Top 10 Cyberpunk Movies You Should Watch in 2022

Every day our world feels more Cyberpunk, with news about the Metaverse from what was previously known as Facebook, self-driving Tesla trucks, drones becoming an everyday household gadget, and Boston Dynamics robots preparing to take over the world.

It’s difficult to make sense of it all, but fortunately, with Cyberpunk media we can have a little help in that regard. You could of course go back to the classics, or watch your cyberpunk content religiously according to our recommended 3 eras of Cyberpunk in our beginner’s guide. But if you want to watch the best modern Cyberpunk movies, to help you make sense of what a metaverse would really look like (or shouldn’t look like), I’ve created a list of the Top 10 Cyberpunk Movies You Should Watch in 2022. This list goes in ascending order of importance, if you haven’t seen one of these movies yet, then maybe you should! So without further ado, let’s get right into it.

10. Elysium

Elysium is the tale of a utopian society living on a ring orbiting earth, featuring Matt Damon as a lowly assembly line worker whose life is upended when he gets exposed to a lethal dose of radiation. This sets into motion a plot to overthrow the current state of power involving gangs, body augmentations, advanced medical bays, and much more. It’s a classic Cyberpunk tale that is woefully underappreciated, without much cultural impact but an excellent movie nonetheless, and thus merits being in our modern top 10.

9. Tron: Legacy (2010)

A sequel to the original Tron which was a groundbreaking film in its time but now would seem rather dated in comparison to today’s graphics, Tron: Legacy does an excellent job upgrading the story to today’s visual effects potential, while also continuing the Tron story. While the story isn’t anything groundbreaking and isn’t your average megacorporation tale (almost the entire film is set in virtual reality), what you really should see this movie for is its breathtaking visuals and music soundtrack. Directed by Joseph Kosinski, who did the equally visually stunning Sci-Fi flick Oblivion, Tron: Legacy would inspire a visual style for years to come, with its minimalist yet modern black and whites lined with neon blues and oranges, especially with the costume design which are incredible. I mean, just take a look at these images. Each one could be a poster in its own right.

As for the soundtrack, it was composed by none other than the authentically classic cyberpunk electro-duo Daft Punk, one of their last albums before they sadly disbanded in 2021. They even have a cameo in the film as themselves DJ-ing in a club scene.

8. Total Recall (2012)

Total Recall (2012) is a modernized remake of the classic Paul Verhoeven cyberpunk film with Arnold Schwarzenegger from 1990. Based on Philip K Dick’s short story We Can Remember It For You Wholesale, this modernization is directed by Len Wiseman and features Colin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale, Jessica Biel, and Bryan Cranston. Although it failed to replicate the success of its predecessors and has in my opinion a bloated ending, it has beautiful visuals, a fast pace and some excellent action scenes. It also modernizes the classic story and gives us some ideas of what new tech in a modernized urban city might look like, such as hologram hand-phones and personal cars on rails.

7. Robocop (2014)

Another modernized remake of yet another classic Paul Verhoeven cyberpunk film from 1987, this version is directed by Jose Padilha with Joel Kinnaman (Altered Carbon) as the title character, with supporting actors Gary Oldman, Michael Keaton, and Samuel L Jackson. Yet another remake that couldn’t replicate its original success, this film once again modernized the tale with a particular focus on the police force aspect and what future body augmentations and cyborg-ization could look like. It’s also a fun tale with great action scenes, although the plot may seem a little simple at times.

6. Alita: Battle Angel

Alita: Battle Angel is the live action remake of the 1993 Anime film, which was based on the manga Battle Angel Alita (Gunnm) from Yukito Kishiro. Directed by Robert Rodriguez (Sin City, From Dusk Til Dawn) it stars Christoph Waltz, Jennifer Connelly, Mahershala Ali, and Rosa Salazar as Alita. While the movie may not have as much immediate significance or warning for our modern-day society, the visuals, special effects, and brilliance of this imagined world are what makes this film great. They pack so many little fascinating things in the streets of Iron City.

Almost every single person is sporting a body augmentation of some sort: metal arm, metal leg, metal eye, everything with its own uses and often looking cobbled together–which it probably was. Iron City is where the poor live, underneath a floating rich city called Zalem. But unlike many of the typical Cyberpunk world set in constant rain with neon lights, many of the scenes in Iron City feature bright, harsh light, in addition to scenes set at night. The story follows cybernetic engineer Dr. Dyson Ido who finds Alita’s head (as a disembodied cyborg with an intact human brain) in a scrap heap, and is able to put her back together again, of sorts. With no memory of who she is, she tries to learn about her past as she also discovers a love for the brutal sport of Rollerball. Alita: Battle Angel is fast-paced, touching action story that is definitely a Cyberpunk must-see.

5. Upgrade (2018)

Upgrade is in the top 5 must-see Cyberpunk films of this top-10 list because of how close the technology is to what we have in present day, how recently it was done, how incredibly Cyberpunk it was and how fun and cool it was. It’s also probably flown under the radar for most, I mean it wasn’t a culture-shifting megahit, it was just a great sci-fi film. Directed by Leigh Whannell and starring Logan Marshall-Green (who looks like Tom Hardy but isn’t), Logan stars as Grey Trace, a technophobic auto mechanic who has a horrible accident which leaves him paralyzed. Set in a distant but not too distant future where society has self-driving cars (like Teslas, only cooler) and drones (again, like what we have, only cooler), the film does a good job showing what a future society might be like with technophobic people resisting the tech industry’s endless product delivery system.

It also has some casual super-cyberpunk scenes, like this one where people are lost in a VR world, disconnected from the real world, except they’re just there in the background and not at all important to the main story (Metaverse, Ready Player One anyone?). The other reason why I love this film so much is because the viewers can really relate to the main character. Logan Marshall-Green gives an amazing performance, especially when the chip he’s implanted with to help him regain mobility starts taking control of his body to give him action moves he wouldn’t normally otherwise have. The director then combines this insane situation with camera-twisting scenes and you have beautiful, incredibly novel action sequences that would give even the original Matrix a run for its money in terms of originality. Don’t believe me? Just watch the trailer.

Oh and keep an eye out for the henchman with a handgun. No, not that handgun. An actual gun. In his hand. If that’s not cyberpunk, nothing is.

4. Ghost in the Shell (2017)

No top 5 cyberpunk list would be complete without a Ghost in the Shell film, and if you’re talking modern films, then you have to include this 2017 live action adaptation of the classic. Starring Scarlett Johannsen of all people to play the role of the Major (her casting was somewhat controversial) as the cyborg investigative super soldier who investigates her past while trying to find the line between human and android. This film was directed by Rupert Sanders and mostly follows what happens in the original anime film, with some small differences. It has a great visual style and cinematography, and some great action scenes and special effects, but drew some criticism for not having a deeper story or character development. If you think of Cyberpunk, however, chances are the first thing that’ll come to mind is Ghost in the Shell or Blade Runner. Speaking of which…

3. Blade Runner 2049

Most people who know anything about Cyberpunk would say the genre all started from the combination of one book and one movie. That book was William Gibson’s Neuromancer, and the movie was Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner. So it should come as no surprise that Blade Runner 2049 came in at the top 5, with spot #3. This movie has some of the most iconic, breathtaking visuals directed this time around by Denis Villeneuve (Dune, Arrival). Harrison Ford came back to reprise his iconic role of Rick Deckard, but the main character for this sequel is K, a replicant Blade Runner played by Ryan Gosling who has to uncover a mysterious secret that may threaten all civilization. This movie, along with most of Villeneuve’s films, is really one to see in the theaters. One of my favorite Cyberpunk visuals of all time is also in this film, where K is talking to a hologram AI companion, Joi (played by Ana de Armas). The pacing is a slow burn and the movie is a little long, but for those who liked the original Blade Runner and loves a good sci-fi mystery thriller, this is definitely a cyberpunk film you should watch for 2022.

2. Ready Player One

Some might be surprised that Ready Player One merited second place in this top 10 list of Cyberpunk films you should watch in 2022. Indeed, it might have been relegated to spot 5 or 6, if it weren’t for what happened on October 28th, 2021. Because on that day, Mark Zuckerberg announced his plans for the Metaverse (which was originally coined as a virtual reality world by Neal Stephenson in his Cyberpunk novel Snowcrash) and for Facebook to be rebranded as Meta.

What this meant was that Facebook then started firing and changing job descriptions, as thousands of their employees had to adapt to the change to start working towards Zuckerberg’s fantasy to become a reality. It wasn’t long before other businesses started to follow suit, wanting to be the early movers in investing in this new technology and the VR real estate that would exist in the metaverse. Governments around the world will have to decide how to regulate this new Metaverse, which (hopefully) means that they need to understand it. So how can they, and the general public, make sense of this VR world? Well, Ready Player One paints a pretty darn realistic picture of what it might look like, which is why it’s so high up on this list.

Ready Player One is the live action adaptation of the novel of the same name by Ernest Cline. While both the movie and the book are definitely Cyberpunk, it’s more a fan love letter to video games and pop culture from the 1970s and 1980s. Directed by Steven Spielberg, if you can believe it, the story follows Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) who lives in a stack of motor homes in Ohio in a world where the majority of the population live their lives in a virtual reality called the Oasis.

Not only do people play games and socialize here, but they also go to school and shop here as well. When the creator of the Oasis dies, he begins a massive easter egg hunt in the Oasis with his will, declaring that whomever finds this hidden easter egg will gain the majority of shares and a huge amount of money. It’s a race against time as Wade teams up with four others against an evil corporation who wants the Oasis for themselves.

1. The Matrix Resurrections (and the Matrix Trilogy)

The Matrix trilogy was, in my opinion, some of the best cyberpunk content ever made. So it should be no surprise that the fourth installment made first place in this modern Cyberpunk list. While Matrix Resurrections is admittedly less of a “stereotypical cyberpunk” like total recall or blade runner, it brought modern issues and ideas, while also providing us with relevant questions for our modern day society. It also was incredibly controversial and divisive, with some people loving it, some people hating it, and very few in between.

Despite the fact that it’s objectively not perfect, everyone started talking about the return of Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss to the franchise, and therefore it’s a must-see for any modern cyberpunk list. Having come out in December 2021, it’s also quite literally the latest Cyberpunk film to come out in theaters around the world.

Matrix Resurrections is the tale of Neo, AKA Thomas Anderson, who finds himself somehow alive but without memories of his previous life. Meanwhile, a team of humans in the real world discover Neo in the matrix after decades of fruitless searching, and attempt once again to bring him out of the matrix into the real world again. This leads to a perilous journey between neo, the humans, and the machines as a mysterious evil entity in the matrix tries to stop him from finding Trinity, and from leaving altogether.

Matrix Resurrections is also an incredibly meta movie, which is constantly referencing things that happened in the previous trilogy, as well as the trilogy itself (which in Matrix Resurrections is known as just a video game). As a result we can see scenes, toys, and even busts of characters from the previous trilogy in the movie itself. It results in a very funny, yet trippy, experience.

Top 10 Cyberpunk Movies You Should Watch in 2022:

1.  The Matrix Resurrections
2. Ready Player One
3. Blade Runner 2049
4. Ghost in the Shell (2017)
5. Upgrade
6. Alita: Battle Angel
7. Robocop
8. Total Recall
9. Tron: Legacy
10. Elysium

So that’s our top 10 list! What do you think of the list, and do you think there should be any movies included that we didn’t include, or any movies we included that shouldn’t have made the cut? Let us know in the comments below.

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Cyberpunk Review: The Matrix Resurrections

Well folks, the day I waited for with infinite zeal finally arrived: December 22nd, 2021, I finally saw The Matrix Resurrections in theaters! In a giant IMAX theater in the heart of London, no less!

I have a lot of thoughts about the movie and I want to do it justice, so let’s dive right in: Here is my (mostly) spoiler-free review of The Matrix Resurrections, and why you should definitely go see it as soon as you can–although I strongly recommend rewatching the initial trilogy before you do so. Even though it makes enough callbacks and flashbacks in case you forgot, it’s still better to have the trilogy fresh in your mind before losing yourself down the rabbit hole once again.

Familiar Scenes and Repeating Loops

The Matrix Resurrections is about a lot of things, and I’m sure countless articles will be written about its symbolism and intent, just like the trilogy did. What’s different with Resurrections is how meta it is–it’s incredibly self-referential.

It begins with the same Trinity scene in what looks like the same hotel. It has many of the same lines from the first Matrix film. Then as the film progresses, we see new characters offering the same choices to the same titular character.

But something’s changed.

We’ve seen this all before, and yet the story is different. It’s looping, referring to itself in different ways.

Thomas Anderson doesn’t know what’s real or not, but not because he thinks he’s dreaming. This time it’s because he has memories that can’t be real, and hallucinations during his waking hours that makes him question reality and his own mental state.

As with the first film, right off the bat we have a fast-paced action scene where we’re not quite sure what we’re looking at. Suddenly a chase ensues without us understanding the stakes, which makes me wonder whether the audience felt the same way watching Trinity escape from these mysterious men in suits for the first film.

A Quick Start that Briefly Slows Down

Despite a quick start, the pace then slows down a little as Neo, or Thomas Anderson, tries to make sense of who he is and what has happened since we last saw him. This leads into part one of the film, which is the audience following the newcomers (Bugs, Lexy, Seq, and a new Morpheus) trying to reach Neo and free him from the Matrix.

Social Commentary we’ve come to expect

In the process we are privy to a host of meta messages about the original Matrix trilogy, and the world’s apparent response to it. In it Lana none-too-subtly pokes fun at those who aggrandize her own work, from mega-fans to the production company Warner Brothers itself, and even seemingly making a statement of our current society and its addiction to social media.

In this Matrix society, everyone goes to the gym, sips lattes, and is appropriately woke while working at a mostly cubicle-free environment where it’s casual Friday and staff want to be supportive and encouraging, while in reality being maddeningly annoying.

After a bit of fast-paced action to end the first half, the movie enters the second half, which begins with explaining what happened to the world since we last saw it, and then leading very quickly into unplugging someone else from the Matrix–heist part two, basically.

And this is where the pace speeds up, and doesn’t stop until the end of the film. This movie is, in general, incredibly fast paced. A bit like the original trilogy, the moments where it takes a breath is few and far between, and because of that, we don’t have enough time to process what is happening, and yet it’s exhilarating as a result.

What’s the focus?

While there’s a lot of action in this film, the action doesn’t seem like the main focus. It also feels a bit like two heist movies in one, as a team tries to free and disconnect two different people from the Matrix. This film, however, is really a love story at its core between Neo and Trinity. It asks a lot of questions of what it means when they’re apart, when they’re together, and when they’re seeking each other. This is a perfectly understandable focus when we revisit the motivations for Lana Wachowski to revisit the Matrix world after saying she never would for over 20 years. Neo and Trinity returning helped her process her grief when her parents passed away. She explained:

“My brain has always reached into my imagination and one night, I was crying and I couldn’t sleep, and my brain exploded this whole story,” Wachowski said. “And I couldn’t have my mom and dad, yet suddenly I had Neo and Trinity, arguably the two most important characters in my life.”

Other changes compared to the original trilogy

Gone are the green and blue hues, as now Lana Wachowski likes shooting with natural daylight, something she learned when filming Cloud Atlas and then Sense 8. Similar to the beautiful sunrise Sati created at the end of Matrix Revolutions, everything is bright and modern in this film, except for the real world which still remains relatively blue and dark, although even the real world has some new changes. Also gone are the phonebooths to leave the Matrix, as a modern era rarely uses phonebooths anymore, with everyone having smartphones. Instead, headsets and mirrors are used. A final important change is that big bad agents are no longer used–the machines have other ways of keeping humans in line in the matrix. Oh and despite being serious, this film is actually quite funny at times–a lot more than the original trilogy ever allowed.

A Musical Soundtrack to make Don Davis Proud

Another one of my favorite aspects of the original trilogy was the incredible soundtrack Don Davis produced, in particular with his use of a Pile Driver and a full orchestra to create the iconic original soundtrack to the films.

For Matrix Resurrections, the new musical composers are the duo Johnny Klimek and Tom Tykwer, who composed a very brief song for the club scene in Matrix Resurrections called In My Head (the duo were members of the band called Pale 3). I am happy to report that although the duo are no Don Davis by far, the soundtrack is actually quite excellent. Apparently, after the script was written, a storyboard was drawn up and the duo composed the musical soundtrack for the film before the film was actually shot and edited, in order to make the movie match the soundtrack and not vice versa.

It’s fast, epic, bombastic, and filled with plenty of strings and trumpets, with many throwbacks to the original Matrix score. You can listen to the entire Original Soundtrack now on Spotify.

One Critical Note

So far you might think that I thought the film to be perfect, but that is sadly not the case. There is one thing that stands out as different compared to the original trilogy, and that is the quality of the action sequences. While the chases were fun enough, especially in the finale, the fighting sequences were cut fast, a bit shakily, and it is difficult to see them clearly. Especially the dojo scene, the choreography just isn’t as beautiful as what it once was, and it’s very noticeable. One possible reason is that due to the pandemic, they weren’t able to bring in talent from Hong Kong that paralleled the artistic talent of Yuen Woo Ping. Another possible reason is that Keanu Reeves and Carrie Anne Moss are a lot older than they once were, and as a result their fluidity of movement is simply hampered by age. Whatever the reason, don’t except the same classic fights like against Neo vs. Seraph in the tea room, or Neo vs. Morpheus in the Dojo. It won’t compare, but it’s good enough, I suppose. Another interesting note is that throughout the entire movie, Neo never picks up a gun. This was surely done intentionally, but if you’re looking forward to a massive shootout with Neo like he did in the first Matrix film, it’s best you rid yourself of that expectation now.

Final Verdict: 10/10

Despite its action sequences, I still loved this film from beginning to end. Maybe it’s because the Matrix has such a special place in my heart, but there was enough new technology, enough social commentary, and enough action for me to like this movie. But the acting, dialogue, and music were all excellent, and along with the quick pacing of this film made it a fun, thrilling, and thought-provoking movie for me to give it a top score. So don’t raise your expectations too high–it’s nothing industry-breaking–but don’t listen to the haters either. This was a divisive, yet wonderful, fun film with a lot of heart, and you’ve gotta go see it.

In case you were looking forward to more in-depth analysis, I will probably be posting a spoiler-filled deeper dive into The Matrix Resurrections sometime soon.

What were your thoughts on this movie? If they’re spoiler-free, let me know in the comments below. 🙂