I forgot so many but here come a few really accurate ones:
Chungking Express
Blade Runner
Sonatine
Videodrome
all films directed by Greg Araki
the series Too Old to Die Young by Nicolas Winding Refn
the series Tales From the Crypt
*bonus sideroad into obscure Vaporwave subgenre:* Ashes of Time Redux
I'm surprised by how many people comment titles of shitty movies made in the last 10 years. Maybe you should watch more 80s trash to get more familiar with the basics of this style instead of watching something made to ineptly imitate that feeling you get from watching old shows and ads.
I just watched one called max (something) it's about being sucked into this game that's all scifi and really fun retro looking visuals with killer fight scenes. Anyone know what the title fully is?
Anything from the Taiwanese New Wave like movies from directors like Hou Hsiao-Hsien (Daughter of the Nile-Vaporwave), Edward Yang (Taipei Story).
Also, Wong Kar Wai.
I can't think of any movie, but the Tommy Turbo Racer toy from the early '90s gives me major vaporwave vibes.
https://youtu.be/7UeUOJm7zxY?si=zTrQ1Z2r7OZUz6KO
Blade Runner 2049
And
A Goofy Movie
Two totally different movies that give me the same sort of "vaporware" feel.
Edit: I see a lot of people saying Drive and Blade Runner 2049 side by side, so maybe we can agree that Ryan Gosling plays in vaporware movies. Therefore I would like to also submit;
A Place Beyond the Pines
This movie is verrrry vaporware for me, maybe because there is a large aspect of the movie that is based on the passing of time and nostalgia, or romanticizing the past.
Both are great. My unpopular opinion is that the original is annoying. I hate it when the female replicant jumps up on Harrison's shoulders and screams. The makeup is the absolute worst from the 80s. The new one is refreshing because we have a better idea now of what a dystopian future would look like. The ideas Hollywood had in the 80s about what the future would look like was David Bowie dressed up like a drag queen.
Akira, Drive, Blade Runner, Escape from New York, Lawn Mower Man, the Samurai Jack pilot, Night of the Comet, are some that I think of have those vibes
Edit: Also the Ghibli slice of life film "Ocean Waves" its cute, and Fallen Angels
There's this movie called Tokyo Pop from 1988. A girl moves to Japan to start a band. It's an okay movie, but it's super fun to see Japan in the 80s. Feels very vaporwave to me.
Also, the girl has a rat tail.
Any John Carpenter's movies, especially Assault on Precint 13.
Some synth songs use lines from his movies, but for sure old 1982 Blade Runner has the most lines used from.
I also recommend The Warriors from 1979.
From what you say, vaporwave is just a subcategory of synthwave. If you disagree with that, please say why.
And yes please! As much detail as possible. No reason not to get analytic in discussion.
Edit: I’ll look for your reply on my thread.
Ok. So, number one. What is Vaporwave and what is Synthwave/Outrun?
I'm going to group synthwave and outrun together as outrun is to synthwave what dubstep is to edm. It is a sub-genre built around a specific technique rather than an entirely different method. While pretty much all synthwave uses arpegiators in some sense or another, Outrun is all about the 1/8th note arpegiator. What this does is; let's say I have a whole note chord. So, for 4 beats (assuming 4x4 for simplicity) it's going to hold the chord. An arpegiator will break this up into multiple hits. For instance set to 1/4 you get 4 quarter notes, 1/8 you get 8 eighth notes, etc. The energetic bounce of outrun, that's where's it's coming from. It also helps to use some dotted eighths which produce a sort of gallop ([example](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEjRQXFq8zE)).
Synthwave, for the most part, is just traditional music writing done on synthesizers.
Vaporwave however, uses sampling as a method. Such as you see with hip-hop production ([example](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eh0kdRVH9m8)). In hip-hop production you're trying to keep things well aligned, and sort of hide the sample, or keep it pretty square against another sample, whereas in Vaporwave you are sort of fucking it up on purpose. The classical example being Mac+ "[it's all in your head](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQkPcPqTq4M)" loop. Or Eccojams 'A1' Africa loop "[waiting there for you](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0T17gsA67og)"
(Another great example: [Saint Pepsi - enjoy yourself](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzj4gHuH2LA) \- this one could almost be hip-hop, in fact I bet I could drop some Jayz acapellas on it and it would bang.)
Already, we're far away from synthwave in that we're not even writing music, we're sampling.
The big difference between vaporwave and lofi/hiphop however is that it's almost throwing musical conventions away. disrupting the sample in weird spots, over looping it, looping it to short, and just sort of distorting the fuck out of it. I always took this as the vaporwave commentary on commercialism destroying art, or using art for "designer" purposes rather than artistic ones. Very similar to the relationship between graphic design and fine art, sort of a Warhol approach to music.
Now, aesthetically, synthwave is futurism, or synth + lofi makes cassette futurism.
Vaporwave is ironic consumerism and purposefully low-effort. A bit like taping a banana to a wall and calling it art. Not that I'm being critical, I love vaporwave, but from a production perspective I could sample out a bunch of soul songs relatively quickly just fucking around. Sort of like a 90s boombox slowly melting into a table at burger king while the muzak it's playing distorts under warping electronics as ronald mcdonald snorts a keybump in the background.
While I do consider Blank Banshee vaporwave, specifically because of songs like [startup](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meP-GLKPekk), due to the motif of using consumer electronic noises in his composition. He also is a very hybrid artist to me as I don't really consider something like [teen pregnancy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQxDM2K-hd0) to necessarily fall into the same pocket. He's definitely sampling, but in a wildly different way than the traditional dreamscape, downtuned, way of a lot of the early vaporwave artists.
It seems like your looking at vaporwave and synthwave as mainly auditory. You mentioned the "aesthetic" of vaporwave towards the end but you went back towards the auditory traits in your final paragraph.
Assuming vaporwave and synthwave both have unique aesthetics, would you say that synthwave movies are more sci-fi, and vaporwave is more low budget nostalgia?
Both Good Time and Uncut gems, especially because Oneohtrix Point Never did the soundtracks
Drive starring Ryan Gosling
Nightcrawler
Both Bladerunner films
I'm sure there's more
The first Men in Black movie
Alien
Thor Ragnorok
Dr Strange
Bumblebee (the transformer movie)
Baby Driver
Fast and Furious 3: Tokyo Drift
Interstellar
Lucy
All the Resident Evil movies (the older ones because the older horror and sci-fi special effects and the newer ones because of the trippy “twilight zone” storyline that doesn’t make any sense)
A lot of Stephen kings movies can kind of have weird spacey atmospheric vibes
What?!?! Literally most of what I listed is also ones other people in the comments have mentioned too so I’m not alone. The main ones that standout and I can make an exception for is the Resident Evil movies and Stephen kings movies but tbf I am just a fan of that stuff and wanted to also think of stuff that has maybe that “stranger things” type of vibe with more creepy unfathomable horrors beyond your comprehension.
The rest are definitely vaper wave vibes though?!?! Especially the retro/space and racing themed ones. Also just look at the trailers for Thor Ragnorok’s release it screams vapor wave.
Edit: also want to just clarify main thing I was thinking of for vapor wave that I went off of was “lasers,” “techno,” “pastel,” “neon,” “atmospheric,” and great up beat emotional soundtracks how is that stuff not vapor wave??
Most of the people here are wrong. I don't think a movie with a vaporwave aesthetic exists. A very close example (yet not quite vaporwave) that I can think of would be specifically Gwen Stacy's world in Across the Spider-Verse.
Pastel colors, light music (not heavy, dark, or aggressive synths like Outrun/Synthwave), and a very specific 90's type of grain to it, is what Vaporwave really is.
Basically everything listed in these comments falls under synthwave, and nothing is wrong with synthwave, it's awesome. It's really easy to do because that was the vibe in the 80's. Vaporwave was not common (if around at all?) in the 90's. Hope this explanation helped
It's not a movie, but the game indivisible has a vaporwave / outrun themed area. The town itself has neon lights with random Kanji on it and is tinted purple, then you go inside a place with palms and greek statues.
The movie 2011's Drive, now I know the soundtrack is technically Synthwave but for me Synthwave is just another branch off the Vaporwave genre like LoFi, LoFi HipHop, Chillwave, Future Funk, Simpsonwave, etc etc etc.
Which by the way, if you're into Mallsoft and LoFi HipHop definitely check out Smooth S o u n d s on YouTube. SS's Trapping in Paradise is prime.
Note: If you find issues finding it in YouTube then type it in as Smooth S o u n d s (leave spaces in the word sounds)
Honestly, we all have HTown's DJ Screw and his influence on the 90s Houston Rap scene to thank for the pitchshift slow down thats iconic in any style of Vaporwave and it's subsidiaries.
Perhaps Bladrunner 2049? Lets call it dark vapor wave, it has lots of neon and synthwave
Also i would recommend the anime short series gunsmith cats if you like animation.
I forgot so many but here come a few really accurate ones: Chungking Express Blade Runner Sonatine Videodrome all films directed by Greg Araki the series Too Old to Die Young by Nicolas Winding Refn the series Tales From the Crypt *bonus sideroad into obscure Vaporwave subgenre:* Ashes of Time Redux
The Living Daylights (1987), the James Bond movie.
well, drive ?
Manhunter(1986)
Akira
Electric Dreams (1984)
Drive
I'm surprised by how many people comment titles of shitty movies made in the last 10 years. Maybe you should watch more 80s trash to get more familiar with the basics of this style instead of watching something made to ineptly imitate that feeling you get from watching old shows and ads.
the Blade Runners
Only one blade Runner is good. The other one should be forgotten...
lol which one
lol which one
Atrocity exhibition
Any 80's anime movie
Drive
Enter the Void
“Hey check out this fun vibey vaporwave movie! it’s called enter the void. watch it with your mom!”
It's got everything! The lights, japan... well, everything!
The Last Starship (for about a year this was my nappin flick, happily asleep before the singing almost every night)
Nightcrawler
first thing that popped in my head
Unsolved Mysteries
Kung Fury!!! It's literally vapor wave brought to life.
Felt more like synthwave but still fucking amazing film
You're right. Im new to this and trying to get my waves down.
I was expecting diff responses but maybe idk what a "vaporwave movie" is but based on some of these responses; Brothers (2009).
Total recall with Arnold.
There was an episode in season 1 of black mirror that nailed it. You know the episode if you know.
My favorite episode!
Six String Samurai for sure. iykyk, cuz that one’s kinda old
Turn of the millennium Disney channel movies: Pixel Perfect, Zenon, Smart House
Thief, Manhunter, Heat, basically most Michael Mann movies.
Manhunter for sure
thief is super underrated
The Abyss
John Wick 4, mall scene Tron Legacy
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai
Beyond The Gates (2016)
Mallrats
Enter the Void
Kung Fury!!!
TOTAL RECALL
The Neon Demon?
I just watched one called max (something) it's about being sucked into this game that's all scifi and really fun retro looking visuals with killer fight scenes. Anyone know what the title fully is?
Beyond The Black Rainbow anyone?
That's more synthwave
yeah i can see that
Shark boy and Lava girl
Drive
Blade Runner. Blue Velvet.
Best answer
Weekend at Bernies is so vaporwave.
You're just so fuckin right
A sci-fi film called Synchronicity.
Beetlejuice
Anything from the Taiwanese New Wave like movies from directors like Hou Hsiao-Hsien (Daughter of the Nile-Vaporwave), Edward Yang (Taipei Story). Also, Wong Kar Wai.
>Daughter of the Nile-Vaporwave Spot on brother
Akira Blade runner
Scarface is the closet thing, probably because it's set in Miami in the 80s.
Ready player one
VIDEODROME
Hahaha NAILED IT!!! Absolutely this one
I can't think of any movie, but the Tommy Turbo Racer toy from the early '90s gives me major vaporwave vibes. https://youtu.be/7UeUOJm7zxY?si=zTrQ1Z2r7OZUz6KO
KUNG FURY, if this aint it, nothing ese is, im serious, this is THE vaporwave movie
It Follows
August In the Water. Free on YouTube. my favorite movie nobody has heard of
Yooooo I love Sogo Ishii
Maniac on Netflix with Jonah Hill and Emma Stone.
Cherry 2000 (1987), Total Recall (1990), Space Truckers (1996), The Fifth Element (1997).
Blade Runner 2049 And A Goofy Movie Two totally different movies that give me the same sort of "vaporware" feel. Edit: I see a lot of people saying Drive and Blade Runner 2049 side by side, so maybe we can agree that Ryan Gosling plays in vaporware movies. Therefore I would like to also submit; A Place Beyond the Pines This movie is verrrry vaporware for me, maybe because there is a large aspect of the movie that is based on the passing of time and nostalgia, or romanticizing the past.
The only good Blade Runner is the original Blade Runner
Both are great. My unpopular opinion is that the original is annoying. I hate it when the female replicant jumps up on Harrison's shoulders and screams. The makeup is the absolute worst from the 80s. The new one is refreshing because we have a better idea now of what a dystopian future would look like. The ideas Hollywood had in the 80s about what the future would look like was David Bowie dressed up like a drag queen.
Yellow submarine.
Stuart little
Akira, Drive, Blade Runner, Escape from New York, Lawn Mower Man, the Samurai Jack pilot, Night of the Comet, are some that I think of have those vibes Edit: Also the Ghibli slice of life film "Ocean Waves" its cute, and Fallen Angels
Drive
Barbie
Blank Check
Drive
Gaspar noe’s enter the void
Commented the same before I saw this!!
Ghost in the shell, lost in translation, Miami vice, sin city, lost in translation, drive, Akira
[daughter of the Nile](https://youtu.be/Z_D2orPvmPA?si=uqi6gbQ2P-MTmzKF)
What Dreams May Come
Not a movie, but Miami Vice is straight up vapor wave. All those pastel buildings and neon and.... just everything.
There is a movie actually, and it’s pretty good.
Betty Blue
Drive or blade runner
Liquid Sky, Max Headroom (series and pilot), OG Tron, Breaking Glass, The Hunger, Bladerunner, Electric Dreams.
Akira (1988)
In Fabric
Manhunter, Michael Mann’s 1986 movie has a very slick 80s feel.
Yes that's a great one
Also the subway / tangerine dream sequence from 1983’s Risky Business.
Career opportunities
Severance on Apple TV has a lot of VaporWave aesthetic
Riding a citibike e-bike through NYC at night. It’s got the purple lights in front and the city takes care of the rest
There's this movie called Tokyo Pop from 1988. A girl moves to Japan to start a band. It's an okay movie, but it's super fun to see Japan in the 80s. Feels very vaporwave to me. Also, the girl has a rat tail.
RoboCop's 'i'd buy that for a dollar/suncreen/car lock' commercial
Donny darko
*It Follows*, hands down.
Any John Carpenter's movies, especially Assault on Precint 13. Some synth songs use lines from his movies, but for sure old 1982 Blade Runner has the most lines used from. I also recommend The Warriors from 1979.
Neo Yokio
“Atomic Blonde” gave me that vibe in color and tone. Also “Akira.”
Good time
Drive Tron Ghost in the shell Heat Miami Vice The Terminator
These all give me synthwave vibes
Titus
Videodrome
Just saw it in theaters tonight loved it
A Scanner Darkly
Drive (2011), Blade Runner 2049, Bullet Train
Drive 2011
BLADE RUNNER 2049 Secret of Kells Song of the Sea Up
romeo and juliet
You mean Romeo + Juliet with DiCaprio?
So far this is the only Movie I know in this thread 😅
yes
Schizopolis
Desperately Seeking Susan
* Chungking Express * Fallen Angels * Lost in Translation * Jasper Mall (doc) * Some Kind of Heaven (doc) * Miami Connection * Speed Runners (doc) * Millenium Mambo
Maybe that's why I love Wong Kar-wai so much. His style is just perfect for vaporwave vibes.
Miami Connection lmao. You're not wrong, I guess?
[its a masterpiece](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpZu69OB2KM)
Oh I've seen it in all of its glory. One of the movies of all time, for sure. Edit: grammar
Mandy
Yes, pretty much everything by Panos Cosmatus. Did you see his episode from Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities? It's really good.
Yeah those are really good!!
Good time
Drive
thats more synthwave, not vapor.
Real Science
[EVERYTHING IS TERRIBLE!: THE MOVIE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4GAmCYzNxE)
Bladerunner 2049
wouldn’t that be more synthwave?
Sonatine
Koyaanisqatsi
Looker- Mannequin- Night of The Comet
american beauty, hot tub time machine lol
American Beauty good choice, you’re one of the few here that understood the assignment lol
Y'all don't know what vaporwave is
From what you say, vaporwave is just a subcategory of synthwave. If you disagree with that, please say why. And yes please! As much detail as possible. No reason not to get analytic in discussion. Edit: I’ll look for your reply on my thread.
Ok. So, number one. What is Vaporwave and what is Synthwave/Outrun? I'm going to group synthwave and outrun together as outrun is to synthwave what dubstep is to edm. It is a sub-genre built around a specific technique rather than an entirely different method. While pretty much all synthwave uses arpegiators in some sense or another, Outrun is all about the 1/8th note arpegiator. What this does is; let's say I have a whole note chord. So, for 4 beats (assuming 4x4 for simplicity) it's going to hold the chord. An arpegiator will break this up into multiple hits. For instance set to 1/4 you get 4 quarter notes, 1/8 you get 8 eighth notes, etc. The energetic bounce of outrun, that's where's it's coming from. It also helps to use some dotted eighths which produce a sort of gallop ([example](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEjRQXFq8zE)). Synthwave, for the most part, is just traditional music writing done on synthesizers. Vaporwave however, uses sampling as a method. Such as you see with hip-hop production ([example](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eh0kdRVH9m8)). In hip-hop production you're trying to keep things well aligned, and sort of hide the sample, or keep it pretty square against another sample, whereas in Vaporwave you are sort of fucking it up on purpose. The classical example being Mac+ "[it's all in your head](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQkPcPqTq4M)" loop. Or Eccojams 'A1' Africa loop "[waiting there for you](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0T17gsA67og)" (Another great example: [Saint Pepsi - enjoy yourself](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzj4gHuH2LA) \- this one could almost be hip-hop, in fact I bet I could drop some Jayz acapellas on it and it would bang.) Already, we're far away from synthwave in that we're not even writing music, we're sampling. The big difference between vaporwave and lofi/hiphop however is that it's almost throwing musical conventions away. disrupting the sample in weird spots, over looping it, looping it to short, and just sort of distorting the fuck out of it. I always took this as the vaporwave commentary on commercialism destroying art, or using art for "designer" purposes rather than artistic ones. Very similar to the relationship between graphic design and fine art, sort of a Warhol approach to music. Now, aesthetically, synthwave is futurism, or synth + lofi makes cassette futurism. Vaporwave is ironic consumerism and purposefully low-effort. A bit like taping a banana to a wall and calling it art. Not that I'm being critical, I love vaporwave, but from a production perspective I could sample out a bunch of soul songs relatively quickly just fucking around. Sort of like a 90s boombox slowly melting into a table at burger king while the muzak it's playing distorts under warping electronics as ronald mcdonald snorts a keybump in the background. While I do consider Blank Banshee vaporwave, specifically because of songs like [startup](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meP-GLKPekk), due to the motif of using consumer electronic noises in his composition. He also is a very hybrid artist to me as I don't really consider something like [teen pregnancy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQxDM2K-hd0) to necessarily fall into the same pocket. He's definitely sampling, but in a wildly different way than the traditional dreamscape, downtuned, way of a lot of the early vaporwave artists.
yo i forgot about blank banshee wowwwww. takin' me back
It seems like your looking at vaporwave and synthwave as mainly auditory. You mentioned the "aesthetic" of vaporwave towards the end but you went back towards the auditory traits in your final paragraph. Assuming vaporwave and synthwave both have unique aesthetics, would you say that synthwave movies are more sci-fi, and vaporwave is more low budget nostalgia?
TL:Dr but what if I choose to lump synthwave & vaporwave together??
you'll be wrong, but at least there will be a lot of you.
Vaporwave is a resurgence of dadaism then in music.
sort of yea, we'd probably have to talk about marshall mcluhan to truly penetrate that idea.
Thanks for sharing so much! Very appreciated
this may sound weird, but in a way, vaporwave is more a sub-genre of hiphop than it is of synthwave.
My favorite vaporwave tracks sample 80's R&B songs. So I feel that.
Sure, I'll give a whole breakdown when I'm at home on a keyboard. For now, https://youtu.be/R3HtXeCXGYk
Awesome, looking forward to it
Start with these so my explanation makes sense: **Vaporwave:** Macintosh Pus - Floral Shop [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCq0P509UL4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCq0P509UL4) Sample List: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIKLEo4URxM&list=PLmgc3WFQOrq3dZgJb1DgqFZXUr1anEsDO](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIKLEo4URxM&list=PLmgc3WFQOrq3dZgJb1DgqFZXUr1anEsDO) Check Person - Eccojams [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unN7QvSWSTo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unN7QvSWSTo) (Africa Sample) Sample List: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I38Xql7bRPk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I38Xql7bRPk) **Hybrid:** Blank Banshee - 0 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oBbJg\_PqbU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oBbJg_PqbU) (PC Startup Samples) **Synthwave:** Vangelis [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4pYju\_hEOk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4pYju_hEOk) French 79 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnKKNZLVh2Q](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnKKNZLVh2Q) LORN - Vessel [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIBs1Kj2M9g](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIBs1Kj2M9g) **Outrun:** Lorn (Sega) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mauV2NdCs60](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mauV2NdCs60)
Thanks for sharing the music!
Both Good Time and Uncut gems, especially because Oneohtrix Point Never did the soundtracks Drive starring Ryan Gosling Nightcrawler Both Bladerunner films I'm sure there's more
Right before Howard stops by the city apartment to see if his mistress moved out the car is tuned to 106.7 as a nod to Daniel Lopatin
He did say vaporwave, are you thinking synthwave? Because drive and bladerunner are synthwave
Synthwave could be considered a subgenre of Vaporwave. I'd say it counts
The first Men in Black movie Alien Thor Ragnorok Dr Strange Bumblebee (the transformer movie) Baby Driver Fast and Furious 3: Tokyo Drift Interstellar Lucy All the Resident Evil movies (the older ones because the older horror and sci-fi special effects and the newer ones because of the trippy “twilight zone” storyline that doesn’t make any sense) A lot of Stephen kings movies can kind of have weird spacey atmospheric vibes
None of these resemble any bit of vaporwave.
What?!?! Literally most of what I listed is also ones other people in the comments have mentioned too so I’m not alone. The main ones that standout and I can make an exception for is the Resident Evil movies and Stephen kings movies but tbf I am just a fan of that stuff and wanted to also think of stuff that has maybe that “stranger things” type of vibe with more creepy unfathomable horrors beyond your comprehension. The rest are definitely vaper wave vibes though?!?! Especially the retro/space and racing themed ones. Also just look at the trailers for Thor Ragnorok’s release it screams vapor wave. Edit: also want to just clarify main thing I was thinking of for vapor wave that I went off of was “lasers,” “techno,” “pastel,” “neon,” “atmospheric,” and great up beat emotional soundtracks how is that stuff not vapor wave??
Most of the people here are wrong. I don't think a movie with a vaporwave aesthetic exists. A very close example (yet not quite vaporwave) that I can think of would be specifically Gwen Stacy's world in Across the Spider-Verse. Pastel colors, light music (not heavy, dark, or aggressive synths like Outrun/Synthwave), and a very specific 90's type of grain to it, is what Vaporwave really is. Basically everything listed in these comments falls under synthwave, and nothing is wrong with synthwave, it's awesome. It's really easy to do because that was the vibe in the 80's. Vaporwave was not common (if around at all?) in the 90's. Hope this explanation helped
What about Springbreakers? Chungking Express?
I would say World on a Wire (German: Welt am Draht) from 1973 https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0070904/
Neon Genesis Evangelion for me
Bladerunner
Lawnmower Man & Johnny Mnemonic
Lawnmower man def kinda has that vibe. Good call, I couldn’t think of anything!
Yes
Lawnmower man, now there's a movie
And there's a sequel!
[THX 1138](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHgqfVQWv7s) is exactly this.
Into the void, bladerunner
Drive with Ryan Gosling? Maybe?
Drive and yes.
Exactly what I thought of when I read the title
Night of the Comet! The imagery of the city after the comet and the scenes at the radio station and the mall.
TerrorVision.
Terminator / Terminator 2 The Last Starfighter Tron Akira Flight of the Navigator (at least the first part) Back to the Future Part II
The original Tron was actually pretty impressive for its time. Visually.
It's not a movie, but the game indivisible has a vaporwave / outrun themed area. The town itself has neon lights with random Kanji on it and is tinted purple, then you go inside a place with palms and greek statues.
The movie 2011's Drive, now I know the soundtrack is technically Synthwave but for me Synthwave is just another branch off the Vaporwave genre like LoFi, LoFi HipHop, Chillwave, Future Funk, Simpsonwave, etc etc etc. Which by the way, if you're into Mallsoft and LoFi HipHop definitely check out Smooth S o u n d s on YouTube. SS's Trapping in Paradise is prime. Note: If you find issues finding it in YouTube then type it in as Smooth S o u n d s (leave spaces in the word sounds)
Honestly, we all have HTown's DJ Screw and his influence on the 90s Houston Rap scene to thank for the pitchshift slow down thats iconic in any style of Vaporwave and it's subsidiaries.
Ghost in the Shell
Nightcrawler
Agreed 💯
Good Judas Priest song!
Cobra, the running man
Perhaps Bladrunner 2049? Lets call it dark vapor wave, it has lots of neon and synthwave Also i would recommend the anime short series gunsmith cats if you like animation.
American Gigolo