ABSTRACT
At first glance, Kathryn Bigelow's films Strange Days (1995) and Zero Dark Thirty (2012) appear quite different. Strange Days explores the themes and cinematic techniques of cyberpunk to discuss racial and class conflicts and rising tensions at the end of the 20th century while Zero Dark Thirty offers realist depictions of warfare and counterterrorism in the hunt for al-Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden. Yet, in Strange Days Bigelow makes use of a virtual reality technology which allows users to vicariously relive recorded experiences to unmask capitalist power plays and the technology's problematic usage; similarly, Zero Dark Thirty revisits the aesthetics presented in Strange Days and employs cyberpunk visuality to discuss the reality-status of the virtual representation used in military actions. As Zero Dark Thirty projects, cyberpunk delivers the potent imagery for contemporary intelligence measures and tactics of modern warfare.
