A crew of low-lifes working with an android in a dirty old spaceship for a faceless corporation that treats them as expendable.
Obviously the movie is really scifi horror, but it does hit a lot of cyberpunk themes. So do you consider Alien to be cyberpunk? If you don't, what would need to change to make it cyberpunk?
I usually include a trailer for the movies I reference but come on, it's Alien. You already know about this movie.
It's streaming on Hulu if you haven't watched it recently.
I would! It's early, and I don't think it was made to be cyberpunk. But the themes are there - the small blue-collar crew contrasted with the absurdly powerful corporation, and the distrust between them. The way the company casually turns their ship against them. And the aesthetics are there - Alien was one of the films that set the standard for used future aesthetics. I'd say cyberpunk for me is a mix of themes and aesthetics, but I'm good with including settings as well - the world of Alien and Aliens is cyberpunk, and I'm okay with calling a story set in it cyberpunk as long as it has some of the other elements. I don't think I require the characters to be punks, I'd say a lot of cyberpunk characters aren't.