Line #4 YMMV/StrangeDays


1	!! The film:
2	* AluminumChristmasTrees: [=SQUIDs=] are real [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQUID devices]], used for measuring [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetoencephalography brain activity]].
3	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic:
4	** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rj8W4p8eQq4 "While The Earth Sleeps"]] by Music/PeterGabriel and Deep Forest.
5	** "Fall in The Light" by Lori Carson and Music/GraemeRevell also counts as this, especially during the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epJKjZHXzYU final scene]] of the film.
6	** Juliette Lewis's cover of PJ Harvey's "Hardly Wait".
7	* CompleteMonster: [[spoiler: [[BitchInSheepsClothing Max Peltier]] is an ex-cop and private detective turned PsychoForHire.]] Contracted to silence prostitute Iris when she witnesses the murder of rapper Jeriko One, he hooks her up to a SQUID[[note]]Superconducting Quantum Interference Device-a device that lets one experience the memories of another[[/note]], then rapes and murders her, using the SQUID to ensure that she experiences not only her own horror but his enjoyment of the act. He then sends his memory of the event to Lenny Nero, [[spoiler: his supposed best friend]], so that Lenny can experience it firsthand, [[HeroicBSOD leaving him a shaken mess]]. He attacks Lenny's friend and memory supplier Tick, using a SQUID to overload and melt his brain, then does the same thing to his own employer, Philo Gant, reducing him to a comatose wreck before murdering him. In the climax, [[spoiler: Max reveals that he plans to pin the blame for all of the murders on Lenny, then tries to throw his "friend" out of a window.]]
8	* DirectorDisplacement: Creator/JamesCameron was heavily involved with the film as a co-writer and co-producer based on his story, but Creator/KathrynBigelow directed.
9	* HarsherInHindsight: Massive civil unrest brought about by police brutality, militarized police, and race-based protests the police are itching to turn violent mean that this feels even more timely post-2020. No [=SQUIDs=] yet but the role of body cams and cellphone video serves the same purpose.
10	* HilariousInHindsight:
11	** A news broadcaster mentioned that astrologists predicted that Moammar Ghadafi would win the Nobel Peace Prize. Fast forward from 2010 to the 2011 Libyan uprising...
12	** Very early in the film, a caller on a radio talk show can be heard complaining about the country's problems, among them how gas costs more than three dollars per gallon. It was only a few years after 2000 in real life when gas reached and exceeded this dystopian price.
13	** Though still far away from what is presented in the film with the SQUID tech and its ability to experience a memory like it was happening to you, due to 360 video technology and being able to watch 360 videos in VR headsets, you can technically see and hear the world around you in a similar way to how the person who filmed it did, including mundane events (such as bicycling through Las Vegas during the day) to the pornographic quite similar to how it's presented in the film.
14	** In a clip on the news we see Jeriko One say that the government is "re-arranging deck chairs on the ''Titanic''" - wonder [[Film/Titanic1997 what]] made James Cameron think of that particular metaphor?
15	* IronWoobie: Mace.
16	* JerkassWoobie: Lenny, who is also a rather tarnished JerkWithAHeartOfGold.
17	* {{Narm}}: A bloodsoaked, crazy-eyed Creator/VincentDOnofrio lunging towards our heroes with a gun in slow motion. That's scary. Unless, of course, he's also handcuffed to his partner's corpse and is dragging it behind him. Then it becomes ''hilarious''.
18	* SampledUp: A rare movie version of this trope - a lot of people will know the Music/FatboySlim song "Right Here, Right Now", which samples this movie, better than the actual movie. Though admittedly that is due to the song's cultural oversaturation.
19	* {{Squick}}: The rape-murder recording, especially taking into consideration what that involves for the character using it. It isn't just ''seeing'' it in the first person like the audience does (which is bad enough), but ''experiencing everything the perpetrator experienced.'' Long story short, ''she was forced to experience her own rapist's pleasure when he raped her''.
20	* TooBleakStoppedCaring: The film presents a highly dystopian version of the year 1999 and includes a lengthy, gruesome rape and murder scene in the first act, all of which can easily turn some viewers away.
21	* ValuesResonance: Police brutality, militarization, and racism have all become even bigger causes for concern since the film came out, with many incidents of fatal interactions between police and black men causing outcry and riots.
22	* VindicatedByHistory: The movie bombed ''hard'' when it came out and opened to polarized reviews. Since then, it has been reevaluated and praised for its cast, visual style, [[HarsherInHindsight painfully]] [[ValuesResonance relevant themes]], and soundtrack and is now held up as a classic [[TheNineties 90's]] CyberPunk film in the same vein as ''Anime/GhostInTheShell'' and ''Film/TheMatrix''.

Context YMMV / StrangeDays