->''"Anything that can be done to a rat can be done to a human being. And we can do most anything to rats. This is a hard thing to think about, but it's the truth. It won't go away because we cover our eyes. THAT is cyberpunk."''
->-- Bruce Sterling

->''"Transhumanism is about how technology will eventually help us overcome the problems that have, up until now, been endemic to human nature. Cyberpunk is about how technology ''won't''."''
->-- Stephenls of RPG.Net, on the difference between transhumanism and cyberpunk

SpeculativeFiction centered around the transformative effects, both good and bad, of information processing technology, computers and networks. In many ways the spiritual descendant of "hard-boiled" private-eye literature and FilmNoir.

Heroes are most often hackers, specialists and freedom fighters trying to overcome monolithic [[TheGovernment Big Brother]] types or [[MegaCorp corporate quasi-government]] forces. Major villains are almost inevitably [[CorruptCorporateExecutive powerful businessmen]], with a number of gun-toting {{Mooks}} at their beck and call. If the work dates from 1980s, there's a good chance that sinister ''[[JapanTakesOverTheWorld zaibatsu]]'' will be in the background somewhere, and Japanese-sounding brand-names will be liberally scattered around.

{{Cyberpunk}} is originally a literary genre. Many {{anime}} have at least a hint, perhaps due to the fact that Japan is closer to actually ''being'' cyberpunk.

Tends to be {{dystopia}}n and [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism cynical]] in tone. By default set in some giant, sprawling CityNoir, sometime about TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture. People also tend to be "extended human", what with ArtificialLimbs and [[UnusualUserInterface cable jacks in the skull]]. And [[CyberpunkWithAChanceOfRain the weather is always bad]].

See also {{Cyberspace}}. Compare DungeonPunk, PunkPunk. Gradually [[EvolvingTrope evolving]] into PostCyberPunk.
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!!Clear-Cut Examples

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Anime ]]

* ''GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex'', as well as the two previous GITS movies.
** Especially the series is closer to PostCyberPunk, featuring a world which is filled with social problems, but the oppressive, authoritarian society definative for the Cyberpunk-genre is conspiciously absent.
*** There is, however, government censorship of the media, refugees are treated poorly and social welfare appears to be nonexistent. As well, members of the military appear to be able to issue orders to civilians (something which is not permitted in most democracies except under martial law).
* ''{{Gunnm}}'' or ''BattleAngelAlita''
* ''SerialExperimentsLain''
** This series is rather lacking on the ''punk'' elements of cyberpunk, though. It's closer to MagicalRealism done in a cyberpunk-like setting.
* ''BubblegumCrisis'' (and especially its spinoff, ''ADPolice'' - in all its incarnations. The remake series, ''Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040'' was criticized for being more clean-cut than the original.)
* ''{{Akira}}''
* ''ErgoProxy''
* ''{{Texhnolyze}}''
** Thanks to deliberate use of {{Zeerust}} This series borders on Disel Punk, although cybernetic implants are a fairly important part of the story's world.
* ''GenoCyber''
* ''A.D. Police''
* ''AngelCop''
* ''{{Appleseed}}''
* ''[=~Eden: It's an Endless World!~=]''
* ''Megazone 23'' combines this with Mecha.
* ''TheAnimatrix''

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

* ''Silent Dragon''
* ''Singularity 7''
* ''{{Transmetropolitan}}''

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Film ]]

* ''{{Metropolis}}'' has ''all'' the defining elements of cyberpunk, and was ''made in 1927!''
* ''BladeRunner''
* ''JohnnyMnemonic''
* ''StrangeDays''
* ''LiquidSky''
* ''Cherry 2000'' with elements of {{Desertpunk}} in the non-urban areas.
* ''Brainstorm''
* ''TetsuoTheIronMan'' in all its horrific glory.
* ''TotalRecall''
* ''AScannerDarkly''
* ''Babylon A.D.'', adapted from the book "Babylon Babies".
* ''TheyLive!''
* The French CG/live-action film ''Immortal'' which is just...one hell of a genre pileup. You've heard of the ThirtyXanatosPileup? This is that trope, with movie genres. There's cyberpunk, general sci-fi, Godzilla-ish kaiju suitmation, Harryhausenish figure animation, crazy acid-trip ethereal planewalking scenes, computer imagery, and Egyptian Gods sitting in the sky over a Fifth Element-ish city playing board games. Naked. All of it a BatmanGambit by Horus to have a child with a mutant woman (mutant in the rare unique special powers and not radioactive beast kind) through possessing this poor schmuck's body. And when trying the human method doesn't work, he [[RapeIsLove just goes and takes her anyway.]] Because that was how they did it in the old days, why are you so offended you crazy woman?!?! Plot is crazy as hell but all the special effects are freakin' beautiful, except the kaiju shark. He seems like he was made intentionally terrible though.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

* JohnMFord was possibly the earliest pioneer in this genre with his 1980 novel ''Web Of Angels''.
* William Gibson is often referred to as the father of the genre; he created the word "cyberspace", and, despite his lack of technical knowledge, his novel ''{{Neuromancer}}'' was the prototype for much of what followed.
* Neal Stephenson's novels have been called "post-cyberpunk", working with more "modern" ideas such as memes, the Internet, and computer cryptography. He tends to stuff a lot of ideas into his books, which become brilliant when it works and confusing when it doesn't.
**He's also been called one of the founders of the genre with {{Snow Crash}} and {{The Diamond Age}}.
* Bruce Sterling is another shaper of the genre. His works tend to be less bleak than Gibson's.
* John Brunner's ''TheShockwaveRider'' invented the concept of an internet worm / virus long before the WWW, and it gave us a hacker hero long before ''WarGames''.
* Pat Cadigan is also considered to be a genre co-founder and major influence, starting with her 1984 short-story "Rock On"; as well as the later novels ''Mindplayer'', and ''Synners'', the latter of which which expands on the story and themes of "Rock On".
* Michael Moorcock's Cornelius Quartet novels have often been described as early or proto-cyberpunk.
* Negative consequences of technological progress are a common theme in the works of Dutch author Tais Teng. The most intense example of cyberpunk is his short story ''Silicium Snelwegen'' ("Silicon Highways"), in which broken computer chips are repaired by nanomachines imprinted with the personalities of specialists. The story becomes outright [[NightmareFuel Nightmare Fuel]] when the main characters, personalised nanomachines busy repairing a chip, discover that their originals have been erased and they now exist ''only as data.''

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* ''MaxHeadroom'' (though it lacks the Internet) has TV networks that jack into peoples brains.
* ''{{VR5}}''
* ''DarkAngel''
* Two episodes of GhostWriter feature Julia Stiles as a hacker seemingly airlifted from [[CyberPunk Cyber Punk literature]], some of which she actually references.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* ''DeusEx''
** And to a lesser extent, its SpiritualSucessor, ''ProjectSnowblind''.
* ''GrandTheftAuto II'' ([[AdaptationDisplacement Yes, there were two before the jump to 3D]])
* Both ''SystemShock'' games.
* ''{{Syndicate}}'' and ''SyndicateWars'' by Bullfrog.
* ''{{Snatcher}}''. Everything, down to the main character's design, screams "I wanna be ''BladeRunner''." It even has the Gibson ShoutOut used by ''The Centurions'', in the form of a second Deckard-a-like who even sort of ''looks'' like Harrison Ford. [[spoiler: Too bad this one dies a rather painful death early on, setting the game's events in motion.]]
*''MetalGearSolid'' 2
* ''Spectre VR''. Overtly cyberpunk in theme and presentation, and was once sold in a bundle with ''{{Snow Crash}}''.
* ''[[SimCity Sim City Societies]]'': You can Create Your Own Cyberpunk City.
* ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beneath_a_Steel_Sky Beneath A Steel Sky]]'': A British 1994 sci-fi point and click adventure game initially released for DOS and Amiga. Underworld was its working title.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* Perhaps the first Western cartoon to use {{Cyberpunk}} motifs was "Zone Dancer," an episode of ''TheCenturions''. The plot took elements from ''BladeRunner'' and ''{{Neuromancer}}'', the dialogue actually used the word "cyberpunk," and as an additional ShoutOut, one of the guest star characters was a computer hacker named Gibson.
* ''{{Phantom 2040}}'', which was based on a SuperHero who predated {{Superman}}, was a surprisingly thoughtful take on the genre.
* ''SamuraiJack'' takes place in a future with lots of cyberpunk atmospheres, especially the first city he finds himself in after his time travel.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Other ]]

* A web-ported version of the seminal {{Cyberpunk}} hypercard work from the early 1990's is [[http://www.streettech.com/bcp/BCPgraf/4zones.html Beyond Cyberpunk!]]

!!Having Some Elements

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[[folder: Anime ]]

* ''[[DotHackSign .hack//SIGN]]'', and [[DotHack the franchise as a whole]], depending on [[AllThereInTheManual how much you know about C.C. Corp]].
* ''CowboyBebop'' to a certain extent
* ''{{Blame}}!'', like the ''{{Matrix}}'' description below, takes the Cyberpunk genre to it's extreme limits, and ironically becomes ''less'' like traditional Cyberpunk as a result.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

* Adam Warren's comic version of the ''DirtyPair''; the original anime lacks this element, however.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Film ]]

* ''{{Tron}}''
* ''{{The Fifth Element}}''
* ''{{RoboCop}}''
* ''TheMatrix'' Arguably takes the whole cyberspace theme to its most extreme conclusion, but perhaps ''too'' extreme to be considered truly Cyber Punk, ironically enough. The quasi-religious symbolism, and the idealism of the protagonists, pretty much disqualify it too.
* ''{{Sneakers}}'' an unconventional choice, as it's based on the (then) present and features only one technological wonder (the ''{{Macguffin}}''), but it touches on several of the basic tropes and themes of cyberpunk and hacker cinema (gang of genius quasi-criminals, shady .gov types, and this quote:
-->[[spoiler: Cosmo]]: [I] learned that everything in this world--including money--operates not on reality . . .
-->'''Martin Bishop''': But the perception of reality.
*''RepoTheGeneticOpera''...which may be the first time this troper has ever seen a cyberpunk (though arguably, it could be called biopunk) MUSICAL.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

* Many of Philip K. Dick's works can be thought of as "proto-cyberpunk", including titles like ''Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep'' (which was adapted into the movie ''Blade Runner'') and ''A Scanner Darkly''.
* Jeff Noon's "Vurt", "Nymphomation" and "Automated Alice" have many elements of Cyberpunk, heavily influenced by LewisCarroll (so there's a lot of [[MindScrew mindscrew]])
* The Brawne Lamia chapter of ''{{Hyperion}}'' contains elements of CyberPunk.
* Alfred Bester's TheDemolishedMan and TheStarsMyDestination, written in 1953 and 1956 respectively, include many of the tropes characteristic of Cyberpunk. Both involve [[AntiHero amoral, anti-heroic protagonists]], [[MegaCorp megacorporations]] and alpha-societies with seedy underbellies. ''The Stars...'' explicitly describes cyberware, including the [[BulletTime enhanced reflexes]] so beloved of Cyberpunk TabletopGames, and a backstreet 'Freak Factory' for extreme biological body modifications.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* ''MannAndMachine''
* ''NowhereMan''

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Tabletop Games ]]

* ''{{Shadowrun}}'' is half {{Cyberpunk}}, and half DungeonPunk.
* ''{{Cyberpunk 2013}}'', its second (Cyberpunk 2020), and (to a lesser extent) third editions are more "traditional" {{Cyberpunk}} games.
* And of course, ''{{Rifts}}''. It mixes elements of pretty much every genre in the world, Cyberpunk not least.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* Many sci-fi games by Origin, including ''Bioforge'', ''Cybermage'', and ''[[{{Crusader}} Crusader: No Remorse and No Regret]]''.
* The ''Half-Life'' series also features elements of CyberPunk.
* Tabuu, the final boss in ''SuperSmashBros Brawl''
* The MMORPG ''CityOfHeroes'' has very literal Cyber Punks in the Freakshow, a powerful gang of drug-fuelled [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin cyborg punks]] who have to be seen to be believed. They are pretty much the main comic relief faction of the game, while still managing to be a considerable threat in their own right. Case in point from a bank robber: "I'm gonna buy a sports car, then weld it to me!"
* ''FinalFantasyVII, definitely. It becomes rather obvious when your bioengineered antihero protagonist battles an army of corporate thugs on a freeway, with a gigantic sword, on a motorcycle. However, it tones it down for the rest of the game, so it's not a straight example.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Web Comics ]]

*''LastResort'' has the generic {{Cyberpunk}} plot pretty well secured... but is almost a bit too [[FurryFandom bright, cartoony, and furry]] to let the [[MoodDissonance darker aspects of the genre really sink in]].

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* ''BatmanBeyond''. Gotham City's evolution seems quite natural- still crowded, dirty and corrupt, only now the cars can fly.
* The ''TinyToonAdventures'' episode "Real Kids Don't Eat Broccoli" is a parody of ''BladeRunner''.
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