Cyberpunk is a very popular subgenre of science fiction, which typically uses advanced technology and science along with anti-utopian society. He shows that in addition to the benefits of high technology, there is also a dark side.
And although there are thousands of great books on cyberpunk, cinema rarely spoils us with suitable films in this genre. And some movie adaptations of excellent cyberpunk (for example, “The Ghost in the Shell” of 2017) turn out to be unworthy of their own model.
But we will not talk about the weakest. Talk about the best movies in the cyberpunk genre of all time. And consider both “pure” cyberpunk and popular cinema with many elements of this style.
15. The Lawn Mower (1992)
Cinema Search: 6.63
IMDb: 5.40
Genre: cyberpunk, horror, fiction
Country: Great Britain, USA, Japan
Producer: Brett Leonard
Music: Dan wyman
Duration: 108 minutes
Pierce Brosnan plays a talented scientist Trace working on a project to increase intelligence. Having met mentally retarded guy Job Smith, Trace conducts experiments with him related to virtual reality. And it quickly turns yesterday's idiot into the mighty overlord of the computer world.
However, the project was originally designed to create weapons, and Job's newfound power quickly leads to disaster.
14. Nirvana (1997)
Cinema Search: 6.82
IMDb: 6.10
Genre: cyberpunk, fiction, drama
Country: Italy, France
Producer: Gabriele Salvatores
Music: Federico De Robertis, Mauro Pagani
Duration: 113 minutes
To play a game in which everything is possible - isn’t this a dream of a man tormented by gray and dreary reality? This is exactly the game Nirvana that the Okosama Starr Corporation wants to put on sale.
However, this virtual splendor due to the virus penetrated into it can harm the health of the player. Therefore, the creator of the game decides to destroy it. And sent to the "Nirvana."
13. Johnny the Mnemonics (1995)
Cinema Search: 6.86
IMDb: 5.60
Genre: cyberpunk, fantasy, crime
Country: Canada, USA
Producer: Robert Longo
Music: Michael Danne, Brad Fidel
Duration: 98 minutes
If it were a list of the best books on cyberpunk, the writer William Gibson would dominate. Unfortunately, Gibson’s brilliant novels and ideas have been waiting for decades for filmmaking technology to reach them.
Based on his novel and screenplay, Johnny Mnemonic is one of the best cyberpunk films. The protagonist (Keanu Reeves) is one of the couriers who carry valuable information in their brains. However, the information that was loaded into Johnny's memory turned out to be too large in volume and too important. If you do not unload them on time, he will die. And maybe it will die even earlier, because information can be read from the head without a body.
12. Throne: Legacy (2010)
Cinema Search: 6.89
IMDb: 6.80
Genre: cyberpunk, fantasy, adventure
Country: USA
Producer: Joseph Kosinski
Music: Tom Bangalter, Guy-Manuel de Omem-Cristo, etc.
Duration: 125 minutes
The first "Tron", of course, was a film about cyberpunk, with amazing (at that time) special effects that convey the idea of a computer as a world populated by programs.
However, the modern sequel from 2010 works more closely with the theme of cyberpunk. Jeff Bridges returns as Kevin Flynn, a programmer who ended up locked in his computer world for twenty years before his son Sam found him.
Now young Flynn has to save his father, and a new digital life form, stop the evil ruler of the computer world and return to the real world.
11. Existence (1999)
Cinema Search: 7.07
IMDb: 6.80
Genre: cyberpunk, fantasy, horror
Country: Canada, UK, France
Producer: David Cronenberg
Music: Howard Shore
Duration: 97 minutes
When it comes to virtual reality, it becomes almost impossible to determine what is real and what is false. Layer by layer, unreality is superimposed on reality to such an extent that the difference between them is erased.
The main character of the film is convinced of this - Allegra Geller, who created the magnificent game Existence. Together with her assistant, she is trying to repair the damaged game, plunging deeper and deeper into her virtual wilds.
10. Alita: battle angel (2019)
Cinema Search: 7.09
IMDb: 7.40
Genre: cyberpunk, fantasy, adventure
Country: USA
Producer: Robert Rodriguez
Music: Junkie Ex-El
Duration: 121 minutes
The first, but not the only film adaptation of Japanese manga on our list of the best movies in the cyberpunk genre. And, unlike the 2017 “Ghost in the Shell”, Alita was waiting for a warmer reception of spectators and critics.
The adventures of a cute girl with unrealistically large eyes, her search for lost memories, battles with villains and a love line - all this is interesting to watch, and the Battle Angel wants to empathize. The plot, of course, cannot be called twisted and unpredictable, however, as a good entertaining movie for one evening, “Alita: Battle Angel” is ideal.
9. Out of the car (2014)
Cinema Search: 7.11
IMDb: 7.70
Genre: cyberpunk, fiction, drama
Country: Great Britain
Producer: Alex garland
Music: Joff Barrow, Ben Salisbury
Duration: 108 minutes
Alex Garland's directorial debut combines science fiction and psychological thriller into an unpredictable story. The plot focuses on the programmer Caleb Smith, who wins a week-long visit to the secluded house of the founder and general director of the software company Blyubuk.
The purpose of Caleb’s visit is to enable him to conduct a Turing test on a humanoid robot named Ava, who has artificial intelligence. Once Ava tells Caleb that her creator is a liar who cannot be trusted.
Out of the Car won an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and was also nominated for Best Original Screenplay.
8. The Dark City (1998)
Cinema Search: 7.35
IMDb: 7.70
Genre: cyberpunk, detective, fantasy
Country: Australia, USA
Producer: Alex Proyas
Music: Trevor Jones
Duration: 100 minutes
John Murdoch wakes up in the hotel bathroom, suffering from amnesia. And so he knows about himself as much as the audience. He soon receives a phone call from Dr. Daniel Schreber, who tells him to run away because a group of men (known as Wanderers) are chasing him. Along the way, Murdoch discovers the corpse of a brutally murdered woman in his room.
He runs, but the Wanderers are not the only ones trying to find him. Police inspector Frank Boomstead suspects Murdoch is a serial killer.
This film was not a box office bomb, but received mostly positive reviews and became a cult classic. The Dark City resembles the allegory of Plato’s Myth about the Cave, with its opposition to the world of ideas and its flat projection, which people perceive as sensual reality.
7. Robocop (1987)
Cinema Search: 7.62
IMDb: 7.50
Genre: cyberpunk, fiction, action
Country: USA
Producer: Paul Verhoeven
Music: Basil Poledouris
Duration:102 minutes
The film takes place in the near future in the criminal Detroit, where policeman Alex Murphy was brutally murdered and then resurrected as a cyborg by the mega-corporation Omni Consumer Products (OCP).
In exchange for managing the Detroit Police Department, the OCP can turn abandoned areas into Delta City, a luxurious independent city-state, a kind of utopia for the elite.
The violence, which is abundant in this picture, is amplified by a subtle satire on American society and its criminal culture. An interesting and dramatic story, coupled with the magnificent performance of Peter Weller (despite the need to wear a heavy, uncomfortable costume) make Robocop a classic of film fiction and one of the best films of all time.
6. Blade Runner (1982)
Cinema Search: 7.67
IMDb: 8.10
Genre: cyberpunk, fiction, thriller
Country: USA
Producer: Ridley Scott
Music: Vangelis
Duration: 117 minutes
This film is based on Philip Dick’s book, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Its action takes place in the anti-utopian future of 2019, in which artificially created people, called replicants, are slaves. They are used on extraterrestrial colonies, but the path to Earth is closed to replicants. And those running along the blade are essentially bounty hunters looking for replicants to kill (or “resign”).
Blade Runner interacts with the viewer on several dramatic and narrative levels. This is an action movie that contains elements of science fiction and borrows many conventions of the film noir, such as the mysterious fatal woman, and also gives an idea of the possible consequences of human progress. And along the way, he offers the most difficult questions: what is humanity and who has the right to be considered a person?
5.12 monkeys (1995)
Cinema Search: 7.79
IMDb: 8.00
Genre: cyberpunk, thriller, fantasy
Country: USA
Producer: Terry Gilliam
Music: Paul Buckmaster
Duration: 129 minutes
Inspired by Chris Marker's short film La Jetée of 1962, Terry Gilliam recreated it into a full-length picture.
In 1996, a mysterious group known as the “Army of Twelve Monkeys” releases a deadly virus and destroys almost all of humanity, forcing survivors to live underground.
Fast forward to 2035. James Cole (Bruce Willis) was sent in 1996 to collect information about the virus to help scientists develop a cure. However, he mistakenly arrived in 1990, and met the fanatical Jeffrey Goyns (Brad Pitt), who turned out to be one of the people suspected of having connections with the "Twelve Monkeys."
4. The Ghost in the Shell (1995)
Cinema Search: 7.94
IMDb: 8.00
Genre: cyberpunk, anime, fantasy
Country: Japan
Producer: Mamoru Hosea
Music: Kenji kawai
Duration: 83 minutes
Although the 2017 remake featured some of the most exciting cyberpunk visuals ever made in the film (and another great performance by Takeshi Kitano), the anime “Ghost in the Shell” was much more loved by the audience.
His main character is cyborg agent Motoko Kusanagi, who is pursuing a criminal genius with the nickname Puppeteer.
“Ghost in the Shell” is one of the most popular films in the cyberpunk genre. This is a smart and relevant movie masterpiece that still speaks more about humanity than any continuation or imitation of it.
3. The Terminator (1984)
Cinema Search: 7.97
IMDb: 8.00
Genre: cyberpunk, fiction, action
Country: UK, USA
Producer: James Cameron
Music: Brad Fidel
Duration: 108 minutes
James Cameron's famous action movie talks about Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger), a cyborg killer sent from 2029 in 1984 to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) and Kyle Reese (Michael Bean).
Reese is a soldier from the same future who was sent back to protect Sarah Connor from the Terminator. He explains to her that in the near future, the Skynet artificial intelligence protection network will become self-aware and initiate a nuclear catastrophe. The not yet conceived son of Sarah will gather the survivors and lead a rebellion against the army of cars.
The film marked the beginning of the popular Terminator franchise, which currently consists of five films. And the sixth is approaching - “Terminator: Dark Fates”, its premiere will be held on October 31, 2019.
2. Metropolis (1927)
Cinema Search: 8.04
IMDb: 8.30
Genre: cyberpunk, fiction, drama
Country: Germany
Producer: Fritz Lang
Music: Wetfish, Sandro Forte, Gottfried Huppertz
Duration: 145 minutes
One of the very first cyberpunk-style films is considered the groundbreaking work of science fiction in the movies.
Filmed during the Weimar period, this silent film takes viewers in 2027 to a futuristic dystopian city called Metropolis. It clearly shows social inequality: wealthy industrialists live luxuriously in skyscrapers, and the lower class is constantly working on machines that provide the well-fed and calm life of the elite.
The film tells about the son of the city master Freder, who lounges in the amusement garden, not knowing about the struggle and fatigue of the working class. One day he meets a girl Maria, who brought the children on an excursion, to look at the lifestyle of those in power. Fascinated by the beauty, Freder leaves his world to look for her in the underground engine rooms.
The most interesting part of Metropolis is the appearance of the first robot in the history of cinema. This led to countless replicas and served as a major influence on the development of science fiction in general.
1. The Matrix (1999)
Cinema Search: 8.49
IMDb: 8.70
Genre: cyberpunk, fiction, action
Country: USA
Producer: Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski
Music: Don davis
Duration: 136 minutes
The first place in our ranking is occupied by the revolutionary sci-fi action movie of the Wachowski brothers (and now sisters). It depicts an anti-utopian future in which life is actually a simulated reality called the “Matrix”. It was created by self-aware machines to subjugate the human population, while their bodies are used as energy sources.
Thomas Anderson (Keanu Reeves), a programmer who lives a double life under the hacking nickname "Neo", meets a mysterious man named Morpheus. He claims that Neo can find out the truth about reality by deciding to swallow the proposed red pill. Or he can take the blue pill and return to his old life without remembering the Matrix. Neo picks a red pill.
The Matrix trilogy has received many awards, including several Oscars, BAFTA Awards, and Saturn Awards.
