this post was submitted on 02 Apr 2024
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Cyberpunk

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What is Cyberpunk?

Cyberpunk is a science-fiction sub-genre dealing with the integration of society and technology in dystopian settings. Often referred to as “low-life and high tech,” Cyberpunk stories deal with outsiders (punks) who fight against the oppressors in society (usually mega corporations that control everything) via technological means (cyber). If the punks aren’t actively fighting against a megacorp, they’re still dealing with living in a world completely dependent on high technology.

Cyberpunk characteristics include:

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I was originally going to ask whether you consider Running Man to be cyberpunk or not. But then I figured, that's a stupid question, of course it is. Just look at how they depicted Los Angeles:

We can argue whether or not it's a good movie, but it's definitely cyberpunk.

I was just thinking this movie has a police state with a small rebellion rather than a megacorporation that didn't care about human life. Typically, I would say it's just dystopian fiction if the nation is run by a police state and it's cyberpunk if the nation is run by megacorporations. But that's probably too narrow a view when everything else in this movie fits a cyberpunk setting. Especially a game show that doesn't care about human life.

Anyway, here's a trailer. You can watch it on Pluto or Hoopla.

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[–] charmed_electron@programming.dev 9 points 5 months ago

What I love about this movie is that despite the dystopian society, the writers still have an optimistic (naive?) take on things. IIRC once the news reporter gets the evidence and the truth comes out, the evil corporation is somehow thwarted.