With a $3500 VR headset from Apple on the way and a gargantuan re-work of Cyberpunk 2077, there’s no better time to re-examine the ominous world of cyberpunk movies and novels. A sub-genre of science-fiction that coalesced with the cultural changes introduced in the 1960s and 1970s, cyberpunk tends to place its focus on dystopian futures, mega-corporations, the instant accessibility of all information on the planet, and the intersections of drug use, miscreants on the edge of society, and overall grey morality when tackling society’s tech-bound ills.
While we’re still a few steps away from casual cyber-augmentations and interface ports embedded in our skulls, you’d be hard-pressed to say that things haven’t changed exponentially since the onset of the 2020s. In as little as three years, information shared over the internet has played a key role in an international war, AI that can paint a long-lost Van Gogh illustration is readily accessible to most of the population, and the incorporation of a brand new concept — the “non-fungible token” — arrived, exploded in popularity, and crashed into oblivion.
Even if it feels like you’re already living the cyberpunk life, plenty of cyberpunk fiction exists to entertain us and shine some light on the disastrous outcomes that may lie in wait. Here are just a few examples of cyberpunk movies and novels you ought to check out, along with the original works they may be associated with.
1I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream
A short story by author Harlan Ellison, who would contribute to Star Trek and Babylon 5 outside of his expansive bibliography, I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream is an incredibly compelling horror novella that sees the worst come to pass with the advent of the supercomputer.
In a future where the Cold War never ended, the conflict has escalated into a bloody war between the United States, the Soviet Union, and China. Each nation, in a bid to end the war, assembled an “Allied Mastercomputer,” later referred to as “AM,” in order to more efficiently manage their munitions and tactics. But when one of these machines gains sentience, its prime directive switches to the mass genocide of humanity and melding with the remaining two computers into a single, all-knowing, god-like deity. A century later, a group of five individuals are the only human beings left alive, used as playthings for this deity to torture as it sees fit.
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A horrifying tale of straying too far in technological advancements, I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream is available in various mediums. There’s the original short story and an audiobook version with a psychotic narration by Ellison himself. Ellison would also voice AM in the video game adaptation of the same name, though said adaptation would drastically deviate from the original story.
2Ghost in the Shell
Arguably the single property responsible for the creation of The Matrix franchise, Masamune Shirow’s Ghost in the Shell is one of the biggest cyberpunk media franchises in existence. Originally running as a manga series in Young Magazine from 1989 to 1990, an animated film based on the series would be directed by Mamoru Oshii in 1995, with a live-action remake starring Scarlett Johansson in 2017.
Similar to other titles on this list, we follow the multiple members of a professional task force named “Public Security Section 9.” Counterterrorism, law enforcement, cyber security, and more are Section 9’s forte. It’d have to be; we’re in a cyberpunk future, after all, with a significant portion of the population now adorned with cybernetic augmentations. From simple technological interfaces to full-on artificial bodies, practically everyone with some disposable cash can directly connect their consciousness to any network they desire. In the case of Motoko Kusanagi, aka “The Major,” there’s barely a bone in her body that’s still fully human. After suffering a traumatic accident, the last bits of her brain and spine now reside in the body of an android, making her a literal ghost-in-a-shell.
The film takes place in 2029, with Motoko and the rest of Section 9 tasked with taking down a seemingly-malevolent hacker called the Puppet Master. But as the investigation ramps up, questions of identity and purpose arise as the Puppet Master’s true origins are revealed, along with its nefarious methods of manipulating its targets.
If it wasn’t already obvious, Ghost in the Shell tackles the increasingly-prominent concern of consciousness. The concept of “ghosts” (souls) and “shells” (bodies) are frequently brought up throughout, with the distinctions between the two giving way to some incredibly terrifying concepts. Realities being wiped away as a means to an end, “ghost-hacking” placing entire human beings in the control of others, and definitions of sentience being questioned are just a handful of these. Motoko finds herself caught in the middle, left to make a decision that ultimately leaves her with a newfound sense of self.
While Ghost in the Shell would bomb at the box office, a modern re-evaluation has since classified it as not only one of the best animated films to date but one of the best science-fiction stories put to film. The franchise would have an immense impact on the creation of The Matrix, with similar themes being addressed throughout the monolithic series.
Interestingly, future entries in the Ghost in the Shell franchise — namely Stand Alone Complex – would, in turn, take visual cues from the Wachowskis.
3Dredd (Judge Dredd)
Judge Dredd is a property that some may associate with a terrible Stallone movie instead of its biting satire. Making his debut in the British comic anthology 2000 AD, Judge Dredd follows the eponymous law enforcement officer as he patrols the streets of Mega-City One. Of course, with Mega-City One being a dystopian pigsty, Dredd is given the powers of a “street judge” — that is, he has the power to arrest, sentence, and execute criminals with just a single draw of his Lawgiver pistol.
An eerily prescient series, Judge Dredd is the logical extreme of the Dirty Harry cop. An authority figure whose ability to take the law into his own hands coincides with societal failures that enable such a system to pervade the country. In this case, the typical setup of overpopulation amid inhospitable land directly led to the formation of Mega-City One, which leads to a direct relationship between the ensuing poverty and elevated crime rates. Dredd himself even resembles the kind of heavily armored riot officer you’d expect to see in the 2020s, albeit with a few more splashes of color and unnecessarily-large shoulder pads.
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But while there are dozens — nay, hundreds — of Judge Dredd stories to catch up on in his lengthy history, there’s also an incredibly thrilling action film that sees Karl Urban playing our stone-faced street sweeper.
Yes, after the resounding failure of the 1995 Judge Dredd film, 2012’s Dredd would see a fantastic script by Alex Garland (Ex Machina, 28 Days Later) brought to life in one of the most authentic portrayals of a comic character to date. Starring Karl Urban’s jawline, Dredd and a Judge-in-training, Anderson, find themselves trapped in a 200-story apartment complex at the mercy of Ma-Ma, an all-powerful drug lord. While some would note the film’s lack of satire, instead opting to play the over-the-top violence and grim setting completely straight, it’s still an excellent transition from inked pages to film reels.
4Blade Runner (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?)
If you’re a film buff, chances are you already know how great Blade Runner is. The quintessential cyberpunk movie (and book), Blade Runner, and its original source material, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, are essential pieces of cyberpunk fiction that must be seen.
Our premise came from the mind of Phillip K. Dick in 1968. Set in post-apocalyptic San Francisco, most fauna on the planet are either dead or on the verge of dying out completely. Humanity either died in the chaos, somehow survived, or moved off-world with the creation of personal androids. But, being androids, you can’t really expect them to remain subservient for long.
Enter Deckard, a bounty hunter enlisted by San Francisco’s police department who is played by Harrison Ford. When Deckard is tasked with “retiring” a handful of escaped Nexus-6 androids, aka “replicants,” what he’ll find is a meditation on paranoia, uncertainty, genetic engineering, our sense of perception, and the contrast that defines the world’s retrofitted future.
Blade Runner is hailed as one of the most significant pieces of cyberpunk media ever and one of the greatest science-fiction films of all time. Conversely, Blade Runner is equally infamous for its seven different versions, wherein they drastically alter both the film’s pacing and overall effectiveness. It would receive a sequel directed by Denis Villeneuve, who is now leading the utterly-fantastic Dune series, and its influence can be felt in just about every piece of cyberpunk media to date.
5Minority Report (The Minority Report)
Another classic piece of dystopian cyberpunk, Minority Report originally came about as a 1956 Phillip K. Dick novella. Carrying with it a similar kind of tech-fueled paranoia that Dick’s other works embody, this Steven Spielberg flick sees the implementation of a particularly heinous institution: “precrime.”
In an effort to stop crime before it even starts, precrime is the notion that a crime can be anticipated and therefore stopped before it even starts. Punishing criminals before they’ve committed any crimes, the ideology is inherently paradoxical. If someone is punished for a crime that hasn’t been committed, the crime they’re convicted of would cease to exist. In Minority Report, precrimes are discovered through the utilization of “precogs,” or precognitive humans that can see visions of the future.
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Tom Cruise plays the role of John Anderton, a precrime officer living out his life amid a failed marriage, a missing son, and a nasty drug addiction. Precrime has been somewhat successful leading up to this point. For six years, premeditated murders have been practically wiped from society, though spur-of-the-moment killings are still difficult to manage. But, when Anderton is accused of a precrime by the precogs, he must clear his name of a murder he didn’t even commit yet.
An example of Spielberg going completely over the top, Minority Report spends little time explaining its various science-fiction concepts. Instead, it jumps straight into the thriller mystery while dazzling with its unique cinematography and set design. Similar to Blade Runner, many aspects of the original story were altered for the film, the most prominent being a drastic glow-up for our protagonist. In lieu of a mid-forties balding type, we have Tom Cruise.
Other alterations, including high-concept technology instead of punch cards, are also strewn throughout. Things could be worse, though, as Minority Report originally came about as a sequel to Total Recall.
6Total Recall (We Can Remember It for You Wholesale)
Speaking of which, Total Recall. Yes, that buck-wild Paul Verhoeven action-flick starring Arnold Schwarzenegger on Mars comes from yet another Phillip K. Dick story.
Donald Quail is an everyday construction worker stuck in a rut. But when he finds a memory chip planted in his brain during a fun virtual reality outing, his life quickly unravels as everything he once knew is no longer real. In an instant, he’s sucked into a world of bullets, blood-filled squibs, and hilariously over-the-top prosthetics as he heads to Mars to figure out what’s ultimately real and what may just be a fabrication.
Memory manipulation is the name of the game in Total Recall, along with the original story it comes from, We Can Remember It for You Wholesale. While the concept would be touched upon briefly in other entries on this list, Total Recall makes this its core focus.
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The perfect combination of subversive tastes, Verhoeven adapting Dick’s material makes for one of the most psychotic high-budget action films ever made. There’s an overwhelming sense of paranoia and unease that litters each scene, no doubt amplified by the revelation that what we’ve been seeing may not have even happened. It was a notable performance by Schwarzenegger as well, as his macho hero image that had been emblazoned by Predator is traded for something similarly manic and awesome but with a vulnerable edge to it.
More Cyberpunk…
Again, these are just a few examples of prominent cyberpunk movies and novels. More examples that don’t necessarily fall into books and movies are everywhere. Serial Experiments Lain, for instance, is a series that more intimately focuses on the loneliness and psychology behind internet interactions. Multiple episodes tackled disconnected topics in a purposefully abstract and unsettling way.
Likewise, Deus Ex, a game released at the turn of the millennium, somehow predicted a gradual descent into widespread government surveillance, a growing consolidation of wealth, and the purposeful controlled release of a pandemic cure to those “vital to the social order.” Sound familiar?
If you find yourself curious about where our lives may be heading in the next decade or so, consider giving the cyberpunk genre a shot. They’re some of the most introspective and compelling pieces of science fiction while often serving as marvelous works of fiction in their own right.
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