Before cyberpunk came along, science fiction used to be a slow paced genre where armchair intellectuals debated the myriad possibilities of the future. You know, boring stuff like the fate of the human race. Finding meaning in the face of a seemingly indifferent universe. Pondering life forms utterly alien to ourselves. Then a man named William Gibson came along and spearheaded a genre that was neon-soaked, hyper-violent, and utterly cool. Like a Victorian child given a sip of Four Loko, sci-fi authors of yesteryear would have been rendered utterly catatonic by the high octane thrills of the modern day cyberpunk genre. It’s all about shooting first, hacking-in second, and asking the philosophical questions later (if there’s anyone left alive to answer). These films? They do cyberpunk better than any other. Here they are, the 10 best cyberpunk movies of all time.
Blade Runner
Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner is essentially a cooler version of Phillip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, made more thrilling by the fact that, well, you don’t have to do any reading to experience it. Books are a thing of the past baby! Make way for the cinematic future! Speaking of futures, this story takes place in a not so distant dystopia where androids called “replicants” have released themselves from their corporate shackles and are now running amok in society. Hell yeah. The plot follows Rick Deckard, a “blade runner” hired to hunt down and eliminate rogue replicants. But with each synthetic body he peppers with lead, Deckard begins to wonder if those bodies contain a heart that experiences the same depth of emotions as he does. Empathy is a scare resource in cyberpunk futures, but Deckard just found his own supply – that’s gonna make his nine to five a lot more complicated.
Brazil
Directed by Monty Python alumnus Terry Gilliam, Brazil is a dystopian black comedy that takes place in a totalitarian future where the only choices for a person are “obey” and “consume.” Bureaucratic grunt Sam Lowry accidentally discovers a secret third option when he makes the decision to track down the beautiful woman who keeps appearing to him in his dreams. After a bureaucratic error leads him stumbling across her real life counterpart, Sam’s dreams come true – and there the trouble begins. As Sam embarks on a whirlwind romance with truck driver Jill Layton, he becomes equally entangled in a revolutionary plot led by an air-conditioning mechanic/freedom fighter played by Robert Dinero. Equal parts whimsical and tragic, this is Monty Python’s Flying Circus meets 1984.
Ghost In The Shell
One of the most seminal anime films ever made, Mamoru Oshii’s Ghost In The Shell takes place in a futuristic Japan where cybernetic enhancements have become widespread across the population. Now that most people are part machine, this has led to a rise cyber-terrorism – criminals are hacking into people’s bodies. To combat the threat, the government created Public Security Section 9 – a strike force of elite operatives led by full cyborg Motoko Kusanagi. As Kusanagi tracks down a particularly dangerous hacker known as the Puppet Master, she’s forced to square up against equally dangerous philosophical questions. What’s the nature of human consciousness? Are people who inhabit fully synthetic bodies still people at all? Are we not all just ghosts in a shell, whether that shell be metal or flesh?
Advantageous
Directed by Jennifer Phang, Advantageous takes place in a not so distant future plagued by an infertility crisis. After being abruptly fired from her job, single mother Gwen decides to undergo an experimental procedure in order to pay for her daughter’s education – a procedure that will transfer her consciousness into a younger body. After the procedure is completed, something about Gwen appears to be… off. She doesn’t seem to be as close with her daughter anymore. In fact, she doesn’t want anything do to with her child whatsoever. This new Gwen doesn’t seem like the old Gwen at all! Maybe she isn’t? Maybe something was lost in the transfer? Can it ever be returned? You’ll find out, but you and Gwen might not like the answer.
RoboCop
A cyberpunk classic, RoboCop is the story of the mega-corporation sponsored effort to roll out a police force made up of automatons. Human automatons. After he was murdered by a group of criminals, officer Alex Murphy’s corpse is reanimated as a cyborg police officer with no memory of his former life. As RoboCop wages a crusade of justice against criminal underworld that laid him low, he’ll soon discover just how deep that rabbit hole goes – and how it might just end up leading him out the other side to the very people who created him. Action packed. Brutal. Lead heavy with irony, RoboCop is a cynical glimpse into a possible future of police work.
Akira
One of the greatest anime films ever made, Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira redefined the cyberpunk genre – laying the groundwork for the neon-drenched, urban jungle visuals that we all know and love. In the city of Neo-Tokyo (the old one was destroyed in a world war) the only law is lawlessness. Warring biker gangs clash for power on the steaming streets – until one of them makes contact with an escaped government experiment that tears his reality to pieces. Young Tetsuo begins manifesting uncontrollable psychic powers, powers that grow exponentially as time passes. If he’s not careful, he’ll soon be tearing other peoples’ realities to pieces – or maybe even the fabric of absolute reality itself. Cyberpunk cosmic horror? You bet it is.
Videodrome
Directed by David Cronenberg, Videodrome is a parable about the dangers of staring at a screen for too long – especially when that screen displays a non-stop onslaught of sex and violence. While it might sound like I’m talking about modern social media, this decades old film somehow managed to predict the digital morass of explicitness we find ourselves wading in every time we open our phones. The plot follows Max Renn, president of a shock jockey television station. Renn smells opportunity when one of his employees shows him Videodrome – a plotless show that is an unending loop of torture and murder. Enthralled, Max embarks on a digital odyssey to find the source of the mysterious broadcast, leading him to uncover horrors that he never dreamed could infect the airwaves. Boomers always told us that T.V. would rot our brains, Videodrome took it literally.
The Matrix
Perhaps the greatest sci-fi film of the modern era, the Wachowskis’ The Matrix is one of the most culturally significant movies ever made. I’m certain you know the plot – Keanu Reeves pops a pill offered by Lawrence Fishburne, and awakens to find that he’s been living in a robot-created simulation. The ultimate trans allegory, The Matrix is a landmark film across multiple genres – action, sci-fi, and queer cinema. While the sequels go a little off the rails (albeit gloriously) the first of the trilogy remains a modern classic, and will be regarded as such for decades to come.
Minority Report
One of the most underrated Tom Cruise flicks on the market, Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report combines the thrills of Mission: Impossible with the cerebral undertones of Vanilla Sky. Loosely based on a Phillip K. Dick story, the plot follows John Anderton – chief of the Precrime police unit. It’s exactly what it sounds like – these cops try to stop crimes before they happen. How? With the help of three clairvoyant humans who are really good at catching murders’ vibes. While the trio’s predictions are usually air tight, sometimes a “minority report” occurs, where one of the clairvoyants picks up a different reading than the other two. This is exactly what happens when Anderton himself is accused of pre-murder – one of the clairvoyants still believes him to be innocent. Anderton will have to go on a criminal odyssey to clear his name with the help of a new ally – the minority opinion clairvoyant herself. It’s a fast paced thriller that serves as a metaphor for the flawed criminal justice system – not even a perfect system is perfect, after all.
Total Recall
A tongue in cheek cyberpunk romp, Total Recall is the story of Douglas Quaid – a construction worker who dreams that he was once a Martian secret agent. While his therapist would likely try to convince him otherwise, Douglas discovers that the cloak and dagger life he dreamed up is coming true all around him. Everyone is trying to kill him, including his own wife! After Douglas realizes that he actually is a mind-wiped secret agent who once worked for a Martian authoritarian, he goes on the hunt to track down and neutralize his former employers. It’s a ridiculous film that also manages to be a pop culture great, featuring three boobed mutants, middle-aged disguises, eye-popping space decompression sequences, and the all time famous one-liner “consider that a divorce.” Total Recall is anything but grimdark cyberpunk, proving that the genre allows for unexpected comedy as well.
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