History Film / StrangeDays

''Strange Days'' is a 1995 CyberPunk ScienceFiction movie written by Creator/JamesCameron and Jay Cocks, directed by Creator/KathrynBigelow and starring Creator/RalphFiennes, Creator/AngelaBassett and Creator/JulietteLewis.

Lenny Nero (Fiennes) is a grungy ex-cop eking out a lonely, miserable existence in the urban nightmare that is 1999 Los Angeles by dealing in dreams. He sells illegal "SQUID" recordings that allow the user to directly experience moments from people's lives as if they were actually there, living every sight, sound, thought and feeling that the person doing the recording experiences. This allows the user to experience anything - sex, drugs, and even death. Although charming and suave on the surface, Lenny is [[StepfordSmiler deeply unhappy and pathetic]], addicted to his own product, and desperately reliving the happy moments from his long-dead relationship with his ex-girlfriend Faith Justin (Lewis), a rising punk musician whom he saved from the gutter only for her to discard him when she began to make it big. The only two of his few remaining friends who don't regard him as a washed-up loser are Lornette "Mace" Mason (Bassett), a bodyguard and chauffeur, and Max Peltier (Creator/TomSizemore), a paranoid and cynical PI with ambiguous morality.

Lenny's life, such as it is, begins to ''completely'' fall apart a few days before the millennium celebrations, when he anonymously receives a snuff recording that depicts the agonizing rape-murder of a prostitute he is acquainted with, whom he encountered hours before her death. Because she attempted to warn him of something concerning Faith, Lenny begins to suspect that Faith is the next target...

* BodyguardBabes: Mace's cover is being a limo driver, but in reality she's expected to be her charge's bodyguard.

* BullyingADragon: [[spoiler:Jeriko One ''really'' should have kept his mouth shut after the cops pulled him over. Granted, Steckler probably still would have shot him anyway, but he might have "just" been beaten]].

* CassetteFuturism: The film takes place in a dystopian society that was only a few years away from the time of filming. The future aesthetic is mostly conveyed with loud, shiny clothing and punk stylings amongst the hip and degenerate crowd. Information is distributed by hand on discs, without any mention of the internet.

* CentralTheme: Letting go of the past. Nero can't, even though everyone, including Faith and especially Mace, tells him it's destroying him.

* ConcertClimax: Everything comes to a head during Los Angeles' 1999 New Year's celebration.

* CrapsackWorld: The 1992 Los Angeles riots set a trend toward increased crime, anger, and police brutality, to the point that by 1999 America is practically a warzone.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Lenny comes off as a cross between a drug-dealer and a pimp at the start of the movie. You'd never think that he was an ex-cop (ex-vice, for that matter).

** Lenny reacts to the rape tape by screaming, crying, and projectile vomiting. [[spoiler:Max's]] reaction by comparison is ''much'' more subdued, with only a few twitches and feeble moaning.
** Max mentions suffering a bullet "floating in the back of (his) brain pan," that lead to his retirement from the police. [[spoiler: In a later scene, when Tick is analyzing the blackjack clip of Iris's death, he notes that the killer who recorded had "some sort of trauma" to the brain. It's a clue that Max is the killer that viewers can easily miss.]]
** Another one that is subtle detail and is missed is this: [[spoiler: When Max comments about Lenny's tie when we're first introduced to him, he holds his hands up and frames the tie like a director holding up their hands to frame a shot. In the recording of Iris's death that was sent to Lenny, the killer opens Iris's eyes and then holds their hands up in the same way.]]

* GovernmentConspiracy: [[spoiler:Subverted. Max claims that there's a government conspiracy being enforced by "death squads," but he just made the whole thing up to throw Lenny off the scent. It's a much smaller and more private crime]].

* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: Played with -- Mace evidently does not give a toss about Faith and is quick to remind Lenny that it's all over between the two of them. Nevertheless, she ultimately ends up helping him in his efforts to protect / win her.

* JapanTakesOverTheWorld: A mild example, but when Nero pulls out the SQUID, the Japanese businessmen show off their vastly improved Japanese manufactured version of it.

* JustBetweenYouAndMe: "Okay, I feel like I gotta share this with someone, because it's just too perfect..."

* MentalShutdown: [[spoiler:When Lenny tries to contact Tick, his SQUID supplier, he finds that Tick has been rendered vegetative by an amplified SQUID device (he describes it as Tick's frontal lobe had been turned into two runny eggs). When Mace asks Max how long it lasts, he quietly says "Forever." Later, when Lenny goes to confront Philo Gant he finds the same thing was done to him.]]

* NeverBringAKnifeToAGunFight: While trying to get into a party, Mace beats up on Gant's thugs before finally pulling a gun on the knife-wielding female thug. She shrugs and says, "[[KnowWhenToFoldEm Enjoy the party]]

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Lenny spends most of the film wearing loud, obnoxious suits. For the climax, he changes to a relatively conservative black pinstripe suit with grey tie to fit in.

* PoliceState: America, particularly Los Angeles, has come to resmble this this by 1999 in the film's timeline, as pointed out by Jeriko One, whilst still a democracy the widespread rioting coming up to the millenium has created an ongoing state of emergency.

* PunchClockVillain: Wade, a former pro-footballer who has been reduced to bodyguarding Philo. He's genuinely flattered when Lenny pretends to recognize him, but still beats the stuffing out of him.

* SuspiciousSkiMask: Iris' attacker in the SnuffFilm wears one as he breaks into an apartment. He even glances into a mirror as he adjusts it over himself to make it fully clear to the audience what he's wearing.

* TanksForTheMemories

Lenny Nero (Fiennes) is a grungy ex-cop eking out a lonely, miserable existence in the urban nightmare that is 1999 Los Angeles by dealing in dreams. He sells illegal "SQUID" recordings that allow the user to directly experience moments from people's lives as if they were actually there, living every sight, sound, thought and feeling that the person doing the recording experiences. This allows the user to experience anything - sex, drugs, and even death. Although charming and suave on the surface, Lenny is [[StepfordSmiler deeply unhappy and pathetic]], addicted to his own product, and desperately reliving the happy moments from his long-dead relationship with his ex-girlfriend Faith (Lewis), a rising punk musician whom he saved from the gutter only for her to discard him when she began to make it big. The only two of his few remaining friends who don't regard him as a washed-up loser are Mace (Bassett), a bodyguard and chauffeur, and Max (Creator/TomSizemore), a paranoid and cynical PI with ambiguous morality.

* BigBadEnsemble: [[BigBadDuumvirate Steckler and Engelman]], [[spoiler: Philo Gant]], and [[spoiler: Max]].