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{{Short description|Hybrid genre of fiction, combining film noir and science fiction}}

'''Tech-noir''' is a hybrid genre of film or other works of fiction combining the [[film noir]] and [[cyberpunk]] genres such as seen in ''[[Blade Runner]]'' ([[1982 in film|1982]]) and ''[[The Terminator]]'' ([[1984 in film|1984]]). It is a form of [[Neo-noir]] concenrating more on [[science fiction]] themes. The term was coined in ''The Terminator'' as the name of a nightclub, ''Tech Noir''. The director [[James Cameron]] wanted a name for the particular style he was envoking.

[[File:Tech noir.png|thumb|265px|TechNoir, the nightclub in ''The Terminator'', invokes associations with both film noir and {{no break|sci-fi}}.]]

'''Tech noir''' is a hybrid genre of fiction, particularly film, combining [[film noir]] and [[science fiction]], epitomized by [[Ridley Scott]]'s ''[[Blade Runner]]'' (1982)<ref>{{cite web |url= https://gamerant.com/80s-movie-invented-tech-noir/ |title=One Movie Both Invented and Perfected the Tech Noir |work=[[Game Rant]] |first=Ben |last=Sherlock |date=February 21, 2021}}</ref> and [[James Cameron]]'s ''[[The Terminator]]'' (1984).<ref>{{cite web |last1=Hurtgen |first1=Joseph |title=Sci-fi Noir: The Terminator and Tech Noir |url=https://rapidtransmission.blogspot.com/2019/01/the-terminator.html |website=Rapid Transmission |access-date=23 March 2019}}</ref> The tech-noir presents "technology as a destructive and dystopian force that threatens every aspect of our reality".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Auger |first1=Emily |title=Tech-Noir Film: A Theory of the Development of Popular Genres |date=2011 |publisher=Intellect Ltd |isbn=978-1841504247 |page=21}}</ref>

{{film-genre-stub}}

==Terminology==

It is also known as '''cyber noir''', '''future noir''', '''neo-noir science fiction''' and '''science fiction noir'''.

==Origins==

Cameron coined the term in ''The Terminator'', using it as the name of an [[Underground culture|underground]] [[nightclub]], but also to invoke associations with both the film noir genre and with futuristic sci-fi.<ref>[https://screenrant.com/sci-fi-neo-noirs-like-blade-runner/ 10 Breathtaking Sci-Fi Neo-Noirs To Watch If You Like Blade Runner – Screen Rant]</ref>

== Precursors ==

{{unreferenced section|date=January 2025}}

The word ''noir'', from ''film noir'', is the French term (literally "black film" or "dark film") for American black-and-white films of the 1940s and 1950s, which always seemed to be set at night in an urban landscape, with a suitably dark subject-matter, although the treatment is often sexy and glamorous as well as stylized and violent. The genre was informed by a slew of crime novels, with [[Raymond Chandler]]'s ''[[The Big Sleep]]'' and ''[[Farewell, My Lovely]]'' being notable examples. Being often typified by crime thrillers with a private detective hero and a succession of attractive, deadly heroines, the classic noir style may also be called "detective noir".

From this derive various related and subverted terms, such as [[neo-noir]] (resurgence of the form in 1960s and 1970s America); the [[Cold War]] noir (exploiting the tension and paranoia of the nuclear age); [[blaxploitation]] films, which some called black noir; [[Nordic noir]], set in the stark landscape and apparently bland social environment of the Scandinavian countries, yet revealing a dark legacy of cruel misogyny, brutal sexual repression, and murder. From the same source comes cyber noir, also called tech noir, which may deal with intrigues and criminal enterprises in either the real world of computers and high technology, or in the virtual landscapes of a techno-generated underworld – and sometimes both.

=== Science fiction noir ===

Beginning in the 1960s, the most significant trend in film noir crossovers or hybrids has involved science fiction. In [[Jean-Luc Godard]]'s ''[[Alphaville (film)|Alphaville]]'' (1965), [[Lemmy Caution]] is the name of the old-school private eye in the city of tomorrow. ''[[The Groundstar Conspiracy]]'' (1972) centers on another implacable investigator and an amnesiac named Welles. ''[[Soylent Green]]'' (1973), the first major American example, portrays a [[Dystopia|dystopian]], near-future world via a self-evidently noir detection plot; starring [[Charlton Heston]] (the lead in ''[[Touch of Evil]]''), it also features classic noir standbys [[Joseph Cotten]], [[Edward G. Robinson]], and [[Whit Bissell]]. The movie was directed by [[Richard Fleischer]], who two decades before had directed several strong B noirs, including ''[[Armored Car Robbery]]'' (1950) and ''[[The Narrow Margin]]'' (1952).

=== Cyber noir ===

Cyber noir, also called tech noir, deals either with dark shenanigans in the world of computers and hi-tech supernerds; or the virtual landscapes of a techno-generated underworld; or both. The term is a [[portmanteau]] that describes the conjunction of technology and science fiction: cyber- as in [[cyberpunk]] and -noir as film noir.

The related cyberpunk genre itself is another portmanteau: cyber- being the prefix used in [[cybernetics]], the study of communication and control in living organisms, machines and organisations, although usually understood as the interface of man and machine; from Greek κυβερνήτης kubernétes, a helmsman. This, combined with punk, originally African-American slang for a young male prostitute, latterly an outsider in society, then the target and subject of [[punk music]] and subculture, where the keyword is alienation.

== Development of tech-noir ==

[[File:Minority Report bleached.jpg|thumb|250px|right|''[[Minority Report (film)|Minority Report]]'''s unique visual style: It was overlit, and the negatives were [[bleach bypass|bleach-bypassed]] to desaturate the colors in the film, similar to that of [[neo-noir]] films.]]

The cynical and stylish perspective of classic film noir had a formative effect on the [[cyberpunk]] genre of science fiction that emerged in the early 1980s. The movie most directly influential on cyberpunk was ''[[Blade Runner]]'' (1982),<ref>[http://www.screeningthepast.com/issue-24-reviews/tech-noir-the-fusion-of-science-fiction-and-film-noir/ Tech-Noir: The Fusion of Science Fiction and Film Noir|Screening the Past]</ref> directed by [[Ridley Scott]], which pays clear and evocative homage to the classic noir mode throughout the film. (Scott would subsequently direct the 1987 neo-noir crime melodrama ''[[Someone to Watch Over Me (film)|Someone to Watch Over Me]]''.)

Strong elements of tech-noir also feature in [[Terry Gilliam]]'s "dystopian satire" [[Brazil (1985 film)|''Brazil'']] (1985) and ''[[The City of Lost Children]]'' (1995), one of two "Gilliamesque" films by [[Jean-Pierre Jeunet]] and [[Marc Caro]] that were influenced by Gilliam's work in general and by ''Brazil'' in particular (the other one being ''[[Delicatessen (1991 film)|Delicatessen]]''). Scholar Jamaluddin Bin Aziz has observed how "the shadow of Philip Marlowe lingers on" in such other "future noir" films as ''[[12 Monkeys (film)|12 Monkeys]]'' (Gilliam, 1995), ''[[Dark City (1998 film)|Dark City]]'' (1998), and ''[[Minority Report (film)|Minority Report]]'' (2002).<ref>Aziz (2005), section "Future Noir and Postmodernism : The Irony Begins".</ref> The hero is subject to investigation in ''[[Gattaca]]'' (1997), which fuses film noir motifs with a scenario indebted to ''[[Brave New World]]''. ''[[The Thirteenth Floor]]'' (1999), like ''Blade Runner'', is an explicit homage to classic noir, in this case involving speculations about [[virtual reality]]. Science fiction, noir, and [[animation]] are brought together in the Japanese films ''[[Ghost in the Shell (1995 film)|Ghost in the Shell]]'' (1995) and ''[[Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence]]'' (2004), both directed by [[Mamoru Oshii]], and in films such as [[France]]'s ''[[Renaissance (2006 film)|Renaissance]]'' (2006) and the Disney sequel ''[[Tron: Legacy]]'' (2010) from America.<ref>[https://www.allmovie.com/subgenre/tech-noir-d1698/alltime-desc/2 Subgenre – Tech Noir|AllMovie]</ref>

==See also==

*[[Arthouse action film]]

*[[New Hollywood]]

*[[Dystopian fiction]]

*[[Synthwave]]

*[[Art film]]

*[[Minimalist film|Minimalist]] and [[maximalist film|maximalist cinema]]

*[[Postmodernist film]]

*[[Neo-noir]]

*[[Pulp noir]]

== References ==

{{reflist}}

==Further reading==

*{{cite journal | title=Tech Noir | journal=Artists Using Science & Technology |date=January–February 2003 | volume=23 | issue=2 | url=https://archive.org/details/ylem-journal-v23i02/mode/2up}}

* Auger, Emily E. (2011): ''Tech-Noir Film. A Theory of the Development of Popular Genres.'' Portland: Intellect, {{ISBN|9781841504247}}

{{Science fiction}}

{{Fantasy fiction}}

{{Horror fiction}}

{{Cyberpunk}}

{{Film genres}}

[[Category:Science fiction genres]]

[[Category:Neo-noir| ]]

[[Category:Cyberpunk]]

[[Category:Film genres]]

[[Category:1980s in film]]

[[Category:1990s in film]]

[[Category:2000s in film]]

[[Category:2010s in film]]