Working list of cyberpunk movies - what am I missing?

sfam · Last edited by sfam on Mon May 15, 2006 10:24 pm; edited 6 times in total

I've just recently updated this. There are a few more from the website entries I still need to include:

Please look at the list and tell me if I'm missing some. I also want to do a list of internet shorts to review - these aren't included below though. Here's the 140 movies I have so far:

1984 (Radford, 1984)
2009: Lost Memories (Lee, 2002)
6th Day (Spottiswoode, 2000)
8 Man After (Hirai, Kuwata, 1993)
964 Pinnochio (Fukui, 1991)
Absolon (Barto, 2003)
Aeon Flux {anime} (Chung, 1995)
Aeon Flux (Kusama, 2005)
A.D. Police Files
AI: ARtificial Intelligence (Spielberg, 2001)
Akira (Otomo, 1988)
Alien (Scott , 1979)
Alien 3 (Fincher, 1992)
Alien 4: Ressurrection (Jeunet, 1997)
Aliens (Cameron, 1986)
Alphaville (Godard, 1965)
American Cyborg:Steel Warrior (Davidson, 1993)
Andoromedia
Android (Lipstadt, 1982)
Android of Notre Dame (Kuramoto, 1988)
Animatrix (Chung et al., 2003)
Appleseed {1988 version} (Katayama, 1988)
Appleseed {2004 version} (Aramaki, 2004)
Armitage Duel Matrix (Akiyama, 2002)
Armitage III (Ochii, 1994)
Automatic (Murlowski, 1994)
Avalon (Oshii, 2001)
Battle Angel (Fukutomi, 1993)
Beautiful Dreamer 2 (Oshii, 1984) – Not really cyberpunk but is source for Dark City ending
Bicentennial Man (Columbus, 1999)
Black Magic M-66 (Shirow Masamune, 1987)
Blade Runner (Scott, 1982)
Brazil (Gilliam, 1985)
Bronx Executioner
Bubblegum Crises (Akiyama, 1987)
Bubblegum Crises: Tokyo 2040 (Hayashi, 1998)
Bublegum Crash (Fukushima, 1991)
Casshern (Kiriya, 2004)
Cherry 2000 (De Jarnatt, 1987)
Circuitry Man (Lovy, 1990)
Cirtuitry Man 2: Plughead Rewired (Lovy, 1994)
Code Hunter {Storm Watch} (Cunningham, 2002)
Colossus – the Forbin Project (Sargent, 1970)
Cowboy Beebop
CyberCity Oedo 808 (Kawajiri, 1990)
Cyberjack (Lee, 1995)
Cyberpunk - Documentary (Trench, 1990)
Cybertracker (Pepin, 1994)
Cyborg (Pyun, 1989)
Cyborg 2 (Schroeder, 1993)
Cyborg 3: The Recycler (Schroeder, 1994)
Cyborg Cop (Firstenberg, 1993)
Cyborg Cop 2 (Firstenberg, 1995)
Cyborg Cop 3 (Wein, 1996)
Cypher (Natali, 2002)
Cybernator (Rundle, 1991)
Cyberstalker {Digital Prophet} (Romero, 1995)
Dark City (Proyas, 1988)
Dead or Alive: Final (Takishi Mike, 2002)
Demolition Man (Brambilla, 1993)
Electric Dragon 80.000V (Ishii, 2001)
Ergo Proxy (2006)
Equilibrium (Wimmer, 2002)
Eve of Destruction (Gibbons, 1991)
eXistenZ (Cronenberg, 1999)
f8 (Wen, 2001)
Fantastic Planet (Laloux, 1973)
Fahrenheit 451
Final Cut (Naim, 2004)
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (Sakaguchi, 2001) – Not really cyberpunk
Fortress (Gordon, 1993)
Freejack (Murphy, 1992)
Fifth Element (Besson, 1997)
Full Metal Yazuka
Galerians:Rion (Maesawa, 2004)
Gattaca (Niccol, 1997)
Ghost in the Machine
Ghost in the Shell (Oshii, 1995)
Ghost in the Shell Innocence (Oshii, 2004)
Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex (Kimiyama, 2002)
Ginea Pig: ANdroid of Notre Dame
Gunhed (Harada, 1989)
Harsh Realm (Carter, 1999)
Hackers (Softley, 1995)
Hardware (Stanley, 1990)
Heatseeker (Pyun, 1995)
Heavy Metal
Heavy Metal 2000
I, Robot (Proyas, 2004)
I.K.U. (Cheang, 2000)
Immortel (Bilal, 2004)
Imposter (Fleder, 2002)
Iria: Zeiram (Amino, 1993)
johnny 2.0
Johnny Mnemonic (Longo, 1995)
Judge Dredd (Cannon, 1995)
La Jetée (Marker, 1962)
Lawnmower Man (Leonard, 1992)
Lawnmower Man II: Beyond Cyberspace (Mann, 1996)
Liquid Sky
Malice@Doll (Motonaga, 2000)
Matrix (Wachowski, 1998)
Matrix Reloaded (Wachowski, 2003)
Matrix Revolutions (Wachowski, 2003)
Max Headroom
Metropolis {1927 version} (Lang, 1927)
Metropolis {2001 version} (Rintaro, 2001)[/i]
Menno's Mind
Minority Report (Spielberg, 2002)
Natural City (Min, 2004)
Nemesis (1992) (Pyun, 1993)
Nemesis 2: Nebula (Pyun, 1995)
Nemesis 4: Death Angel (Pyun, 1995)
Nemesis III: Prey Harder (Pyun, 1996)
Nirvana (Salvatores, 1997)
Omega Doom (Pyun, 1997)[/i]
One Point O {Paranoia 1.0} (Renfroe, 2004)
Parasite Dolls - http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=2345
Paycheck
Puzzlehead
Reboot (Best, 1994)
Returner (Yamazaki, 2002)
RoboCop (Verhoeven, 1987)
Robocop 2 (Kershner, 1990)
RoboCop 3 (Dekker, 1993)
Robocop 4: Prime Directives (Grant, 2000)
Rubber’s Lover (Fukui, 1996)
Runaway (Crichton, 1984)
Running Man (Glaser, 1987)
Save the Green Planet (Jeong, 2003)
Scanner Darkly
Screamers (Duguay, 1995)
Serial Experiments Lain (Nakamura, 1998)
Slipstream
Silent Running (Trumbull, 1972) – Not really cyberpunk but has a cool robot scene
Sixteen Tongues (McCrae, 1999)
Slipstream (Lisberger, 1989)
Sneakers (Robinson, 1992) - Barely cyberpunk if at all
Soylent Green (Fleischer, 1973) - I'm leaning towards not including this one
Strange Days (Bigelow, 1995)
Tank Girl (Talalay, 1995)
Terminator (Cameron , 1984)
Terminator 2: Judgement Day (Cameron, 1991)
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (Mostow, 2003)
Terminatrix (Hirota, 1995)
Tetsuo Iron Man (Tsukamoto, 1988)
Tetsuo II: Body Hammer (Tsukamoto, 1992)
Texhnolyze (Hamazaki, 2003)
The Net (Winkler, 1995)
The Island (Bay, 2005)
Thirteenth Floor (Rusnak, 1999)
THX 1138 (Lucas, 1971)
They Live (Carpenter, 1988) - Have not seen yet.
Time Cop (Hyams, 1994)
Total Recall 2070 (Monterastelli, 1999)
Total Recall (Verhoeven, 1990)
Tron (Lisberger, 1982)[/i]
Twelve Monkeys (Gilliam, 1995)
Ultraviolet
VideoDrome (Conenberg, 1983)
Virtual Girl (Gabai, 1998)
Virtual Girl2: Virtual Vegas (Gabai, 2001)
Virtuosity (Leonard, 1995)
War Games (Badham, 1983)
Webmaster
William Gibson: No Maps for These Territories (Neale, 2000)
Wonderful Days (Kimiyama, 2003)
Wild Palms (Bigelow, 1993)
X-files: Kill Switch (Episode 11, Season 5)
Yesterday (Jeon, 2002)

Potentials

Ai City - http://amr.nextstudio.net/html/ai_city.html
All About Lilly Chou-Chou" ("Riri Shushu no subete"), 2001
A.Li.Ce. - http://www.sarudama.com/japanese_movies/alice.shtml

Code 46
Demon Seed
Dragon's Heaven - http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=816
Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind?
Grey: Digital Target - http://www.eldar.org/~brad/anime/TFA-404953-C.html
Gundress - http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=368

Handmaiden's Tale
Harrison Bergeron
Heat Guy-J
Hidden Heroes (http://asiancult.com/product_info.php?cPath=1_13_71&products_id=1892)
Hinoko (http://asiancult.com/product_info.php?cPath=1_13_71&products_id=2448)
Manie Manie Neo Tokyo (Anime short movies) http://imdb.com/title/tt0185481/
Memories (Anime 3 short movies) http://imdb.com/title/tt0113799/
Midnight Eye Goku http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=3488
Mind Game (Anime) http://imdb.com/title/tt0452039/
Psycho Diver - http://www.eldar.org/~brad/anime/soul_siren.html
Robot Carnival (Anime short movies) http://imdb.com/title/tt0093871/
Robotrix (http://asiancult.com/product_info.php?cPath=1_13_71&products_id=1657)
Split (Shaw, 1999)
The One
Virus Buster Serge - http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=1024
Wax or discovery of television among the bees (http://amazon.imdb.com/title/tt0105791/)
XChange - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0242150/

DoomAng3l · Last edited by DoomAng3l on Wed Feb 22, 2006 9:05 pm; edited 1 time in total

Hi SFAM....

Paycheck
Cypher
a possible? : The One (Jet Li)
Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex - The Second Gig

Armitage : Poly matrix
Blame (anime)
starship troopers
A Scanner Darkly (to be released)
ultraviolet

sfam

Reposting for Neuromancer.

sfam · Last edited by sfam on Wed Feb 22, 2006 1:50 am; edited 1 time in total

sfam

bergo · Just entering cyberspace Joined: 22 Feb 2006 Posts: 1

A couple shows that come to mind:

Wax or discovery of television among the bees

http://amazon.imdb.com/title/tt0105791/
Only on VHS at Amazon.
I saw it at an independent cinema 15 years ago and fell asleep (it was late). It was toughted as Cyberpunk, I would have to revisit to know for sure.

Max Headroom

1980's near future TV series.
Max Headroom was in a lot of Coke adds.
Worth a look, again only available on VHS.
http://amazon.imdb.com/title/tt0092402/

There is stuff like in the book "1984" about not being able to turn off TV's. There is also and episode on illegal body harvesting.

sfam

sfam

I'm watching Paycheck now. It definitely has a cyberpunk feel to the story. Cool memory mixing!

Neuromancer · Plugged in Joined: 20 Feb 2006 Posts: 48

Hi sfam!

Your comments on my suggested movies are all right.
I was primarily looking for (my favourites) movies with a theme in which reality or humanity are questioned, which involves the relationships between humans and machines.
Like 2001, Westworld or Saturn 2 where a robot starts to develop quite human characterisics.
Or like Solyaris where the line between artificial and real life becomes blurred.
Some other suggestions involve pretty much all of the aspects you describe but lack the cyberpunk visuals (Logans Run for example). And that is where our diffences appear.
Its all about our own views and that's what it should be. The danger in creating a list like this is that if you don't hold on to your own view you are going to end up with a database larger that IMDB. Everyone visiting here has his/her own definition of cyberpunk. You please uphold your own criteria because your list pretty much hold all my favourites...

Neuromancer/Wintermute

Metatron · Plugged in Joined: 06 Feb 2006 Posts: 64

I thought Paycheck was rather horrid! The main character is played with all the enthusiasm of a schoolboy doing his maths homework, the story is rather silly and hardly memorable. But worst of all were the visuals- IMHO this is a prime example of the trendy, polished look that goes right against the atmosphere typical of cyberpunk- cheap, bland surroundings that could easily appear in any office building. From the visual point of view even unlikely contenders such as Blade II or Doom (that, in terms of themes, are as cyberpunk as Pokemon) have more going for it, really...

Metatron · Plugged in Joined: 06 Feb 2006 Posts: 64

@Neuromancer: Solaris could be an interesting idea from the storyline point of view, even though the artificial creation here is alien rather than cybernetic. Even then I thought the film was one of the worst sci-fi wannabes I've witnessed, mostly because I've read the absolutely fantastic book on which it was based (Stanislaw Lem's SOLARIS) and I reckon the movie completely distorts the whole concept. In the book there was a huge amount of tension, both on emotional and scientific, analytical levels. Atmospheric and profound, the story was deeply engaging and its ambiguous ending completely blew me away. The film, meanwhile, loses all that feel of mystery and isolation that made the book unique, and instead goes for a toned-down approach. The result is almost a family drama with dodgy, unconvincing sci-fi background.

By the way, it is fascinating to see how many cyberpunk themes actually appear in the works of this particular writer. Lem's books touch upon a variety of issues, but there are lots of stories that explore the man-machine relationship in a totally unexpected way. Among these, there is one that tells of a scientist who created artificial beings that live in a constant, machine-generated illusion of a life- a story that predates The Matrix by years. It's been a while since I've read these, and in fact back then I hadn't even known the term "cyberpunk", but re-reading the stuff now would be very interesting indeed.

DoomAng3l

The things I do for the love of CP... I mean really SFAM! Wink

okaaaaay... where to start?... at the back to front beginning I suppose :

a) Gits follows on a separate theme from the first ... but my intention here was to add MISSING items to the list and not necessarily put items forward for review. so add it to the list and I will leave the review up to you... (Maybe pin it to the end of the first series review... sort of a rolling one for the series?) As for Armatage, again one for the list, rolling if you like or omit.

B) Paycheck... hmmm... I almost skipped this because of ben afleck but decided to watch it ... you have a classic protagonist vibe here ... def do this one!

C) Blame .... do it!

D) Starship Troopers is entirely up to you... the reason I added is purely because of the roll played by the State. For the most part it is the federations advertising campaign that really pushes my vote.... as for the rest ... its just sci-fi... and we both know it.

E) The one, the reason I say yes is the duality of the protagonist/protagonism and the ill fated irony that befalls the 'evil' Li and the fact that the 'good' Li become something of a nothingness filling the shoes of a dead Li in another dimension .... There is room for argument... as always Wink

As for the avatar... as long as you have watched the show.... nuff said! *thanks*
_________________
Synchronise with someone who is meditating and download some enlightenment

Neuromancer · Plugged in Joined: 20 Feb 2006 Posts: 48

Metatron,
I have to confess i never read the book by Stanislaw Lem.
Did see the movie by Tarkovsky and even want to see the one with Clooney. As long as the core story stays the same diferent pov's only add to the discussion.
The Tarkovsky movie didn't exactly blow me away. At first it appears very dull and kind of boring to be honest. Then it kind of creeps up on ya...and slowly starts to gnaw at the back of your mind (that came out like a Freddy Krueger remark but you get my drift) You can take the implications given as far as you dare until it dazzles your mind.
If you say the movie is a toned down version of the book i absolutely MUST read it. You have convinced me enough to go out and buy it.

Neuromancer/Wintermute

Metatron · Plugged in Joined: 06 Feb 2006 Posts: 64

I sadly haven't seen the Tarkovsky version yet, so ma remarks were directed at the Clooney film. But in any case the book is definitely worth going for- as with all stuff by Lem, sometimes the narrative may lapse into extensive scientific and philosophical musings, but this only adds to the realism of the whole thing.

Neuromancer · Plugged in Joined: 20 Feb 2006 Posts: 48

Here's another oldie that, in my eyes, can be refered to as cyberpunk: Demon Seed (Cammel)