Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, an adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, was not appreciated when it was released in 1982.
However, it has since come to be praised as one of the greatest movies ever made. Scott used the tropes and visual motifs of the film noir – from the morally ambiguous lead character’s investigation to sunlight shining into dark rooms through half-closed blinds – to explore Blade Runner’s future setting (well, 2019, so it’s not the future anymore) and the ethical considerations of its technology. So, here are 10 Breathtaking Sci-Fi Neo-Noirs To Watch If You Like Blade Runner.
A Scanner Darkly
Adapted from a Philip K. Dick story, just like Blade Runner, A Scanner Darkly is a grim animated odyssey, written and directed by Dazed and Confused’s Richard Linklater. Set in a near-future that is controlled by an authoritarian police force that has high-tech surveillance equipment everywhere, keeping tabs on people.
Privacy is a thing of the past. (Actually, it already kind of is in the present day.) Despite its ultra-low budget (especially for an animated movie), A Scanner Darkly still failed at the box office, which is a shame, because it’s a brilliant film filled with unique vision and lofty concepts.
Source Code
This movie revolves around the same couple of minutes. The lead character, played by Jake Gyllenhaal keeps reliving the few minutes leading up to the detonation of a bomb on a train. He’s been tasked with figuring out who set off the bomb, in order to help with the investigation into the attack.
The in-universe technology doesn’t make an awful lot of sense, but that’s not the point. The point of the story is the psychological toll that reliving a terrorist attack over and over again has on Gyllenhaal’s character. It’s directed by Moon’s Duncan Jones and it’s almost as thoughtful.
Dark City
John Murdoch, the lead character in Dark City, is faced by the oldest problem in the film noir book: he has amnesia, and he’s charged with a murder that he doesn’t remember. Dark City feels as inventive and fresh as movies like Metropolis and Star Wars and, indeed, Blade Runner have felt in the past.
Visually and spiritually, Dark City feels very similar to The Matrix trilogy, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing – actually, it’s a good thing, if you like The Matrix movies – but since this was released hot on the heels of that iconic trilogy, critics frowned upon the comparisons that could be drawn.
The Fifth Element
Luc Besson didn’t make The Fifth Element to be a “big theme movie,” but that hasn’t stopped critics from reading their own interpretation into the movie. Besson made this futuristic tale of a taxi driver unwittingly getting swept up in the search for a powerful weapon with no intention other than to stay true to his characters and tell a great story.
As a result, the themes arise from the material organically. It can be read as a commentary on the ills of political corruption, or a mirror pointing out humanity’s responsibility for its own downfall, or a critique of our obsession with technology.
Akira
Taika Waititi is signed on to helm a live-action remake of this beloved anime when his schedule clears up in a couple of years. Set in Neo-Tokyo, a future vision of the Japanese capital, Akira revolves around a biker being turned into a violent psychic by a secret military project, and the two teenagers and team of fellow psychics who can stop him.
With its neon-tinged color palette and shady government bad guys, Akira is as much a neo-noir as it is a sci-fi thriller, which places it squarely in the same category as Blade Runner, and it’s also an all-round masterpiece.
Brazil
Monty Python alum Terry Gilliam directed this cult classic dystopian satire set in a future governed by “Big Brother.” With a Humphrey Bogart-esque lead on the run from the tyrannical police force, Brazil plays like The Third Man meets George Orwell’s 1984.
Like a lot of Gilliam’s movies, Brazil is too surreal for some. That’s why it bombed at the box office when it was first released. However, for fans of science fiction, dystopian fiction, political satire, or all of the above will not be disappointed. Bob Hoskins and Robert De Niro lead the cast, but the real star is Gilliam’s unique visual style.
The Terminator
The nightclub in The Terminator – the one where the T-800 finally tracks down Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese comes to her aid – is called “Tech Noir.” It’s possible that James Cameron gave it this name in order to signpost the exciting new genre he was pioneering. The Terminator doesn’t match the big-budget action-packed style of the franchise that followed.
Instead, it’s a pulse-racing thriller with intimate stakes. A computer network that has taken over the world in the future sends a cyborg back in time to kill the mother of the Resistance’s leader, John Connor, in order to prevent his birth. The Resistance sends back Kyle Reese to save her.
Strange Days
Kathryn Bigelow directed this sci-fi thriller from a story by her ex-husband James Cameron. Cameron wrote the story in the mid-‘80s, but when she came to make it in the early ‘90s, Bigelow tweaked the script to reflect then-current events like the Lorena Bobbitt trial and the Rodney King riots.
Serious social issues such as sexual assault and racial prejudice are addressed in the movie, which deftly blends the dazzling visuals and ominous near-future settings of science fiction and the dark side of humanity displayed in the film noir. Ralph Fiennes, Angela Bassett, and Juliette Lewis lead a phenomenal cast.
Ghost in the Shell
One of the greatest blends of the sociological storytelling of the neo-noir and the spectacular visuals of science fiction is Ghost in the Shell. (The original, obviously, not the whitewashed remake starring Scarlett Johansson.)
The story of a public security officer who is tracking down a hacker known as “the Puppet Master” serves the theme of carving out an individual identity in an increasingly technologically-oriented world. Ghost in the Shell is one of the finest examples of cyberpunk cinema, and it had a huge influence on both the Wachowskis’ visual style for The Matrix trilogy and James Cameron’s later sci-fi works.
Minority Report
Like Blade Runner, Minority Report is a film adaptation of a Philip K. Dick story. It was directed by Steven Spielberg and it’s set in a future society where the police can predict crimes before they’ve even happened.
There’s an argument that you can’t convict people of crimes they never committed, no matter how sure you are that they were going to do it. Tom Cruise stars as a PreCrime cop who is charged with the future murder of a man he doesn’t know. He goes on the run, trying to clear his name and figure out why he’s going to kill the man that he’s going to kill in a couple of days.
