Movie Battle: make the connection

Name an unused film sharing a recorded actor (including voice actors), director, writer, cinematographer or composer with the current film. For example, Toy Story → Tom Hanks → Forrest Gump. Accepted moves show the actual people joining the two films.

Choose Battle, Classic or Royale →

Choose your format

• Battle: pack a kit of up to 20 slots, then Find match or invite a friend. A public match starts when a second real player joins.
• Classic: a timed two-player chain with Cast, Skip, Rush and Time.
• Royale: 2–24 players answer together. Join the next public half-hour lobby, or create a private room and invite friends.
• Untimed practice: one player, no opponent and no countdown. Explore the film graph at your own pace.

Computer, Invite friend, Find online rival and untimed practice are directly available. Pass & play and saved battles appear under Room code, pass & play and saved battles. Computer opponents are explicitly labelled; Pass & play uses a handover curtain while the timed clock continues.

Opening film and crew

New battles share a daily UTC starting film. The first player is chosen from the match seed. Cast and crew are free for the first two turns or Royale rounds; this is separate from three setup turns without X marks. Later, Cast reveals people for the current film only. This Battle-only data includes all available non-deprecated credits for five roles; omissions in Wikidata or the selected catalogue remain possible.

Genuine posters appear for individually reviewed films: two self-hosted assets (Metropolis and the official title-only Nosferatu (2024) teaser) and two small MoviePosterDB-hosted previews (Speed (1994) and Dark Phoenix (2019)). The Nosferatu teaser is marked public-domain text/logo artwork; it is not the photographic theatrical poster. The hosted previews retain their respective artwork copyrights, source links and network/privacy notice. This is four specific film images, not an all-film poster feed or blanket artwork licence. Other missing or failed posters are labelled unavailable. Poster availability never changes valid films or starter selection. Poster coverage and credits; crew data provenance.

Classic turns and lifelines

A turn lasts 25 seconds. Unknown spelling stays editable; choosing a title/year suggestion verifies and plays it in B4/B5 without restarting time. Older B1–B3 suggestions only fill the box before Submit film. A known illegal answer gives feedback while the clock runs. Timeout or concession ends the duel. B4 never infers a loss just because the offline bank has no loaded reply.

The local initial inventory is two Cast, one Skip, one Rush and one Time. These counts are disclosed Solve Meadow defaults.

• Cast: reveal current-film credits and add five seconds. Free opening information spends nothing.
• Skip: pass the unchanged film; no immediate consecutive skip.
• Rush: off-turn, shorten the opponent clock to at most 12 seconds.
• Time: add up to 15 seconds on your turn, capped at 20 remaining; use it when it can help.

After the first three setup turns, shared people gain X/use marks. Three uses exhaust a person; any shared exhausted person blocks that film. All five roles share stable Wikidata person IDs, preventing namesakes being merged. Films cannot repeat. Solo practice has no turn-passing lifelines or timeout; later cast reveals are free.

Battle kits

Pack no more than 20 slots. The supported public examples are Romance (4 slots, play 8 qualifying films) or Idris Elba (5 slots, play 4 qualifying films without using him as the link), Evil Ex (4 slots, your links add double X marks), Cast (5 slots each) and Block (1 slot, up to three). Both players’ film and person bans apply after setup. Bans cost one slot here because official costs are unavailable.

Block is used off-turn against an opponent’s win condition after setup; qualifying submissions are rejected for that turn and their clock gains five seconds. Kit progress is separate from a legal connection, and setup films do not count toward the win condition. Notebook and the full sign-in-only kit catalogue are unavailable: no licensed CineNerdle most-played ranking was obtained.

Simultaneous Royale

Start with 10 points and 25 seconds per round. Submitted movies stay private until closure. From round two, up to three loot and three mine objectives persist for two or three rounds. Loot value falls by one each round. A player collects each particular loot instance once; items are capped at two.

Cast costs 2 points and adds 5 seconds after the two free opening rounds. Skip consumes a free loot Skip first, otherwise costs 5. Timeout pays 5 for an automatic skip or eliminates a player who cannot afford it. Priority favours your submitted title. Sprint requires a locked film and catches the nearest score gap by 3–10 points. Freeze blocks an eligible player ahead from loot outside setup and scheduled elimination rounds.

Selection considers Priority, skips and the most common valid film. Ties use fixed Wikidata coverage, with an explanation. If everyone skips, an unused film from the highest-covered local pool starts the next round. These are disclosed local proxies, not CineNerdle most-played ranks. From round 10 a uniquely lowest player is eliminated every third round; cutoff ties survive. The exact lobby-size-dependent reference schedule remains unavailable.

The final two

Two survivors use 20-second rounds and a target ten points above the leader. A skip cancels that turn. Equal target scores start sudden death. After ten endgame rounds the higher score wins or equal scores draw; the whole match is bounded to 30 rounds.

Public lobbies and private invites

Find match pairs two distinct browser sessions in the chosen format. A waiting duel expires after five minutes. Public Royale uses the next half-hour boundary and 2–24 actual participants; a member request starts an eligible lobby within a two-minute grace. A singleton or missed lobby expires. No fake opponents or counts. You can cancel your waiting seat, but a started match has a fixed roster.

Invite friend creates a private room. A different browser or device supplies the second essential cookie/seat; another tab sharing the cookie is the same player. Rooms expire after six hours. No accounts, chat, persistent global history or leaderboard.

Catalogue and editions

New games use B5 with independent code, original pixel art and online Wikidata film search. Full available online credits are verified for catalogue and newly found films and pinned into that match; the frozen 794-film bank remains an offline fallback. Choose a title and year from the suggestions. Earlier B4 games retain their own verified external-film rules. Partial titles and near spelling are supported. Verification can take a few seconds while your own clock runs; it does not shorten the next player’s turn. Each match can add up to 256 external films and 1 MiB of verified facts. Existing B1/B2/B3/B4 saves and rooms retain their original engines and catalogue rules; Movie Night M1’s immutable bank and daily records stay intact. Wikidata is incomplete, so every released movie and every credit are not guaranteed.

Full reference parity is not claimed. Proprietary most-played restrictions, complete kit inventory, popularity objectives, exact reference elimination schedule and modern poster coverage remain absent. Read temporary room privacy.