Cyberpunk 2077 is one of the most highly anticipated games in years. Not only does it come from the developers of the acclaimed Witcher series, but it presents players with a thrilling setting to lose themselves in. Night City sets out to celebrate seemingly everything in its titular genre. It has humans enhancing themselves with machinery, blurring the line between the two. It has the chaotic music, crazy colors, and strange substances of a wild '80s party. Finally, it has the flashy culture that practically cheers these things on.
Among the hype, it's easy to forget that Cyberpunk 2077 was not the first to do these elements well, and it won' be the last. Why not check out other works utilizing these genre staples? Considering the game itself is unreliable right now, watching these flicks as an alternative would probably be more enticing than waiting for the bugs to be fixed.
10 Blade Runner
Nearly every work with cyberpunk imagery owes the aesthetic partially to this film. That includes Cyberpunk 2077, and it goes beyond a visual gag. It's got the towering buildings, flashing neon lights, foreboding shadows and flamboyant styles of the citizens.
On top of that, Blade Runner bonds these visuals with a film noir mystery, adding an intensely contemplative atmosphere and making such capers practically synonymous with cyberpunk settings. It's truly a tentpole of the genre and an entertaining tale to boot.
9 Ghost in the Shell
Another film that's proven just as influential (albeit only as a logo in Cyberpunk), this anime mystery delves much more into what it truly means to be human. Specifically, it poses difficult questions about one's experiences and how that affects the sense of who one is.
This is amplified by how well it's presented. The fluid animation blends human and machine more seamlessly than ever, and the methodical direction gives the whole tale a dreamlike mood that's both alluring and haunting. It couldn't be more appropriate for the subject matter.
8 The Machine
This movie also attempts to bridge the gap between organic and synthetic, pondering the difference through their feelings. If a robot learns to feel happy or sad, is that any less real than a human being? This focus on emotion allows the actors and their affecting performances to offset the modest budget.
The lynchpin is the titular machine, who moves through the film with the grace and precision of an albino angel. hen silhouetted against the harsh lighting and accompanied by the synthesized elegance of the music, she makes for a striking sight yet feels right at home amongst the other cyberpunk cyborgs.
7 Tron
Even the most ominous cyberpunk locales carry some sense of retro fun. Games, music, and other recreational aspects often echo the late '70s and early '80s period that birthed the genre. What better way to experience that than by revisiting a film that looks like a computer game from that era?
Tron presents a simple yet effective story about good guys versus bad guys. However, it takes viewers into a stunning virtual world with a wealth of activities, distractions, and dangers, showing that technology can be both engaging and harrowing. People can use it for great harm or great good. These themes might sound condescending, but they're conveyed through endearing characters and endlessly inventive charm. When later expansions like Tron: Legacy and Tron: Uprising added pumping techno beats to the soundtrack, it slickly solidified the series' cult classic status, which it continues to wear like a badge of honor.
6 Minority Report
Many cyberpunk products have a neo noir atmosphere. This thriller dials that up to eleven. With the color shortage, unorthodox filter, and theatrical mystery quirks, Minority Report practically plays like an old black-and-white whodunit made in the far future. It's suitably unnerving how pristine and monochromatic the world looks.
More unnerving is the technology. The tools on display have become so personalized, so easily able to identify an individual that they are downright intrusive. Forget the future; that's happening right now. It's only occasionally taken to a literal level here with the Precogs and other elements.
That's not to say Minority Report doesn't have people with enhanced bodies, but the novelty and shock value come more from what's beneath the surface, what these tools can do for humans, and what that means. It's no less potent (or freaky), though.
5 Robocop
Among the most defining traits of Night City is the slew of advertisements shoved in people's faces. That sense of rampant commercialism is captured hilariously in Robocop. The corporate greed and media pandering make for effective satire, as they are just as soulless and scummy here as everyone thinks they are in real life.
That's exactly the type of screwed-up society that would opt to automate everything. Privatizing police protection through robotics doesn't seem too farfetched when viewed through such an exaggerated lens.
In the end, the tale is a surprisingly uplifting one. Human emotion and connection triumph over mechanized programming. If that sounds too schmaltzy, just bask in the gory glory of the gunfights.
4 Total Recall
It seems one common trait of cyberpunk settings is a wacky sense of humor, and Total Recall has that in droves. It's all the infectious cheesiness of a Schwarzenegger flick crossed with the conceptual creativity of Philip K. Dick. Viewers can't go five minutes without some silly machine, eye-popping mutation, or corny one-liner. Cyberpunk's character creator, as extensive as it is, is nowhere near this radical.
Oh, it boasts plenty of thoughtful ideas about classism and what's real, giving it its due thematic depth. However, they're all wrapped neatly into an exciting action romp. Because of that, the movie works as both cerebral commentary and brainless popcorn entertainment.
3 Dredd
The setting of this comic book flick may look familiar to Cyberpunk fans, as it's also a massive metropolis giving way to a desolate desert. More than that, though, Dredd effectively captures the grungy aspects of such a city: the industrial, back-alley filth that fills the lowest reaches of an urban cesspool.
It goes beyond set design. The inhabitants here alter themselves more drastically than those in Night City, using radical cosmetics and the most potent drugs on the black market to poison the populace beyond repair. When faced with so much garbage, people beg for a lawman as uncompromising as Dredd to clean it up.
2 The Mad Max Series
On top of the uncanny resemblance, the Badlands of Night City have many of the same rules as the Wasteland. The harsh environment and lack of resources have driven many people mad as they furiously scrounge for scraps. There's little in the way of heroism or even cleanliness. Instead, a dog-eat-dog mentality permeates the devastated world. It's bleak, but it makes for exhilarating vehicular combat.
At the center of it all is Max, who himself is a nomad. Scarred by loss yet shrouded in mystery, the Road Warrior is a stranger straight out of the Old West. He constantly searches for a reason to survive, but he cannot resist helping the downtrodden. This inspires some small amount of hope in a hopeless world, an effect that countless RPGs have tried to replicate.
1 The John Wick Trilogy
A non-futuristic film may seem out of place, but John Wick and its two sequels possess many aspects inherent in Cyberpunk 2077. Players versed in the first-person shooter mechanics will find plenty to like in the unrivalled gunfights, elaborate yet visceral.
These unfold in a setting every bit as stylish. The cityscapes here are filled to the brim with picturesque designs, flashing neon lights, and exotically ethereal music, sporting an otherworldly quality similar to any cyberpunk story.
As the icing on the cake, it even has Keanu Reeves. His intense and well-dressed killing machine is cooler than Johnny Silverhand could ever hope to be. Those who loved him in Cyberpunk 2077 owe it to themselves to watch these flicks.