Lemmy needs more content that isn’t about US politics right now so I’m making a random post.
What’s the most obscure cyberpunk movie you’ve seen? Name a cyberpunk movie you don’t think anyone else has heard of.
I’m not saying you have to think it’s a good movie (or that you even like it), I just want to discuss obscure, unknown cyberpunk movies. Come on, let’s talk about something other than politics here.
Strange Days is one of those often listed near the bottom on lists of the best cyberpunk movies and I almost never see it talked about or mentioned in discussions. I think it goes under the radar because it’s not visually spectacular, nor is it very futuristic. Classic dialogue heavy sci-fi.
You’re right, Strange Days is definitely a classic yet visually it isn’t very sci-fi. The themes and plot are extremely sci-fi (and cyberpunk) yet if you just looked at a random frame from the movie you wouldn’t really be able to tell.
100% agree. This jumped right to the top for me, really enjoyed it and always recommend it to people.
…not super-obscure in its day but very much a product of the mid-eighties, i doubt many folks are familiar with it fourty years later: michael crichton, tom selleck, gene simmons, peak kirstie alley…
(set in the near future-shock of 1991!)
I am surprised no one mentioned Decoder (1984). Starring W.S.Burroughs, Gen P. Orridge and Christiane F. of bahnhof zoo. One of there best underground movies ever made.
i don’t know if it counts as proper cyberpunk but it floated to tie top of my mind when i read the post.
in fall 2014 i was visiting a friend in stockholm, and through some weird mix of circumstances we found ourselves in the apartment of a friend of a friend of theirs, at three in the afternoon, like eight of us in a three-person sofa bed and watching Algorithm. the guy who lived there really wanted to show it to us since he thought it was so cool, gritty and realistic. i remember that he had a photograph on his wall of him shaking hands with the king. i think he worked for google. anyway…
it is one of the worst movies i’ve seen. and it’s not funny bad. it’s an angsty drama about a computer hacker hiding from the authorities, so it’s mostly about how good he is with computers. all in this muted gray-green color, it’s mostly shot day-for-night, and it’s just soooo boring.
the only detail i vividly remember is a scene where the protagonist swaps to a new burner phone. he does this by taking the SIM card out, throwing the old phone in a bin, and putting the SIM into the new phone. i still think about that scene.
New Rose Hotel. Featuring Willem Dafoe and Christopher Walken! Story by William Gibson! I may be mistaken, but I think he even wrote the screenplay, like in Johnny Mnemonic. But sadly not a very good movie. Its painfully slow. The original short story clearly did not have enough content for a movie. However, if you were to cut it down, there is a really good Cyberpunk movie hidden there. Maybe someday it gets the fancut it deserves…
I just watched that recently! Yeah, very weird movie. The vast majority of it takes place in a hotel room and all the major events occur off-screen. Such a strange movie. And with that cast, you’d think they could’ve made it more interesting.
Cyberpunk has never been what draws me to science fiction, but I’d say the most obscure is probably existence (if that counts?). It came out in 1999 and was overshadowed by the matrix. I
eXistenZ definitely counts! Cronenberg being weird in a way that only Cronenberg can.
The sushi factory was filmed in my back yard. (Well not technically my back yard, but close enough.)
Nobody mentioned it, so it’s either really obscure or way too obvious, but: Nirvana (1997).
A game developer finds out that the main character in his next title has become sentient and must save him from endless suffering by deleting all copies of the game shortly before it launches. I saw it many years ago, and really liked it. It hasn’t aged perfectly, but all the important cyberpunk bits are there.
Definitely obscure. It’s hard to find online anywhere. I’ve only been able to find it on the internet archive. It’s got a weird plot but amazing cyberpunk visuals.
I wanted to like Mute but I really didn’t like Paul Rudd’s character in it. Overall, I think it had some good visuals but something about that movie just didn’t work for me.
Did you like the movie? What was your favorite part?
I did enjoy the visuals and was okay with the protagonist, but lots of the story and most other characters were not really working out for me. I can’t really put my finger on it why that is. But the soundtrack? Oh.My.God! Clint Mansell absolutely nailed it - like he always does! I’ve been following his career since his first soundtrack: Pi from 1998. Maybe I should mention here that I’m an ex musician myself.
My favourite Cyberpunk movie is Upgrade from 2018.
Upgrade was definitely good - should be on everyone here’s watch list.
Oooo listed! Moon was amazing!
Fun fact: Clint Mansell created the OST for both movies. Enjoy!
Nirvana by Gabriele Salvadores. But if you want to watch it, get the Italian version with the eng subtitles, I’m told the English voiceover is utter crap.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirvana_(1997_film)?wprov=sfla1
Does Avalon (2001) count?
Absolutely! That one’s super obscure to me. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen it yet I don’t remember anything from it.
Probably tekwar. I don’t think I’ve ever seen mention of it.
William Shatner’s TekWar! It all looks awful, I don’t know how they made so much of it.
Said the robot pimp disdainfully.
Based upon the books by William Shatner, a.k.a. the original Captain Kirk? It was a thing for a few years in the '90s, but yeah - pretty much dropped off the radar entirely afterwards.
Oh yeah I also came across something called Terminus (1987) which sounds kinda cyberpunk, but haven’t watched it yet. See it free on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dBxa992y1g
In the year 2037, an international sport has been established, wherein a driver of a truck must cross the country and arrive at a designated terminus, while confronting obstacles and enemies along the way. The lead truck, named “Monster”, has been designed by a boy genius (Gabriel Damon) and is to be piloted through the course by a woman named Gus (Karen Allen). Eventually, the truck’s AI fails and Gus ends up in uncharted territories…
One of the comments said it’s missing 15 minutes. Wonder why?
Hardware. Saw this with a friend in the theater, we thought it was terrible. I’ve revisited it since, and while I won’t say it’s great I think it’s worth a watch.
I agree, I think it’s worth a watch. It’s the only real “cyberpunk horror” movie I can think of. I mean, there are plenty of body horror cyberpunk movies (especially in Japanese cyberpunk) but Hardware is the only one I know that really follows a “slasher” horror movie format.
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I’m learning a lot by googling these obscure movies. Apparently Welt am Draht was called World on a Wire in its English release and it’s based on the same novel that The Thirteenth Floor (1999) was based on. Neat!
I saw that movie! Its soo bad, terrible effects, every dialog takes forever, scenes drag on too long, etc. The 13. Floor is superior in every regard, and both are pretty accurate to the book, so its basically a remake!
