Bionics and Cyborg Technogies - Dramas
Bionic Breakdown (original title: Bionic Ever After)
Director: Steve Stafford
Country of origin and year: USA, 1994
Starring: Lindsay Wagner, Lee Majors and Richard Anderson
Steve Austin and Jaime Summers are about to get married. However, days before the wedding, Jaime experiences a mysterious breakdown of her bionic legs. It seems that someone has been doing something to her, who and why? At the same time an old friend of Steve's is being held prisoner by some terrorists and Steve, needing to take his mind off Jaime, offers to go and help.
Internet Movie Database webpage: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109274/
Circuitry Man
Director: Steven Lovy
Country of origin and year: USA, 1990
Starring: Jim Metzler, Dana Wheeler-Nicholson and Lu Leonard
In a future where most humans have moved underground to escape the pollution, one of the few pleasures left is a kind of narcotic in the form of chips which can be plugged directly into the brain. Lori, a female body guard steals a case of such chips and flees underground Los Angeles with Danner, a pleasure android so that they can smuggle the chips to New York. In pursuit is Plughead, a dangerous criminal so named because of the many sockets and ports which decorate his scalp so that he can test and use the chips that he is after.
Internet Movie Database webpage: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099271/
Who?
Director: Jack Gold
Country of origin and year: UK, 1973
Starring: Elliott Gould, Trevor Howard and Joseph Bova
Elliot Gould plays the role of an American government official, and Joseph Bova plays an American scientist. While visiting the Soviet Union, Bova, is involved in a serious car accident. The Russian surgeons perform emergency life-saving surgery by replacing most of Bova's body parts with electronic devices. Thus when he returns home, Bova is to all intents and purposes a cyborg. It is up to Gould to find out if our reconstituted hero has been transformed into a Soviet spy.
Internet Movie Database webpage:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072405/
Repo Men
Director: Miguel Sapochnik
Country of origin and year: USA, 2010
Starring: Jude Law, Forest Whitaker and Alice Braga
In the future, medical technology has advanced to the point where people can buy artificial organs to extend their lives. But if they default on payments, an organization known as the Union sends agents to repossess the organs. Remy is one of the best agents in the business, but when he becomes the recipient of an artificial heart, he finds himself in the same dire straits as his many victims. With his former partner Jake in hot pursuit, Remy runs for his life.
Internet Movie Database webpage: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1053424/
Johnny Mnemonic
Director: Robert Longo
Country of origin and year: UK, 1995
Stars: Keanu Reeves, Dolph Lundgren, Dina Meyer
Johnny is a data courier who has a secret stash of information implanted into his mind. However, the data will kill Johnny if he cannot retrieve it within 48 hours. Accompanied by physically enhanced bodyguard Jane, Johnny sets out to acquire the passwords he needs to save himself. Worse yet, he is hunted by gangster Shinji and businessman Takahashi, both of whom seek the data he possesses.
Internet Movie Database webpage: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113481/
Cellular
Director: David R. Ellis
Country of origin and year: UK, 2004
Starring: Kim Basinger, Chris Evans, Jason Statham
A young man receives a call on his cellular phone from a woman who says she's been kidnapped, and thinks she's going to be killed soon, along with her husband and son who the kidnappers have gone after next. The catch? She doesn't know where she is... and his cell phone battery might go dead soon.
Internet Movie Database webpage: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0337921/
Blade Runner (1982)
Director: Ridley Scott
Country of origin and year: USA, 1982
Starring: Harrison Ford, Sean Young, Rutger Hauer
Rick Deckard, a retired cop, is forced by the police Boss to continue his old job as Replicant Hunter. His assignment: eliminate four escaped Replicants (human-like androids with short life spans built by the Tyrell Corporation for use in dangerous off-world colonization) from the colonies who have returned to Earth. Before starting the job, Deckard goes to the Tyrell Corporation and he meets Rachel, a Replicant girl he falls in love with.
Internet Movie Database webpage: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083658/
Avatar
Director: James Cameron
Country of origin and year: UK, 2009
Stars: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver
When his brother is killed in a robbery, paraplegic Marine Jake Sully takes his place in a mission on the distant world of Pandora. There he learns of the plan to drive off the native humanoid "Na'vi" in order to mine for the precious material scattered throughout their rich woodland. While Jake begins to bond with the native tribe and quickly falls in love with the beautiful alien Neytiri, the restless Colonel moves forward with his ruthless extermination tactics, forcing the soldier to take a stand - and fight back in an epic battle for the fate of Pandora.
Internet Movie Database webpage: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0499549/
Black Mirror Series (stand-alone dramas on UK Channel 4)
SERIES SYNOPSIS
Black Mirror is a contemporary British re-working of The Twilight Zone with stories that tap into the collective unease about our modern world. The three stand-alone dramas are sharp, suspenseful, satirical tales with a techno-paranoia bent.
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/black-mirror/4od#3327868
Series 1 episode 3
FIRST BROADCAST: 9PM Sun 18 December 2011 C4
Duration: 48:54
In the near future, everyone has access to a memory implant that records everything they do, see and hear - a sort of Sky Plus for the brain. It's about a future where everybody has memory implants which you can then use to playback parts of your life on screen. In the story, one partner in a couple suspects the other of having an affair and demands to watch her memories back. I think there are issues about people then wanting to erase or reject the implant. I think it would be good as for the most part it doesn't look like a futuristic world and people don't look obviously like cyborgs in the robotic man sense. Also, raises questions about different this really is to the world we already live in where recording/tracking technology is ubiquitous.
Series 2 episode 1
FIRST BROADCAST: 10PM Mon 11 February 2013 C4
Duration: 48:41
Martha and Ash are a young couple who move to a remote cottage. The day after the move, Ash is killed, returning the hire van. At the funeral, Martha's friend Sarah tells her about a new service that lets people stay in touch with the deceased. By using all his past online communications and social media profiles, a new 'Ash' can be created. Martha is disgusted by the concept but then in a confused and lonely state she decides to talk to 'him'...
Series 2 Episode 2
FIRST BROADCAST: 10PM Mon 18 February 2013 C4
Duration: 42:19
Victoria wakes up and cannot remember anything about her life. Everyone she encounters refuses to communicate with her and enjoys filming her discomfort on their phones. Victoria meets Jem, who explains that a signal is being transmitted that has turned most of the population into dumb voyeurs. This apathy has allowed the unaffected, the 'hunters', to do what they want and they are out to get people like her and Victoria. Jem and Victoria set out to destroy the transmitter, but can they manage it and will it end their torment?
Series 2 Episode 3
FIRST BROADCAST: 10PM Mon 25 February 2013 C4
Duration: 43:28
Meet Waldo... a CGI blue bear from a children's educational TV show who in reality is an anarchic character on a satirical late-night topical comedy show.Behind the scenes, Waldo is voiced and controlled by failed comedian Jamie Salter. When the channel decide they would like to give Waldo his own pilot, the production company enter him into a political race against one of his victims, Conservative Liam Monroe, for a stunt. Jamie isn't comfortable with politics - he just sees himself as a clown - but once the wheels start turning there's no stopping the thing. So what can Jamie do?
Robocop (1987)
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Country of origin and year: UK, 1987
Starring: Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Dan O'Herlihy
Detroit - in the future - is crime-ridden and run by a massive company. The company have developed a huge crime-fighting robot, which unfortunately develops a rather dangerous glitch. The company sees a way to get back in favour with the public when a cop called Alex Murphy is killed by a street gang. Murphy's body is reconstructed within a steel shell and named Robocop. The Robocop is very successful against criminals, and becomes a target of supervillain Boddicker.
Internet Movie Database webpage: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093870/
Doctor Who - Rise of the Cybermen/Age of Steel
Rise of the Cybermen May 12th, 2006 7h20pm - 8h05pm BBC1
The Age of Steel May 19th, 2006 7h00pm - 7h45pm BBC1
The Cybermen are a fictional race of cyborgs who are amongst the most persistent enemies of the Doctor in the British science fiction television programme, Doctor Who. Cybermen were originally a wholly organic species of humanoids originating on Earth's twin planet Mondas that began to implant more and more artificial parts into their bodies as a means of self-preservation. This led to the race becoming coldly logical and calculating, with every emotion deleted from their minds.
In a laboratory in a place unknown, a blinding light silhouettes a robotic figure amongst the pieces of machinery. A scientist working in the lab informs his superior that ‘it’ is working. The other man, seated in the shadows, marvels at his new creation: skin of metal, and a body that will never age.
Yet the man explains this is a new form of life and they must inform Geneva of it’s existence, it contravenes the Bio-Convention. However Lumic knows they will never allow this creature life, and decides he shall not apply to ratification. Kendrick apologises but it is his duty to inform them.
I'm a Cyborg (Original title: "Ssa-i-bo-geu-ji-man-gwen-chan-a" )
Director: Chan-wook Park
Country of origin and year: Japan, 2006
Starring: Lim Soo-Jung, Rain, Kim Byeong-Ok
A young woman called Young-goon who believes she's a cyborg hears voices and harms herself while at work making radios. She is hospitalized in a mental institution where she eats nothing and talks to inanimate objects. Young-goon comes to the attention of Il-sun, a ping-pong playing patient at the institution who makes it his goal to get her to eat. Will he succeed? Which way does sanity lie?
Internet Movie Database webpage: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0497137/
Cyborg She - "Boku no kanojo wa saibôgu" (original title)
Director: Jae-young Kwak
Country of origin and year: Japan, 2008
Starring: Haruka Ayase, Keisuke Koide, Risa Ai
A lonesome college student, Jiro, is spending his 20th birthday alone, when suddenly, a beautiful girl turns up. The few hours that he spends with her are the most incredible moments of his life. But his happiness does not last long as she disappears as suddenly as she appeared. A year later, Jiro runs into her again at the same restaurant, where she saves him and countless others from a crazy assassin. It is the beginning of a relationship that would change his life forever.
Internet Movie Database webpage: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0929860/
Tetsuo, the Iron Man- "Tetsuo" (original title)
Director: Shin'ya Tsukamoto
Country of origin and year: Japan, 1989
Starring: Tomoro Taguchi, Kei Fujiwara, Nobu Kanaoka
A strange man known only as the "metal fetishist", who seems to have an insane compulsion to stick scrap metal into his body, is hit and possibly killed by a Japanese "salaryman", out for a drive with his girlfriend. The salaryman then notices that he is being slowly overtaken by some kind of disease that is turning his body into scrap metal, and that his nemesis is not in fact dead but is somehow masterminding and guiding his rage and frustration-fueled transformation.
Internet Movie Database webpage: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096251/
Tetsuo II: Body Hammer
Director: Shin'ya Tsukamoto
Country of origin and year: Japan, UK 1992
Starring: Tomoro Taguchi, Shin’ya Tsukamoto, Nobu Kanaoka
Sequel to "Tetsuo" this time has the Iron Man transforming into cyberkinetic gun when a gang of vicious skinheads kidnap his son. When the skinheads capture him, they begin to experiment on him...speeding up the mutative process!
Internet Movie Database webpage: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105569/
Ghost in the Shell - "Kôkaku kidôtai" (original title)
Director: Mamoru Oshii
Country of origin and year: Japan, 1995
Starring: Atsuko Tanaka, Iemasa Kayumi, Akio Otsuka
The year is 2029. The world has become intensively information oriented and humans are well-connected to the network. Crime has developed into a sophisticated stage by hacking into the interactive network. To prevent this, Section 9 is formed. These are cyborgs with incredible strengths and abilities that can access any network on Earth.
Internet Movie Database webpage: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113568/
TRON: Legacy
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Country of origin and year: USA, 2010
Starring: Jeff Bridges, Olivia Wilde, Garrett Hedlund
Sam Flynn, the tech-savvy 27-year-old son of Kevin Flynn, looks into his father's disappearance and finds himself pulled into the same world of fierce programs and gladiatorial games where his father has been living for 20 years. Along with Kevin's loyal confidant, father and son embark on a life-and-death journey across a visually-stunning cyber universe that has become far more advanced and exceedingly dangerous.
Internet Movie Database webpage: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1104001/
Videodrome
Director: David Cronenberg
Country of origin and year: Canada, 1983
Starring: James Woods, Debbie Harry, Sonja Smits
Max Renn runs a TV channel, and when looking for new material to show--he discovers "Videodrome." His girlfriend, Nicki Brand, goes to audition for the show, and Max gets drawn into the underlying plot that uses the show as its front for a global conspiracy.
Internet Movie Database webpage: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086541/
Robocop (2014)
Director: Jose Padilha
Country of origin and year: USA, 2014
Starring: Joel Kinnaman, Gary Oldman, Michal Keaton
The year is 2028 and multinational conglomerate OmniCorp is at the center of robot technology. Overseas, their drones have been used by the military for years. Now OmniCorp wants to bring their controversial technology to the home front, and they create a part-man, part-robot police officer, but they never counted on one thing: there is still a man inside the machine pursuing justice.
Internet Movie Database webpage: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1234721/
Real Humans (TV Series)
Director: Harald Hamrell, Levan Akin
Country of origin and year: Sweden, 2012
Starring: Lisette Pagler, Pia Halvorsen, Johan Paulsen
New technology and advancements in the field of science have made it possible to manufacture a product - a kind of mechanized servant - that is so similar to a real human that it can often be considered a perfectly good substitute. However, the Human Robots (HUBOTs) have also given rise to new problems and dilemmas. As an ever-growing number of people form relationships with hubots, the boundaries between human and machine become blurred.
Internet Movie Database webpage: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2180271/
The Machine
Director: Caradog W James
Country of origin and year: UK, 2013
Starring: Toby Stephens, Caity Lotz, Denis Lawson
Two artificial intelligence engineers come together as they work to create the first ever self-aware artificial intelligence. A veteran AI engineer secretly hopes to develop technology to help his diseased daughter, even if it means funding comes from the powerful Ministry of Defence (MoD). Things go wrong when the MoD takes over and advances the researchers' work to the next level, teaching the AI to kill and follow MoD instructions with its new and nearly indestructible body.
Internet Movie Database webpage: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2317225/
The Terminal Man
Director: Mike Hodges
Country of origin and year: 1974
Starring: George Segal, Joan Hackett, Richard Dysart
Hoping to cure his violent seizures, a man agrees to a series of experimental microcomputers inserted into his brain but inadvertently discovers that violence now triggers a pleasurable response his brain.
Internet Movie Database webpage: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072267/
Short Film: The Coming Robot War is Our Fault
http://singularityhub.com/2016/04/15/the-coming-robot-war-is-our-fault-in-short-film-rise/