CYBERPUNK 2077: All Cinematic References in the Game Decoded

It’s no accident that I wrote my diploma thesis in film school titled Blade Runner – A Legendary Film and not without reason did I name my photography business Blade Photo, even borrowing its distinctive font.

Similarly, Akira by Katsuhiro Ōtomo holds the undisputed top spot for me among all animations. In short, I guess I like cyberpunk vibes. To be honest, the last games that kept me up all night were the early installments of Half-Life, Sniper Elite, and Call of Duty. I won’t even check how many years ago those titles were released, so I don’t feel older than I already do. It’s clear as day that my gaming interests have revolved around FPS shooters; evidently, I’m a simple, though hopefully not simplistic, person. So, when I realized that the long-awaited Cyberpunk 2077 would combine cyberpunk vibes with the FPS genre, drawing heavily from the aforementioned films—plus, it features the number 77 in the title, and I was born in 1977 (I don’t know what connection that has, but maybe there is one)—I decided to dust off my PC. .. only to find out that the only thing that might run on it is the power supply if I try to launch any modern game.

So, to fully experience the eighth wonder of the gaming world promised by CD Projekt, I decided to build myself a decent machine for the first time in my life. I did it under the pretext of needing a computer to speed up Lightroom for photo editing, but in reality, it was for playing Cyberpunk 2077. Just keep that between us… After receiving the game as a Christmas gift (thank you, my love, for the collector’s edition) and waging a mortal battle in line for an RTX, I could finally launch CD Projekt’s masterpiece on so-called ultra settings with very many FPSs, or colloquially speaking, at full throttle.

Even though nearly two months have passed since I first launched Cyberpunk 2077, I am still absolutely enthralled by CD Projekt‘s work. But I won’t dwell here on the eye-popping graphics, the mind-blowing ray tracing, or the gargantuan size of Night City; I get lost in my small town, so you can understand my amazement at the vastness of the game’s metropolis. I won’t trumpet about the fantastic storyline, the hundreds of characters, the vivid curses in the well-written dialogues, or the diverse side missions with varying degrees of difficulty and narrative complexity. I won’t even mention the amazing soundtrack or the shooting mechanics, which suited me like no other, even though, as I mentioned, I have comparisons to games older than dirt. Importantly, as a simple person, I play through the game mainly by shooting because sneaking around gets boring in the long run, and I leave hacking to IT specialists.

No, just kidding, when you need to sneak, you sneak (it’s quite satisfying to complete a mission without firing a shot, sneaking past enemies), but generally, I prefer shooting over exploring. A sniper rifle (three photos above), a double-barreled shotgun that knocks enemies off their feet, and a revolver with increased bullet power are my favorite guns; the katana works pretty well too, and there are so many other weapons to choose from that it blows your mind! It’s as if the creators were inspired by the Matrix’s “we need guns, lots of guns”—by the way, that scene from the Wachowski film can also be seen in the game, which I’ll mention later. The sounds of gunshots, created individually for each type of weapon, are a true feast for the ears, but what I like most are the metallic-mechanical sounds of changing magazines and reloading.

I could reload and reload all day! Besides shooting, CD Projekt’s game is full of juicy swearing and (often dark) humor. I was personally amused by a slightly abstract exchange between the owner of a shooting range and a client who, not listening to instructions, walked onto the range with too large of a gun: Where the hell are you going with that shotgun? I forgot my pistol, it’s in my other jacket.

Despite spending nearly 70 hours in the game (not in one day, of course), the only glitches I experienced were a levitating bottle and a car passenger hovering briefly above the seat before amusingly falling onto it. And I got kicked out of the game a few times (but that was before patch 1.11) at the end of intense and difficult firefights. Surprisingly, this didn’t bother me at all because the game is so insanely beautiful, and the gunfights are so much fun that you gladly do everything several times, and even when there’s no one to shoot, and you have to talk, you can just wander or drive around the city (I love riding a motorcycle!) and admire. Apparently, old-generation console players are having quite a few problems with Cyberpunk 2077, but on PC, this game is, pardon my French, a freaking masterpiece, and I can’t wait to finish this article so I can return to Night City.

Since the production by the creators of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (I haven’t played it, but I’ll catch up after finishing CP 2077) is such a vast world that’s hard for one player to comprehend, the following list includes some things I’ve encountered in the game and some references circulating online and mentioned here (with sources cited at the end of the text). I definitely won’t be listing film references stretched like elastic bands, because, for instance, I thought I saw… Tyler Durden from Fight Club in one of the characters (screenshot below). At the same time, it should be clearly stated that despite drawing inspiration from excellent predecessors setting the visual aesthetics of cyberpunk worlds, whether in literature, comics, or film, Cyberpunk 2077 firmly stands on its own and has a distinct identity.

The game is so huge, the map so vast, and the corners of Night City so immeasurable that the collector’s guide (which I’m lucky to own) has over 400 pages of detailed mission descriptions, items, and Night City lore and looks like it was created over several years! In the game, you can find dozens, if not hundreds, of references not only to movies but also to music, culture, pop culture, history, philosophy, and more. It’s worth mentioning the patriotism of the game developers; alongside Wisława Szymborska’s poem Labirynt, in Cyberpunk 2077, you can find a car styled after the Fiat 126p, the word “kurwa” spray-painted on a wall (and hear, after hitting an opponent, the phrase known from a YouTube hit: ała, kurwa, rzeczywiście), or visit a place called PIEROGI WORLD. Is there a more Polish set?

If you’re playing Cyberpunk 2077 and have found more film references, be sure to share them in the comments. And if you’re not playing Cyberpunk 2077, I hope my text encourages you to do so.

Akira (1988)

The action of Katsuhiro Ōtomo’s film begins with the destruction of Neo Tokyo in a thermonuclear explosion (caused by Akira). In Cyberpunk 2077, the plot also revolves significantly around a nuclear explosion from years past; as a side note, we have the chance to experience these events ourselves from the perspective of the legendary Johnny Silverhand. At that time, the Corporate Plaza building is destroyed—tens of thousands of innocents die in the blink of an eye, and more die later from the aftermath of the event. Arasaka Tower, the iconic skyscraper of Night City, collapses. The city is in ruins. Johnny Silverhand is one of the suspects of planting the bomb.

The creators of Cyberpunk 2077 likely drew heavily from Akira for inspiration and visual motifs: a future city filled with skyscrapers reaching the sky, gang fights, and dark corporate dealings, and finally—Kaneda’s motorcycle, which we can ride in Night City. Of course, the cyberpunk Yaiba Kusanagi CT-3X is heavily inspired by the iconic vehicle from the equally iconic anime. At the same time, the name of the motorcycle includes the word “Kusanagi,” which is a direct nod to another anime, Ghost in the Shell, and its main character, Major Kusanagi, which I’ll mention again a few paragraphs later.

Johnny Mnemonic (1995)

Johnny Mnemonic gave Cyberpunk 2077 more inspiration than just the vision of a future based on information and hacking or the nano-fiber garrote for severing limbs seen in the above photo. Both productions also share Keanu Reeves; in Johnny Mnemonic, he played a courier transporting an excessive amount of information in his head, which caused him headaches, nosebleeds, and fainting, and if not discharged in time, threatened his life. In Cyberpunk 2077, Keanu Reeves plays Johnny Silverhand and… he himself becomes an informational time bomb.

To save the data, he is implanted into the consciousness of V—the game’s main character. V regularly faints, has vision problems, and coughs up blood. If he doesn’t get rid of Silverhand from his head in time, he faces death and the overwriting of his consciousness by Johnny’s. The last reference to Mnemonic is an elevator ad that states: First 80 GB free of charge. As we remember from the film, our courier could carry a maximum of 80 GB of data.

Upgrade (2018)

In Cyberpunk 2077, if you listen to the news on TV, you might hear about a groundbreaking invention by Swiss scientists who are “able to repair the spinal cord using nanorobots.” This very theme appeared in the excellent cyberpunk film Upgrade, except in that case, the spinal cord was repaired by a modern chip called STEM. It’s possible (though it’s probably just a coincidence) that the developers borrowed the idea of a voice in the protagonist’s head, with a chip installed in the spinal cord, from Upgrade. V experiences a similar shock to the protagonist of Upgrade, when he begins to hear and see his unexpected passenger, Johnny Silverhand, upon awakening.

Additionally, with the permission of its host, STEM in Upgrade could take control of his body. The same thing happens in Cyberpunk 2077, when V relinquishes control to Silverhand after taking a special pill.

The Matrix (1999)

As I mentioned earlier, when V takes a special pill, Silverhand takes control of his body. The first time he does it, he takes advantage of the situation: he drinks heavily, parties, flirts with strippers, and finally… takes the blue pill (choosing between the blue and the red pill). Below is a paraphrase of the famous The Matrix quote, “we need guns, lots of guns”—only in the game, instead of racks of guns, racks of… fashionable clothes roll in quickly.

Smack My Bitch Up (1997)

We’ve already had references to films and TV series, now it’s time for the homage that the developers paid to The Prodigy and the video for one of their biggest hits. The music video, shot from a first-person perspective (just like CP 2077), in which a drunken person visits pubs, flirts with women, vomits into a sink, wrecks a place, and finally ends up in bed with a stripper, caused quite a controversy at the time, and music stations only aired it after midnight.

In Cyberpunk 2077, the sequence of events is very similar, with the difference that Silverhand vomits into a toilet, not a sink (a more civilized choice), breaks a car window with his fist instead of a brick, and instead of ending up with a woman in bed, they crash a car and go their separate ways, bruised and battered. It’s a shame they didn’t finish it like in the video for Smack My Bitch Up, where Silverhand could have looked in the mirror and seen V’s face reflected back at him. I probably don’t need to add that this entire sequence was edited like a dynamic music video, with intense music (but not The Prodigy) playing in the background.

Blade Runner (1982)

Cyberpunk 2077 shares with Ridley Scott’s film a futuristic metropolis, flying vehicles, an abundance of lights, neon, and eye-catching giant digital ads on skyscrapers and blimps soaring over the city. There’s also cultural diversity on the densely populated streets (in the game, they weren’t populated as heavily as promised), Chinese eateries, and the main characters’ outfits with their characteristic upturned collars.

On one of the screens introducing us to the world of Night City, we can see fire spewing from chimneys, one of the most memorable symbols of Blade Runner. A keen ear will even catch a motif from Vangelis’ soundtrack in the opening music of Cyberpunk 2077. A direct nod to Scott’s cult classic is the inclusion of a hotel in the game with a name that fans of the film will immediately recognize, especially since “Batty’s” in the name is written in the unforgettable font.

The cherry on top! In the game, we can make it to a rooftop where we encounter (unfortunately, dead) Roy Batty, sitting there in the same position as he died in the finale of Blade Runner. A bird is perched on the android’s open hand. Notably, when we arrive on the rooftop, it’s raining, and the music changes to an atmospheric tune (although it’s not one of Vangelis’ tracks). You can watch this part on the YouTube channel PUNISH at THIS LINK. In the game, you can also find a digital grave for Roy Batty, illustrated with a dove symbol. The creators of Cyberpunk 2077 didn’t forget the memorable line spoken by Batty: All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in the rain, which appears at the aforementioned grave.

One of our hero’s technological abilities is zooming in on an observed object with his eyes. The image zooms in by several meters, and for a moment, you see characteristic pixelation, just like in the scene from Blade Runner where Deckard examines photos found in Leon’s apartment. In one of the game’s endings (I haven’t seen it myself yet, just as many other things I’m telling you about here), there’s supposedly even the famous Voight-Kampff test for humanity. The screenshot below hardly needs explanation, as it’s almost Pris in person. The character in the game is named Misty and appears in the storyline in the prologue.

In Blade Runner, we saw a unicorn origami that played a key role in the director’s cut of the film. Meanwhile, in Cyberpunk 2077, there’s an origami pigeon—we find it on the counter in the building’s reception, on the rooftop of which Roy Batty’s body is located.

Absolute Power (1997)

What could connect Clint Eastwood’s film with a super-modern cyberpunk-themed computer game? It turns out quite a lot. In the prologue of Cyberpunk 2077, we embark on a mission where we have to steal from a luxurious apartment in the Arasaka tower, having previously disabled the security systems. Unluckily, after the theft, several people (including Yorinobu Arasaka and his father Saburo) enter the apartment, and we (V and Jackie Welles), with no choice, hide in a secret compartment with a one-way mirror.

We can observe the actions of people behind the glass, while remaining unseen ourselves. A guard even approaches the mirror and looks at us for a moment, but the nature of the one-way mirror keeps us hidden. After a moment, we witness Yorinobu kill his father, making us unwitting witnesses to high-level murder. Once everyone leaves the room, we escape through the window to exit the building. These events are the starting point for the plot of Cyberpunk 2077.

An almost identical sequence of events was seen in the film Absolute Power, nearly a quarter of a century older. Luther Whitney (Clint Eastwood) breaks into an exclusive villa, disables (hacks?) the security systems, steals jewelry, and surprised by the sudden appearance of the residents (a woman and her lover), locks himself in a room with a one-way mirror. A man (Gene Hackman) approaches the mirror and looks at himself for a moment, naturally not noticing the thief hiding behind it. After a few minutes, a struggle ensues between the lovers, and when the woman, in self-defense, swings a knife at the man, armed guards burst in and kill her with a gunshot. Once everyone leaves the crime scene, Luther escapes through the window.

Later in the film, we learn that the man visiting the woman at her home was the President of the United States, making the main character, like V and Jackie Welles in Cyberpunk 2077, a witness to high-level murder. Both Luther and V then try to contact people who will believe their incredible story.

Romancing the Stone (1984) / The Dukes of Hazzard (1979–1985)

I don’t see the point of dedicating two paragraphs to such brief film references. Above, Little Mule, which takes its name from the Ford Bronco in Robert Zemeckis’ adventure film, while below, the car General Lee, which looks like a futuristic incarnation of the vehicle from The Dukes of Hazzard series (same color and side number).

Brawl in Cell Block 99 (2017)

One of the missions is titled Do the Brawl in Cell 99, or Your Wife…, and the employer is a certain Bradley. We find ourselves in the middle of the plot of the (excellent, by the way) movie Brawl in Cell Block 99, and on Bradley’s assignment—who, of course, we don’t get to meet because he’s in prison—we have to rescue his wife from kidnappers.

It’s one of the most interesting and developed film references in the entire game, as it takes up an entire mission.

John Wick (2014)

A character named Sergei talks about a regular guy with a beard, in brown shoes, with nothing breathtaking about him… This is a clear reference to both the character of John Wick, played in the trilogy by Chad Stahelski by Keanu Reeves, and to the famous “you’re breathtaking” spoken by the actor at E3 2019.

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

There are also references to George Miller’s film as Easter eggs in Cyberpunk 2077. Next to a destroyed tanker truck, from which the last drops of fuel drip, lie the bodies of a well-built man in a mask and a woman whose shaved head and soot-marked forehead suggest that she is Furiosa. Although the character does not have the characteristic prosthetic hand remembered from Mad Max: Fury Road, the creators of the game confirm our suspicions shortly after. On a note describing the kidnapping of artificially inseminated mothers, she appears under the name.

.. Charlize Fury.

The Fifth Element (1997)

Nearby, we can come across a body next to which there is a refreshing drink with a familiar-sounding name: LEELOU Beans Tropical. Yes, in Cyberpunk 2077, besides ammunition and guns, you can find nourishing food and refreshing drinks near corpses. However, the woman’s body does not resemble the character played by Milla Jovovich—different hair color, and Leeloo from Besson’s movie didn’t wear a tracksuit.

This is not the only reference to The Fifth Element. It’s no secret that the developers had a treasure trove of ideas from Besson’s movie that they could adapt to their game: a future city diverse in ethnicity and full of original characters, vibrant colors, outlandish hairstyles, futuristic clothes, flying vehicles, imaginative weapons, etc.

Ghost in the Shell (1995 & 2017)

Cybernetic body modifications and musings on the human soul encased in an artificial body are elements drawn from Mamoru Oshii’s cult anime. It’s no coincidence that in Cyberpunk 2077, we can frequently encounter graphics depicting a small ghost emerging from a shell (“ghost in the shell”), as seen in the image below in the form of a tattoo (left arm, among roses).

With the remake that came over two decades later, Cyberpunk 2077 shares the street and building aesthetics, as well as the color scheme of a future city ruled by soulless corporations. The most powerful common element is the huge billboards and advertising surfaces on skyscrapers, as well as the gigantic holograms of fish majestically gliding through the sky. You can encounter them during the parade in the game.

Oh, I almost forgot! In the section about Akira, I promised that I would mention again in connection with Ghost in the Shell that the name of the motorcycle available in the game, Yaiba Kusanagi CT-3X, contains the word “Kusanagi,” which is a direct reference to the 1995 Ghost in the Shell and its main character, Major Kusanagi.

From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)

Titty Twister.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri; The Karate Kid; Blade; Die Hard; Dirty Harry; Children of Men; The Shining; The Office; Breaking Bad

After the neon sign from the previous paragraph, there are not likely to be bigger references… so to cool off a bit, we move on to some smaller and not worth a separate paragraph movie references. In Cyberpunk 2077, when leaving the city limits, you can, for example, come across three billboards outside… Night City, and on the wall in the lobby of the building, you will find the inscription “Mercy is for the weak,” which is a part of a dialogue from The Karate Kid.

On the wall, you will repeatedly see the graffiti Tyger Claws – this is the title of a film with the former kickboxing movie star Cynthia Rothrock. In Afterlife, you can hear a piece from Blade (the one from the bloody disco), in one of the dialogues, the names of a certain (!) Joan McClane and Henry Callahan from known series appear, and in another, the organization The Human Project and Theo Faron – played by Clive Owen in Children of Men.

You can also hear Johnny Silverhand introducing himself with the words: And now, Panam, here’s Johnny, out in the middle of bumfuck nowhere! – of course, with a strong emphasis on “here’s Johnny,” drawn out almost identically to how Jack Nicholson did. This short list ends with the monologue borrowed from The Office of an Asian surgeon who accidentally killed a yakuza boss during surgery and fled to the USA on a boat, where it turned out he was… a good surgeon and deliberately killed the yakuza boss. A reference to Breaking Bad? Here you go: in the The Heisenberg Principle mission, we have to destroy a laboratory where a fictional drug called glitter is produced.

And for dessert, a pizza on the roof, probably thrown there by Walter White by accident.

Joker; 007; Sailor Moon; Titanic; Star Wars; Terminator 3; Day of the Wacko

Cyberpunk 2077 offers players a photo mode where you can take almost any photo of your character. That’s how I took two photos for the intro – my V with a sniper rifle and on a motorcycle among sparks after I purposely crashed into parked cars at full speed for the sake of the photo. In photo mode, you can also use ready-made character settings, among which you’ll find, for example, Han Solo aiming a weapon, Sailor Moon, a pose called Like one of your French girls (i.e., Rose posing for a drawing by Jack), Agent 007 with a gun, Talk to the hand from Terminator 3, You’re breathtaking by Keanu Reeves.

..

…and the famous Joker pose on the stairs. I can’t believe it myself, but to take the above photograph, I spent half an hour changing clothes to look at least a little like the Joker. Oh, for dessert, the game creators offer a pose called Bo w ryj dać mogę dać (meaning I can punch you in the face), certainly named in honor of Day of the Wacko.

Pulp Fiction (1994)

Squint your eyes and find it yourself.

Demolition Man (1993)

Since 1993, i.e., since the premiere of Demolition Man, it was one of the greatest movie mysteries of all time, easily standing alongside the question from Citizen Kane, what the last words of Charles Foster Kane meant, or the mystery of the never-opened FedEx package in Cast Away, although we all know it was satellite sleds… Okay, maybe I mixed something up. Going back to Demolition Man, I’m talking about the three seashells in the toilet replacing toilet paper, which John Spartan could not figure out.

The three seashells visible in the above photo, which are located in the toilet in V’s apartment (the main character we play as), unfortunately, only partially solve this one of the greatest mysteries of humanity.

Since the game does not offer the possibility of using the toilet (I tried, but you can’t sit on the throne), we still do not know how to use this contraption after doing… poo. To dry our tears, we can at least enjoy the fact that we finally know what these three mythical seashells look like. And well, they look… like three seashells. I expected something more spectacular after 27 years of waiting for the mystery to be explained.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)

The creators of Cyberpunk 2077 refer to famous movie characters in an unobvious way (aside from the fact that they always appear as corpses), as if they always wanted to be able to say that it’s not what we think and avoid paying copyright penalties.

In a junkyard, we find a corpse in a refrigerator, next to which lies a characteristic hat (though it’s not the famous fedora). Junkyard – it’s a bit like the developers wanted to indicate where Spielberg’s entire movie should end up. I only wonder why the dead “Indy” is wearing white socks and sandals – maybe while flying in the fridge, he brushed against Poland?

One-Eyed Jacks (1961)

In the finale of the Pattern Recognition mission, we go through a cinema hall where a scene from the western directed by Marlon Brando, with him in the leading role, is being played.

Why exactly this film was chosen by the developers to show in their game, I do not know, and despite watching the movie (I recommend it, it’s a great piece of cinema!), I cannot answer this question. Maybe some of you have a theory?

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

In something resembling a storm drain, we encounter something like the T-800 exoskeleton (from which we can take the sunglasses), nearby lies a smashed chaser with Shoot & Ride on the tank, further on are corpses, and a truck stands, while the displayed dialogue list shows names like Arnold Blake and Jimmy Connor.

Although each of the elements mentioned above separately looks like a randomly left item, all of them combined give a clear picture of the chase scene in the storm drain from Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

Iron Man (2008)

A rather clear reference to the first part of the Marvel hit, i.e., the description of Tony Stark’s escape plan from captivity, disguised under the name Thomas Star.

RoboCop (1987)

Okay, maybe this big boy in the middle is not an exact copy of ED-209 from Paul Verhoeven’s movie, but he looks like a heavily upgraded model from the future, a descendant of the hearing-impaired, roaring-squealing walking machine.

Strange Days (1999)

The cyberpunk Braindance, which involves films shot from a first-person perspective and then analyzed by the player, is an idea taken directly from Kathryn Bigelow’s work.

Moreover, the way we are introduced to Braindance in the game is almost identical to the prologue of Strange Days. In both cases, we witness the unexpected death of the recorder—in Strange Days, by falling from a roof, and in Cyberpunk 2077, by being shot. In both cases, the viewer (Nero/V), shocked by what they have just seen, rips the playback device off their head and takes a moment to recover.

Hardware (1990)

As soon as I saw this promotional graphic for Cyberpunk 2077, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I had seen a cybernetic hand protruding from the ground somewhere before. Somehow, I remembered the movie Hardware (from which I only like the atmospheric love scene in the shower)—and indeed, when the deadly cyborg is found at the beginning of the film, its still-moving hand is sticking out from the ground. But I wouldn’t write about such a flimsy similarity between these motifs if it weren’t for the later part of the film. There appears a character played by Dylan McDermott, whose right hand is a cybernetic prosthesis, serving the same function (replacing a lost limb) as Johnny Silverhand’s left arm.

Acknowledgments

For providing some leads, I thank Jacek Jackowski, Katarzyna Kebernik, and Jakub Piwoński.

Sources

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