YMMV / Nerve

• Alternate Character Interpretation:
  • The maker (or makers) of Nerve. Were they cold-hearted sadists who created the game because they enjoy making people do dangerous stunts for their own twisted amusement, or were they just normal people who wanted to create a fun game of thrill-seeking that was then corrupted by the game's players?
  • Tommy. Was he really worried about Vee's safety because of her playing a sketchy game with a guy she hardly knows, or was he like Sydney and simply jealous that she was gaining a following and having fun with another guy? Or was he angry that the game and Ian were causing Vee to break out of her shell, reducing his chances at getting his dream girl? Or some combination of the above.
  • Is Ty really as crazy as he appears, or is he simply putting it on to cope with being forced to play Nerve?
• Awesome Music:
  • Halsey's "Hurricane" playing as Vee and Ian arrive in the city.
  • "Ride" and "Somewhere To Run" (both of which are featured in the trailer) definitely qualify as well.
• Best Known for the Fanservice: It's no surprise some of the most memorable scenes in the movie are Sydney mooning the crowd of a football game on a dare and the scene of Vee and Ian running through the mall in nothing but their underwear.
• Hollywood Homely: Emma Roberts as the Plain Jane. Riiiiight. Though, judging by her stunned reaction when she sees herself in the green dress for the first time, it could just be a confidence problem, and Ian (and some of the watchers) all notice Vee's actual hotness.
• Informed Wrongness: Vee's "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Sydney is treated as a What the Hell, Hero? moment, with Tommy scolding her and Vee later regretting it and apologizing to Sydney when she has the chance. This completely ignores how Vee had every right to be furious with Sydney. She just caught her making out with her crush and Sydney had just finished mocking her and throwing her brother's death in her face during their argument. Overall, it comes off less like Vee let the Nerve game get to her head and more like it finally gave her the confidence to tell Sydney off for being a terrible friend.
• Jerkass Woobie: Sydney may be mean, but when Vee complains about her to Ian, not realizing she's being recorded and literally thousands of people, Sydney included, are watching, it's hard not to feel bad for her. Or when she's sobbing, clinging to a ladder several meters off the ground, shaking in fear.
• Narm Charm: The phrase "insta-famous" seemed narmy at the time of release, but became less so in the years following as Instagram exploded in popularity. While it was already a popular app in 2016 after Facebook acquired it, by the end of the decade it had over a billion active users per month.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • The fact that the game is apparently designed to kill people, ramping up the various dares until the "finalists" are made to decide which one will live and which will die, with any attempt to escape being punished by essentially being held prisoner by the game, with all of your money, information, jobs, identities, and more, stolen from you and essentially held hostage until you play the game.
  • The dares are filmed in a really close and thrilling way - the ones involving heights (such as Syd/Vee in a stepladder between buildings, or Ian hanging from a crane using only one hand) are enough to make any acrophobic shiver.
• Paranoia Fuel: The titular "Nerve" game. It starts with harmless, funny dares, that slowly get more dangerous the more you play. If you quit or fail your dare, any money you received is taken from you. Try to tell the police? Your entire bank account is drained, with all personal info leaked on the internet, leaving you no choice but to keep playing.
• Signature Scene: Vee and Ian driving through New York City while Ian is blindfolded. Also, the scene where Vee and Ian stripping down to their underwear in order to get out of the mall.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
  • We're supposed to feel sorry for Sydney and Tommy when Vee chews the former out at the party before completing the dare that Sydney failed and when the latter is shown looking on sadly as Sydney grows closer to Ian. In the grand scheme of things, though, neither come off as being very good friends to Vee.
  • Sydney is more overtly nasty, teasing Vee for her shyness in the beginning before cruelly mocking her during their fight at the party—even throwing her brother's death in her face. This all occurs after Vee had just caught her making out with her crush, with Sydney not even pretending to be sorry about it and instead chastising her for not being there when she "almost died" trying to complete her dare. Even her near-death experience during said dare comes across as Laser-Guided Karma for how insensitive and nasty she was to Vee and how she claimed Vee "couldn't handle" playing Nerve. She has some excuses, like her being legitimately upset by Vee calling her insecure and slut-shaming her behind her back and for all the watchers to see, even if she wasn't aware of it, and she is not completely in her right mind due to the stress of the dare and possibly being drunk and/or intoxicated, but not enough not to make Vee's assessment fundamentally right.
  • Tommy is less overt in his bad friend status. While he does defend Vee against Sydney's teasing, his thinly concealed jealousy of Ian and disdain for how Vee grows close to him makes it look like he's only hanging out with Vee in the hopes she'll eventually return his feelings. Then, Tommy scolds Vee for calling Sydney out for being a jerk to her (despite Tommy having done so himself earlier at the diner) and reveals how Ian orchestrated the fight for a Nerve dare. The way he condescendingly asks Vee if she can really trust Ian makes him come across as an entitled jerk who's less concerned about his crush's safety and more resentful that she chose another guy over him. Noticeably, during the first interactions between Ian and Vee, while Ian comes out a bit pushy he does at least listen to Vee, while Tommy just talks over and for her without really listening under the guise of trying to protect her.
• The Woobie: Vee is way out of her depths, and is terrified for most of the film's climax.
• Woolseyism: In the French translation of the film, "watchers" have been changed to "voyeurs", further implying the idea of an irresponsible anonymous crowd who safely enjoys watching strangers doing stunts.

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