Let’s do another one of these… Do you think Tron is cyberpunk?
The majority of the movie takes place inside a computer and the bad guy is near the head of an evil corporation, but is that enough? The characters in the movie range from scientist to a computer programmer who owns his own arcade. Not exactly low-lifes. And the only thing that could be considered high-tech is a prototype laser in a laboratory currently under research. Otherwise, it’s a perfectly ordinary modern-day setting. There’s no breakdown in society, there’s no massive wealth gap on display (unless you count someone not getting recognition for a video game he wrote).
So are the visuals of a world inside a computer enough to call it cyberpunk?
You can watch Tron on Disney+ if you haven’t seen it before: https://www.disneyplus.com/movies/tron/4MFq1JeXEe1z
(On a side note, I’m tempted to make a weekly “is this cyberpunk?” post just to help grow the community and drive discussion)
Yes. Absolutely. No question.
The story is about a little guy, fighting the big corporate power that already beat him once, and is trying take over everything. It also explores trans-humanist themes of person-hood, and AI.
The bets description of the aesthetic is vaporwave/retro-futurism but the stories themes are very very cyberpunk
Hmm…
On the one hand a plucky band of programmers hacking the system to stick it to the man is pretty cyberpunk, on the other hand nothing about the frame setting is.
I’d say it’s a toss up. It’s a great depiction of a decker hacking the matrix Shadowrun style.
I don’t think so. The Hi-Tech low-life and corpo exploitation isn’t really there. For example Alien, Aliens, and William Gibson’s Alien 3 are great examples of survival horror squarely grounded in cyberpunk since the genesis and exacerbation of most troubles stems from unchecked corpo fuckery. In all three, everyone --including the Marines, the AP, the corpo agents, the merchant Marines, and even the fucking aliens themselves-- is being exploited by the mega-corporation.
idk I think it’s a “no” even on the visuals alone. it has the neon-techy look sure but none of the grit and gloom of other cyberpunk examples. Honestly feels more like a highlighter world to me
