Los Angeles November 2019, a decaying city, the negative of its once bright and sunny side, set in a post war apocalyptic future stands for the home for our notorious Cyberpunk anti-heroes who roam the dirty streets in the shadows of the powerful and rich. Cyberpunk would not only be half as exciting if the characters didn’t life in such a crazy morbid place. The setting is significant for the genre or else people would not say, ” Oh! Neuromancer and the Matrix are definitely Cyberpunk. The atmosphere is permeated with a sense of impending doom.” But which images and elements give the recipient this sense of foreboding? And what kind of influence to they have on the narrative? I will discuss these questions by examining the setting of Ridley Scott’s “Blade Runner” of 1982 in detail. Firstly I will name and describe the elements used for a typical Cyberpunk setting, and secondly I will display which influence they have on the narrative.
The first shot in “Blade Runner” shows Los Angeles at night illuminated by its great many lights and occurring erupting fire pillars. The absence of moonlight or stars suggests a darker mood and underlines the infernal touch the fires of the factories give to the city. At first glance, it is obvious that the inhabitants don’t make a difference between night and day. The lights are on around the clock exhibiting people from numerous ethnic groups, colors and shapes. The streets are full at all times and flooded with gleaming stroboscopic lights, isolating the individual scamping with his perception. Huge omnipresent advertisement boards dominate the view and display the presence of companies existing in every aspect of life. Politicians and parties are extinct in a world where corporations wield the power to suppress everything and everyone. Those with power always have a “place in the sun” like the “Tyrell” corporation in their giant golden pyramids giving the impression of being the height of human civilization. The people who live literally at the bottom of the city have to live with Scott’s “endless” rain, unshielded in the dark alleys and slums of the city. The dark and sinister mood permeats the whole movie by using a film method named “low-key-style” to create and condense shadows at odd spaces. Even the characters appear latent and hidden in shadow as if being part of the setting.
These images give the Cyberpunk genre the essential detail for the world in which cyberpunks move, breathe and live. Some places in the setting are necessary for the course of conflict in a story. It is already known that many films novels have a detective flair or “film noir” atmosphere, because of the setting. Alleys, offices, slums and factory buildings give the characters substance in a story. But so is it the other way around. The setting cannot stand alone without its characters, because it is a medium which needs mass or the characters in this case in order to act and interact. The recipient is able to visualize these interactions, because he or she can imagine how it would feel to move in this kind city. It is necessary to say that the setting delivers us an impression how the protagonist perceives his surroundings. As a recipient, we have the chance to understand the insight of a cyberpunk more clearly when we understand in what kind of world the anti-hero developed in.
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