There’s a grand list of Cyberpunk media on wikipedia that I started to compare with. Even before putting this site together (and even before Darkwire), I noticed I had watched a good dozen or so of films and a few shows, so clearly this genre has something enjoyable. Putting a more concerted effort into the experience now, I decided this post would have mini reviews of the story/media experience and maybe some themes that fit.
| Cyberpunk Media | Films | TV Series | Anime |
|---|---|---|---|
| Exists (as of 2025) | 118 | ||
| Watched | 30 |
Films
Escape from New York
Blade Runner
(1982) [definition of humanity, secret police/authoritarian gov, neo-noir cyberpunk]
The Terminator
RoboCop
(1987) [loss of humanity, cybernetics/body modification, corpos]
While the Detroit setting is oddly predictive, the perils of living there leave nothing to guess at. The Corps and Cops are in control, and the former over the latter for sure. Dying on the Force just means you can come back, rebuilt and reprogrammed, as a chaotic good cybernetic machine. And fed by a paste of vomit that apparently tastes like baby food, I guess? The notions of how much we can really program out our humanity, and whether it will prevail no matter how many body parts or brain lobes we replace with machinery, makes this compelling between the shoot-em-up action sequences.
Cyborg
(1989) [post-apocalyptic, American Mad Max, cybernetics/memory alteration]
This movie goes full 80s with jumpsuits, permed hair, and lots of gritty urbancore junkpiles set aflame. The villain is the most basic of Haves in a world of Have Nots, where he has the sword and everyone else dies by it. And in case anyone forget that he likes the misery, every other scene will remind you of that fact. The movie is one long escort mission, bring a Cyborg with a head full of data to Atlanta, and keep her in the background for the whole movie. With the fate of all humanity on the line, the world’s only hope rests in the buff stoicism of Jean Claude Van Damme, who might just have enough heart to be a hero. This is one of the few films that I think could be improved by adding a heavy metal soundtrack throughout. If you want Cyberpunk, watch the first 5 minutes, and if you want a campyaction flick, stick around for the rest, too!
Total Recall
(1990) [memory == identity?, hard sci-fi colonization, punk underground]
An Arnold classic, just not as much as Terminator or Jingle All the Way, he probably surprised me the most in this film. It’s never entirely clear whether this guy is a hapless construction worker who gets his brain scrambled by a recreational drug virtual vacation technology, or a hardliner lackey for a corrupt cyberpunk regime who undertakes the ultimate cover story and screws it up in the best way possible. Mars is a huge inspiration for Celeste 7 on the moon here, despite the lack of domes and hot war between the underground and corruption at the top, but the stakes and stakeholders are eerily similar.
Demolition Man
(1993) [corpo cyberpunk, authoritarian prudism, punk underground]
If variety is the spice of life, then Demolition Man woke up into the blandest, most mundane life of the 21st century. The overly-prudish, insulated citizenry of the (aboveground) San Angelos area are a serious culture shock for one of the revived criminals of the movie, while the other lets us follow him closer for a gentler introduction to a future on guardrails. At least Sylvester Stallone was there to introduce them to the rat burgers in the sewers and the exchange of fluids that somehow disappeared within the lifetime of his old police buddy still working at the department (who never did explain how he managed to self-repress enough not to get turned into a popsicle himself). Insidious corpos who can’t handle the action they’ve designed to erupt at some point, cop-on-crime action, and sass oozing from every 20th century mouth, what’s not to like? Unless you can’t handle the three seashells.
Johnny Mnemonic
(1995) [memory alteration, punk underground, classic cyberpunk]
Here’s a guy who just wants room service trying to make his standout audition for The Matrix. Johnny Mnemonic is a Gibson story, with its guts ripped out but heart in the right place, and 320 gigs of data shoved in the middle. The quantity didn’t age well when I can carry that much via a flashdrive in my pocket, but neither did the movie’s prediction for the internet in 2021 (but respirator-masked Chinese protesters getting body-slammed by riot police did, however). While Keanu Reeves figured out his character by the end of the movie, it fell pretty fast from urbancore cyberpunk to 90s grunge, so be ready for lots of steeldrum barrel fires and back-alley chase scenes while Corpo bigwigs can’t afford any overhead lights in their offices. Nonetheless, this movie makes for great ripperdoc vibes.
New Rose Hotel
(1998) [corpos/corporate espionage, present-day setting, go big or go home]
This is not so much of a movie as an incredibly long character study, and a lot relies on tell but don’t show. Nevertheless, watching Christopher Walken and Willem Dafoe go toe-to-toe in 3-4 different hotel room sets was entertaining enough to keep me engaged. This comes from a Gibson story, but other than referencing the Maas megacorp, it’s indistinguishable from the present day aside from slightly futuristic computing tech delivered on a palm pilot. The first half-hour is a tightly woven script, afterwards the script (and sometimes the editing) starts to unravel and becomes a bit more arthouse/self-aggrandizing, but it’s worth starting just to see the setup at least. Or read the Philip K Dick story it’s based on, same diff.
Dark City
(1998) [neo-noir mystery, alien incursion, memory == identity?]
This one is a head-turner, and not just because of Rufus Sewell. There’s a voiceover intro at the beginning that feels less useful than a Star Wars opening scroll, but the story drops hints along the way until the full picture comes together at the end. The quest for Shell Beach, exonerating himself, and figuring out the clockwork rituals of the alien influence that keeps changing the city makes this one a compelling watch…in a dark room. Seriously, it’s all dark sets and dark clothes, you have been warned, watch for the vibes and aesthetic but don’t hurt yourself squinting.
Bicentennial Man
The Matrix
A.I. Artificial Intelligence
(2001) [definition of humanity, post-climate change dystopia, fairy tale surrealism]
This has been one of my favorite films since I first watched it in the theaters, I don’t care what hate it gets. David is an android searching for humanity, not unlike Data from Star Trek. He thinks he has a family, he thinks he has love, but then the reality of humanity’s darkest elements comes to crush his soul, just like it did the planet in this setting. Considering he was made of human hands and minds, the tenacity of the Android will to survive would be terrifying if it wasn’t steered right to wholesome by the fairy tale quest and ending.
Minority Report
Resurrection of the Little Match Girl
(2002) [Arcade surrealism, Dickensian Cyberpunk, B-Movie and it knows it]
This is Ready Player One’s prototype cousin, without the nostalgia grab references, and packed with every early-2000s action movie trope you can think of. The story is more high-concept than it is gritty thriller, but the grit is there in the morbid goal of the virtual reality simulation of the central game. The loner wannabe friend of the pro-gamer celeb (with THE worst haircut imaginable) winding up leveling through the game to the end is pretty trite, but that’s definitely what the movie is going for. If your forehead isn’t red after watching this for 2 hours, then it hasn’t done its job. And if that’s you, it does have the alternative ending you were hoping for, so that’s something at least.
Code 46
(2003) [Biopunk, near-future setting, wealth privilege]
The personal scale of the story surprised me given the genetically-dooming overture the movie presents at first. If I say the genetics and Code 46 are almost an afterthought to the story, it’s only because the rest is so well-written that the genetics part fades into the background. An international investigator/consultant traveling the world to resolve liability issues for a big corp with government contracts winds up in a romance that is far more mental than it is physical (but then there is the physical, hence the name and plot device of the movie). It’s a cerebral film that’s a nice change of pace from the usual action-packed, peril-ridden stakes of others in this genre.
The Matrix Reloaded
The Matrix Revolutions
Paycheck
(2003) [memory alteration, present-day setting, dangers of precognition]
Making bank by working to make or steal Corporate secret tech, and then forgetting all about it, sounds like a pretty cozy life. Like a trucker, but you don’t have to remember all the monotony between coming home. The main character gets that all turned on its head, with no money or memory of the years-long stint he’s just finished with the latest contractor, rediscovering a lost love, and avoiding getting stuck in a future he predicted makes the rest of the movie more of a formulaic action thriller, but still a good popcorn flick.
AEon Flux
Babylon A.D.
District 9
(2009) [alien invasion of refugees, corpo monotony, body horror/transformation]
Nepotism can help you climb the corporate ladder, despite your own ineptitude. It sure can’t stop you from transforming into the very thing you hate. Or are paid to hate, anyway, by your employer. MNU, a shining beacon of lawful evil, is both paid to manage the occupants of District 9, a group of alien refugees referred to as prawns that are now being moved out of slums they’ve inhabited for decades in a city center to District 10 in a rural area, but also a purveyor of the same weapons tech the aliens gladly trade for food and shelter. Of course humans can’t use the weapons tech, at least not normal humans. Which is why it becomes so deadly for their supervisor of the relocation when he becomes infected with an alien agent that begins to transform him into one of them, hunted by his own employer, shunned by his own kind, and sees firsthand the way that the (just about any dehumanized) underclass is treated by people who are only a tiny bit more privileged. The body horror in this makes it a tougher watch for me, however it carries the films message with well-deserved intensity.
Elysium
Autómata
(2013) [post-climate change dystopia, definition of humanity, robots for everyone]
This movie asks the question: what if Blade Runner and Escape from New York had a robot baby, and they taught it Asimov’s Laws of Robotics? That gets close enough to the setup and aesthetics of this movie, and boy is it cyberpretty! Holograms pop up where you least expect them (and most, with an obvious tribute to Blade Runner’s), the robot bodies have fluid enough to cry and bleed, and both rain and radiation are doing their best to kill the stubborn remnants of humans. The story is pretty simple and makes it easy to watch the visuals, you wouldn’t go wrong by putting this one on for a rewatch, with the sound turned down, just to have the background visuals. This movie fares best as an homage to earlier works, with as much heart if not enough depth. The last 20 minutes or so suffer from some pacing issues, up until then it’s a fine if straightforward neo-noir story that stumbles upon a dark menace within sci-fi: who will replace humanity after we’re gone, and will they look like us?
The Zero Theorem
(2013) [corpo monotony, arcade surrealism, purpose searching for a soul]
In a world with absolutely no boundaries, where anxiety is a foreign concept (and one completely in your head, you should get therapy), the Zero Theorem is here to drag you out of your box and hold it just out of reach again. One would think the late-90s designers at Apple would approve of how the movie’s corporate work looks like a facsimile of an arcade complete with video games instead of spreadsheets. The rest of the movie procedes with such absurdism, you might need to watch IT as a palate cleanser afterward. This is Cyberpunk as you’ve never seen it before, marrying impossible optimism with nihilism, a fever dream far too goofy not to laugh at, but one far too depressing to be capable of laughing at all. For anyone strung out by the monotony of their day job, or who might need to get a dose of it, this film serves as your reminder that Management can’t crush your soul if you can’t find it in the first place!
Ex Machina
Blade Runner 2049
Upgrade
(2018) [cybernetics/body modification, dangerous AI, surveillance state]
Upgrade exists in this pervasive near-future where the AI can do anything for you outside of your body, until the old-fashioned main character gets into a violent accident that robs him of that ability. Suddenly he’s forced into the choice of accepting a cybernetically-implanted AI when he doesn’t like the house or car-bound versions already, or living trapped in a wheelchair that handles him like a ragdoll. What’s more impressive is how long he’s able to keep up the facade after getting the implant’s help in restoring his body to him, especially while he evades a cop hot on his, err, wheels. Even this cleverness can’t save him from the ultimate mastermind orchestrating the events from within, and the implications of inviting cybernetic tech into your body like this get downright unsettling. This movie gets bonus points for some rather clever cybernetic features, which they absolutely didn’t need to go for but did anyway.