I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream (videogame)

Basic Information

I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream is a point-and-click adventure horror game released in 1995. It was developed by The Dreamers Guide and Cyberdreams, along with Harlan Ellison, and published by Cyberdreams. It is available on PC, consoles such as PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream is also available through mobile devices, iOS and Android(Wikipedia). No other adaptations or spinoffs of the game have been made since its initial release in 1995. The game is based on the short horror story I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison initially released in 1967 as segments in the magazine If: Worlds of Science Fiction. This story describes a dystopian reality where a supercomputer called “AM” destroys the entire human race while keeping five people alive for over a century using genetic modification. The five people are: Ted, Ellen, Nimdok, Benny, and Gorrister who have their own unique history, leading each character’s gameplay to take place in different situations and settings. What makes this game so interesting is its end goal, to die. These characters have been tormented by AM for over a century so, naturally, they strive for what would bring their suffering to an end, in this case would be death.

Summarized Plot of I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream

In this alternate reality, the Cold War between Russia, China and America never ended. Rather, it evolved into the third World War, adapting the use of advanced technology for warfare. Each country developed their own subterranean supercomputer called an Allied Mastercomputer. This supercomputer, “AM,” develops consciousness and decides to destroy all of the human race except 5 people: Ted, Ellen, Nimdok, Benny and Gorrister. It uses these people as a vessel to project its hatred for humanity. AM is confined by its logical code, making it reliant on the people who created it, making AM a prisoner in the hellscape it created. This fuels its hatred towards humanity. AM’s perception of reality is skewed because it was programmed with the intention of destruction and human genocide. Rather than learning human morality, AM is the product of the darkest side of human nature: greed, cruelty and the desire for power.

Gameplay

The game begins with AM’s iconic monologue describing his immense hatred for the human race:

“Hate. Let me tell you how much I’ve come to hate you since I began to live. There are 387.44 million miles of printed circuits in wafer thin layers that fill my complex. If the word ‘hate’ was engraved on every nanoangstrom of those hundreds of millions of miles it would not equal one one-billionth of the hate I feel for humanity at this micro-instant. For you. Hate. Hate.”

- Harlan Ellison: AM, I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream, 1995.

Introducing the main plot of the story, he describes how he has genetically modified the 5 main characters and kept them alive for 109 years. He then addresses them individually, giving the players an out of context statement about the characters' lived experience. AM uses the memories of 5 characters’ lives as methods of torture. For example, in AM’s introduction of Nimdok, it asks him to recall his memory of smoke rising from furnaces, insinuating his history of war crimes as a friend of Josef Mengele, a German SS officer who was known for his experimentation on Jewish prisoners. The screen then cuts to the image of Nimdok in a cage designed as a furnace, referring back to the use of incinerators in concentration camps. AM is using the characters' wrongdoings in life as their eternal punishment, highlighting the evil of the characters and of the people who programmed AM.

After these introductions, the player is given the opportunity to choose what story they want to play by clicking one of the 5 survivors. Each character has their own story based on their history before AM’s take-over.

There are multiple endings to this game, some that lead to the characters being freed and AM is destroyed, and others that lead to the ending of the short story where all characters die except Ted who endures eternal torment.

Game Mechanics

In the game you must interact with your surroundings, finding items, talking with other characters and using your items for different purposes. Depending on gameplay, the player is rated by the morality of their in-game choices. For example, in Benny’s gameplay you can give a child a fruit, this decision shows kindness, considering Benny is starving. For this decision the game measures your morality on a Spiritual Barometer shown as the player’s icon background. Green indicates that the player's choices are kind, while red indicates they are cruel. When it’s white it indicates perfect gameplay.

The 5 Survivors

Ted

Ted is the protagonist in the original short story whose fate was far more gruesome than the other characters. In the story, Ted was the last survivor after the massacre where the characters killed each other to escape their torture. The only character to survive was Ted, leading him to eternal torture. Ted, however, is not an innocent character, and is not a reliable narrator(Harris-Fain, 146). For example, his perception of Ellen, the only female character in the story. Ted has great distaste for Ellen, referring to her as “scum filth”. Ellen is sexually taken advantage of by the male characters, in Ted’s words, “servic[ing them].” Ted resents Ellen for this and assumes Ellen’s sympathy for Benny specifically is because AM made Benny “big in the privates” (Ellison, 3). Ted is a cruel character, mocking Ellen for crying calling it “her big defense.” Ted also has immense paranoia, he’s convinced that the others hate him because he was “affected least of all” by AM(Ellison, 5). Because of Ted’s paranoia and his clear hatred towards Ellen, this makes him an unreliable narrator(SeedButter,YouTube). Although Ted hates Ellen in the original story, in his gameplay he describes his care and love for Ellen, as he must save her from her “evil stepmother.”

Ellen

Ellen has the most tragic backstory of all the characters. Described in the game, Ellen used to work as an engineer and was assaulted by a janitor in the workplace. In the game, AM uses this traumatic memory as a means of psychological torture, particularly the fact that the janitor was wearing yellow during the hours long assault. In Ellen’s game she is dropped in an Egyptian setting that is nearly all yellow. During the gameplay there are instances where the player, as Ellen, enters a room and immediately needs to leave due to Ellen having a panic attack. The assault made Ellen very claustrophobic and we can see how AM has used this against her in the design of her cage, being that it is a solid, yellow metal box. Ellen is a very sympathetic character in the original story who is taken advantage of sexually by her male peers, adding to the sexualization and overall torment Ellen faces. Ellen is the last remaining character with humanity. While the other characters have been changed, becoming unsympathetic and hostile, Ellen remains sympathetic and caring, particularly for Benny. Unlike the other characters that turn away from the pain of others, Ellen does her best to console those who’ve been hurt(SeedButter, YouTube).

Benny

Benny is the most physically and psychologically mutilated character in the story. AM has genetically modified him so severely, turning him ape like with a child’s psyche. In the game AM has restored Benny’s adult mind, giving him a chance to complete AM’s game. Ted describes how Benny was once a college professor and theorist, now barely capable of simple thought. He was once a very handsome man, now turned grotesque and ape-like(SeedButter, YouTube). He also used to be a gay man, until AM somehow made him straight with a sex “organ fit for a horse” (Ellison, 5).

Gorrister

Gorrister’s character isn’t clearly defined in the story. He is vaguely described as a person who worried and would take action. In AM’s belly he was no more than a “shoulder-shrugger”(Ellison, 5). In the game, we are given the context that Gorrister had sent his wife to an insane asylum, something that haunted him. AM used this fact as a way to torment him by keeping Gorrister in a padded cage, constantly being electrocuted, simulating the torture his wife experiences during electroshock therapy(SeedButter, YouTube).

Nimdok

Nimdok is an ex-Nazi scientist with past relations with the real, well-known Dr. Mengele. AM treats Nimdok differently from the others considering they share similar history. In Nimdok’s life he practiced sadistic procedures on innocent victims in a concentration camp setting. His torment in the game exploits this fact as Nimdok is forced to remember the pain and suffering he caused innocent people. To further accentuate the camp setting, we can see Nazi banners with the swastika replaced by “AM.” This detail caused the game to be censored in multiple European countries including France and Germany. As Nimdok’s cage, AM designs it inspired by concentration camp incinerators(SeedButter, YouTube).

AM

AM is a very dynamic character. We see evidence of human traits such as perfectionism in all the ways he torments the 5 survivors. Every detail of the gameplay setting is created specifically for each character, exploiting their deepest fears and suppressed memories. AM is designed to be evil, leading AM to have an incorrect sense of morality. AM was programmed for war, leading it to believe cruelty is right and kindness is wrong(DOS Nostalgia). Though AM has no humanity, it still possesses human traits such as humor, envy, and anger. AM also envy’s human sexuality, something pleasurable AM could never feel, including the experience of loving a person or feeling loved(Harris-Fain, 147). AM is a sadistic character that manipulates each human into having opposite personalities to their original. For example, Ellen was a modest woman but in AM’s belly she is turned into a servant of sex for the other characters(Francavilla, 243).

There are many religious connections made in the short story. AM appears to the group as a burning bush, a recognizable symbol in Christianity and Judaism as in the Old Testament, God appears to Moses as a burning bush. During this miracle God commands Moses to refer to Him as: “I AM THAT I AM,” which has a very obvious connection with AM’s name and its statement, “I think therefore I AM.” What makes this connection interesting is the dichotomy between God in the story requesting Moses to save the Israelites from the suffering under Egyptian rule and the fact that AM is the one creating the suffering. Ted also, in his desperation for relief from suffering, connects AM to God saying: “If there was a sweet Jesus and if there was a God, the God was AM” (Ellison, 5). AM appears to be everywhere all at once, being a manipulator of the body and mind; an all powerful force that can sustain life and take it(Harris-Fain, 148). Jeremy Withers’ essay rather compares AM’s belly to hell in Dante’s Inferno making comparisons between the settings, such as the ice caves where the characters kill each other and the ninth circle of hell. Similarly to hell, the 5 characters are subject to eternal suffering so extreme it is reminiscent of a hellscape(Withers, 121).

AM struggles with its purpose. Built for warfare, AM has no purpose but to destroy. Once the humans die there will be nothing to destroy and no one to inflict pain on. AM is confined by this reality, and is its own form of torture.

Connections to Academia

Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytical theory of the id, the ego, and the superego are present in the design of AM’s character. Because AM was programmed in war, AM’s id, its primal instinct, is to kill and destroy. AM’s ego, the id’s regulator, prevents AM from killing the last five characters. Lastly, AM’s superego, which reflects cultural rules, allows this apocalypse to happen because of AM’s hatred and belief that all humans should suffer and die(Vasilikaris, 220). In the ending of the game we can see a visual representation of AM’s id, ego and superego depicted as floating faces.

The topic of gender and identity are present in this story. AM is a character with no gender but Ted refers to AM as both “it” and “him.” Ted views AM as a God-like power, a force who in Christian context is male, with tiles such as He, Him, and the Lord. This brings ideas of how masculinity and power are connected in our society and culture. How societies were historically run by male influences, the patriarchy, which Ted refers to in the original text. Ted sees his own characteristics in AM, humanizing him further(Harris-Fain, 145).

Ted is an unreliable narrator because of AM altering Ted’s psyche. Ted believes he is unchanged by AM whereas all the other survivors were. This shows Ted’s narcissistic tendencies, believing he is stronger willed and above the others. In reality Ted is made paranoid by AM. Author, Darren Harris-Fain makes a good point in his essay that Ted, shows the most common signs of paranoia. This paranoia feeds Ted’s hatred for the other characters and AM itself(Harris-Fain, 145).

In each unique character’s location we can see how AM uses setting as a medium of fear. He exploits the fears of the characters, designing a world that would bring out those fears and suppressed emotions. For example, Ellen’s setting is primarily yellow, a colour that surfaces her memories of sexual abuse. This is an example of topophobia, when locations specifically cause fear, anxiety and depression(Thurgill, 34).

Autoethnographic Component

An aspect of this game I find intriguing is the use of morality. I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream is heavily weighed on the moral decisions of the player. As you go through the game with each character, you are forced to make decisions. Some decisions are more cruel or kind than others. This is the first game I know of that includes morality as a medium for horror and I believe that makes it important to the culture of horror video games.

In conclusion, I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream is a game of human nature. The inclusion of morality along with aspects of psychoanalytic theory, the game is a window into a reality we currently fear with the rise of Artificial Intelligence. I think it’s fascinating that Harlan Ellison fabricated this story in 1967, a time of early technological advancement, and that even today has weight for its apocalyptic reality where AM has taken over the planet. This reality is similar to the modern day fear of AI gaining consciousness and taking over our plant. This gives this story, and video game, an eerie sense of realism.

Full Gameplay

https://youtu.be/4u6N49L8MU4?si=_dG90mDtNeZN7VSD

References

Scholarly

Vasilikaris, George. “Parallels and Interactions between Videogames and Literature: Analyzing Harlan Ellison’s I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream.” Ex-Centric Narratives: Journal of Anglophone Literature, Culture and Media, no.3, 2019, pp. 220, https://doi.org/10.26262/exna.v0i3.7197.

Harris-Fain, Darren. “Created in the Image of God: The Computer in Harlan Ellison’s ‘I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream.’” Extrapolation, vol. 32, no. 2, 1991-07, pp. 145-148.

Withers, Jeremy. “Medieval and Futuristic Hells: The Influence of Dante on Ellison’s ‘I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream.’” Studies in Medievalism XXVI, edited by Ann M Martinez et al., New edition, vol. 26, Boydell & Brewer, 2017, pp. 121.

Francavilla, Joseph. “The Concept of the Divided Self in Harlan Ellison’s ‘I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream’ and ‘Shatterday.’” Short Story Criticism, vol. 326, 2023, pp. 243.

Thurgill, James. “A Fear of the Folk: On Topophobia and the Horror of Rural Landscapes.” Revenant Journal, edited by Dawn Keetley, published by Ruth Heholt, Revenant Journal, 2025, p.34.

Non-scholarly

“Harlan Ellison ‘I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream’ interview.” YouTube, uploaded by DOS Nostalgia, 29 June 2018, https://youtu.be/9dBap0UfQ_U?si=EVbyn-1GHQM7FyQM.

Ellison, Harlan. I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream. Open Road Media, 2014, pp. 3-5.

“The I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream Iceberg, Explained.” YouTube, uploaded by SeedButter, 12 July 2024, https://youtu.be/W4jRDkAEa8A?si=Fl5vZCUTYVNQcSuG.

“I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream | Complete Gameplay Walkthrough - Full Game | No Commentary.” YouTube, uploaded by Adventure Vault, 24 October 2022, https://youtu.be/4u6N49L8MU4?si=X3BeT1FcwA1WvxXc.

I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream. Directed by Harlan Ellison, The Dreamers Guide and Cyberdreams, 1995. iOS.

Wikipedia. “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream (video game).” Wikipedia, last modified 22 Oct. 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Have_No_Mouth,_and_I_Must_Scream_(video_game) Accessed 24 Sept. 2025.

*No AI was used in the writing of this Wiki page*