Best cyberpunk/dystopian live action movies Part 2

16. Surrogates (2009)

In the future, widespread use of remotely controlled androids called "surrogates" enables everyone to live in idealized forms from the safety of their homes. Compared to their surrogates, the human operators are depicted as slovenly and homebound. Protected from harm, a surrogate's operator feels no pain when the surrogate is damaged. In Boston, FBI agent Tom Greer has been estranged from his wife Maggie, since their son's death several years before. He never sees her outside of her surrogate and she criticizes his desire to interact via their real bodies.

Author's comment: Another good sci-fi movie starring Bruce Willis with strogn high tech concept and focus on the human being and consciousness. The movie is one or two steps away from the current reality where we hide behind false personalities, live from a distance, tangled in complexes.

15. Nemesis (1992)

In the near future, illegal androids have become commonplace, and many criminals will enhance themselves with cybernetic components, making them "more than human". Alex Raine (Olivier Gruner) is a disillusioned assassin/bounty hunter for the LAPD. During a routine mission, he is attacked by a group of cyborg freedom fighters known as The Red Army Hammerheads. Nearly killed by the surviving leader, Rosaria (Jennifer Gatti), Alex resists her assertion that he is a mindless robot: "Eighty-six point five percent [of him] is still human."
After months of cybernetic reconstruction and recovery, Alex tracks Rosaria to Old Baja and kills her. Soon after this, his handlers show up - his former lover Jared (Marjorie Monaghan), who is an android, and another android, Sam. Alex decides he has had enough and leaves the LAPD, becoming a freelance hustler and triggerman...

Author's comment: The influences here are obvious but the execution in Nemesis feels unique. The neo-noir atmosphere…the gun fu style of action… A really great B-rated movie!

I can add Cameron's Terminator (1 and 2) to the Nemesis place in this rating. Yes, Terminator 1/2 are better, higher class and more impressive, but there are no anti-utopian elements, and the technological dimension is limited to one specific image that leaves room for pure action.

14. Strange Days (1995)

In the last two days of 1999, Los Angeles has become a dangerous war zone. As a group of criminals rob a Chinese restaurant, the event is recorded by a robber wearing a SQUID, an illegal electronic device that records memories and physical sensations directly from the wearer's cerebral cortex onto a MiniDisc-like device for playback. Lenny Nero, a former LAPD officer turned black marketeer of SQUID recordings, buys the robbery clip from his main supplier, Tick. Elsewhere, a prostitute named Iris, who is a former friend of Lenny's ex-girlfriend Faith Justin, is being chased by LAPD officers Burton Steckler and Dwayne Engelman. Iris escapes on a subway car but Engleman pulls off her wig, revealing a SQUID recorder headset.

Author's comment: "Strange Days" paints a Los Angeles that stands midway between the futuristic nightmare of "Blade Runner" and the mean streets of 1940s film noir. The film draws a vivid conclusion - you cannot share someone else's reality without abandoning your own.

In some respects "Strange Days" is reminiscent of "Gattaca" (1997) "Cypher" (2002) - but, unlike them, it comes close to the atmosphere of Gibson's books.

13. Dredd (2012)

The future United States is a dystopic irradiated wasteland known as the Cursed Earth. On the east coast lies Mega-City One, a violent metropolis with 800 million residents and 17,000 serious crimes reported daily. The only force for order are the Judges, who act as judge, jury and executioner. Judge Dredd is tasked by the Chief Judge with evaluating new recruit Cassandra Anderson, a powerful psychic who marginally failed the aptitude tests to become a Judge.

In Peach Trees, a 200-storey slum tower block, drug lord Madeline Madrigal, also known as "Ma-Ma", executes three rogue drug dealers by having them skinned alive, infused with Slo-Mo (an addictive new drug which reduces the user's perception of time to 1% of normal) and thrown down the atrium from the top floor...

Author's comment: Classic dystopia with punk elements. However, the movie is not cyber. Rather, it is a social futuristic thriller presented in the best possible way by one of the pioneers of contemporary cinema. It can be added to this movie titles like Judge Dredd (1995) Demolition Man (1993) RoboCop (1987) Escape from New York (1981), which belong to the subgenre of futuristic street dystopian crime movies.

To be continued...