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• 1 2025-04-14T22:15:20+00:00 BERLIN IN 2052 75 Speculative Urbanism and the Cyberpunk Cityscape: Imagining Berlin’s Future in Mute (2018) image_header 2025-05-16T14:24:34+00:00

  “In order to mold his people, God often has to melt them.”

  Think about this quote for a minute - it will be important later ...
  
  Also feel free to play this music in the background ;)

  Introduction

  The dark side of technology - camera surveillance, monitoring, data collection - has been the inspiration for many science fiction novels and movies. One of them is the 2018 Netflix original movie Mute by the British director Duncan Jones. This work of speculative fiction is set in the imaginary, futuristic city of Berlin in the year 2052.

  The Historic and Current Berlin

  Berlin has an interesting and somewhat ambivalent relationship with surveillance. Due to its history with the Stasi and Nazi regimes, there is a strong cultural resistance to state control and privacy infringement. People have become very aware and suspicious of governmental control and are resisting modern development more strongly than other cities. This resistance to surveillance in Berlin is deeply rooted in the city’s historical trauma. The legacy of the Stasi, with its vast surveillance apparatus and network of informants, left a lasting cultural aversion to state control.
  As a result, modern Berliners are often vocal in opposing increased police powers, expanded camera surveillance, or data collection initiatives. Urban planning and governance in Berlin still reflect these sensitivities, with many residents and activists pushing back against “smart city” projects that involve AI or mass data collecting. Berlin is also known as a city that prefers cash over electronic payment. @1
  
  Due to Berlin’s suboptimal economic situation during and after the separation between West and East Germany, the city has historically not been very attractive to investors. That is why, despite it being the capital city of Germany, it is not the center of German economics and therefore does not have many skyscrapers. @1.5
   

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  The Cyberpunk Berlin in Mute - High-Tech

  @2 In Mute, Berlin is shown as a megacity with countless skyscrapers, flying cars, neon-lighting and other cyberpunk aesthetics. Mute reimagines the city as a hyper-urbanized, globalized metropolis. This does not reflect Berlin’s historical economic reality, but it is a speculative projection of cyberpunk tropes which project a future of vertical expansion, privatized space, and transnational capital.
  
  
  
  
  
  @3 There are also black markets which are a hub of illegal activity and underground commerce. Other illegal activities involve medical services and body modification. Unqualified surgeons perform unauthorized procedures, such as prosthetics, organ transplants, or body enhancements. In cyberpunk, powerful technologies related to health and body modification are only accessible through money and illicit means. Medical procedures are no longer in the hand of public institutions like hospitals but are now part of underground operations.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  @4
  
  
  
  
  @5

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  A Hopeful Ending? - Transformation

  All of these high-tech elements of the cyberpunk city have drastic impacts on people and relationships:
  Human interaction in the movie appears dull and lifeless. In Mute, human interaction is often marked by alienation, exploitation, and emotional detachment – qualities that align strongly with the ‘low-life’ side of cyberpunk. The relationships between characters are shaped by survival, manipulation, and trauma, rather than trust or community.
  
  BUT IS THERE STILL HOPE?
  
  According to the movie, yes! And it has to with the quote from the beginning on the page.
  
  "The quote serves as a thematic lens for understanding the film’s characters and setting, particularly the transformation of individuals within a corrupt, hyper-capitalist, cyberpunk Berlin. The quote seems to suggest that before there can be rebirth and reshaping (to mold), there needs to be a painful, destructive process (to melt)."
  
  Throughout the movie, Leo suffers many wounds, representing physical pain and exertion. Beyond that, the atmosphere is represented by the lighting of the movie: Through large parts of the movie, darkness, shadows, and smoke combined with aggressive neon lights shape the aesthetics of the cyberpunk city. This reflects the murky, morally ambiguous world Leo must navigate – one full of deception and exploitation. It takes until the final scene for there to be natural sunlight, when Leo emerges from this world with his girlfriend’s daughter. The sunlight bathes Leo and the daughter in warm tones and it feels like they are waking up from a nightmare. This shift in lighting symbolizes Leo’s transformation from a silent, passive outsider to an active moral agent who fights against corruption.
  
  Leo’s transformation is not just about him as a person – it also stands for something bigger. It shows that even in a broken and corrupt world, there is still a chance for change. The movie shows a city filled with greed, violence, and people who have lost their sense of connection. But when Leo saves the child, it feels like a small sign of hope. It suggests that even in dark places, people can still do the right thing. @7
   

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  HAVE I SPARKED YOUR INTEREST?
  HERE IS THE TRAILER OF THE MOVIE!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  >@6

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  Bibliography

       Sterling, Bruce. “Preface: Cyberpunk in the Nineties.” In Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology, edited by Bruce Sterling. New York: Ace Books, 1986. https://www.rudyrucker.com/mirrorshades/HTML/.
  
       Kukka, Hannu, et al. "From Cyberpunk to Calm Urban Computing: Exploring the Role of Technology in the Future Cityscape." Technological Forecasting and Social Change 84 (2014): 29-42.
  
       Frey, Malte. “Societal Structures from Anime-Cyberpunk to Post Cyberpunk: City Imagery in Ghost in the Shell and Psycho-Pass.” Journal of Anime and Manga Studies 4 (2023): 131-158.