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.
All solid points. The lack of computer tech really is the weak point in my argument. But I’d also argue you can have a cyberpunk setting without computer tech being a focal point of the story. In which case, the only remaining point is does this society have a higher level of computer technology? And the answer to that is indeterminate based on the information shown. But I do feel like it’s strongly hinted at.