The Matrix | 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 film by writer-directors The Wachowskis, inspired by (and named for) the virtual world in William Gibson’s 1984 novel Neuromancer, envisions a dystopian future where humans are trapped in a virtual reality simulation while AI machines harvest their bodies for energy. Cyberpunk themes blend with stylistic elements from anime and Hong Kong action cinema as computer hacker Neo and a group of rebels fight against the machines to free humankind. A critical and box-office hit, the film won Oscars for Film Editing, Sound, Sound Effects Editing, and Visual Effects. It also spawned numerous sequels, comics, video games, and a series of acclaimed animated shorts.
