Ghost in the Shell (2017)
Where to Watch
- The incredible score for Ghost in the Shell was composed in just a few weeks after the original composer dropped out.
- The original script for Ghost in the Shell was written over a decade before production finally began in 2017.
- Many of the practical effects used in the climax were achieved without any CGI.
Ghost in the Shell is a 2017 American science fiction action film directed by Rupert Sanders, a live-action adaptation of Masamune Shirow's manga and the acclaimed 1995 anime. Scarlett Johansson stars as Major Mila Killian, the first of her kind — a human brain transplanted into a fully synthetic cyborg body by the Hanka Robotics corporation to serve as a counter-terrorism operative in a near-future world where cybernetic enhancement is ubiquitous. When Major begins experiencing glitches that reveal suppressed memories of her past human life, she discovers that her origin story is built on lies and corporate exploitation.
The casting of Scarlett Johansson as the Major generated intense controversy, with critics accusing the production of whitewashing an originally Japanese character — a debate that overshadowed the film's release and contributed to its commercial underperformance. The visual design, supervised by production designer Jan Roelfs, was the film's most acclaimed element, creating a future cityscape of holographic advertisements, rain-slicked neon streets, and biomechanical technology that honored the anime's aesthetic while expanding it into live action. Ghost in the Shell earned $169 million worldwide on a $110 million budget, a significant loss.
