Where is this movie taking place? Was it made explicit? We’re thinking neo-Tokyo but what’s really interesting is the lengths they went to in order to make New Zealand look like a retro-futuristic Asian city.

Roots in Neuromancer etc. The rising Asian power of the period (Japan) and the mixing of western and eastern aesthetics.

And robot materials. Robot doctors. Metamaterials. Biorobots and cyborgs. Metal vs biomech. Blending in. Squishiness.

Networked AR lens implants. Batou had a whole suite of EM filters! Thermal, night vision, and x-ray. X-ray! Otherwise known as “cancer mode.” How x-rays work and the danger he must posing to everyone around him.

Harry potter and Predator. First Predator vision, now predator invisisuit! Bending different frequencies of light around objects cloaked with metamaterials.

Memory “glitch” medication. Implanting learning. Wiping memories and adapting brains to new bodies.

The potential foreignness of artificial intelligence. The human brain as a meaning-making machine. Melding with the machines.

And dualism and the great questions raised in the original film.