Hey, so this is the list of movies on my local media server which are tagged as “cyberpunk”. I am looking for suggestions on more movies I should add to this list. Cheers,
ETA: Well, OK, this should keep me busy for a while. Thanks - y’all are amazing and awesome.
Few things on the list hit 100% of the core tenants; it really depends on how strict you’re looking to be.
Corporate tech hubris: a company rushes an AI product to market, ignores ethics, and treats safety as a PR problem.
AI autonomy and loss of control: M3GAN crossing from tool to actor is a classic question about agency.
Tech replacing human relationships: the doll as a surrogate caregiver fits neatly into the anxiety about mediated humanity.
It probably only hits half the criteria, but in a numbers game, there’s a lot there that’s celebrated as Cyberpunk that fails as many checks.
In all, I was looking to capture the contents strewn about, not make a judgment call on what stays. I fugure if people don’t want parts, they can easily just not use that part of the list.
I feel that people think about the high tech and forget about the low life.
That’s fair, but it’s also worth noting that some of the absolute classics like the original Ghost in the Shell also forgo that one.
Over the last couple decades cyberpunk kinda infiltrated mainstream science fiction - it’s hard to find scifi without at least a few cyberpunk elements these days. To the point that making something that checks all the boxes or avoids them all both seem to be a very deliberate choice now. It can make drawing a line around the genre kinda difficult.
I totally agree with elements of a art genre being used and becoming popular and all. I guess that is in part how new genres form. And that no work is “true” 100% in a genre otherwise it would be just more of the same and all that. I just feel that there is a line, a feel to say that this work core genre/vibes is cyberpunk instead of having cyberpunk elements. And for sure there are works that defy having a core genre at all and is really a blend of genres or its own thing.
I just want to push back slightly, in my opinion, about Ghost in the shell forgoing the low life. I think it is not the main aspect and main theme but I think it shows it in the aesthetic of the city and some characters like the garbage truck driver. I feel if it had no low-life aspects the profession of garbage management would look different.