"Ram costume from Tron," 1982, Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. Photograph by Joshua White, JW Pictures. ©Academy Museum Foundation.
Cyberpunk: Envisioning Possible Futures Through Cinema - Visions of the Future
Oct
6
2024
Oct
12
2024
Apr
12
2025
Visions of the Future

A Curatorial Perspective on Two Objects

The films Blade Runner and Tron, both released in 1982, were among the earliest examples of cyberpunk cinema. In Blade Runner, the bounty hunter Rick Deckard searches for cyborgs who appear identical to humans, calling into question the true nature of human consciousness. In Tron, software engineer Kevin Flynn is transported into the digital world of a video game, and must play his way back into the real world.

Syd Mead’s concept art for Blade Runner neatly illustrates what we might identify as a classic cyberpunk aesthetic: an urban street with neon signs reflected in wet streets, almost recognizable as a contemporary city, but with nods toward future technological developments, such as a shell-like armored vehicle. The work also includes a mix of characters from Asian languages—both real and invented—as a design element, a choice that has been replicated, and critiqued, in many future American cyberpunk works.

The costume from Tron was produced by costume designers Elois Jenssen and Rosanna Norton. The French illustrator Jean Giraud, known as Moebius, also contributed concept sketches of the suit. The stark black and white coloring of the suit allowed the filmmakers to better insert the live actors into the digital world through animation and computer graphic techniques, and the lines mimic the design of an electronic circuit board. The suit itself is made from repurposed everyday materials, including hockey pads and gaffers tape, that were transformed into a futuristic appearance through the work of the costume department.

Both objects embody a key aspect of foundational cyberpunk movies that imagine futuristic worlds through concept art and costume design. In addition, both objects speak towards the craft and ingenuity of film artists. The futures imagined by these films, as well as more contemporary cyberpunk films, question humanity vs. artificiality, real life vs. simulation, and interrogate technology and structures of power.

Exhibition page.

Academy Museum of Motion Pictures

6067 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles

SUN-THU:10am-6pm
FRI-SAT:10am-8pm
ADVANCE TICKETS REQUIRED

Drawing of city street with bright neon signs on storefronts; a large, futuristic vehicle is parked on the right.
Concept drawing by Syd Mead for "BLADE RUNNER" (US, 1982). © Syd Mead, Inc.
Concept drawing by Syd Mead for "BLADE RUNNER" (US, 1982). © Syd Mead, Inc.
"Ram costume from Tron," 1982, Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. Photograph by Joshua White, JW Pictures. ©Academy Museum Foundation.
"Ram costume from Tron," 1982, Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. Photograph by Joshua White, JW Pictures. ©Academy Museum Foundation.
"Ram costume from Tron," 1982, Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. Photograph by Joshua White, JW Pictures. ©Academy Museum Foundation.

Discussion Questions

  • How do cyberpunk filmmakers envision different kinds of futures, or warn against visions of a particular future in an urban or a digital environment?

  • One classic definition of cyberpunk is that it combines “high tech” with “low life.” How do we see this juxtaposition in cyberpunk film, and how do we see these intersections in our lives today?

  • Why are rebels central to cyberpunk stories? How are they depicted?

  • Many major cyberpunk films of the 1980s and 1990s focus primarily on white men in the future. How might this scope affect marginalized audiences’ experiences of these films?

  • How do filmmakers from marginalized communities envision their own futures?

  • How do cyberpunk films depict issues around labor and exploitation? How has technology affected these issues today?

Bibliographic References

Murphy, Graham J., and Lars Schmeink, eds. Cyberpunk and Visual Culture. New York: Routledge, 2018https://www.routledge.com/Cyberpunk-and-Visual-Culture/Murphy-Schmeink/p/book/9781138062917
Mead, Syd. The Movie Art of Syd Mead. London: Titan Books, 2017.https://titanbooks.com/8704-the-movie-art-of-syd-mead-visual-futurist/