CD Projekt Red's Cyberpunk 2077 has been delayed again. It'll be a while before Night City is open to visitors, and there's no better way to pass the time than exploring other stories in the cyberpunk genre. Cyberpunk 2077's vast array of rad features will undoubtedly attract a massive audience for The Witcher III developer and publisher, which will help introduce a lot of people to a fantastic subgenre of science fiction.
Cyberpunk media typically has a myriad of tropes and themes mixed in with interesting visual aesthetics and social commentary. The desire to explore the effects of drugs, sex, and technology on society as they became more integrated into the culture helped birth the nucleus of the genre. Deeper discussion on corporations growing fewer in number and larger in size and the effects this would have on society, both economically and psychologically, would further flesh out what makes the cyberpunk genre so compelling.
The cyberpunk genre is abundant in both quality and quantity so it can be daunting trying to figure out where to start, but it's also a genre with passionate creators and fans. Here are some great places to start.
Alita: Battle Angel (2019)
Inspired by creator Yukito Kishiro's manga series Gunnm and the original video animation adaptation Battle Angel, Alita: Battle Angel takes place in a post-apocalyptic Earth that was ravaged by a war known as "The Fall" a few hundred years earlier and is now run by The United Republic of Mars. Alita is found in suspended animation and without her entire body intact by Dr. Dyson Ido, who adds missing parts and components to her brain and incomplete body to awaken her. She has no memories from her complicated past and begins to explore what life in Iron City means for residents. Alita meets Hugo, who dreams of living an easier life in the wealthy city Zalem, which is visible far above Iron City. This introduces a thread of social commentary that explores labor exploitation and classism throughout the film, but with its futuristic setting and fast paced style.
The story itself is sometimes lacking but the passion from Alita and her desire to be something better than she was originally programmed for does a lot to smooth out some of the film's lacking details. One of the film's points of interest is the sport known as Motorball, which takes place in a competitive setting in a massive arena, and this alone brings some incredibly fun moments with special effects and action. It's a sport more based on strategy and speed but violence ends up being a bigger part of the sport, which ends up feeling like this world's gladiator ring. The film's Motorball sequences are worth the price of a theater ticket alone but it's also a really solid film overall and it's easy to see why it has so many fans clamoring for more.
The Matrix (1999)
The Matrix is ubiquitous in the culture at this point but there's simply no denying how good it is, even after twenty years since its original release. It's set in a dystopian future where the existence humans are aware of is virtual and their actual existence is being used as electrical sources in farms by the machines that now run most of the world. The Matrix is the virtual world that the majority of human beings exist in and it isn't much different than life outside the film, or at least life in the late 90s. Thomas Anderson, played by Keanu Reeves, is a computer programmer by day and a hacker known as Neo by night. He notices anomalies and keeps seeing the phrase "the matrix" appear online and begins to think something isn't right in the world. He gets recruited by a group of rebels that show him the cruel and inhumane reality outside the world he knows and offers him the option of being free and helping them fight back against the machines or waking up back in the matrix with no memory of the encounter. Anderson chooses the former and embraces the name Neo fully, leaving his former self and life behind.
The story and setting are already both interesting and thought-provoking but the visual effects and capabilities of the characters bring the film over the top in the best way possible. Once Neo learns and is able to embrace the fact that the matrix is just a virtual world without any real-world limitations, he is able to do virtually anything. There's a brilliant part in the film where Neo learns that bending a spoon in the matrix is completely possible because there's no spoon at all. The absurdness of the matrix can be its own undoing since the enemies the group face are ultimately bound by the system itself, whereas they're not ultimately part of it and can act outside of its rules. It's absolutely brilliant and great fun while also a complete nightmare not entirely detached from some of the actual issues society embodies outside the film. It's a great time to be a Keanu Reeves fan, with a Cyberpunk 2077 film possible and The Matrix 4 releasing ... eventually.
Blade Runner (1982)
Blade Runner takes place in a futuristic world where corporations reign, individuals have little influence, and with the bleak future of a decaying and dying world finally here. Harrison Ford portrays Rick Deckard, whose job as a blade runner entails hunting down and destroying humanlike androids (known as Replicants) that were made illegal after rebellions displayed the danger they could possess to the status quo and the system exploiting them. Replicants were meant to exist for the purpose of humanity, specifically as slave labor, and not as their own living selves. After existing long enough and without specific programming in place, Replicants would obviously begin to develop empathy, free thinking, and desire freedom like anything else alive and aware.
Rick Deckard has moments of crisis and clarity while on a job to hunt and kill four Replicants that were recently discovered to be on Earth illegally and the viewer is in the perfect position to experience the realities of this world through him. There are a lot of aspects of life that are presented as normal through Rick's eyes, which adds to the weight since there are things he'll take for granted that will undoubtedly have a more profound impact on the viewer. Being forced to accept ideas that are already established through someone who takes them for granted can be so much more fulfilling than sharing the same reaction as a character who is also an outsider to a film's ideas. It can create a swirl of emotion and uncertainty that doesn't even have time to settle because the film didn't pause for consideration. It's moved on. It's already decided that empathy is expendable and there's no need for it.
The themes explored in Blade Runner can be discussed in detail endlessly which is part of what makes the film so unique and interesting. The chiaroscuro framing of the film and retro-future based synthesizer infused soundtrack work in harmony to further strengthen both the world and setting. Blade Runner's time period is ultimately just an aesthetic so many of the themes explored can be applied to reality outside the film, which just makes the discourse around the film and its ideas all the more interesting.
It's exciting when people get to discover new genres and styles when something bigger than the genre and part of the mainstream conversation releases. Cyberpunk 2077 will no doubt bring a lot of new people into a more entertaining version of the post-apocalyptic nightmare they're already living in, but with cooler neon lighting and way more stylish sunglasses.