Tech-Noir
Also known as cyber noir, future-noir, and the very broad sci-fi noir, the term tech-noir was coined in The Terminator, where a nightclub called the TechNoir evokes both genres, replacing pernicious corporations, crooks, and corrupt entities for dystopian technologies. But don’t worry. They still have trench coats in the future.
Alphaville (Jean-Luc Godard, 1965)
Lemmy Caution (Eddie Constantine) rolls into Alphaville. He’s posing as a journalist, but he’s really a secret agent tasked with a series of missions, the last of which is to destroy Alphaville itself. The city is run by a sentient computer that has forbidden free thought, love, and emotion. Dropped into a riddle-filled Orwellian nightmare, Constantine’s archetypical tough-guy detective finds pernicious algorithms no match for a well-aimed bullet. Oh, and he falls in love almost immediately. You can tell that Godard revels in upending our expectations, and the result is both lyrical and thrilling.
Notable noir vibes: Shootouts, trench coats, and world-building that’s mostly lighting.
Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982)
The year is 2019 and former blade runner Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) has been pulled out of retirement for one last gig: to hunt down and terminate a group of escaped, highly dangerous androids called replicants. This is a vision of the future as a decaying carcass; a familiar-to-noir Los Angeles setting remodeled in a futuristic neon haze. Our femme fatale (Sean Young) is a chronological hybrid, too, John Crawford in shoulder pads with the glowing inhuman eyes. And then there’s Deckard, burned out, grumpy, and straight out of the ’40s.
Notable noir vibes: Sharp lighting contrast, urban decay, and voiceover narration if you’re watching the inferior theatrical cut.
Strange Days (Kathryn Bigelow, 1995)
Set on the precipice of the new millennium, Strange Days follows Lenny Nero (Ralph Fiennes) an ex-LAPD cop turned hustler who now slings a virtual reality experience called SQUID (originally an FBI technology intended to replace body cams). Lenny receives a disc with the memories of someone who killed a sex worker and, backed by his friend/bodyguard Mace (Angela Bassett), his crime-solving instincts kick back into gear.
Like Bigelow’s Western-horror Near Dark before it, the hybrid genre of Strange Days was misunderstood at the time of its release. The film has since been hounded with claims of sobering prescience for its interwoven themes of voyeurism, racism, and abuse of power.
Notable noir vibes: Corruption, crooning femmes fatale, and an obsessive desire for justice.
Related Topics: Film Noir, The Noirvember Files
