This Kathryn Bigelow New Year’s Eve Movie Is Peak Cyberpunk

The cyberpunk movement has given us some of the best science fiction films: Blade Runner, Ghost in the Shell and, yes, The Matrix. But my favorite tech noir film is the one that came out at the height of the cyberpunk craze – and then all but disappeared.

Although it was released in 1995, Strange Days feels like it could have been released yesterday. This is one of those rare old films that imagines the technology of virtual reality without making it a gimmick.

Strange Days takes place in 1999 Los Angeles during the last 48 hours of the millennium. Lenny Nero, played by Ralph Fiennes, is a former cop who now runs an illegal virtual reality experience called Playback.

Nero’s friend and bodyguard, Mace (Angela Basset), tries to keep him grounded in reality and out of trouble. Together, they work to track down a brutal rapist and murderer – a man who uses VR Playback discs to record his crimes from his own perspective.

The film wasted no time in immersing me in its jarring setting: the opening scene is an armed robbery filmed in first person, with the robber running from the cops and jumping from one roof to another. A few scenes later, I saw tanks in the streets of Los Angeles and heard calls on the radio declaring that the world would end at exactly midnight on January 1, 2000.

Strange Days reminds me of the best Black mirror episodes – both deeply disturbing and uncomfortably close to home. Director Kathryn Bigelow was influenced by the 1992 Los Angeles riots and incorporated these elements of racial tension and police violence into her work. The result is a film that is sometimes difficult to watch but impossible to look away from.

At the same time, Strange Days is grounded in emotion. Nero (Fiennes) spends much of the film reliving memories of his failed relationship with singer Faith (played by actress-turned-rocker Juliette Lewis). Lying in bed while viewing images of happier days, he can fool himself into thinking he’s rollerblading with Faith again – until the disc stops spinning and he opens his eyes, back in the lonely present.

“It’s not ‘like TV, but better,’” says Nero, as he demonstrates VR Playback technology to one of his customers. “That’s life.”

But Bassett’s character Mace believes otherwise, at one point confronting Nero about his attachment to his “used emotions.”

“It’s your life!” said Mace. “Right here! Now! It’s real time, you hear me? Real time, it’s time to get real, no Playback!”

While watching Strange Days in 2025, I couldn’t help but think about the virtual reality devices that exist today. VR headsets like Meta Quest 3 And Google’s next AR glasses bring us closer than ever to film playback technology. And immersive space videos for Apple Vision Pro can make you feel like you’re actually reliving a recorded memory in three dimensions. Thinking about the similarities between our current technology and the Strange Days Playback discs, I wondered if the future wants to be haunted by the past.

Despite being 30 years old, the special effects of Strange Days hold up incredibly well. Where other 1995 sci-fi films like Hackers and Johnny Mnemonic experimented with early computer-generated imagery, Strange Days opted for a more hands-on approach: characters move in and out of the playback sequence with a simple analog distortion effect, just like you’d find watching home videos on VHS tapes. The point-of-view shots were carefully choreographed and the resulting images feel like you’re looking at them through the eyes of the recorder.

Strange Days also features some notable musical acts. Juliette Lewis, as Faith, performs two PJ Harvey songs in on-screen performances that recall the best of ’90s grunge. Rapper Jeriko One (played by Glenn Plummer) delivers biting social commentary in her music video. And contemporary artists Aphex Twin, Deee-Lite and Skunk Anansie perform during the film’s explosive final act, a New Year’s Eve rave in downtown Los Angeles. (It was a real concert with 10,000 participants.)

Strange days is both a thrilling action film and a mind-bending exploration of technology and memory. I’m surprised it was a box office failure in 1995, and I wish it had received the recognition it deserved then. Nonetheless, I’m happy that this sci-fi masterpiece is available to stream today. Although Strange Days doesn’t have the most memorable title, the film itself is unforgettable.

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