Film

Cyborg 2

A 1993 sci-fi action film where Angelina Jolie plays a cyborg prototype weaponized with liquid explosives, caught between two rival robotics corporations. It's a scrappy, low-budget piece of 90s genre cinema—stylish in patches, earnest throughout, heavy on neon and heavy weaponry. For fans of pre-superhero action B-movies and the particular energy of early-90s sci-fi.

TMDb rating2.2

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy grimy, neon-soaked cyberpunk built on a strange, melancholy love story between two outcasts, and don't mind a low budget showing through the rough edges.

Skip it if you want slick, well-financed effects or a tightly plotted thriller; the production is scrappy and the storytelling often drifts, so patience is needed to stay with it.

What it asks of you: It runs about ninety-nine minutes and moves in loose, dreamy bursts rather than steady momentum, so it asks you to let mood and atmosphere carry you between its action beats.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Total Recall1990

Arnold Schwarzenegger in a paranoia-soaked espionage thriller set on Mars. Verhoeven directs with visual flair and a genuine philosophical edge. The action is inventive and the world feels lived-in and dangerous.

But Nearly three hours long, and the plot's intentional ambiguity about what's real frustrates viewers who want answers. Some of the practical effects have dated visibly.

Total Recall poster

Terminator 2: Judgment Day1991

The gold standard of cyborg action cinema. Cameron's direction is immaculate, the liquid-metal T-1000 remains genuinely menacing, and the film balances genuine emotion with unstoppable spectacle. It's that rare blockbuster that earns every dollar.

But At nearly two hours it's a commitment, and the early 90s CGI, while revolutionary, shows its age. If you're tired of time-travel plots, this won't convert you.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day poster

Johnny Mnemonic1995

Keanu Reeves as a data courier in a neon-soaked cyberpunk future. It's bonkers in the best way—weird hair, weirder plot, a genuine commitment to retro-futurism. If you love 90s sci-fi excess, this scratches that exact itch.

But The plot doesn't quite cohere and the dialogue can feel unintentionally funny. It's campy; if you need your sci-fi played straight, move on.

Johnny Mnemonic poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Cyborg 2

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Liquid Sky1982

Both treat the female cyborg body as a contested space between corporate ownership and agency. Both are low-budget visions of a near-future where bodies are technology.

A Soviet experimental sci-fi film about a UFO that lands in NYC and attracts a heroin addict and a punk musician. It's visually hypnotic—an art film in sci-fi clothing. The synth score is unforgettable. A genuine vision from an alternate cinema tradition.

But It's slow, abstract, and occasionally impenetrable. No clear plot, minimal dialogue, a deliberate challenge to narrative cinema itself. Requires patience and tolerance for ellipsis.

Liquid Sky poster
More like this (8)

RoboCop1987

A cyborg cop tasked with cleaning up a corrupt near-future Detroit. Verhoeven again—satirical, visceral, unexpectedly sharp about corporate power. It works as action-thriller and as social critique without feeling preachy.

But It's graphically violent in ways that can feel gratuitous. The satire is broad and the corporate villainy cartoonish, which some find dated.

RoboCop poster

Strange Days1995

Kathryn Bigelow directs this cyberpunk LA noir about black-market memories and corporate surveillance. Immersive, visually inventive, genuinely tense. It nails the paranoia and sensory overload of the genre.

But Deliberately disorienting at times, with a chaotic second act. The subject matter includes sexual violence depicted in a disturbing (if purposeful) way.

Strange Days poster

Blade Runner1982

Harrison Ford hunts artificial humans in a visually stunning, philosophically rich vision of 2019 LA. Ridley Scott's direction is meticulous. It asks real questions about what makes us human while delivering noir mood and action.

But It's slow—deliberately contemplative rather than propulsive. The theatrical cut has a voiceover many find intrusive. If you want constant forward momentum, this isn't it.

Blade Runner poster

The Hidden1987

An alien parasite moves between bodies across LA. It's a B-movie executed with real style and genuine thrills. Kyle MacLachlan and Michael Nouri have great chemistry, and it wrings real tension from a simple premise.

But The plot is straightforward to the point of simplicity. Some of the gore effects are gross in ways that won't work for everyone.

The Hidden poster

Lockout2012

Guy Pearce as a wisecracking smuggler sent to rescue the president's daughter from a prison in space. It's knowing trash—clever about its own absurdity, beautifully shot, genuinely fun.

But The quips sometimes land and sometimes don't. If you want your action movies serious, the tonal whiplash will irritate you.

Lockout poster

Cherry 20001987

A man journeys into a dangerous wasteland to repair his android girlfriend. It's a weird, earnest little film—part road movie, part romance, visually inventive on a shoestring budget. Completely odd in a way that's oddly endearing.

But The premise is as goofy as it sounds and the film leans into it rather than interrogating it. The pacing is uneven and the logic doesn't always track.

Cherry 2000 poster

Akira1988

Both deploy cyborg/augmented bodies as visual spectacle and as instruments of corporate control. Both use their worlds' technology aesthetics to tell stories about power.

Anime epic about rival biker gangs and psychic powers in a neon-drenched Tokyo of 2019. Visually revolutionary—hand-drawn animation of staggering detail. The cyberpunk worldbuilding influenced everything after it. A technical and imaginative masterpiece.

But The plot is dense and sometimes unclear; it requires attention. Subtitles if you speak no Japanese. At 124 minutes it's a serious investment.

Akira poster

Videodrome1983

Both explore how technology invades and rewrites the body. Both treat the cyborg/modified flesh as a site of violation and loss of control, not enhancement.

David Cronenberg's hallucinogenic mindbender about a TV executive lured into a conspiracy involving violent snuff broadcasts. Grotesque, brilliant, deeply unsettling. The body horror is artistic and the ideas about technology reshaping flesh are genuinely prophetic.

But Relentlessly weird and difficult. The imagery is designed to unsettle and disgust. The plot deliberately dissolves into unreliability. Not entertainment in any conventional sense.

Videodrome poster

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