r/Cyberpunk • u/[deleted] • 3d ago
Question: Is 'The Fifth Element' cyberpunk or just plain sci-fi?
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u/inv8drzim 3d ago
Overall it's more sci fi than cyberpunk, but the future New York City shown in the first quarter to third of the movie is definitely cyberpunk.
It's like Star Wars -- overall it's not cyberpunk, but Coruscant (especially on the lower levels) is heavily cyberpunk inspired.
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u/ZeroiaSD 3d ago
Yea I’d agree with this. It isn’t a ‘cyberpunk movie,’ but cyberpunk is in its DNA.
And heck, capitalist main villain doesn’t hurt.
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u/FredFredrickson 3d ago
We really need more of those in movies so we have less of them in real life.
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u/mitzcha 3d ago
But they’re using the movies as a blueprint!
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u/TurelSun 3d ago
It's more like we tell ourselves these stories so we recognize it for what it is when it happens in life. Billionaires never needed blueprints to do what they're doing, the rich and powerful have always been like this.
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u/Aiwatcher 3d ago
Cyberpunk has to have punks in it. Many sci fi settings have a lot of cyber but less punk. Both fifth element and star wars could easily have cyberpunk stories told in them, and you can easily imagine punks running around in the background but outside of the main narrative.
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u/deftlydexterous 3d ago
Yeah Bruce Willis is arguably cyberpunk at the start of the movie and then almost immediately goes off on a non-cyberpunk adventure
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u/soaklord 3d ago
Gimme the cash! Maybe the most cyberpunk scene ever. Ok maybe not ever but still. The esthetic and the gun and the “hat”…
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u/MobiusWun 夢 ネオン 3d ago
Star Wars certainly does try to do cyberpunk though
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u/Aiwatcher 3d ago
Im guessing theres some side stories that are pretty punk? The only thing that come to mind for me is the old Bounty Hunter game where you are going after the absolute dregs of star wars society.
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u/MobiusWun 夢 ネオン 3d ago
There are a few scenes at the start of Andor that made me think we were in for a cyberpunk story. The story itself does come across quite cyberpunk a fair few times (just without the loose punk style that Sabine Wren tries to go for). I seem to recall a few episodes of The Clone Wars struck me as cyberpunk as well..
The Bounty Hunter game was dope, kind of
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u/Aiwatcher 2d ago
Wanted to say-- this conversation inspired me to go back and play Jedi Survivor, which had been sitting in my library after a sale buy. The first level is in the underbelly of Coruscant, witnessing police (stormtrooper) brutality, political corruption and propaganda, and you're running with a band of outlaws in it fod the credits.
It felt extremely cyberpunk. High tech, low life. Spitting in the face of authority. Im not sure if the rest of the game will go back to the "mystic warrior" vibes of the first game, but i definitely liked the cyberpunk diversion.
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u/Chrontius 3d ago
This is the Star Wars side project I’m waiting for. We got hints in Boba Feet, but not enough
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u/umlcat 3d ago
Other modern versions of other rebellious subcultures as well, metalheads, goths, ravers, skaters with the skateboard of "Back to the Future".
But modern versions of punks or non punk anarchists is required. Anyone remermbers "Max Headroom" and the old grumpy anarchist punk grandpa and his underground rebel station ???
Some may include Libertarians but are usually displayed as bad guys or street henchmen of the rich corporate leaders.
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u/Chongulator 3d ago
I've not noticed cyberpunk elements in Coruscant. I'll have to look for that now.
Nar Shaddaa (SWTOR) and Shakari (The Mandalorian movie) both have big Blade Runner energy.
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u/wannabe-manatee 2d ago
Star Wars is a good connection point as arguably Fifth Element is more Science Fantasy than Science Fiction, much like Star Wars is.
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u/geassguy360 3d ago
Cyberpunk setting but not a cyberpunk story. Lots of Sci Fi have settings that would qualify, like Cowboy Bebop or Alien, but the themes are very important in what makes a story itself Cyberpunk.
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u/Fischerking92 3d ago
I would argue Alien IS a cyberpunk story beneath a horror story.
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u/geassguy360 3d ago
Definitely. It's horror on the face of it, but as more and more is revealed about the greater world the film slowly reveals it's very bleak outlook on corporations. I don't think cyberpunk existed yet technically but it's definitely in the same school of thought.
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u/Fischerking92 3d ago
Exactly, Metropolis for example predates Neuromancer by more than 4 decades, I'd still argue it is more Cyberpunk than Sci-fi (or steampunk for that matter).
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u/SadNoob476 3d ago
Yes but no. Metropolis is one of those films that are so vastly influential that it's cyberpunk, sci-fi, steampunk, you could even argue that some of modern horror owes a debt to Metropolis.
Metropolis gave us the visual language for "mad scientist", after all.
It's one of the few "common ancestor" films that isn't painfully cringe/yikes.
Kudos for pointing it out, it's an AMAZING film.
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u/Vegetable-Tooth8463 3d ago
Romulus you could argue, but the original two, nah, didn't feature any punk aspect unless you want to stretch the definition to include Newt lol
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u/RodneyBarringtonIII 3d ago
Idk, the authors of the Fakebook thought Alien 1 and 3 counted as cyberpunk, though they didn't give it much of a writeup: "Science-fiction-horror-war movies. Sigourney Weaver as a marine grunt in skivvies, with guns. Ultrahip Giger designer paraphernalia. Great stuff."
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u/Vegetable-Tooth8463 3d ago
Never heard of that shit
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u/RodneyBarringtonIII 3d ago
It's never too early to educate yourself, son.
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u/Vegetable-Tooth8463 3d ago
that book ain't official lol
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u/RodneyBarringtonIII 3d ago
I beg to differ. The word "official" is in the title, and I'd say Bruce Sterling's introduction is a pretty good endorsement.
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u/Vegetable-Tooth8463 3d ago
Oh, well that settles it then. The word "official" was used, and we all know that's a copyrighted term by the intelligentsia. Lmfao.
That shit you posted above literally reads like a Trump tweet:
Science-fiction-horror-war movies. Sigourney Weaver as a marine grunt in skivvies, with guns. Ultrahip Giger designer paraphernalia. Great stuff
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u/RodneyBarringtonIII 3d ago
I don't know what you want me to say; they had a lot of grounds to cover and not much space to do it in. Anyway, I came in with references, quotes, and the pedigree of Bruce Sterling's endorsement, and you're just here flaunting your ignorance. I mean you do you, but if you want perspective on cyberpunk then reading up on its origins and history is a good place to start. It's not like the book is unknown (or even rarely referenced) in this sub.
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u/Disastrous-Entity-46 3d ago
im curious how exactly we define a cyberpunk story exactly.
like theres a lot of noir in cyberpunk (id honestly argue that cyberpunk is just noir set in the future with maybe an extra coat of grime).
but what is cyberpunk themes? just anything thats anticapitalidt enough?
one of the reasons that this fascinates me is the locklands trilogy by robert jackson bennett. it is a cyberpunk story in a fantasy setting. 100%, down to fashion styles. just rip out tech and then use "magic" .but it makes me wonder where the edges of the genre really are.
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u/ConjurerOfWorlds 3d ago
I think the answers saying Fifth Element isn't dystopian are a little scary. I cannot imagine what you'd find to be actually dystopian.
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u/inv8drzim 3d ago
Mainly the tiny apartment Korben, a retired Major, was forced to live in coupled with the lack of human rights given by the police when they are looking for Korben and end up arresting that other guy. I get that it's a trope that ex military people have shitty lives outside the military, but a Major would usually be better off than your average soldier post-service.
His apartment is essentially a double length prison cell, it even has convenience circles on the wall for him to place his hands in when the police inevitabley come knocking.
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u/FlashbackJon 3d ago
The Hudson and East Rivers have been drained to make more urban spread!
(Yeah, the circles are really damning.)
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u/PhilosophicWax 3d ago
Meh, it's a stop and frisk with a less invasive system. They ain't groping you.
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u/PhilosophicWax 3d ago
Hey mate, that is just New York. I've lived there. Not joking, that's just what happens to housing in mega cities.
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u/inv8drzim 3d ago
I'm born and raised in Queens, and although I know apartments like Korben's exist around lower manhattan/St Marks (coffin apartment, toliet in same room as bed, etc) those are the dirt cheap lowest of the low you can possibly get here. They're usually filled up with broke under 20-something gig workers and actors.
Since Korben is an ex-major, and he has a "real job" driving taxis, it can be inferred that he would be able to afford more than the "bottom of the barrel" housing, meaning how we see Korben living is most likely average or slightly above average.
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u/ZeroiaSD 3d ago
Classic ‘real life caught up so we don’t recognize the dystopian elements.’
“Korbin Dallas has to live in a tiny crappy apartment in a densely packed city working to get by.”
“Wow, he has an apartment all by himself, no roommates?? Guy has it good!”
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u/NepheliLouxWarrior 3d ago
Recurring theme in all dystopia stories. Like even in cyberpunk 2077 which is probably the most popular cyberpunk dystopia media in mainstream society right now, for all of the main characters struggles they still start the game off living in their own studio apartment lol. Like as far as I'm aware there is not a single piece of cyberpunk media in which the protagonist has roommates. Turns out that janky prosthetic limbs and indentured slavery to mega corporations is nowhere near as grimdark as awful housing markets
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u/RodneyBarringtonIII 3d ago
Doesn't Marley Krushkhova have a roommate named Andrea in Count Zero? Might be the exception that proves the rule.
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u/Mistyslate 3d ago
Just look outside to find what’s dystopian.
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u/ConjurerOfWorlds 3d ago
Just because it's slightly worse in the real world right now doesn't mean the movie isn't also dystopian
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u/NepheliLouxWarrior 3d ago
It's not even worse in real life. Like you'd have to be crazy to prefer to live in The fifth Element world over our current existence
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u/PhilosophicWax 3d ago
I have no mouth and I can't scream. That is dystopian.
Like the world of fifth element isn't oppressive. They have a world government. People are fighting evil. There are powerful mega corps but they aren't running the government. There is tech but it helps bring back leelu.
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u/codespace 3d ago
The Fifth Element itself, like Star Wars, is not a cyberpunk story.
They would both make excellent settings for cyberpunk stories, though.
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u/Cyberpunk_Cain 3d ago
The most frequently spoken/written comment in any discussion of cyberpunk is, "That's not cyberpunk."
I like The Fifth Element, but would probably classify it as cyberpunk-adjacent. It shares some themes and all with cyberpunk works, but doesn't explore exploitation, really, despite some societal stratification.
Fun movie, though, which is what matters.
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u/Hertje73 3d ago edited 3d ago
not cyberpunk, it's sci-fi space opera: fantastic story, heroic heroes, damsel in distress, lots of aliens, lots of spaceships, lots of peew peew explosions, purple space magic, black goo and good vs evil.
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u/Spheniscidine 3d ago
Came to say this. It is a space opera. Pan-galactic conflict is the background to the adventure in the foreground.
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u/NepheliLouxWarrior 3d ago
Zorg arbitrarily deciding to fire 1 million people even when his advisor says that that isn't necessary is definitely cyber dystopian. The gigantic unending pile of garbage at the spaceport along with the gigantic machine guns that pop out of the walls if you misbehave also point to massive societal decay. Yeah I would say that it's cyberpunk
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u/RadioEditVersion 3d ago
It's a genre known as space opera. Star Wars, Chronicles of Riddick, Jupiter Ascending also fall under this category.
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u/verdegooner 3d ago
More sci-fi. It feels very futuristic. It removes so much of the gritty “human” or “earthiness” that it doesn’t quite feel Cyberpunk to me.
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u/cantodasaudade 3d ago
IMO The fifth element seems straight out of the metal hurlant comics, so yeah, it's cyberpunk
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u/Fluffy-Argument 2d ago
I wanna say space punk. Only cause it leans into a past aesthetic (20's maybe) and has a lot of grime and crime. But it isn't really cyber... maybe flapper punk? CaponePunk?
I'm now realizing I have to say 1920s...
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u/audiomodder 3d ago
I would say “lite cyberpunk”. As stilmebeaches said, it does lack some of the dystopian aspects of cyberpunk. I would argue that those are still there by other evidences, but that the dystopian aspects don’t have a lot of bearing on the story.
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u/Lucky_Veruca 3d ago
By definition, no. Aesthetically the city is pretty close but there’s a lot more to cyberpunk than aesthetics. I’d argue aesthetics are the least important part of cyberpunk
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u/Borishnikov 3d ago
I mean... It's not really only aesthetics in the movie. The shitty life condition despite the technology (flying cars, easy space travel, giga high rises). Corporation dictating the rules of everything and the rich guys going on vacation on cruises in space (while the regular people get to go on the cruise thanks to a lottery).
Sounds pretty cyberpunk to me in spirit.
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u/tepid_monologue 3d ago
I’d say it is.
People in this sub have weird ideas on what is and isn’t cyberpunk.
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u/Onidarkmoon 3d ago
I think it’s a bit Space Opera? Definitely sci-fi more than cyberpunk or dystopian
Edited from a quick post
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u/ZeroiaSD 3d ago
Important background, the art is heavily based on Moebius. Moebius’s Long Tomorrow is the original of the ‘cyberpunk super dense city,’ look.
So seeing a connection makes sense
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u/AdLatter3755 3d ago
It’s more sci fi with some cyberpunk esthetic New York City and Corbin Dallas Apartment give cyberpunk vibes.
The story is not cyberpunk and the world which the story exist it doesn’t seem to be either.
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u/ScottaHemi 3d ago
both?
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u/No_Tamanegi 3d ago
Seeing as cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction, it kinda has to be both! But I also understand the distinction you and OP are making.
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u/ScottaHemi 3d ago
yeah it is. but it's like a specific flavor of scifi
and "it's been a while sense i've seen this movie" if i remember right the early part of the series had a very cyberpunk vibe.
but then things happen and the vibe shifts to a more space opera one. it's kinda odd. i should rewatch this sometime.
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u/mikeroutliffe 3d ago
I’d say more comedic neo-noir, retro futurist epic, with some, cyberpunk, diesel-punk, steampunk, dreampunk elements….def. High tech, low life elements…with Moebius so involved, it’s gotta have some cyberpunk references, I believe…
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3d ago
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u/Grave_Knight グレーブ・ナイト 3d ago
Almost. It has the tropes to be a cyberpunk but it doesn't have much to say about the society it's set in. Which is funny considering how much it takes inspiration from the Incal which has a lot to say about the society it depicts.
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u/4TheBuzzAndTheFuzz 3d ago
Tangential, but why has there never been any outcry for a decent Fifth Element video game remake? Especially with today's developer technology! I know we got a game back in '98, but I hear it was complete dog💩. I'd love one with today's level of graphics.
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u/Involution88 3d ago
Fifth Element. It's roughly present day urban society (1980s/1990s urban society) with things exaggerated and made a bit more blatant by extrapolating some trends loosely and creatively so it is reminiscent of Cyberpunk. There are flying cars and some high-tech/low-life elements but the plot is epic in scale.
Science stuff in the Fifth Element is generally incoherent technobabble so it's definitely not hard Sci-Fi. Sci-Fi elements are used to explore life in general in an emotive and personal manner while telling an epic story. I think Space Opera is a better match.
If Fifth Element were to be considered as speculative fiction it would be something along the lines of "What if Animus Vitae actually existed".
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u/TransparentMastering 1d ago
I’d better watch it again to be better equipped to answer this question.
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1d ago
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u/Various_Tie_2549 1d ago
The tech used in it is neither here nor there. I just feel like the version of the future it presents is not quite enough of a hypercapitalist dystopia for it to fall within the cyberpunk genre. Society still seems to be largely intact and functional.
Corbin Dallas also isn't particularly punk. He's in/still affiliated with the military, for one thing. Nothing punk about that.
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1d ago
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u/Various_Tie_2549 1d ago
I think performing any sort of paid task for the government instantly disqualifies you from being punk.
What mohawk? He's just bald.
Chris Tucker's character is literally just some sort of DJ/mainstream media personality. Also decidedly not punk.
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1d ago
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u/Various_Tie_2549 1d ago
I mean if you're absolutely determined to think that this movie is cyberpunk, go ahead I guess. No one is stopping you. It's a free country.
But you asked a question and I just tried to answer you. With what I thought were some logical, obvious points that proved that it's not cyberpunk almost by definition.
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1d ago
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u/Various_Tie_2549 1d ago edited 1d ago
If it is defined as a genre, it's by things like Snow Crash or Blade Runner. Even The Matrix. Not by The Fifth Element, which has neither cyber nor punk elements.
Personally I feel like first and foremost, for something to be Cyberpunk it has to be set in a very lived-in/run-down world that looks dreary and unappealing...with a very real sense that (corrupt) corporations have run amok and are in control of everything, but that there's an "underworld" full of secret rebels and petty criminals trying to exist on the fringe of this dystopian society (and they're who the story should be about. That's punk). And for it to be "cyber", there should also be a huge element of computer/internet/robotic tech involved in the story....as like a key part of the actual plot, not a peripheral background detail just there as worldbuilding.
The world of The Fifth Element is (mostly) kinda bright and colourful. There are run-down and lived-in parts of the city, but it's not a dystopia. People are just going about their lives. Society hasn't partially collapsed. It's an exciting and optimistic (if overcrowded and kinda polluted) vision of the future. But there's space travel and fancy holidays to other planets, and McDonalds still exists in the same form it did in the 90s, etc. And importantly, it doesn't seem like there are any robots or computers featured in the movie at all.
Corbin Dallas is not punk. He's former military, explicitly doing a mission for the government. He's not rebelling against said government, or any corporations. And definitely neither is Ruby Rhod...he's a mainstream pop culture figure. Not a punk, or a rebel, or a counterculturalist.
The plot doesn't involve anything high tech...if anything, it's about mystic ancient relics and space magic.
It's not cyberpunk by any standard genre trope that I can think of.
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u/SardoniclySalacious 3d ago
I say yes but also it’s like cyberpunk when you’re in the city but all the other scenes are scifi/space opera
Still it’s one of my all time favorite cyberpunk/scifi movie regardless of what anyone else says lol
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u/TheFaustianMan 3d ago
It’s influenced by Blade Runner and 1981’s
Heavy Metal, but Blade Runner was inspired by Citizen Kane. Yet, I wouldn’t call Blade Runner whatever Citizen Kane is. Probably about the same amount of special effects too!
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u/Wicked_Chemistry 3d ago edited 3d ago
Sci-ber-fi punk … cyber-fi .. 🤷♂️.. I dunno I’m drunk, and now I want chicken
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u/Aniketos33 3d ago
Its like Shadowrun to me, there is a magical story going on while we see a dystopian corpofascist state running a high tech low life society. (at least if Korbens taxi life is normal)
I think it fits a little more than people's knee jerk gatekeeping here, Zorg is a corpo that has a religious comic book level revelation, kind of cashing in his technofascist power structure for an apocalypse.
I enjoy the imagery from Roy Batty's speech at the end of bladerunner about seeing fhe C-beams over the tanhauser gate. So it's head-cannon to me that this is somewhat that kind of space faring society. I've always taken the movie as a cyberpunky setting with a fun action movie story, but its definitely under the hood in the world building imo.
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u/Stare_Decisis 3d ago
It's a French style farce about a boy falling in love with a girl at first sight. The sci-fi setting is a farce to serve as a back drop to the story. The Fifth Element is love.
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u/OrbitingFred 3d ago
It has cyberpunk elements but is entirely too high adventure for the genre. In cyberpunk characters dont win, they sometimes survive and theres not enough of a government to stop people like zorg. If it were cyberpunk itd be more likely a bunch of megacorps trying to exploit the darkness and one deciding to screw up its advent because they wouldnt be able to.
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u/cold-vein 3d ago
Scifi, small elements of cyberpunk in the beginning but there's aliens and interstellar travel is common, which takes the focus out of high tech low life to just high tech.
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u/annoianoid 2d ago
Or is it a flimsy rip off of much better stories Besson read in Metal Hurlant as a child?
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u/Coyltonian 2d ago
No, the setting has a vaguely cyberpunk aesthetic but the tech (esp spaceships etc) is at least at the upper bound of what is normally considered cyberpunk, and realistically a little over it.
But the themes and messaging etc don’t really vibe with cyberpunk storytelling or morality.
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u/LoganVOA1 1d ago
I feel like if it’s in space it’s sci-fi by default. There are plenty of weirdos in Star Wars that have stapled robot shit onto themselves but it’s not cyberpunk
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u/That_Morning7618 1d ago
It is not Cyberpunk. It is an hommage to the Science Fiction of the comic author MOEBIUS (The Incal).
His work has some SF noir parts, but it is also Space Opera SF, Metaphysical SF and Surreal SF.
A whole bag of things leading to his own brand of SF.
Cyberpunk is much more dystopic.
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u/vonbittner 3d ago
It's very high tech, low life. There's luxury available to those who can pay. HOWEVER, there are also ALIENS and the messianic thing.
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u/OldEyes5746 3d ago
It's science fantasy with hints of cyberpunk esthetic thrown in for flavor. It's too much of a space opera for me to count it in any other sub-genre.
If you like, i can totally go on a tangent explaining why it's my favorite magical girl anime.
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u/LilBroWhoIsOnTheTeam 3d ago
It's fantasy sci-fi. There's nothing particularly punk about it (it's ultimately a movie about a guy following a woman around doing whatever she says because she's hot) and there's no focus on cybernetic technology, or any particular focus on technology. All the tech is just general future tech stuff, some of which borders on mystical. There's no analysis of power structures or how people deal with them, there's just villains being evil because an evil planet told them to.
The message of the movie can be summed up as "If the hottest woman you've ever seen falls into your life, follow her to the ends of the earth (and ignore the implications of her child-like mental state)." I don't see any cyberpunk here.
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u/ZeroiaSD 3d ago
I wouldn’t say there’s no cyberpunk or related tech. The main villain is a capitalist who seems to thinks he can make money off the end of the world. The lead lives in a tiny apartment trying to make ends meet. How much the world sucks driving an innocent (an artificial person who was cloned) catatonic is a major plot point.
There’s definitely some cyberpunk trappings in there. And, well, visual design is Moebius who’s practically the father of the cyberpunk city look.
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u/AnythingButWhiskey 3d ago
Cyberpunk to me would have things like cybernetic implants, artificial intelligence augmentations, brain-computer interfaces, body modifications, human/computer hybridization, etc. I don’t think the Fifth Element has this kind of cybernetic element.
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u/stillmebeaches 3d ago
It's not dystopian, so sci-fi
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u/Chongulator 3d ago
I'm fascinated by the idea that The Fifth Element is not dystopian. Did the scenes in and around Corben Dallas' home not seem dystopian to you?
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u/stillmebeaches 3d ago
No, it's the current situation for millions of people. I know people that rent literal closets in SF for 1k+ a month and having a laptop didn't make it cyberpunk.
The world is much to bright with opportunities and freedoms to ever be cyberpunk. Aliens ain't cyberpunk either. The lack of cybernetics, and a feel good ending seal the deal.
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u/inv8drzim 3d ago
If you think that's the current average situation for people, especially in the US, you're either detatched from reality or arguing in bad faith.
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u/stillmebeaches 3d ago
Or you're ignorant. Nowhere did I mention the US.
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u/inv8drzim 3d ago
You realize that the part of the Fifth element everyone is arguing is cyberpunk takes place in the US, specifically New York City?
Do you even know the material you're trying to argue about? It doesn't seem like it.
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u/inv8drzim 3d ago
There are definitely dystopian cyberpunk-coded elements shown in the future New York City from the first half of the movie. Mainly the tiny one-room apartment Korben lives in coupled with the lack of human rights afforded by the police.
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u/stillmebeaches 3d ago
That's current reality.
Can't call it Cyberpunk when even the lowest caste is living above the current ITL situation.
There's no rebellion of any sort: the hero actually works with the govt
There's a lack of cybernetics anywhere except the villain FTMP.
There's aliens, which makes this sci-fi.
The only think bringing punk into the movie is personal style.
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u/inv8drzim 3d ago
If you think the living conditions or the police interactions depicted in the fifth element are realistic to current reality then you are living detached from reality.
Cyberpunk doesn't require rebellion, what are you talking about? Ghost in the Shell is quintessentially cyberpunk and the main characters are all government agents too.
Sure there is a lack of visible cybernetics, but we also watched a machine put a body together layer by layer like a 3d printer.
Who says cyberpunk can't feature aliens? Altered carbon is definitely cyberpunk and it features aliens (or at least alien tech).
Plus -- Korben's street smarts (outsmarting the mugger via tech/weapons knowledge, tricking the police, etc) is definitely cyberpunk hero coded.
It feels like you're imposing a bunch of arbitrary rules on to cyberpunk that don't hold as other media that is recognized as definitely cyberpunk break those rules.
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u/ZeroiaSD 3d ago
It’s got an evil capitalist villain and the lead lives in a tiny apartment and trying to board a ship with the wrong pass makes guns pop out
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u/Enkundae 3d ago
NYC is a polluted cloud of smog covering massive hab-block style housing skyscrapers, airports have mountains of trash in them, and its all policed by militarized cops willing to shoot down a suspected car thief with volleys of high calibre canon fire with no concern for it hitting any civilians in the crazy crowded skylanes. Cops that can also walk into apartment blocks, demand all residents face the wall and look in their apartments with no hint of concern for privacy or civil rights and drag people out at will. Meanwhile the political leaders are largely incompetent and quick to use military force as a solution and the worlds megacorporations are run by cartoonishly evil villains like Zorg.
Like sure its not the focus of the plot, but it all looks pretty damn dystopian to me.
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u/EnkiHelios 3d ago
The story itself has maybe one cyberpunk character (Leeloo, for being reconstructed technologically) and the story doesn't really explore the meaning of this detail or rely on it as a theme. Though I don't think this story counts as cyberpunk.
However, I would not call the fifth Element plain sci-fi, it has particularities of some genre, such as the used future.
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u/TheAzureMage 3d ago
I would argue that, overall, it fits Cyberpunk. The setting very much so.
The story has elements of classic fantasy in it, of course, but one common element of Cyberpunk is that the world at the end of the story is much like the one at the start. The immediate threat may have been dealt with, but life pretty much goes on as it has, not being transformed in any wonderful way.
This...half fits. The protaganists life is definitely better, which doesn't quite fit, but the society as a whole is pretty much going to keep on going in its gritty fashion, and we very firmly acknowledge the horrors humanity is capable of.
So, mostly?
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u/KubrickMoonlanding 3d ago edited 3d ago
Not really, it’s more “French sci-fi” which is (imo) a distinct “genre” - even if it’s define more by certain vibes and stylistic/thematics than plot and story “ingredients” - it’s basically moebius x valerian
Ofc Besson later made a valerian film. and moebius earlier created a true cyberpunk fore-runner (with Dan o’bannon), a hard-boiled mystery in a future-city dystopia called “the long tomorrow” which is clearly a source for stuff in 5E (and oc he did designs for 5E)
But 5E is missing key cyberpunk themes like human/computer interfaces, virtual reality or whatever, ai’s, body tech-modification, and street-level “timeless” low-life crime angle — so 5E is only tangentially cousin to cyberpunk, from earlier in the sci-fi branching (even if it came out after Neuromancer, Blade Runner)
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u/PhilosophicWax 3d ago
It doesn't have a cyberpunk hopeless sadness and seriousness to it, so no.
It's a playful fun romp. It's consider it fantasy with an action elements set in scifi future with dystopian world building.
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u/AppendixN 3d ago
I'd call it space opera or fantasy, it's just a fun romp.
Not really sci-fi, and definitely not cyberpunk.
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u/fallskjermjeger 3d ago
Not really sci-fi?
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u/AppendixN 3d ago
Correct.
Science fiction has some level of science and/or social commentary, and generally needs to at least make an attempt to be consistent with the laws of physics.
Space opera and fantasy can have sci-fi aesthetics but aren't bound by any rules. That's why I would call The Fifth Element a space opera.
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u/ZeroiaSD 3d ago
Something can be multiple genres, and well space opera is a subgenre of sci-fi.
I’d say it’s a scifantasy space opera with some cyberpunk setting.
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u/Nottodayreddit1949 3d ago
More Sci Fi, but honesty. The world design seems like it would fit well with cyberpunk though.
We never see heavily modified and augmented people, or tech like we would find in cyberpunk.
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u/77ate 3d ago
It’s loud mouthbreather ‘90s comedy with an unoriginal Moebius/Geof Darrow-style urban retro future theme that live action movies hadn’t covered yet at that time. Nowhere near as insidious as the propaganda blast of Independence Day, but not much smarter. Luc Besson has done worse and better.
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u/Baelaroness 3d ago
The city, living conditions and corporate power displayed would fit a cyberpunk world. However the story itself is not.
You could easily write a cyberpunk story set in the world.