It’s a good question. For all that I admire the balls-to-the-wall madness of Redline and the futurism of Akira, I think calling either cyberpunk is a more dubious proposition than even WarGames. Just about the only thing about Redline that I’d consider cyberpunk is that the drivers are largely corp-sponsored IIRC, but I wouldn’t call any strict racing movie that eschews a wider societal perspective cyberpunk. I mean, I wouldn’t count a hypothetical WipeOut movie either, if it was basically just one long “Formula 1 race, but anti gravity with weapons” flick. Akira… Does have some cyberpunk elements initially, but quickly abandons them in favor of completely different considerations. That’s not criticism - I just think its main focus lies elsewhere.
Edit: To follow up on the tangent of borderline cases, I’d personally lean more towards movies that, while not set in a cyberpunk context, nevertheless treat central themes of the genre and has the right “vibe”. Things like Limitless and Pi comes to mind.
Some suggestions:
Depending on how strictly one chooses to define cyberpunk, movies like WarGames might also make the list.
Oh yeah! And would one call “Redline (2009)” cyberpunk? Or Akira? Thought of them because you mentioned Ghost in the Shell.
It’s a good question. For all that I admire the balls-to-the-wall madness of Redline and the futurism of Akira, I think calling either cyberpunk is a more dubious proposition than even WarGames. Just about the only thing about Redline that I’d consider cyberpunk is that the drivers are largely corp-sponsored IIRC, but I wouldn’t call any strict racing movie that eschews a wider societal perspective cyberpunk. I mean, I wouldn’t count a hypothetical WipeOut movie either, if it was basically just one long “Formula 1 race, but anti gravity with weapons” flick. Akira… Does have some cyberpunk elements initially, but quickly abandons them in favor of completely different considerations. That’s not criticism - I just think its main focus lies elsewhere.
Edit: To follow up on the tangent of borderline cases, I’d personally lean more towards movies that, while not set in a cyberpunk context, nevertheless treat central themes of the genre and has the right “vibe”. Things like Limitless and Pi comes to mind.
Sure, I think I agree, their main focus isn’t ‘cyberpunk’ .
‘edit’ I was gonna leave it there but now I’m interested if you (know of and) think that Aachi & Ssipak 2006 does fit the bill? :)