In just a few weeks, the latest installment in the Blade Runner franchise arrives with Prime Video’s Blade Runner 2099. The eagerly anticipated series takes the story 50 years forward from Blade Runner 2049 and cyberpunk fans are definitely hyped. But as we approach the series’ arrival, there’s another cyberpunk masterpiece that genre fans can check out while they wait and not only does it feature an iconic Black Panther star, but it’s a certified streaming hit, making its way up Disney+’s charts three decades after bombing at the box office.
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Released in 12995, Strange Days is one of those ‘90s gems that have largely flown under the radar but are honestly masterpieces. The film stars Black Panther favorite Angela Bassett and Ralph Fiennes and centers around an electronic device that lets the user experience the memories and actual physical sensations of other people. The high concept thriller boasts not only massive talent in its cast, but it was written by James Cameron and directed by Kathryn Bigelow. It’s a movie that was well-made for its time but has only gotten better — and more chilling — in the years since.
Angela Bassett Shines in Strange Days
In Strange Days, Bassett plays Lornette “Mace” Mason, but don’t expect her to be the regal Queen Ramonda fans know and love from the MCU. Mace is a tough as nails limo driver who is also a private bodyguard. She is friends with Lenny (Fiennes), a former LAPD officer who is now a black-market seller of the illegal memory device called SQUID and, as a bodyguard, she looks after him. Things go awry when Lenny gets a SQUID disk that records the brutal assault and murder of the friend of Lenny’s ex. A full-on mystery begins to unfold as Lenny and Mace uncover a seedy and disturbing ring of SQUID disks that offer up truly horrific experiences for the highest bidder.
As Mace, Bassett is the moral, stable core of the film. Lenny is obsessed with his ex, Faith, but Mace remains focused on the seriousness of things as they uncover a LAPD conspiracy and the concealment of murder. She is a fierce protector of Lenny — whom she has feelings for — and it’s the complexity of her relationship with him as his friend, his bodyguard, and someone who quietly loves him that makes her performance so incredible. Mace isn’t just a one-note badass. She has layers and nuance, offering up a great level of professionalism in her job while also trying to maintain and balance how she deals with Lenny, someone who isn’t exactly good with her boundaries.
Mace is also a character who has experienced significant tragedy and trauma, but it’s not something that defines her. It is all too easy in entertainment for the trauma to be the core element of a character and while it’s significant part of Mace, Bassett plays it as just one important element, not the entire story. She’s strong without being emotionless but she’s also vulnerable without it being a weakness. In the hands of any other actress, Mace could be a stereotype, but Bassett makes her richly human — and she’s pretty great in the action scenes, too. While she already had an Oscar nomination for What’s Love Got to Do with It in 1994, it’s easy to see in Strange Days why she would go on to get another years later for Queen Ramonda in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Bassett is just that great in Strange Days and would only get better as a performer in the years after.
If you haven’t seen Strange Days, you can stream the movie now on Disney+ where it is currently one of the platform’s top films.
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