It has low-lifes living in the future, but there really isn’t much high-tech and governments are still in control (not corporations). So do you consider Escape From New York to be cyberpunk?

Apparently the movie was an influence for William Gibson:

Escape from New York never made it big, but it’s been redone a billion times as a rock video. I saw that movie, by the way, when I was starting “Burning Chrome” and it had a real influence on Neuromancer.

But that doesn’t immediately make it cyberpunk. After all, Gibson was also influenced by hard-boiled detective novels and that doesn’t make those cyberpunk.

I could see the argument for this either way so I’m curious what your thoughts are.

It’s streaming on Roku Channel and Freevee (Amazon Prime) if you haven’t seen it before.

  • ZephyrXeroEnglish
    24•1 year ago

    No, it’s got some commonalities, by being set in the future. But I would consider it of the post-apocalyptic genre, first and foremost.

    • @niktemadurEnglish
      5•1 year ago

      Right, it’s somewhat like Mad Max but in a decayed urban environment.

    • @[email protected]English
      3•1 year ago

      How so? New York only claims crime was up drastically, turning it into a prison. No apocalypse level event to speak of, it just looked that way.

      Not even LA was post apocalyptic, even as bad as things seemed. Now, after entering in the world code and resetting society with the EMP blast…THAT would be post apocalyptic.

      • ZephyrXeroEnglish
        2•1 year ago

        Couldn’t you say that full societal collapse is enough of a world ending event?

        • @[email protected]English
          2•1 year ago

          Yes, but that didn’t happen until after Escape From LA ended. Prior to that, it may have looked end of the world inside the prison but society outside was still functioning.

          • ZephyrXeroEnglish
            1•1 year ago

            I don’t know. I throught the whole city looked like that. It’s honestly been well over 20 years since I last saw it, so I’ve probably forgotten some parts. But the tone and aesthetic I remember was a very post-apocalyptic vibe

    • @GCanuckEnglish
      2•1 year ago

      Since I’m invested… what apocalypse happened? Genuine question. It has been a while since I watched it, but the apocalypse happens at the end of Escape from LA, not before New York.

      • @[email protected]English
        4•1 year ago

        No apocalypse, it was just that crime had gone up significantly. From the opening scene:

        Narrator : In 1988, the crime rate in the United States rises four hundred percent. The once great city of New York becomes the one maximum security prison for the entire country. A fifty-foot containment wall is erected along the New Jersey shoreline, across the Harlem River, and down along the Brooklyn shoreline. It completely surrounds Manhattan Island. All bridges and waterways are mined. The United States Police Force, like an army, is encamped around the island. There are no guards inside the prison, only prisoners and the worlds they have made. The rules are simple: once you go in, you don’t come out.

        • @GCanuckEnglish
          1•1 year ago

          Fair point. I still maintain it’s a cyberpunk genre. After all, increased crime is a pretty big deal in cyberpunk as well.

          We might have to agree to disagree on this one. :)

      • ZephyrXeroEnglish
        1•1 year ago

        Maybe I’m thinking more about Escape from LA then, but it seemed like the city was already in shambles at the beginning of EFNY