Ghost in the Shell | Cyberpunk: Envisioning Possible Futures Through Cinema
Join the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures for a film series featuring cyberpunk films like The Matrix, Ex Machina, Blade Runner and more! These films accompany the museum’s PST ART: Art & Science Collide exhibition Cyberpunk: Envisioning Possible Futures Through Cinema. Cyberpunk, a subgenre of science fiction, first appeared in the early 1980s and uniquely captured the anxieties of that decade. Featuring near-future scenarios set in worlds that resemble our own, cyberpunk stories juxtapose technological advances with social upheaval, ecological crisis, and urban decay.
This animated adaptation of Shirow Masamune’s manga dives into the networked urban landscape of New Port City, Japan. In the year 2029, technological advancements have allowed humans to optimize their bodies, or “shells,” with physical augmentations. Major Motoko Kusanagi, a full-body synthetic female cyborg, is tasked with tracing the Puppet Master, a cybercriminal mastermind suspected of a nefarious hacking job. Extraordinary photorealistic cityscapes realized through cel animation and computer-generated images are enhanced by an enthralling score by Kawai Kenji to shape the story’s dystopia into a gritty realism. Its prescient symbols and themes resonate in later films by James Cameron (The Terminator) and the Wachowskis (The Matrix).
