|
What is Cyberpunk? Definitions vary considerably, but often have core elements of dark dystopian future, insidious technology and perhaps small hero against the world. Sometimes summarised as "High-tech, Low-life", Cyberpunk nowadays is more of a feeling than a specific definition. Dystopian? The opposite of Utopian. The OED definition is, "a nightmare vision of society, often as one dominated by a totalitarian or technological state". Strange then that some of these "nightmarish visions" seem to be the most real of all SF films! Should we be worried? Yes. |
|
|
|
The details of how Ratings, Age Limits, Categories and the Top 100 List are created are explained on the Movies page. |
|
|
|
The
SFTV.info Doctor SciFi has picked those films that are absolutely essential viewing for SF&F fans. |
Movies that are Cyberpunk/Dystopian |
|---|
12 Monkeys (1995)The future is a wasteland. People live underground and try to survive. How did this happen? One man is sent back in time to find out. Blade Runner (1982/1992/200?)We like to call it "proto-Cyberpunk" because although it has some elements of the sub-genre, the only obvious insidious technology is the Replicants. The genetic engineering used to create them doesn't appear to have been used on humans. But definitely a dystopian future! Brazil (1985)You don't get more dystopian that Gilliam's visual masterpiece! Bureaucracy gone insane. Ghost in the Shell (1995) [ Kokaku Kidotai ]All-pervasive computer networks, hackers, self-aware Artificial Intelligence, cybernetically enhanced humans, all fighting for the human soul. Can we say "Cyberpunk?" Zardoz (1974)The barbaric "Brutals" on one side. The elitist "Eternals" on the other side. Dystopian control falls apart.
|
MOVIE INDEX |
|
Some quote the William Gibson book "Neuromancer" to be the beginning of Cyberpunk. This is not an entirely accurate statement. Many books and even some movies that we would consider to be Cyberpunk came out before this book, (some decades earlier). However, we consider that "Neuromancer" was perhaps the catalyst that initiated the collection of these disparate works under the sub-genre name of "Cyberpunk". Gibson said in interview that when he was in the early stages of this book, he went to see Blade Runner (in 1982) He had to walk out early, because he was so gutted at seeing what he thought had been the vision just in his head displayed on the screen in front of him. |
|
|
|
Doctor SciFi is in. |
|
|