morality tales.

That formula has already spawned two Academy Award-nominated movies written by Aaron Sorkin, 2010’s The Social Network delving into Facebook’s founding and 2015’s Steve Jobs, dissecting the Silicon Valley icon. Then came last year’s flurry of TV series examining the scandals enveloping WeWork ( WeCrashed), Uber ( Super Pumped) and disgraced Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes ( The Dropout), which won Amanda Seyfried an Emmy for her turn in the starring role.

Unlike any of those biopics, BlackBerry is told as a dark comedy revolving around two amiable-but-bumbling nerds, Mike Lazaridis and Doug Fregin, who can’t seem to execute their plan to create a “computer in a phone” until they bring in a hard-nosed, foul-mouthed businessman, Jim Balsillie.

Although BlackBerry is based on a meticulously researched book called Losing the Signal, director and co-star Matt Johnson acknowledged taking more liberties in the movie during an interview with AP. Among other changes, Johnson cited shifting some timelines, shaping the company culture through his view of the 1990s and infusing the key characters with “our own personalities and our own ideas.

“But our lawyers wouldn’t let us put anything in the film that was an outright fabrication,” Johnson stressed.