After offering you a selection of the best post-apocalyptic works, the Hitek editorial team offers you 13 masterpieces of cyberpunk, one of the most important and exciting sub-genres of SF.
#13 Gunnm, de Yukito Kishiro (1990-1995)
On an Earth ravaged by the impact of a meteorite, humanity has organized itself: in the mysterious celestial city of Zalem, humans live in opulence, while in Kuzutetsu, the Dump City, the dregs survive of humanity in the midst of violence and destruction. Among the trash, Doctor Daisuke Ido finds the head of a cyborg: Gally. He repairs her and raises her as his daughter. But the android's warrior instinct will resurface. A masterpiece of Japanese cyberpunk, the seinen manga by Yukito Kishiro will be adapted for the cinema by Robert Rodriguez with Alita: Battle Angel (2019). The screenplay is written by James Cameron (Titanic, Avatar), who did so much for cyberpunk with the first two films Terminator.
#12 RoboCop, de Paul Verhoeven (1987)
We could also have cited Total Recall by Paul Verhoeven, but given the fact that this selection will evoke several adaptations of works by Philip K. Dick, we decided to focus instead on RoboCop. For his second Hollywood film, the Dutch filmmaker directs RoboCop. Former police officer brought back to life by the OCP – a powerful military-industrial conglomerate – Richard “Dick” Johnson becomes RoboCop and embarks on a violent crusade against crime in Detroit. Having lost all memory of his past life, he seeks to regain his lost humanity. As playful as it is violent, RoboCop is a great cyberpunk film. The second and third films will also be written by the legend of American comics: Frank Miller (Daredevil: Born Again, The Dark Knight Returns, Sin City, 300).
#11 Ghost in the Shell, de Masamune Shirow (1989)
In 1989, Masamune Shirow made history with the seinen manga Ghost in the Shellpublished in Young Magazine. Recounting the hunt by Major Motoko Kusanagi – a cyborg who is part of Section 9, an elite section of the police – of the cybercriminal known as the Puppeteer, the mangaka has written a work of great complexity which questions both what distinguishes human thought and the benefits of evolution. In 1995, the gigantic director Mamoru Oshii (known in particular for the series Lamuthe first adaptation ofUrusei Yatsura by Rumiko Takahashi, well known to Club Dorothée fans) brings the manga to the screen. Ghost in the Shell therefore obtains international fame and notably influences the Wachowskis for the writing of Matrix.
#10 Final Fantasy VII, de Square Enix (1997)
In 1997, Square Enix releases one of the greatest games of all time: Final Fantasy VII. Abandoning the medieval-fantasy universes which made the charm of the license, the seventh part instead invests in the genre of cyberpunk, at least concerning the industrial and futuristic city Midgar. The Shinra Electric Power Company, a world-ruling megacorporation that harnesses Earth's life force to the point of exhaustion to produce energy and weapons, must contend with an eco-terrorism group, the Avalanche group. A true JRPG masterpiece, Final Fantasy VII is currently the subject of a three-part remake, the first two of which have been released.
#9 Mars Express, by Jérémie Périn (2023)
After the success of the animated series Cargo manFrench director Jérémie Périn signs his first animated film: Mars Express. In 2200, a private detective and her android sidekick are hired by a businessman to capture a famous hacker on Earth. Meanwhile, on Mars, a young cybernetics student mysteriously disappears. In 85 minutes, Jérémie Périn delivers a superb demonstration of what the French can do in science fiction. (We also advise you to read our file on the best French SF works.) In addition to being full of visual and staging ideas, the film draws its inspiration from both 2001, A Space Odyssey, RoboCop or even Ghost in the Shell. To see urgently!
#8 Transmetropolitan, by Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson (1997-2002)
Published in the late 1990s by DC Comics, Transmetropolitan is the masterpiece of British screenwriter Warren Ellis. Spider Jerusalem is a gonzo journalist who exposes the abuse of power of two presidents of the United States. As much a lover of the Truth as he is angry and crude, Spider Jerusalem uses many futuristic drugs to boost his abilities, as well as strange weapons, to say the least, such as the Bowel Agitator. Heavily inspired by journalist Hunter S. Thompson (Las Vegas Parano), Transmetropolitan is one of the most important comics of the 1990s and early 2000s.
#7 Cyberpunk 2077, de CD Projekt Red (2020)
Released in December 2020, Cyberpunk 2077 is the foray of the Polish studio CD Projekt Red, known in particular for the trilogy The Witcherin Science Fiction. Inspired by tabletop role-playing Cyberpunk 2020, this RPG immerses us in the dystopian and decadent world of Night City, consumed by social inequalities, crime and the corruption of all-powerful corporations. When it was released, the game caused a scandal because of its too many bugs and lastingly damaged the reputation of CD Projekt Red. However, thanks to corrective patches and the release of DLC Phantom Liberty, Cyberpunk 2077 ended up being reconsidered by the press and players. Excellent Japanese anime Cyberpunk: Edgerunnersproduced by the Trigger studio and broadcast on Netflix in 2022, also helped to revive fan interest in the license.
#6 Westworld, by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy (2016-2022)
Adapting the film Mywest by Michael Crichton (Jurassic Park, Emergency), the Westworld series is HBO's nice attempt to invest in cyberpunk. Launched in 2016, it tells us over four seasons the outbreak of an android revolution in an amusement park. Brilliantly well written by the couple Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, the series benefits from an impressive cast, starting with Evan Rachel Wood, Jared Harris, Anthony Hopkins and Thandiwe Newton. If the first two seasons are unanimously considered the best of the show, the two following seasons – more cyberpunk – remain fascinating. The series has given us great episodes, like episode 8 of season 2, absolutely heartbreaking.
#5 Minority Report (2016-2022)
At the beginning of the 2000s, Steven Spielberg began directing two major sci-fi films: AI, Artificial Intelligence (2001), a project on which his friend and mentor Stanley Kubrick was working, and Minority Report (2002), a cyberpunk film adapting a short story by Philip K. Dick. In 2056, Washington managed to get rid of crime thanks to the Precogs, three mutant human beings capable of predicting crimes in advance and therefore preventing them. But one day, John Anderton (Tom Cruise), the head of the unit responsible for stopping would-be criminals, discovers that he will kill a person in three days. The film tells us about his spectacular escape. Both dynamic and inventive, Minority Report is a great film from Steven Spielberg!
#4 Neuromancien, de William Gibson (1984)
Often considered the founding work of the cyberpunk movement in literature, Neuromancien by William Gibson offers a summary of the genre : in a futuristic world governed by super-powerful megacorporations and where synthetic drugs circulate for residents addicted to physical augmentations, pirates connect to the Matrix in order to steal confidential information from multinationals and offer to the highest bidder. A former hacker, who lost the ability to connect to the Matrix after a failed attack, is offered the opportunity to return to service by penetrating the computer system of a Swiss multinational. Influenced by the work of Philip K. Dick and the film Blade Runner by Ridley Scott, William Gibson has written a book of great mastery, which has inspired many artists.
#3 Akira, de Katsuhiro Ōtomo (1982)
Launched in the Weekly Shōnen Magazinethe manga Akira by Katsuhiro Ōtomo takes us to 2019 Neo-Tokyo, a corrupt megacity crisscrossed by gangs of drugged bikers. When one of his friends and fellow travelers, Tetsuo, is taken away by the Japanese army after an accident, Kaneda tries to find out what happened to him. They discover the existence of a top-secret military project, consisting of training people with psychic powers. In addition to mixing two genres that we really like – post-apo and cyberpunk, Akira is striking both for the effectiveness of Katsuhiro Otomo's script and for the precision and energy of his drawings. In 1988, Katsuhiro Ōtomo personally adapted his manga for the cinema, and gave birth to a timeless masterpiece.
#2 Blade Runner, de Ridley Scott (1982)
After the triumph ofAlien, the eighth passenger (1979), British director Ridley Scott adapts the novel Do Androids dream of electric sheep? de Philip K. Dick. Unanimously considered a masterpiece, the film immerses us in the Los Angeles of 2019 and stars Harrison Ford in the role of Rick Deckard, a police officer chasing a group of Replicants, biosynthetic androids. Awarded the prestigious Hugo Prize, Blade Runner is an aesthetic revolution. Its dark and melancholy atmosphere has influenced numerous cyberpunk works, including Ghost in the Shell by Masamune Shirow. The movie Blade Runner was entitled to several sequels, including Blade Runner 2049 by Denis Villeneuve, the anime Blade Runner: Black Lotus as well as the series Blade Runner 2099scheduled for 2025 on Amazon Prime Video.
#1 Matrix, by Wachowski (1999)
Three years after their first success, the Wachowskis signed their greatest film: Matrix. Mixing cyberpunk aesthetics with Hong Kong action cinema, and also quoting Plato's Myth of the Cave, Simulacra and Simulation of the philosopher Jean Baudrillard and Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, Matrix is a masterpiece of intelligence, which revolutionized American cinema. It is also the first part of one of the most important SF sagas of the 21st century. If its sequels were less well received than the first film, they remain real visual and aesthetic slaps. Released in 2021, Matrix Resurrections is also a very beautiful film about mourning. A few days ago, American actor Will Smith seemed to tease a sequel in which he would have the lead role. Info or misinformation? To be continued!
Bonus: Silicon Valley, by Alain Damasio (2024)
Often considered one of the greatest writers of French SF, the writer Alain Damasio published a fascinating essay on new technologies in 2024: Silicon Valley. In residence in Silicon Valley, the author of The Outside Zone, The Backwind Horde et The Stealthsdelivers seven techno-critical chronicles, in which he analyzes our relationship with artificial intelligence. Featured in our selection of the 10 most important books of 2024, Silicon Valley also questions the limits of cyberpunk and the importance of the emergence of biopunk. We highly recommend reading it!
And you, what are your favorite cyberpunk works? Tell us in the comments!
