Cyberpunk 2077 has taken the video game world by storm with massive pre-sales and critical/commercial praise. Game developer CD Projekt Red brought their own unique style of storytelling to the table to pay homage to one of sci-fi’s most beloved underground sub-genres.
The game takes its cues from a variety of sources that first took root in tabletop RPG games. Since that time, the genre has erupted into a mainstream pop culture phenomenon, mostly in the form of Hollywood films. Here’s ten that cyberpunk fans will definitely want to check out, especially if they’re hooked on Cyberpunk 2077.
The Matrix (1999)
The Matrix trilogy helped mainstream the concept of cyberpunk at a time when it was relegated strictly to the underground scene. It wasn’t meant for the masses, but the Wachowskis managed to streamline everything the genre stood for while putting an incredible and unique spin on the concept.
The first film’s main focus was on a world of future humans jacked into a virtual world designed to mask them from the truth. It triggered psychology and philosophy buffs to chime in in a way they had never done before. For the first time, mainstream society began to question things, and this was good.
TRON (1982)
In many ways, TRON was Matrix-lite. The same basic premise was there, even if it took on a family-friendly adventure spin. Still, it’s a timeless Disney classic that may not hold up in the same way others on this list have managed, but it was a groundbreaking geek-de-force that helped pave a few bricks in the cyberpunk road.
The story focuses on a computer programmer who is digitized and sucked into a video game world by a malevolent AI who has enslaved the programs within the digital realm. As a “user,” or a human inside the machine, he must team up with a hot-shot games pro named TRON to free the system from totalitarian control.
RoboCop (1987)
Cybernetics was all the rage in the 1980s, and famous director Paul Verhoeven capitalized on the concept to create the ultra-violent and incomparable RoboCop. The premise was simple – a beat cop is brutally slain by a vicious gang of thugs and gets resurrected as a cyborg with an axe to grind.
Verhoeven blended clever satire, black comedy, and vicious over-the-top bloodshed to create a living, breathing comic book on the big screen. It reintroduced audiences to the concept of what it means to be human when most of your parts have been replaced by servos, hydraulics, and CPUs.
Ghost In The Shell (1995)
This feature-length cyberpunk classic took the mid-90s by storm at a time when Japanese anime was beginning to pour through the floodgates of the North American market. Teenagers lapped it up in droves, but that doesn’t mean Ghost In The Shell was intellectually bereft. Quite the opposite.
It was a more mature and dramatic take on the manga source material by famed creator Masamune Shirow, preferring to dive heavily into philosophy in between heart-pumping future-tech action sequences. It’s the perfect blend of intellectualism, storytelling, and incredible visuals that later made their way to a successful TV anime series.
Total Recall (1990)
Cyberpunk took on a whole new meaning when director Paul Verhoeven once again took a stab at the genre, while putting his own spin on it. The result was Total Recall, a loose adaptation of the Philip K. Dick story “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale.” Arnold Schwarzenegger played Douglas Quaid, a blue-collar worker fascinated with vacationing on Mars.
When he visits a company that sells computerized memory-based vacations that are just as good as the real thing, his entire world comes apart at the seams. Soon, he becomes targeted by violent assassins and forced to confront the question of whether he’s truly Douglas Quaid, or someone entirely different.
Nemesis (1992)
Oliver Grunner starred in this underrated 1992 classic about a cyborg cop forced to hunt down his former lover who may be selling sensitive data to a group of tech-terrorists. Their goal is to unleash a war on humanity, and only he can stop them.
Over the course of the film, he begins to question his allegiance when the very group responsible for turning him into a cyborg in the first place turn out to be fighting for the side of humanity. This forces him to question his allegiance now that he’s more machine, rather than man.
The Lawnmower Man (1992)
Cyberpunk took a frightening turn with this 1992 classic that debuted during a time when humanity was just beginning to flirt with the idea of digital technology. The plot focuses on a scientist who jacks a simple-minded gardener into a virtual reality learning platform to study whether his intelligence quotient can be raised.
Soon, his guinea pig turns into a megalomaniacal genius that threatens to disseminate himself throughout the internet and take control of the world’s networks, becoming an all-powerful being. Once the genie is out of the bottle, it may be too late to get it back in.
Johnny Mnemonic (1995)
Four years before Keanu Reeves would star as Neo in the ultra-hip Matrix trilogy, he was cutting his teeth in the cyberpunk genre with Johnny Mnemonic. Of all the movies on this list, this one probably has the most in common with Cyberpunk 2077, regardless of how poorly it has aged over the years.
Reeves plays a data courier carrying a top-secret cure to a degenerative disease, but the local Yakuza will do anything to get it back. That involves getting a hold of his head (attached or not) and extracting the data from his memory module. Crazy gunfights and explosions ensue.
Virtuosity (1995)
This quirky cyberpunk film flipped the script by bringing the digital world out into the real one. Denzel Washington plays Parker Barnes, an ex-cop sent to prison for an arrest gone horribly wrong who is suddenly released to help track down a serial killer. Trouble is, this is no ordinary serial killer, but a digital amalgamation of the most horrific mass murderers in history.
The perp in question is Sid 6.7, a computer AI who manages to craft a real body for himself. Once out in the real world, Sid taunts Barnes with a series of killing sprees mimicking a virtual reality training simulation the two frequently partook in. However, this time the stakes are much higher.
Strange Days (1995)
Acclaimed thespian Ralph Fiennes and Angela Bassett starred in this film based on a screenplay by famed super-director James Cameron that focused on the eve of the new millennium. The sci-fi element centers on a technology known as a SQUID, an illegal device that can record a person’s memories and bodily sensations which are translated from the wearer’s cerebral cortex.
Black market SQUID dealer Lenny Nero ends up witnessing a recording of a brutal rape and murder, and sets out to investigate where it came from, and who was responsible. It ends up leading him down a bleak rabbit hole just two days before the new millennium rings in.
