Cyberpunk is a highly popular subgenre of science fiction that typically uses cutting-edge technology and science alongside a dystopian society. He shows that in addition to benefits, high technologies also have a darker side.
And while there are thousands of great cyberpunk books out there, cinema rarely pampers us with good films in this genre. And some film adaptations of excellent cyberpunk (for example, "Ghost in the Shell" 2017) turn out to be completely unworthy of their model.
But we will not talk about the weakest. Let's talk about the best cyberpunk movies of all time. And consider both "pure" cyberpunk and popular cinema with many elements of this style.
15. Lawnmower (1992)
KinoSearch: 6.63
IMDb: 5.40
Genre: cyberpunk, horror, fantasy
Country: UK, USA, Japan
Producer: Brett Leonard
Music: Dan Wyman
Duration: 108 minutes
Pierce Brosnan plays Trace, a talented scientist working on an intelligence project. Having met the mentally retarded boy Job Smith, Trace conducts experiments with him related to virtual reality. And quickly turns yesterday's idiot into a mighty master of the computer world.
However, the project was originally intended to create weapons, and Job's newfound power quickly leads to disaster.
14. Nirvana (1997)
KinoSearch: 6.82
IMDb: 6.10
Genre: cyberpunk, fantasy, 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 the dream of a man tormented by a gray and dreary reality? This game is Nirvana, which the Okosama Starr corporation wants to release for sale.
However, this virtual splendor, due to the virus that has penetrated it, can damage the player's health. Therefore, the creator of the game decides to destroy it. And goes to "Nirvana".
13. Johnny the Mnemonic (1995)
KinoSearch: 6.86
IMDb: 5.60
Genre: cyberpunk, fantasy, crime
Country: Canada, USA
Producer: Robert Longo
Music: Michael Danna, Brad Fidel
Duration: 98 minutes
If this were a list of the best cyberpunk books, writer William Gibson would have dominated. Unfortunately, Gibson's brilliant novels and ideas have waited decades for filmmaking technology to grow to them.
Based on his novel and script, Johnny Mnemonic is one of the finest cyberpunk films ever. The main character (Keanu Reeves) is one of the couriers who carry valuable information in their brain. However, the information that was loaded into Johnny's memory turned out to be too large in volume and too important. If they are not unloaded in time, he will die. And maybe he will die even earlier, because information can be read from a head without a body.
12. Throne: Legacy (2010)
KinoSearch: 6.89
IMDb: 6.80
Genre: cyberpunk, fantasy, adventure
Country: USA
Producer: Joseph Kosinski
Music: Thomas Bangalter, Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and others.
Duration: 125 minutes
The first Throne was certainly a cyberpunk movie, with stunning (at the time) special effects that convey the idea of a computer as a world inhabited by programs.
However, the modern sequel from 2010 works more closely with the cyberpunk theme. Jeff Bridges returns as Kevin Flynn, a programmer who was trapped 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 form of life, stop the evil ruler of the computer world and return to the real world.
11. Existence (1999)
KinoSearch: 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 nearly impossible to determine what is real and what is fake. 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, Allegra Geller, who created the magnificent game "Existence", is convinced of this. Together with her assistant, she tries to restore the damaged game, plunging deeper and deeper into its virtual jungle.
10.Alita: Battle Angel (2019)
KinoSearch: 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 cyberpunk movies. And, unlike 2017's Ghost in the Shell, Alita received a warmer welcome from audiences and critics.
The adventures of a cute girl with unrealistically large eyes, her search for lost memories, battles with villains and a love line - it's interesting to watch all this, and the Battle Angel wants to empathize. The plot, of course, cannot be called twisted and unpredictable, but as a good entertaining movie for one evening, "Alita: Battle Angel" is ideal.
9. Out of the car (2014)
KinoSearch: 7.11
IMDb: 7.70
Genre: cyberpunk, fantasy, drama
Country: United Kingdom
Producer: Alex Garland
Music: Geoff Barrow, Ben Salisbury
Duration: 108 minutes
Alex Garland's directorial debut fuses science fiction and psychological thriller into an unpredictable story. In the center of the plot is the programmer Caleb Smith, who wins a week-long visit to the secluded home of the founder and CEO of BlueBook, a software company.
The purpose of Caleb's visit is so that he can perform a Turing test on a humanoid robot named Ava, which has artificial intelligence. One day, Ava tells Caleb that her creator is a liar who cannot be trusted.
Out of the Machine won an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and was also nominated for Best Original Screenplay.
8. Dark City (1998)
KinoSearch: 7.35
IMDb: 7.70
Genre: cyberpunk, detective, fantasy
Country: Australia, USA
Producer: Alex Proyas
Music: Trevor Jones
Duration: 100 minutes
John Murdock wakes up in a hotel bathroom suffering from amnesia. And therefore he knows about himself as much as the audience. He soon receives a phone call from Dr. Daniel Schreber, who tells him to flee because a group of men (known as the Wanderers) are chasing him. Along the way, Murdoch discovers the corpse of a brutally murdered woman in his room.
He flees, but the Wanderers aren't 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" is reminiscent of Plato's allegory of "The Cave Myth", with its opposition to the world of ideas and its flat projection, which people perceive as a sensual reality.
7. Robocop (1987)
KinoSearch: 7.62
IMDb: 7.50
Genre: cyberpunk, sci-fi, action
Country: USA
Producer: Paul Verhoeven
Music: Basil Poledouris
Duration:102 minutes
The film takes place in the near future in criminal Detroit, where police officer Alex Murphy was brutally killed and then reborn as a cyborg by the megacorporation Omni Consumer Products (OCP).
In exchange for running the Detroit Police Department, the OCP can transform abandoned neighborhoods into "Delta City," a luxurious independent city-state, a 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 great performance of Peter Weller (despite having to wear a heavy, uncomfortable suit) make RoboCop a classic in science fiction and one of the best films of all time.
6. Blade Runner (1982)
KinoSearch: 7.67
IMDb: 8.10
Genre: cyberpunk, sci-fi, 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? It takes place in the dystopian 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 for replicants. And Blade Runners are essentially bounty hunters looking for replicants to kill (or "retire").
Blade Runner interacts with the viewer on several dramatic and narrative levels. It is an action movie that contains elements of science fiction and borrows many of the conventions of film noir, such as the mysterious femme fatale, and provides insight into 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 human?
5.12 monkeys (1995)
KinoSearch: 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 1962 short film "La Jetée", Terry Gilliam recreated it into a feature film.
In 1996, a mysterious group known as the Army of Twelve Monkeys unleashes a deadly virus and wipes out nearly all of humanity, forcing the survivors to live underground.
Fast forward to 2035. James Cole (Bruce Willis) was sent in 1996 to gather information about the virus to help scientists develop a cure. However, he mistakenly arrived in 1990, and met the fanatical Jeffrey Goines (Brad Pitt), who turned out to be one of the people suspected of having ties to the Twelve Monkeys.
4. Ghost in the Shell (1995)
KinoSearch: 7.94
IMDb: 8.00
Genre: cyberpunk, anime, fantasy
Country: Japan
Producer: Mamoru Oshii
Music: Kenji Kawaii
Duration: 83 minutes
While the 2017 remake featured some of the most immersive cyberpunk visuals ever filmed (and another great performance by Takeshi Kitano), the Ghost in the Shell anime was much more beloved by audiences.
Its main character is the cyborg agent Motoko Kusanagi, who pursues the criminal genius with the nickname Puppeteer.
Ghost in the Shell is one of the most popular cyberpunk films. This is a smart and relevant film masterpiece that still says more about humanity than any continuation or imitation of it.
3. Terminator (1984)
KinoSearch: 7.97
IMDb: 8.00
Genre: cyberpunk, sci-fi, action
Country: UK, USA
Producer: James Cameron
Music: Brad Fidel
Duration: 108 minutes
James Cameron's iconic action film follows Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger), a cyborg assassin sent from 2029 to 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 network will gain self-awareness and initiate a nuclear disaster. Sarah's not yet conceived son will gather the survivors and lead a rebellion against the army of machines.
The film marked the beginning of the most popular Terminator franchise, which currently consists of five films. And the sixth is on its way - "Terminator: Dark Fate", its premiere will take place on October 31, 2019.
2. Metropolis (1927)
KinoSearch: 8.04
IMDb: 8.30
Genre: cyberpunk, fantasy, drama
Country: Germany
Producer: Fritz Lang
Music: Wetfish, Sandro Forte, Gottfried Huppertz
Duration: 145 minutes
One of the earliest cyberpunk films, it is considered a groundbreaking piece of science fiction in cinema.
Filmed during the Weimar period, this silent film takes viewers into 2027, to a futuristic dystopian city called Metropolis. Social inequality is vividly manifested in it: wealthy industrialists live luxuriously in skyscrapers, and the lower class constantly works on machines that provide a well-fed and calm life for the elite.
The film follows the son of a city foreman, Freder, lounging in the amusement garden, unaware of the struggles and fatigue of the working class. One day he meets the girl Maria, who brought the children on an excursion to see the lifestyle of those in power. Fascinated by the beauty, Freder leaves his world to look for her in the underground machine rooms.
The most interesting part of "Metropolis" is the appearance of the first robot in the history of cinema. This led to countless copies and was a major influence on the development of science fiction in general.
1. The Matrix (1999)
KinoSearch: 8.49
IMDb: 8.70
Genre: cyberpunk, sci-fi, 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 a dystopian future in which life is actually a simulated reality called the "Matrix." It was created by self-aware machines to subdue the human population while their bodies are used as energy sources.
Thomas Anderson (Keanu Reeves), a programmer living a double life under the hacker pseudonym "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 go back to his old life without remembering the Matrix. Neo chooses the red pill.
The Matrix Trilogy has won numerous awards, including several Academy Awards, BAFTA Awards and Saturn Awards.