Cyberpunk Cinema

Welcome to Cyberpunk Cinema – the Definitive Dive into the Dark Future of Science Fiction. I am your host, Anthony La Pira, and I will be taking you on a cinematic journey through the sprawling cityscapes, the crippling datastorms, and the cybernetic implants that encompass all things Cyberpunk.

In this week’s episode, I will be breaking-down the 1987 dystopian cyberpunk action film, The Running Man  – directed by Paul Michael Glaser, written by Steven de Souza, based on the novel by Stephen King, and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Maria Conchita Alonso, Yaphet Kotto, Jim Brown, Jesse THE BODY Ventura, and Richard Dawson.

In a dystopian America, a falsely convicted policeman gets his shot at freedom when he must forcibly participate in a TV game show where convicts, runners, must battle killers for their freedom.

This movie absolutely rocks! It’s one of Arnold’s better films that no one really talks about. The dystopian cyberpunk vibes are high on this bad boy, as Ben Richards, the Butcher of Bakersfield, must survive a rigged TV game show that has captured the hearts and minds of the future America of 2017. Chased by “stalkers”, the game show contestants can earn their freedom and get a pardon, if they don’t die first.

So, do me a favor – it’s time to access your cranial jacks, boot up your Ono-Sendai Cyberspace 7, and slap on your damn mirror-shades. You know what time it is!  Cyberpunk Cinema starts…now!

• Anthony's IG - https://www.instagram.com/stormgiantproductions
• Cyberpunk Cinema IG - https://www.instagram.com/cyberpunk.cinema
• Signal Fragment SoundCloud - https://soundcloud.com/signalfragment

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Welcome back to CYBERPUNK CINEMA - the definitive dive into the dark future of science fiction. In this week's episode, I will be breaking down the cult classic cyberpunk film HACKERS (1995) - directed by Ian Softley, written by Rafael Moreu, and starring Jonny Lee Miller, Angelina Jolie, Jesse Bradford, Matthew Lillard, and Fisher Stevens.

Teenage hackers discover a criminal conspiracy with plans to use a computer virus that will capsize five oil tankers.

This is one of my favorite cyberpunk films of the 1990s. It’s an acid trip into cyberspace, filled with insane visuals, a killer soundtrack, and unbelievable gender-blind costume design that is currently in fashion now. The film has only gotten better with age as I watched it twice last week and was transported back into time to the mid-90s when roller-blading, skateboarding, phone phreaking, and the Anarchist’s Cookbook were the necessary evils of our own teenage wasteland. This film absolutely nails the PUNK in Cyberpunk as it explores the subculture of hacking. It’s amazing and it belongs amongst the best in the Cyberpunk Cinema catalog. 

So, do me a favor – it’s time to access your cranial jacks, boot up your Ono-Sendai Cyberspace 7, and slap on your damn mirror-shades. You know what time it is!  Cyberpunk Cinema starts…now!

• Anthony's IG - https://www.instagram.com/stormgiantproductions
• Cyberpunk Cinema IG - https://www.instagram.com/cyberpunk.cinema
• Signal Fragment SoundCloud - https://soundcloud.com/signalfragment

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Welcome back to CYBERPUNK CINEMA - the definitive dive into the dark future of science fiction. In this week's episode, I will be breaking down the cult classic cyberpunk film DREDD (2012) - directed by Pete Travis, written by Alex Garland, based on the "Judge Dredd" comic by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra, and starring Karl Urban, Olivia Thirlby, and Lena Headey.

In a violent, futuristic city where the police have the authority to act as judge, jury, and executioner, a cop teams with a trainee to take down a gang that deals the reality-altering drug, SLO-MO.

This is one of my favorite cyberpunk films of the 21st century as it delves into so many thematic signatures of the sub-genre that it made me smile from ear to fucking ear. It is a criminally overlooked film that has become a cult classic over recent years and deserves to be known by the masses. Join me as I venture deep into Mega City One – where 800 million people live in the ruin of the old world. It’s judgment time, baby! 

So, do me a favor – it’s time to access your cranial jacks, boot up your Ono-Sendai Cyberspace 7, and slap on your damn mirror-shades. You know what time it is!  Cyberpunk Cinema starts…now!

• Anthony's IG - https://www.instagram.com/stormgiantproductions
• Cyberpunk Cinema IG - https://www.instagram.com/cyberpunk.cinema
• Signal Fragment SoundCloud - https://soundcloud.com/signalfragment

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Welcome back to CYBERPUNK CINEMA - the definitive dive into the dark future of science fiction. In this week's episode, I will be breaking down the cyberpunk sequel masterpiece TERMINATOR 2: JUDGEMENT DAY (1991) - directed by James Cameron, written by James Cameron and William Wisher, and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong, and Robert Patrick.

A cyborg, identical to the one who failed to kill Sarah Connor, must now protect her ten-year old son John from an even more advanced and powerful cyborg. 

This was the sequel event of my childhood. This was the first time I ever felt the waves of anticipation take over me. I was a Terminator fanatic. I watched the initial film dozens of times at that point on VHS, I read the NOW comics line, and I was all-in on Terminator lore in the pre-internet days. This was the cinematic experience that changed my life. 

So, do me a favor – it’s time to access your cranial jacks, boot up your Ono-Sendai Cyberspace 7, and slap on your damn mirror-shades. You know what time it is!  Cyberpunk Cinema starts…now!

• Anthony's IG - https://www.instagram.com/stormgiantproductions
• Cyberpunk Cinema IG - https://www.instagram.com/cyberpunk.cinema
• Signal Fragment SoundCloud - https://soundcloud.com/signalfragment

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Welcome back to CYBERPUNK CINEMA - the definitive dive into the dark future of science fiction. In this week's episode, I will be breaking down the 1984 cyberpunk thriller THE TERMINATOR (1984) - directed by James Cameron, and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, and Michael Biehn. 

A human soldier is sent from 2029 to 1984 to stop an almost indestructible cyborg killing machine, sent from the same year, which has been programmed to execute a young woman whose unborn son is the key to humanity's future salvation.

This is was probably the first CYBERPUNK film I ever saw - my older brother taped everything off HBO onto VHS, so we had an entire library of movies at our home - and THE TERMINATOR was always on - and I was obsessed. I practically memorized every line in this movie, every scene, and I was hungry for more...and I was only 7! A perfect age to watch a violent movie about humanity's extinction, to watch a cyborg hunt down and kill people, and of course, that infamous sex scene. Ahhhh...the 1980s, parental guidance was suggested, but it was never enforced!

So, do me a favor – it’s time to access your cranial jacks, boot up your Ono-Sendai Cyberspace 7, and slap on your damn mirror-shades. You know what time it is! Cyberpunk Cinema starts…now!

• Anthony's IG - https://www.instagram.com/stormgiantproductions
• Cyberpunk Cinema IG - https://www.instagram.com/cyberpunk.cinema
• Signal Fragment SoundCloud - https://soundcloud.com/signalfragment

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CYBERPUNK CINEMA, the newest film podcast from The Video Vagabond Podcast Network, features filmmaker/podcaster Anthony La Pira - the fugitive from the dark future, transported back in time, to warn you about your present day - as he breaks down one film per episode that best exemplifies the thematic elements of his favorite science-fiction sub-genre, CYBERPUNK! 

So, jump on the cyber-train, all you brain butchers and cyberpunkers out there,  because Anthony will promise you four things, and four things ONLY - 

1) STYLE over substance,
2) Attitude is EVERYTHING,
3) Always take it to the EDGE,
4) BREAK THE RULES!!!!

So, do me a favor – it’s time to access your cranial jacks, boot up your Ono-Sendai Cyberspace 7, and slap on your damn mirror-shades!! Cyberpunk Cinema starts…NOW!!!!

• Anthony's IG - https://www.instagram.com/stormgiantproductions
• Cyberpunk Cinema IG - https://www.instagram.com/cyberpunk.cinema

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Welcome back to CYBERPUNK CINEMA - the definitive dive into the dark future of science fiction. In this week's episode, I will be breaking down the 1990 cyberpunk film TOTAL RECALL (1990) - directed by Paul Verhoeven and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. 

When a man goes in to have virtual vacation memories of the planet Mars implanted in his mind, an unexpected and harrowing series of events forces him to go the planet for real – or is he? TOTAL RECALL explores identity - who are we really?  This movie absolutely rules! It is a colossal paranoid mindfuck thriller stuck inside an interplanetary chase movie. Come for the action, and stay for the thought-provoking questions as they linger in your mind like an implanted memory!

So, do me a favor – it’s time to access your cranial jacks, boot up your Ono-Sendai Cyberspace 7, and slap on your damn mirror-shades. Cyberpunk Cinema starts…now!

• Anthony's IG - https://www.instagram.com/stormgiantproductions
• Cyberpunk Cinema IG - https://www.instagram.com/cyberpunk.cinema
• Signal Fragment SoundCloud - https://soundcloud.com/signalfragment

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Welcome back to CYBERPUNK CINEMA - the definitive dive into the dark future of science fiction. In this week's episode, I will breakdown the 1987 cyberpunk masterpiece ROBOCOP (1987) - directed by Paul Verhoeven and starring Peter Weller.

In a dystopic and crime-ridden Detroit, a terminally wounded cop returns to the force as a powerful cyborg haunted by submerged memories. This is not only one of my favorite cyberpunk films of all-time, it is one of my favorite overall films period.  To me, this is a FIVE STAR FILM, hands down, it’s perfect, it’s iconic, it’s legendary.

ROBOCOP is a perfect cyberpunk film. It encompasses all of the thematic signatures of the genre – the high tech of OCP, RoboCop’s cyborg full body prosthetic armor, the ED-209 enforcement droid, and the plans for the Delta City makeover compounded with the low life of Old Detroit’s crime-ridden streets, the Police Force getting decimated and threatening a strike, the rampant criminal element that is destroying a once proud city.

I’ll buy that for a dollar!

Anthony's IG - https://www.instagram.com/stormgiantproductions
Cyberpunk Cinema IG - https://www.instagram.com/cyberpunk.cinema
Signal Fragment SoundCloud - https://soundcloud.com/signalfragment

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Welcome back to CYBERPUNK CINEMA - the definitive dive into the dark future of science fiction. In this week's episode, I will breakdown the cult classic hallucinatory 1983 cyberpunk film, VIDEODROME (1983)– written and directed by David Cronenberg, and starring James Woods, the master of playing sleazy sketchballs. 

The story follows a programmer at a Toronto TV station that specializes in adult entertainment as he searches for producers of a dangerous and bizarre broadcast - VIDEODROME!  This film combines Cronenberg’s trademark body-horror with hyperviolent retro cyberpunk vibes that it bleeds off your TV. It's super fucking cool!

Long live the new flesh! 

• Anthony's IG - https://www.instagram.com/stormgiantproductions
• Cyberpunk Cinema IG - https://www.instagram.com/cyberpunk.cinema
• Signal Fragment SoundCloud - https://soundcloud.com/signalfragment

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Welcome back to CYBERPUNK CINEMA - the definitive dive into the dark future of science fiction. In this week's episode, I will breakdown the cult classic ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK (1981), a "proto-punk" and "cyberpunk-adjacent" film that paves the way for the entire genre of cyberpunk - from the anti-hero in Snake Plissken, to the undesirable "low-lifes" living in a world crumbling into ruins, to the rising power of a totalitarian police state, to a plausible dark future that is self-reflective of our own present. 

This is the primer. William Gibson was inspired to write Neuromancer, partially from watching this movie, and hearing a throwaway line that Lee Van Cleef gave to Kurt Russell, about "flying the gullfire over Leningrad." How cool is that?

Just like all great cyberpunk films, Escape from New York has a ton of attitude, it hits on all the vibes, and the tone represents everything that cyberpunk was and will be in the near future.  

John Carpenter is the Genre King, and this is one of his finest efforts. 

Enjoy! 

• Anthony's IG - https://www.instagram.com/stormgiantproductions
• Cyberpunk Cinema IG - https://www.instagram.com/cyberpunk.cinema
• Signal Fragment - SoundCloud - https://soundcloud.com/signalfragment

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