Plot: In need of a vacation from his ordinary life, factory worker Douglas Quaid (Colin Farrell) visits Rekall, a company that can turn dreams into real memories. Thinking that memories of life as a superspy are just the ticket, Quaid undergoes the procedure — but it goes horribly wrong. Suddenly, Quaid is a hunted man. He teams up with a rebel fighter (Jessica Biel) on a search to find the head of the underground resistance and take down the leader (Bryan Cranston) of the free world.

KBZ’s Take: We know we’re going to take flack for this version of Total Recall here but let us explain why. The original Total Recall (1990) is the much better film (and one of our favorite films of all-time). The second film is not as fun as the first film and the remake’s narrative bogs down in places.

However, the second film is much more of a true Cyberpunk film and based on the criteria for our list, we had to select the remake over the original. There’s a much more visual Dystopian feel to the film, the societal breakdown and new order is much more prominent, and it showcases much more of the technology you find in the best Cyberpunk films.

We’re aware that the remake strays more from the Philip K. Dick novelette “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale”, however the remake is beautiful to look at and one of the best representations of a Cyberpunk world.

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Plot: When Alita awakens with no memory of who she is in a future world she does not recognize, she is taken in by Ido, a compassionate doctor who realizes that somewhere in this abandoned cyborg shell is the heart and soul of a young woman with an extraordinary past.

KBZ’s Take: When you put James Cameron and Robert Rodriguez together you get this great film. Technically and visually it’s amazing to look at with its blend of live action and CGI. Alita looks almost real and one of the better representations of a cyborg to ever be shown on film.

The film also excels at creating a unique backdrop of a Cyberpunk world. There’s the dystopian feel, the separation of classes and all forms on unique technology on display. It’s a marvel to look at and one of the best more recent Cyberpunk films.

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Plot: By 2017, the global economy has collapsed and U.S. society has become a totalitarian police state, censoring all cultural activity. The government pacifies the populace by broadcasting a number of game shows in which convicted criminals fight for their lives, including the gladiator-style The Running Man, hosted by the ruthless Damon Killian, where ‘runners’ attempt to evade ‘stalkers’ and certain death for a chance to be pardoned and set free.

KBZ’s Take: Arnold Schwarzenegger has starred in multiple Cyberpunk films, and we feel this is his best one (with the original Total Recall (1990) being a close second). Though the film is a bit dated, at the time, it showcased elements of Cyberpunk that hadn’t yet been fully defined. There’s the totalitarian police state, the class struggle and games held by the ‘elites’ and of course, the technology present throughout the film.

The film is based on the “Running Man” novel written by Stephen King (as Richard Bachman) and the film takes many creative liberties from the source novel. The actual novel is more like The Fugitive (1994) if it were set in a Cyberpunk world. With that said, the film is still a great adaption, and we can only hope they get around to one day adapting the other great Dystopian / Cyberpunk novel from King, The Long Walk.

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Plot: A paralyzed man receives an AI brain implant that starts to take over his life.

KBZ’s Take: While this is a great techno thriller, it’s also a great tale of revenge – but with a twist. A technophobe gets a new AI implant that assists him on his path to vengeance. Though it had a limited theater release, Upgrade is a prime example of how great Cyberpunk films in the Techno Thriller subgenre can be.

Upgrade has everything in it from the ethics of AI to a future noir mystery thriller. Oh, and it can be a bit gory too. It’s also one of the darker Cyberpunk films with an emphasis on how much control we can lose to AI through human augmentation.

Additional Lists: Top Techno Thriller Films You Haven’t Seen (Part 1) #1, Top Films About Revenge You Haven’t Seen #5

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Plot: D Caleb, a coder at the world’s largest internet company, wins a competition to spend a week at a private mountain retreat belonging to Nathan, the reclusive CEO of the company. But when Caleb arrives at the remote location, he finds that he will have to participate in a strange and fascinating experiment in which he must interact with the world’s first true artificial intelligence, housed in the body of a beautiful robot girl.

KBZ’s Take: When watching Ex Machina, it’s easy to get distracted by the robotic body of Ava (Alicia Vikander) and the performances of Vikander, Domhnall Gleeson and Oscar Isaac. The film mainly features these three main actors, and they all give amazing performances throughout the film.

What is more intriguing (from a Hard Sci-Fi perspective) is the accuracy in AI development and the administration of the Turing Test. While the film does a great job explaining what the Turing Test is to non-technical filmgoers, where it excels is with the deeper implications of the Turing Test – to see if Ava can convince Gleeson’s character that she is not only human but a female.

From a Cyberpunk perspective, it focuses much more on the role of technology in a futuristic society while the dystopian and societal elements are inferred. It’s a film not generally associated with the visual style of Cyberpunk but excels at expanding on the technology tenet often at the heart of Cyberpunk themes.

Additional Lists: Best Hard Sci-Fi Films #3

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Plot: In the future, crime is out of control and New York City’s Manhattan is a maximum security prison. Grabbing a bargaining chip right out of the air, convicts bring down the President’s plane in bad old Gotham. Gruff Snake Plissken, a one-eyed lone warrior new to prison life, is coerced into bringing the President, and his cargo, out of this land of undesirables.

KBZ’s Take: This is a hill we will die on. Escape from New York (EFNY) is not only one of the first Cyberpunk films, but one of the best. There will be Cyberpunk purists that don’t think EFNY features enough elements of the Cyberpunk film subgenre, but we’ll readily argue that it does.

First, it’s set in a Dystopian society with elements of a Totalitarian police state. Second, the societal collapse and class struggle is shown through various forms – the ‘freedom fighters’, the Manhattan Island prisoners and the ‘elite’ president. It’s even more evident from the beginning graphic showing how the police state is now in control.

Third, the integration of technology (or lack thereof it). This is where purists will point out that EFNY does not feature AI, human augmentation or other elements of Cyberpunk technology. However, we would say the film integrates technology into this dystopian universe through the ‘capsule’ Snake is injected with, his monitor, and so on.

Finally, of all the films in the Cyberpunk subgenre, no film can equal EFNY when it comes to the anti-hero and rebel in Snake Plissken. He defines Punk in Cyberpunk and his character was the model for future rebellious icons in Cyberpunk Films.

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Plot: In a dystopian future, a totalitarian regime maintains peace by subduing the populace with a drug, and displays of emotion are punishable by death. A man in charge of enforcing the law rises to overthrow the system.

KBZ’s Take: Equilibrium is one of the more unique Cyberpunk films and features one of the best visual representations of a Cyberpunk world.

The film hits all the points on the tenets of Cyberpunk from the dystopian world to the “Gun Kata” form of martial arts displayed in the film. There’s also the drug taken to stifle emotions.

Visually, the film is beautiful to look at and has director Kurt Wimmer’s trademark Dystopian and Cyberpunk worldbuilding (which are also present in his other film Ultraviolet (2006)). Though the film was released in 2002, it has many themes that are still relevant 20 years later.

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Plot: Set in the 22nd century, The Matrix tells the story of a computer hacker who joins a group of underground insurgents fighting the vast and powerful computers who now rule the earth.

KBZ’s Take: While the Matrix is arguably the Best Cyberpunk Film, it also incorporates other film subgenres including Augmented Reality & Virtual Reality Films, Martial Arts Films, Post-Apocalypse Films and Films About AI. While it expanded on certain themes in virtually every one of these other subgenres, it also undeniably changed how we think of VR.

Though a rash of VR films would appear in the 1990’s, it was until 1999 that some of the best VR films of the entire subgenre emerged – The Matrix, The Thirteenth Floor (1999) and eXistenZ (1999). While all of these films dealt with different aspects of VR, The Matrix overshadowed them with its underlying Cyberpunk theme of saving mankind enslaved in a virtual world.

From ‘jacking in’ via a HCI to learn Kung Fu on the fly to mastering the physics in an AI generated virtual world, The Matrix was a continuous onslaught of conceptual VR that no one had brought to the screen until that time. Sure, most of the VR wasn’t practical at the time and likely won’t be realistic in our lifetime, but the film was one hell of a ride that brought the promise of VR and grittiness of Cyberpunk back into the minds of technologists and people around the world.

Additional Lists: Best AR & VR Films #1, Best Post-Apocalypse Films #6, Best Hard Sci-Fi Films #14

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Plot: In the smog-choked dystopian Los Angeles of 2019, blade runner Rick Deckard is called out of retirement to terminate a quartet of replicants who have escaped to Earth seeking their creator for a way to extend their short life spans.

KBZ’s Take: This was a tough call as Blade Runner is considered one of the first, and best, Cyberpunk films out there. It’s also one of the best Future Noir films and is a lock for #1 placement on that list when we create it. However, we couldn’t place it above another film that has inspired so much of the Cyberpunk subgenre (more on than in our next and final selection).

As for Blade Runner, it’s based on Philip K. Dick’s “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep”. Dick is known as the father of Cyberpunk and even has an award named after him (that another famed Cyberpunk novelist, William Gibson, won in 1985). Though the film loosely follows the novel, it’s Ridley Scott’s direction and visuals that bring life to the Cyberpunk world. Until that time, there weren’t many filmed visualizations of a Cyberpunk world, but Scott set the standard with Blade Runner.

We would also consider this a #2A and #2B situation with the sequel Blade Runner 2049 (2017). We have the sequel at #11 on our list, but if viewed together, both films make up the best of the subgenre.

Additional Lists: Best Hard Sci-Fi Films #20

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Plot: In the year 2029, the barriers of our world have been broken down by the net and by cybernetics, but this brings new vulnerability to humans in the form of brain-hacking. When a highly-wanted hacker known as The Puppetmaster begins involving them in politics, Section 9, a group of cybernetically enhanced cops, are called in to investigate and stop the Puppetmaster.

KBZ’s Take: We had to make an exception for one Anime Cyberpunk film on our list and Ghost in the Shell is the selection. It’s the best film of the subgenre that not only generated sequels and a live action remake but also influenced quite a few films in the subgenre.

From a Cyberpunk perspective, Ghost in a Shell literally defines all the tenets of the subgenre. Though it has a unique dystopian setting and class struggle, it’s the film’s technology that sets it apart from other subgenre films. The film is focused on human augmentation with cybernetic parts. Throw in hacking, and Ghost in a Shell literally redefined how we would think about connected ‘cyborgs’ that become self-aware. It was a novel idea at the time and is still novel almost 30 years later (as technology gets closer to what’s shown in the film).

You can see elements of Ghost in the Shell in prominent films such as The Matrix (1999) and Avatar (2009). The fact that Ghost in the Shell inspired two of the greatest films in the entire Sci-Fi genre makes it an easy choice for our #1 Cyberpunk film.

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