ABSTRACT
German cyberpunk cinema of the 1980s, exemplified in the films Kamikaze 1989 (Gremm 1982) and Nuclearvision (Jacobs 1982), allows us to understand cyberpunk from a more transnational perspective. In contrast to established works, these lesser-known German films undermine cyberpunk's generic conventions and renegotiate the themes and motifs that are usually understood to make up the genre. These films are then cyberpunk not through generic storylines and familiar themes but by exploring aesthetic and style. What emerges in these films, as a sample of broader trends in European cinematic science fiction, is a distressing view of a dominant pessimism surrounding human agency when faced with a nuclear world order defined by the corrupt interests of corporations; therefore, the films are additions to the cyberpunk canon, especially in their discussion of fashion, music, and attitude, and showcase a fragile sense of agency in the face of corporate domination, a condition that increasingly defines the 21st century world order.
