Yup. Blade Runner/Ghost in the Shell and Big Trouble in Little China would be my two movies to introduce new players to Shadowrun. You need BTiLC to somewhat explain the Magic part.

I think A big one that no one has mentioned is Strange Days. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strange_Days_%28film%29 Although set in 1999, and no Magic. It is probably the second best Shadowrun style movie next to Johnny M... The main character is basically an ex-cop BTL dealer who stumbles onto a major conspiracy. I really liked it, maybe you will to

nezumi mentioned it, but not by name. It's definitely a good one for getting the feel of the world.

Shadowrun by its very nature is cross genre, and so no single live action film fits the bill. But going with the goal of the fewest possible...

Ronin is what runners do. I have never seen a better film for this purpose.

Blade Runner crossed with Lord of the Rings is the world they do it in. Both of these films were clearly inspiration for the game's writers, and are well known, so a new player has probably seen at least one.

My wallet certainly felt sucker punched after i saw it. One of those movies where the trailer is better, i felt.

For very pink mohawk shadowrun games, I'd volunteer Enthiran as a theme movie.

It has a lot of necessary plot elements. Advanced technology, competitors trying to use your innovations for their best interests, poaching researchers, inadvertently unleashing pandemonium on the city, a frantic dash to fix it, and a remote controlled robot army.

Plus, its absolutely ridiculous.

I had forgot about Strange Days. Its a pretty good film. Much better than Johnny M. , unfortunatly. Although based on a Gibson story, Johnny M. just isn't that well written/made a film. It has the classic cyberpunk elements, but its implementation is just shakey. It comes off low budget and full of cheese. I caught it on cable recently. YMMV, but I was a bit dissapointed.

I agree that there is no one movie that truely captures Shadowrun. But for Runner's actions I like to show movies like The Saint, The Score, Italian Job, I'm not as much of a fan of the Ocean's series unless it is the original old school, and for a little pink mohawk the Smokin' Aces Set. That's not all of the list but some that I haven't seen here yet.

I'm equally surprised no one has said Heat.
Michael Mann is where it is at. Well, except for Manhunter.

Oh! I've got it!

Harry Potter!

No really, just replace Muggle with Joe Average, Voldemort with Dragon, Ministry of Magic with Government, Hogwarts with Sponsoring Company... Snape with Mr. Johnson (Or maybe Dumbledore, on their side, but never gives them all the info). They go through the classic mission steps, including legwork, attempted mission, wrench in mission, alternately hindered and helped by Mr. J. Okay, setting is a bit more light hearted and lacks the tech, but it fits better than you might think at first glance.

Okay, so it isn't a perfect fit, but it is something the person is likely to have already watched/read

Do we have some multimillionaires at dumpshock? Could PLEASE somebody with sufficient financial backgrounds simply MAKE an SR-Movie? The users could make proposals which actors would fit etc.

Cast A Deadly Spell.

A classic Film Noir from the Nineties in a end-1940s setting where magic returned to Earth and everybody's using it. You follow the steps of an old-fashioned private eye who refuses to dabble in the new arts. You meed a construction site that employs zombies, vampire hookers in a police station, a sinister mage with a giant black voodoo zombie, a plot revolving around a spellbook, a girl on horseback hunting unicorns for sport ... the movie has it all. Minus the Cyber.

http://www.zimbio.com/watch/BiF735YjFgX/Ca...ll/Clancy+Brown

AAS

O_O

And I din't know this movie. Shame on me. I'll so get me this from somewhere. Perfectly legally, naturally.

Of course.^^

I would posit that Robocop is a vital SR movie experience for numerous reasons: the clash of urban decay and futuristic chrome in one city, entertainment aimed at the lowest common denominator crafted by corporate interests, a police force that has been privatized but still thinks of themselves as police first and foremost, super-criminals run amok, and an honest to god Cyberzombie.

But first, and foremost, the single most important of those reasons (and setting aside that it's a brilliantly crafted piece of satire and of filmmaking in its own right): OCP *IS* Ares. You want to understand Ares, you watch Robocop (and to a considerably lesser extent the sequels) to understand what the Ares corporate culture is. And to a lesser degree, Megacorp culture in general.

Cast a Deadly Spell definitely fits SR magic/noir shenanigans.

I personally rather liked Sucker Punch. Precisely because it was completely and ridiculously over the top; that's what I came for. I had no expectation that there would be a plot that did anything more than hold action scenes together in the flimsiest way possible. The action scenes were pretty

I think all of the movies above are good choices (well, the ones I have seen) , even though they each only represent selected elements of the setting. I'd like to add Equilibrium into the mix for the dystopian setting, the greyscale morality and what can only be gunslinger adepts.

Of the movies above, I want to give +1s to Ronin (for the feel, if not setting) and Blade runner (for the feel and setting, though mundane).

I'll let you know after tonights power ball drawing.

Geez...nobody said Strange Days for the snuff BTLs?

Amen to that Raven. Smokin' Aces (at least the first one, I haven't seen the second one yet) definitely captures the nature of a run that goes sour and the general feel of a shadowrun. Whether it be the kick down the door style of the Tremor brothers, the sniper and spotter team, the cops, the disguise dude, Morris the Blade (I think that was his name), and the bail bondsmen, it does showcase how many different people can be playing at the same thing.
Sure Aces doesn't have cyber or magic, but all in all, it is a fine movie (if by fine movie, we are talking over the top goofy fun).

Equilibrium works to an extent for the SR feel. By no means perfect, but still good for the combat.

At least two people did.

Missed it then, sorry.

How about Gattaca for the high-but-still-ineffectual security and eugenics?

Smokin' Aces Two is the same as Smokin' Aces One, except turn up the pink mohawk and add just a pinch of the Usual Suspects.

It had exploding clowns. It was fun. It definitely describes SR for some groups I've played with.

I am not sure what was funnier about the midget clowns. The scene of them getting fired out of their own cannon or the little fast forward scene of them being nabbed to begin with. Not to mention the hiest on the military base. How many people that saw that scene did not immediately think that the writer had been at a gaming table at some point in his life.

What about Judge Dredd?

Die infidel!!!!!!!!

I'll see your Stallone and raise you a Westley Snipes.

Demolition Man. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFiDoOgRTpk "Taco Bell was the only franchise to survive the Franchise Wars"

nnnggg . . maybe for running in a corp enclave, but otherwise, the feeling is just plain wrong <.<

I don't know, the rat burgers nailed things down pat for me.

FF7 Advent Children
Magic, car chases, adept fighting. gun play. There's even a dragon and cyberware. Urban decay. and a MegaCorp (Shinra) is behind it all. Just needs a less fantasy setting and more modern.

Rock a Rolla has the same problem as Ronin (and Smoking Aces) seams the film was inspired by SR but it's missing one or two elements

Ooo, that's a really good suggestion. Watch that and say "Now switch the fantasy and sci-fi settings and you've basically got it." I don't remember a dragon though, unless maybe it was part of a summons.

the big summon. everyone was fighting it through the ruined highrise. it was before the Sepiroth fight scene (would that be when Harliquin comes into the picture??)

the "Big Dragon" was the Bahamut Summoning
Great Anime, Great Game (one of my all time Favorites,gonna watch it again soon )

with one of his favorite Dances
Medicineman

No, but it's just perfect for a Dark Heresy campaign focusing on Enforcers (Mutant Chronicles for Guard, and the much-persecuted Damnatus for the average DH campaign).

Neuromancer?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1037220/

Ugh Hayden Christiansen as Case

Anyway I think if you are playing a very Pink Mohawk game something like Buckaroo Banzai might be a good inspiration. Buckaroo Banzai and the Hong Kong Cavaliers make for great scientist/rocker/samurai action heroes. Plus the end credits!

Here's a good one on how a team should work, again no magic/cyber but perfect interaction and "shadow" teamwork...

"Sneakers"
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105435/
IMDB Link

-D

I still think the "sequel" was better, Big Trouble In Little China. But not really a SR movie. Though a good example of "urban magic".

I had never seen BTILC, but everyone has always hyped it as a cool / interesting / fun movie. So I saw it recently, and didn't like it at all. Maybe it's one of those nostalgia things, since I didn't see it as a kid or something.

It's a movie you can't take too seriously (but can take with plenty of alcohol). Unfortunately, yes, if you approach it being hyped up, it doesn't work.

Eh? Big Trouble in Little China had no connections to Buckaroo Banzai.

It was, however, originally written to be a period piece...kinda like Cowboys & Aliens.

I was always under the impression that it was meant to be the sequel mentioned at the end of Buckaroo Banzai, "Buckaroo Banzai Against The World Crime League". And then when that went no where they kicked it around a lot and came up with BTILC. But, urban legends run rampant so.... Still, both good films.

Nemesis. Best example of style over substance ever. It also tends to be closer to how Shadowrun is actually played rather than some idealized notion of how you might want it to be played (i.e. Ronin).

If doing a double feature, I'd add in Mean Guns.

These two point at very different types of Shadowrun, though. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle.

If you like your Shadowrun a bit... out there, you might try Immortal instead.

Take one Part Alien/Xenomorph, one Part Terminator/T1000. Mix, feed with fear.

As for the feel of SR 1-3 I would agree with Johnny Mnemonic and Strange Days

As far as SR4 is concerned, I wonder why nobody mentioned Babylon AD, which for me captures the SR4-feel perfectly.

Also as a Runner up, Rennaissance should not go unmentioned.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0386741/

Robocop

As mentioned above...

Renaissance

It doesn't have much in the way of cyberware or magic but it does put you in the shadows of a corporate world.

New Rose Hotel Is the most obscure film I've seen that feels like a Shadowrun, Christopher Walken and Willem Dafoe are a pair of fixers trying to extract a R&D scientist* from a Japanese Megacorp.


*played by Final Fantasy and Vampire Hunter D character designer Yoshitaka Amano

It's obscure because it was kind of cruddy. The actors, setting, and even the plot of what they actually did is awesome, but the story is a pair of old dogs sitting in a safehouse bellyaching about how things *should* be, and the movie was just as engaging.

New Syfy series Alphas.

Okay, I'm charging you four hours for your two really cruddy movies (immortal was too weird for me to say whether it was 'cruddy' or not) and I'm charging Stahsteele four hours for his one doubly-cruddy movie.

This is what I get for following dumpshock's movie suggestions. I just hope Dhoom doesn't disappoint.