Subgenres

The cyberpunk genre has spawned its own subgenres which borrow a lot of elements from cyberpunk itself, but focus on other things instead of hard-core cybernetics, information technology, artificial intelligence and sometimes dystopia's. Below you can read short descriptions of the most well known subgenres that came out of the cyberpunk genre.

• Biopunk: this genre focuses mainly on genetics and the impact they can have on our (future) world. The genre most often illustrates cloning of humans and/or genetic manipulations that shape the world in a mostly negative and discriminative way. Perfect examples of biopunk are the films Gattaca, The Island, Repo Men and The 6th Day. The movie Immortal (Ad Vitam) is also a very good example. For an in-depth explanation, consult the wiki.

• Steampunk: this genre, which is probably the most famous subgenre that came out of cyberpunk, focuses mostly on future or retro-future worlds where steam-powered machinery plays an important part of daily life. A lot of steampunk content gives a mechanical feeling to the viewer or reader. Steampunk exchanges the microelectronics and cyber revolution in cyberpunk for pure mechanics but most other elements of cyberpunk remain intact. Perfect examples of steampunk films are Brazil and Dark City. In-depth explanation can be found at the wiki.

• Dieselpunk: as the name already hints, dieselpunk focuses on possible worlds where most machinery runs on diesel fuel. Like in steampunk, dieselpunk makes extensive use of mechanics, sometimes combined with modern electronics, and usually takes place in a (fictional) interwar period. Examples of dieselpunk films are Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow, Rocketeer, Things To Come and some would argue Dark City as well due to highly overlapping themes. Dieselpunk has sometimes been called "dirty steampunk" due to the often high level of dirt and smear that comes out of diesel machines. Extensive description is available at the wiki.

• Dreampunk: this subgenre focuses on dreams that (sometimes) have the power to influence reality. The genre itself is much more influenced by steam- and dieselpunk that cyberpunk itself. Good examples of dreampunk films are the movie Inception with Leonardo DiCaprio, Dreamscape, The Lathe Of Heaven and Paprika. More at the wiki.

• Solarpunk: this subgenre is rather new and deals with high ecological awareness and the quest for cleaner and greener Earth. Solarpunk came out partly from the global warming climate changes that we currently experience and unlike Cyberpunk, it often portrays utopia's instead of dystopia's. Solarpunk has some similarities with another subgenre called Cyberprep, as they both portray utopia's, but diverge in focus. Where Cyberprep focuses on technological utopia's where, among others, enhancing your body with tech is a recreational thing, in Solarpunk stories the main characters fight evil, polluting corporations and/or governments for a cleaner/greener environment.

There are other, (much) less mainstream, cyberpunk derivatives. A complete list and description can be found on Wikipedia. The above subgenres are the most well known mainstream derivatives with the most content available.