Demolition Man takes place in a world with a large income gap, where the rich (or at least the middle class) live on the surface while the poor (or at least those wanting to be “free”) live underground. And there’s a lot of futuristic tech involved (like cyber sex!). But this is primarily a story about political correctness in a police state and it doesn’t include any all-powerful corporations (aside from Taco Bell, of course). So what do you think? Do you consider Demolition Man to be cyberpunk?
Here’s a trailer. It isn’t streaming anywhere right now though.
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It’s got all the hallmarks. Even before he’s frozen and sent to the future, the small bit of the world we get to see at the beginning is more like a traditional cyberpunk dystopia.
Also, the implication of Taco Bell winning the “restaurant wars” and that now all restaurants are Taco Bell could mean that Taco Bell is also pretty much in control of everything else. And I tend to believe that the restaurant wars were literal wars, with people killing each other in the name of fast food franchises. (And the Europeans who had Pizza Hut as the restaurant in their version of the film might be confused lol)
Yes.
deserves more upvotes
Aw, you’re too kind. :)
Its definitely cyberpunk.
The high tech/low life trope that makes up cyberpunk is here, just turned on its head from the typical expectations. On one hand, the world starts as a mess with all these problems in the world, very typical of a cyberpunk world. It pretty soon presents us with the high tech/high life of the future. But they show hints of the low life with the underground resistance. Even Phoenix is from the low life world, presented to this highly sanitized future that doesn’t know how to deal with him, and that’s how they turned it on its head. Its a pretty interesting idea that doesnt fall into the typical cyperbunk/noir stuff that we kind of expect.
I never thought about it but I would say yes. Very unconventional, but definitely cyberpunk. I could see the 3 sea shells in Deus Ex
It misses a lot of the key themes but hits a bunch too. It would be a great part of an intro to cyberpunk for a 13yo. Actually thinking about it as much of a turd as it was (for a Judge Dredd movie) the 1996 Judge Dredd movie would be a great double feature for that.
Yeah, I’m going to do this as an uncanny valley of cyberpunk double feature. See if you can spot how these are off sort of thing.
It’s one of the genre-defining prototypes of cyberpunk. You literally cannot claim to be cyberpunk without three seashells.
High tech low life. Cyberpunk doesn’t have to be a commentary on mega corps. Haven’t seen the movie but it sounds like it handles a tyrannical regime based on what you said paired with advanced tech and a lack of humanity.
It isn’t streaming anywhere right now though.
In the US, Demolition Man is streaming on Amazon Prime.
(Amazon sucks, but Snipes is an OG.) EDIT: but the best way to watch movies in the US is by going to your public library and looking for DVDs. Sometimes they also have subscriptions to online sources you can watch from home.
The damned 3 sea shells
I would say yes.
When you see cyberpunk it’s usually from the point of view of the lower class. You can still have a story that is cyberpunk but focused on the affluent.
Yep, I would consider it fairly cyberpunk.
It’s kind of “Cyberpunk for Dummies”.
See… I kind of think you’re right on this because I am of the perfect age to have seen this when I was about 10 and I’d call it a “Fisher Price - My first dystopian future” because you can understand the themes without being scared by them. Its friendly and paletable cyberpunk
It would be a great intro into the idea of cyberpunk and some of the themes for a kid of about that age.
I would say no. It might match several requirements when put through a rubric but people use genres to put certain works with a common substance together, and I don’t think it has that substance. I think it’d be the odd man out in any cyberpunk movie marathon. If you recommended it to someone looking for cyberpunk to enjoy I think they’d be let down.
That’s my gut feeling and I’ll stick with it until the corpos harvest it.
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