Cinema

So what is this? Cinema? Like, movies the characters have watched? Well, no. This is a list of movies YOU should watch if you are thinking of playing Cyberpunk. Some people need a bit of a run up to Cyberpunk, they don’t really GET IT. Or maybe you want to immerse yourself in that feel. Well, In order to supply that immersion, and to help people who might not really clue in, I have this list. This is not a ‘Best of Cyberpunk’ list, there are so many of those, just ask Grok, you’ll get a list of ten or so obvious picks. This list is specifically curated to prepare one for a TTRPG game. 

The Cyberpunk Cinema List, why not books? Many other people have compiled lists of must reads. But I want to help VISUALIZATION as well, and some people have aphantasia, they can’t create images in their head, look it up. So you want to think about some Cyberpunk concepts, and get some of those visuals in your skull sponge. This is for you.

This list is in order of recommendation, the further down the list, the lower priority. The top five, the “Tight Five” are the five absolute must watches. 

Casablanca (1942)

Hear me out. I know Casablanca is NOT a cyberpunk movie, it lacks the Cyber part, but this is not a list of Cyberpunk Movies, it’s a list of movies to watch to get set up for playing a Cyberpunk TTRPG. BUT, if you want to start to understand Cyberpunk, Casablanca is a Cyberpunk movie, without the tech. Rick, our hero, is a flawed character, a selfish man, conflicted and beaten down. His friends, all crooked, dirty flawed people. But charming. They all know. They all have style, and little substance… or do they? EVERYONE is a piece of shit in this movie, but you’ll love ‘em. Set in the Old Night City, haha You see, Night City is the Casablanca of the Dark Future, the story is set before the second world war cooks off big time. People are fleeing occupied Territory and some come through Casablanca, desperate they’re selling jewels way below cost, selling their bodies, and life is cheap. Amidst this is Rick’s, centered around the Pianoman Sam and a haven for drinks and gambling. Rick is kind of a fixer, he knows people and people use his place to try and buy papers to let them leave. The local police know, and turn a blind eye, in return for being able to ‘win’ at the table. That’s just a taste, check this black and white masterpiece out, and examine the characters, their motivations, and how those motivations cause them to interact with one another. Even Rick, with his careless attitude begins to care when SHE walks back in to his life. Casablanca is dripping with that Night City feel, the hope and desperation the poor and rich, the powerful and the powerless. If you want to start your Cyberpunk viewing experience Casablanca is your first stepping stone. Casablanca helps you ponder something a lot of people treat as secondary to the feel: Characters. Casablanca is also filled with a facet a lot of people forget is so important to Cyberpunk: Romance.

Blade Runner (1982)

This is what you probably thought would be in the top spot. But here it is, second. To many people Blade Runner is their First Stop, I put it off. Blade Runner is moody, and dreamlike in places, everyone is flawed. The story follows Rick Deckard We meet him on ground level of the future, rain, packed masses. eating noodles, or trying to. He looks beaten down, weary, life grinding down on him. He is whisked back to his former job as a Blade Runner, a special detective expert in tracking down Synthetics. Soon we are forced to ask: Was he ever retired, or a Replicant who is always ‘dragged back in’ Of course there is no proof, and that’s good. Blade Runner is a solid movie to get into the Cyberpunk vibe, see the horrifying disparity between the elite and the people. And of course. The Replicants. the real story. Blade Runner broaches the question of humanity and life. Humans have created replicants, synthetic biological machines they use as slaves. Replicants are banned on earth, but are used as labour in the stars and asteroid mines. A group of replicants have come to earth, seeking a way out of their imminent death. Replicants only live a few years, you see. Rutger Hauer steals the movie with his portrayal of Roy Batty, as he grapples with human emotions and trys to grow up, tries to gain a future. Blade Runner is good for mood, visuals and character, but mainly for mood and visuals. Drift off into the dream of the world this implies and imagine your characters interacting with it, trying to make their way. And when you’re GM says something like “In the shadow of the Skyscrapers, you make your way, pushing past the press of people, rain slicked streets and buildings reflecting the garish neon…” You know what they mean.

RoboCop (1987)

Here we are in the solid meat of Cyberpunk, this might just be the best Cyberpunk movie of all time. A cop, Alex Murphy is sent to a dangerous district ON PURPOSE by the company that owns the police in Detroit… that’s right, the corporation OCP owns the police. Alex dies on the job, and is ‘volunteered’ into the RoboCop programme. A backup programme for OCPs Security Concepts Division. Why? Because the A programme - ED-209 was an impractical boondoggle that blasted an Exec brutally upon it’s unveiling making him more bullet than meat. “Someone call a paramedic!” A Junior Exec goes over his VP’s head and offers up the RoboCop Programme to the CEO, and bam! Alex Murphy is replaced by a machine, his mind erased and programmed to Serve the Public Trust, Protect the Innocent and Uphold the Law. Wow Cool. And monsterous. The gang that killed Alex are of course running amok in the city and RoboCop begins to remember he was human, maybe still is. This film is in one masterful stroke, satire, and serious. Modern City, Robot Cop and very human. This is everything in one package you need if you are going to play Cyberpunk, lawmen trying their best, but flawed humans, corrupt execs engaging in any level of crime to advance themselves, even killing one another. And a man, turned into a product. It has Cool visuals, Vibrant characters, little details you can used to infer the world, and a Cyborg Metal American Jesus back from the dead to kick every ass. You want to think about the process of Cyber-fication and how it affects humanity, here it is. You want to think about corporations manipulating things to get what they want, so above the law they ARE the law, here it is. You want to think about the dark future where you gotta fight to live, consider shooting a rapist in the dick, as a cop. This film is a heck of a package for Cyberpunk prep, it’s perfectly paced, Gritty, Empathetic, Violent and Brutally Violent. Welcome to the Dark Future.

Strange Days (1995)

Haven’t heard of this one? Don’t worry, it was very hard to find for a minute there. This movie feels like a Cyberpunk Campaign! But set in 1999 Los Angeles instead of 2045 Night City. It has a Sleazy Drug Dealer Fixer as a protagonist (Nero) I say Drug Dealer, but what he sells is… other peoples experiences! Through a device called a SQUID (Superconducting QUantum Interface Device) is a little device you can wear on your head, and it records your experiences. Initially invented for undercover operations by the police or feds, and now, a street drug. Want to feel what it likes to skydive? Or fuck? Yeah. the film treats it like a drug, Nero sets up a new prospective client, and it’s like a drug deal. His best friend Mace is a limo driver and bodyguard… she’s a Nomad man, kicks so much ass and is easily the most competent and capable character in the film. Look at their dynamic, look at all the characters dynamics. Then take a step back and look at the setting, feels like Night City, the tensions on the streets are high, the people don’t feel protected and Jeriko One a Rapper… a Rockerboy just got killed, and people are mad. And Nero stumbles across the Clip (a squid Recording) of who did it. Of course he could of had it sooner, but his selfish ways precluded that. Did I mention is also has romance? Just not in the way you’d expect. This film is so Cyberpunk. Like I said, it feels like a game you might play in, and that’s why it’s here, it has all the pillars of Cyberpunk in it. Watch it, feel the characters, feel the mood and the set. And get your dice ready choom.

Ghost in the Shell (1995)

1995 is THE year for Cyberpunk movies. And the last of my Tight Five Cyberpunk Must-Watches is the iconic Ghost in the Shell, explore the concept of being human, is there a ghost in the shell? What does an expanded Net-based life look like? is it real? Fucked if I know. I’ve seen this bitch a dozen times, and I still don’t know if it answers the question. And that’s the point, of course. The visuals alone are worth the watch for prepping for a game. But why I added this is because of the open and direct philosophical discussion of it. Ghost in the Shell speaks for itself. Okay, set in the future of 2029 the city of New Port City is a bright shining metropolis, kept safe by advanced security forces, and we get to follow those forces. Specifically Section Nine, and more specifically The Major, a full body conversion… if she was ever really real. This has what you want, action, animation, boobs, and rambling discussions. I love this movie. And the detail backgrounds are worth storing in your long term memory storage.

Dredd (2012)

If you don’t understand why Dredd is Cyberpunk, maybe go play fifth edition D&D. But Okay. A film called Dredd is actually kinda about Anderson… if you accept the girl in this film as Anderson. Set almost entirely in a Megablock the film revolves around a Megacity 1 Judge trying to take down a crime lord. Set in the dark future as laid out in the 2000AD comics Judge Dredd, America is ruled by the Judges, individuals who are highly traiend Judge Jury and Executioners in one. They preceive a crime they will sentence you right then and there. They are the law. And the most notorious of them is Dredd. Dredd must evaluate a cadet: Anderson, who is psychic. They become trapped ina Megablock, a hughe building that has inducty commerce and residential all in one, a city packed into a building, and Megacity 1 has MANY Megablocks. This film gives us the packed in arcology feel, the warren of grease and crime and the brutal levels Law Enforcement must take to try and keep the peace. Intense visuals and unreserved brutality mark this film as a must watch Cyberpunk classic. AND Karl Urban keeps his fucking helmet on (Shots fired Stallone) Mood and visuals are key for this one.

The Running Man (1987)

In the Totalitarin American Future of … 2017… okay, the government controls everything, you have a social credit score no cash and everything you do and watch is regulated. Ben Richards, portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger, is a Helicopter pilot framed for the Bakersfield Massacre, and sent to prison where prisoners wear collars that blow their heads off if they try and escape. Dystopian enough for you yet? Richards escapes but is recaptured and forced to enter a game show… The Running Man, prisoners are sent down a chute into the Zone and chased by over the top wrestling personalities with deadly weapons for the entertainment of the masses. It’s the most popular show! Despite some of it’s rather dated assumptions about the future, this movie is perfect for Cyberpunk game prep. You see the wealthy and elderly and the poor youth alike (shots fired boomers) enthralled and even betting on life and death. The movie inserts commercials which emphasize how desensitised the people are to death and cruelty. We are able to see through the Host Killian the two-faced nature of the corporate elite and their wanton acts against us. It does predict the media manipulating and faking clips to manipulate and control the masses (Shots fired CNN) This movie is smarter than it presents if you let it be.

Brazil (1985)

Technology, Bureaucracy, and Hyper-Surveilance. These things come together in a very British look into government inefficiency… We just call it normal government. It has it all, really strange, rushed romance, callous lack of concern for people, focusing on the wrong aspect of something that has gone wrong. And explosions. Our hero, Sam Lowry, is the only man in his department who knows how to actually do anything. And he has been dreaming about a woman. His dreams slowly become nightmares, as the idyllic setting is slowly transformed into a nightmarish cityscape, just like the real world, and the real world of the movie. As things spiral out of control, the government goes to increasingly the same levels of excess brutality to bring things back into balance. The balance of oppressing people. Why it’s on the list? Watch it and you’ll quickly see. Also you’ll start asking why you want more government. Assuming you aren’t already.

Johnny Mnemonic (1995)

Johnny Mnemonic is a 1995 Cyberpunk movie starring Keanu Reeves and based on a short story by the same name by Cyberpunk Author William Gibson. 1995 was THE year for Cyberpunk movies huh? And Keanu sure seems like Mister Cyberpunk to me. He’s come a long way. This movie differs greatly from the story in the short, and its execution is not perfect, if you’re expecting something as polished as “The Matrix” then you are expecting too much. Johnny Mnemonic tells the story of a Data courier: John Smith who is hired to transport some data by some nervous nerds, he tells them he has enough capacity to store it, but he doesn’t. There are some Cyberpunk elements of the movie before this is revealed, but this is the first hard crunch: He stores the data in his head. In his own brain! He’s had to export all his memories to make room, he even uses a capacity doubler device to compress the data more, or something. But it’s still not enough. He lies to them, he wants the money, he wants the job, he needs the job, to get his memory back and live a life of a wealthy do-nothing. Things immediately go wrong as the data is copied, and it’s clearly not a fun time, but some Corporate enforcers show up, one has a thumb-tip replaced by a monowire whip which slices through the door, and they attack the Nerds, killing them. Johnny is in the bathroom, and avoids the initial assault. He escapes, and the chase is on! Johnny doesn’t have the download code: three random images taken from a Television during the process, without it he can’t empty his head! And the Corporate types want that data back. How’s that for a setup? So Cyberpunk. While the movie is a bit bad, I recommend it thoroughly, it’s a fun watch, and a grand chase movie introducing you to Cyberpunk Concept after Cyberpunk concept for you to mull over. Netrunners especially might wish to take note of how Johnny netruns, with gestures. Remember, in Cyberpunk Red an ARG netrunning experience is the norm, you might with to make gestures yourself to help sell the Netrunning you are experiencing. I don’t normally reference the written work, but like most if not all of Gibson’s Cyberpunk work it’s deficient in the technical accuracy of things, but it’s value lies in the CHARACTERS, how they’re feeling, how they act, why they make decisions. The Movie is also broadly about that. At this point in his career Keanu Reeves isn’t quite up to his later acting chops, but he still conveys John Smith with more nuance than you may expect. If “A Scanner Darkly” gave you headaches, Johnny Mnemonic will keep you entertained. Or, it did, me. My only wish is that Dina Meyer had been a better Molly Millions (the movie renames the character, but that’s how I know her) And the character had been more badass, like in the short story.

Specifically I recommend this for the Netrunners, the Cyberpunk Concepts it uses in quick succession, and Dolph Lundgren as The Preacher (Good for Inquisitor radicals, or an evil Father Kevin.) The visuals are also somewhat useful.

Total Recall (1990)

Action Thinker with Arnold Schwarzenegger. Douglas Quad is a mild mannered typical construction worker with a supermodel grade wife. Until he wants to go to Mars for no good reason. Why would you want to go? Its awful, barren and basically a work camp for the mines there, and there’s terrorists! But Quaid want’s to go, but he is talked down by his wife. However there is a way he can have his vacation to Mars, AND not piss off his wife: Rekall! For the Memory of a Lifetime, Rekall Rekall Rekall! He can have the memory of a vacation implanted right in his brain. Perfect! He even gets upsold to the Special package, why just be a tourist, when you can be a Secret Agent! Well, things go wrong when they try to implant the memory and discover: He has already had an implant. Arnold has a Schitzoid Embolism and goes berzerk, they are able to drug him, and dump him, having blanked his memory… or so they thought. Soon he is embroiled in a fantastic adventure, it turns out he WAS a secret agent trying to bring down the master of Mars Cohaagen, Or wait, was he a secret double agent, working FOR Cohaagen? This movie is brilliant and leaves you asking, “Was he really trapped in a Rekall fantasy, or was he really a super spy action hero?” This movie fits so well, and allows you to explore mind alteration the malleability of the mind and how far we can trust our perceptions.

Demolition Man (1993)

Stallone and Snipes lead us in this adventure in the future where society has become little soy-boy bitches. This movie warned us what would happen if we listened to femminists. You get non-men. Hah! Anyway this movie shows the future San-Angeles mega city where everything is wonderful and peaceful and people have no money and must be traced and tracked at all times. When a criminal who has been in cryostasis escapes and runs amok, and the soy-boy future weenies can’t handle a criminal who uses violence Simon Phoenix (Wesley Snipes). So they thaw out John Spartan to deal with him, a frozen Cop from the past when LA was on fire and rioting all the time. We are treated to a society that has been crafted and molded to fit a model, a controlled society that listens to commercials for fun. But you don’t HAVE to comply with it… you could escape it and live with Edgar Friendly (Denis Leary). Where you might starve. Because of course if you aren’t the ideal citizen, you live in the sewers and cannot buy food, cannot have a job. Ah. Now we see why this is here. Demolition Man does a good job of making a cinematicly unique dystopia: a bright happy cheerful dark future. Makes me sick to my ass :P

The Maltese Falcon (1941)

In San Francisco, private detective Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) and his partner Miles Archer are hired by a mysterious woman, Ruth Wonderly (Mary Astor), to tail a man, Floyd Thursby. I know, I know. Not a Cyberpunk Film. But watch this one. The caper is STRAIGHT UP a campaign you could run in Cyberpunk, full of sleazy dirty crooks of all stratum, twists and betrayals. Sure. It’s black and white, sure it;s old and people talk strange, well nuts to you feller, supposin I told you this film here helps you get into the edgerunner mindset more tight than any of the other larks on this page? Maybe you should be figurin’ to check it out! If you have never watched it, and you’re about to RUN Cyberpunk, take the time, and watch The Maltese falcon. Oh, it’s one of those films that starts with a text screen explaining the plot. Do yourself a favor, don’t read it. Let the plot unfold for you. Why is it so far down the list? Well, I already started with Casablanca, I can only get away with so much.

The Matrix (1999)

In a dystopian future, Thomas Anderson, a computer hacker known as Neo, feels something is wrong with reality. He’s contacted by the mysterious Morpheus and Trinity, who reveal that the world is a simulated reality called the Matrix, created by intelligent machines to enslave humans, whose bodies are used as energy sources while their minds are trapped in the simulation. And we could leave it there, really. This movie is style over substance, a very Cyperpunk way to be! YOu see out of the Matrix, we’re grungy pasty useless humans. But Jacked in, we’re black leather trenchcoat wearing Kung Fu Supermen. If you wan tto suffer through some sophmoric “Existance of Reality” and watch kickin techo-beat backed gun-fu and wirework. This baby is a generic basic prepper for game night.

New Rose Hotel (1998)

In a near-future world dominated by mega-corporations, Fox (Christopher Walken) and X (Willem Dafoe) are freelance industrial spies specializing in corporate defections. Hired by Hosaka, a Japanese firm, they target Dr. Hiroshi, a brilliant geneticist working for rival Maas Biolabs, offering $100 million to lure him to a Hosaka lab in Marrakech. They enlist Sandii (Asia Argento), a seductive Shinjuku call girl, to charm Hiroshi into defecting. X trains Sandii, but falls in love with her, complicating the plan. Okay, I know, sounds kind of generic. This film is a fucking art piece, it’s brilliant! You follow Fox and X and experience everything through them you see almost none of the action, instead being told about it third-hand. Ultimately the film is about X. The last third of the film, it tricked us for a bit you see; At first we thought the film was explaining everything over and over to the dumb viewer, a thing a lot of American movies do, BUT in reality we were along for X’s ride, as he, like a real person goes over and over the events and reveals new things he perceived but ignored. And WE are along for that ride. It’s so goddamn perfect. The film is about feeling, the way we process them, the way we build them. the plot is almost irrelevant. You never SEE any of the action, only hearing about it reported to Fox and X. This is a Cyberpunk film that is not for everyone, but it really gets into the head, about HOW we deal with things. It also has powerful above-the-law megacorps. Want to get some insight into how a smart capable character can get completely snowed, how you can use these feelings and this film to understand how any information you get in game could be flawed, or curated to trick you, nothing is bullshit, and everything is; You never know. This movie lands low because it simply is easy to mistake for a poorly made movie where “You don’t even get to see anything,” like so many 1950’s sci-fi movies featuring the glorious action of people talking in a room about cool battles you will never see. But you read this list, so you’re fore-warned.

Minority Report (2002)

Stay with me here, you’re going to want to watch this one if you watched even some of the rest. This film isn’t good. It’s kind of got all of the problems of those early to mid-2000’s movies. BUT Imagine a future where the government has enslaved three psychic Precogs (People who can see the future) and uses them to find you guilty of murders YOU HAVE NOT YET COMMITTED. Everyone’s retina is on file, Advertisements scan you and call you out by name, and the police can launch a wave of tiny three legged spider bots to come into your home, shock you and scan you no matter what you are doing, shitting, fucking, sleeping. Fuck you, get scanned. You have no rights. This is the future the movie kind of ineptly portrays. Pre-crime Chief John Anderton becomes victim of a clever setup to make it look like he’s going to , in three days, murder some guy he never met. Naturally, he should be put in a cryo prison for all time. (Or he could just leave town for a week, but whatever.) During the action slacked adventure we learn the precrime system is very flawed. There are some future visuals in this film, but I don’t rate them much. The pervasive advertising and the excess of the police powers is useful to an extent. One of the major flaws with the movie, but maybe it is intentional, is the concept of the Pre-Crime division being adopted nationally. However the movie goes to great lengths to explain that all 3 Precogs are needed, and we can’t make more. … so the whole thing would fall apart when one or all of the Precogs inevitably dies. Does that make this work better? Or Worse? I don’t know, but I would have preferred it if the movie ended sooner, and the “Bad Guys” won. This movie allows you to get a glimpse of a horrible thing “Precrime” being accepted by the masses, which you might thing is silly, but it’s pitched to the masses as a good thing, you can see the advertisement for it in the movie: People talking about how they “Died” But they’re alive and happy to be alive, for the children. So with that sugar spoon the medicine of awful government overreach goes down. Spiderbots crawling through the tenements, a child screaming in fear and panic, being held down by her mother so the spider bot can crawl up her and scan her crying eyes. The mother’s rage, possibly at herself and the situation, directed at the officer “She’s scared stiff!” You can use these elements to add to a game you’re running. Or playing in, if you want to empathize with a recent despotic event foisted upon the people by a local law, or corporate body.

Dark City (1998)

In a perpetually dark, retro-futuristic city,.. no, not just a city a dark MAZE of every-night life, John Murdoch awakens with fragmented memories, accused of murders he doesn’t recall committing. Pursued by a detective, Frank Bumstead, and a sinister group of pale, telepathic beings called the Strangers, Murdoch discovers he has reality-altering powers. I’ll leave the plot description there. Is this a pure Cyberpunk Experience? No. But it does have some mood to offer, and a shadowy controlling power shaping the city. But that’s kinda where it ends. But if you want to soak up some dark oppressive environments, this is here, and way down the list. Look, choom, you know that part of the campaign where you have some pieces of a puzzle, but you don’t know what the picture is? Maybe if you had a corner and some edge bits… But nothing you do can make it make sense, you’re feeling boxed in, you have skills, talents, but you don’t even know who the enemy is, it LOOKs like some shadowy guys are out to get you, and everyone you turn to seems to be turning against you and working for them, and you’re not even sure if you remember anything for real anymore… This film is like that, for a good portion of it. Not a lot of people saw this film, or remember it if they did, and they are missing out. Don’t be like them. Hey, you probably have seen one part of the film. Some of it’s sets were used in the Matrix, of particular note the Trinity Rooftoop Run scene near the start of the Matrix.

Burst City (1982)

It’s… a lot. And not every movie watcher is ready for this. A high energy Japanese Cyberpunk offering focused on an area of town, crime, redevelopment, police excess, rockerboy led riots, it has it all. Want to know what it’s like living in a combat zone, and think you can handle it… Burst City. I’ll just leave it there.

Picture a group of street-scum gangsters being paid to work a construction site by some shady Mafia types. The work day is over but the mafia types lock them into an area and tell them that they cannot go until the whole job is done. A man, either made partly of metal, or wearing metal armor, it’s never clear, goes insane at this and rip the building apart. Meanwhile two rival bands start dying as the police break up their two simultaneous guerrilla concerts, and the fans go wild, more militarized police are called in, and they don’t CARE who they kill. And this is the most logical part of the movie. It has a street race scene, a woman selling herself in hopes of making enough money to escape the city, Band wars, Police oppression, riots, drugs, slave labor rebellion, crime politics, lazy corporate workers. A road trip implication, and revenge. Packed so tight together, like the people in the slums. Man this movie is a TRIP. If you watched Tetsuo: The Iron Man and want more with a similar hectic energy. Burst City have the VIBES, Immerse yourself in Old Japantown, the Combat zone with Burst City. And don’t blink.

Altered Carbon (Series: 2018, Season 1)

I’m gonna be real here: I hate this show. The lead female “Ortega” is an abrasive, corrupt, self-involved Girl Boss who never gets come-uppance for her arrogant abuse of power. The scene in episode 8 where she defeats a half dozen or more copies of a Super-Assassin who previously badassed her way through a fight club full of combat guys is offensive to me. That character ruins this show. HOWEVER, the Raven hotel, the general visuals and the concept of the immortality through sleeves make it worth a watch if you are looking for yet more inspiration. I would never recommend this show normally, but the story is a good concept and the visuals are good, they never hang around on screen long enough for me to “feel” the environments, too many cuts. Okay, so In the future there is a technology that lets a mind be interchanged into another body, called inhumanly a “sleeve” Some oppose this, but the govenment requires everyone be fitted with the tech. Long ago, about 250 years a group called the “Envoys” sought to stop this. But they did not. The last Envoy is woken up out of prison 250 years after hius “death” at the behest of a “Methuselah” a wealthy immortal who lives above the clouds and has enough money and power to manipulate, directly, the law. He is tasked with the task of finding out who killed the “Meth” who hired him. That right there is a good hook.

The visuals are inconsistent, but good, their VR effects are interesting and different, and if you don’t mind overt wokeness and Girl-Bossing, then you probably won’t mind the show. But I put it down at the bottom for a reason.