# Bright: Will Smith does Shadowrun **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 21, 2017, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bright-will-smith-does-shadowrun/791797 "2017-07-21T13:57:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2017, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bright-will-smith-does-shadowrun/791797/1 "2017-07-21T13:57:01Z")
[So looking forward to this.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EZCBSsBxko) It looks like straight up Shadowrun minus the cyberpunk stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2017, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bright-will-smith-does-shadowrun/791797/2 "2017-07-21T14:34:22Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > [So looking forward to this.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EZCBSsBxko) It looks like straight up Shadowrun minus the cyberpunk stuff. I just saw this trailer this morning as well. I thought it was a good smashup of Shadowrun and Alien Nation, plus it’s written by Max Landis, who seems to be a guy who understands genre writing very well. I really liked playing Shadowrun on my Sega back in the day and this looks pretty cool to me. This seems like something that could be a series. The one thing that got me though is Will Smith smashes the fairy caught up in his bug zapper then they move on to clips talking about how all creatures deserve equal treatment. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2017, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bright-will-smith-does-shadowrun/791797/3 "2017-07-21T14:59:32Z")
Which is kind of how people act in real life; we treat other “races” as bieng of equal worth (or hope we do) but we eat other species, some of them pretty sapient. I guess in the universe of “Bright,” a fairy is not a talking, human-sized hominid, so it’s a pest you can whack with a broom. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2017, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bright-will-smith-does-shadowrun/791797/4 "2017-07-21T15:47:59Z")
Dropping the “faerie lives don’t matter” line makes me think it was entirely intended too. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2017, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bright-will-smith-does-shadowrun/791797/5 "2017-07-22T03:21:29Z")
Oh Damn. Will be watching. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2017, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bright-will-smith-does-shadowrun/791797/6 "2017-07-22T11:14:18Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > It looks like straight up Shadowrun minus the cyberpunk stuff. So nothing whatsoever like Shadowrun, in other words. 😃 Looks entertaining all the same, and if it comes free with my Netflix subscription, I guess there’s no reason for me not to watch it. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2017, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bright-will-smith-does-shadowrun/791797/7 "2017-07-22T11:46:19Z")
Wow, never heard of this until now. Looks good. Bad title though. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2017, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bright-will-smith-does-shadowrun/791797/8 "2017-07-22T12:45:03Z")
Near as I can tell, Shadowrun has three main pillars: 1: Magic has returned in the near-future world, bringing with it the magical races, and there’s now considerable racial tension between them and humans. 2: Corporations have taken over every aspect of life and turned the world into a capitalist dystopia. 3: All the cyberpunk stuff. This certainly has the first. It might or might not have the second; there’s no way to tell from this trailer. And it appears not to have the third. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2017, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bright-will-smith-does-shadowrun/791797/9 "2017-07-22T12:51:32Z")
One might argue that today’s modern world is already cyberpunk, at least compared to the 1980’s when the game was created. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2017, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bright-will-smith-does-shadowrun/791797/10 "2017-07-22T13:39:54Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Near as I can tell, Shadowrun has three main pillars: > 1: Magic has returned in the near-future world, bringing with it the magical races, and there’s now considerable racial tension between them and humans. This just makes it a ['magic comes back](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheMagicComesBack)’ [urban fantasy](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/UrbanFantasy). This is not a rare enough genre to call any use of it, without the cyberpunk trappings (which your point 2 is part of, not a separate aspect), ‘doing Shadowrun’, since Shadowrun’s defining point is the combination of Urban Fantasy with Cyberpunk. I also see nothing in the trailer to suggest that Bright is The Magic Comes Back and not simply a world with no [Masquerade](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Masqueradehttp://). ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2017, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bright-will-smith-does-shadowrun/791797/11 "2017-07-22T13:42:29Z")
Nitpicking of the description aside, this looks really good, and I can’t wait. ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2017, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bright-will-smith-does-shadowrun/791797/12 "2017-07-22T18:13:30Z")
Smith describes it as **Lord of the Rings** mixed with **Training Day** as he’s an LA cop assigned a rookie partner that’s one of the first Orc’s to graduate the academy. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2017, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bright-will-smith-does-shadowrun/791797/13 "2017-07-22T18:20:30Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Near as I can tell, Shadowrun has three main pillars: > 1: Magic has returned in the near-future world, bringing with it the magical races, and there’s now considerable racial tension between them and humans. > 2: Corporations have taken over every aspect of life and turned the world into a capitalist dystopia. > 3: All the cyberpunk stuff. > > This certainly has the first. It might or might not have the second; there’s no way to tell from this trailer. And it appears not to have the third. Two is pretty much a subset of three, isn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2017, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bright-will-smith-does-shadowrun/791797/14 "2017-07-23T07:43:21Z")
> [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](#): > > I thought it was a good smashup of Shadowrun and Alien Nation, It definitely has an Alien Nation vibe. I couldn’t tell much what was going on with the wand and the white-haired woman/fairy. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2017, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bright-will-smith-does-shadowrun/791797/15 "2017-07-23T20:32:28Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > 2: Corporations have taken over every aspect of life and turned the world into a capitalist dystopia. > 3: All the cyberpunk stuff. 2 _is_ a subset of 3, like \*\*Miller \*\*said. Personally, I’m burned out on Big Willie…After Earth and Suicide Squad ---
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2017, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bright-will-smith-does-shadowrun/791797/16 "2017-07-23T21:00:53Z")
> [@epbrown01](#): > > Smith describes it as **Lord of the Rings** mixed with **Training Day** as he’s an LA cop assigned a rookie partner that’s one of the first Orc’s to graduate the academy. With a lot of Alien Nation thrown in. D’oh! Apologies to those who beat me to it. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2017, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bright-will-smith-does-shadowrun/791797/17 "2017-07-23T21:54:30Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > 2 _is_ a subset of 3, like \*\*Miller \*\*said. 'S like I’m invisible, or something…I think I’m on the wrong side of the Masquerade. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2017, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bright-will-smith-does-shadowrun/791797/18 "2017-07-23T22:18:28Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Two is pretty much a subset of three, isn’t it? It’s more accurate to say 3 is a subset of 2, but still not accurate. _Idiocracy_ and _Wall-E_ are non-cyberpunk films set in capitalist dystopias. _The Matrix_ is a cyberpunk film not set in a capitalist dystopia (well, no more than the late 90s is a capitalist dystopia). Of course, Gibson, Stephenson, and the other originators of cyberpunk definitely had that element, but the genres have expanded somewhat. ---
**Author:** ![DeptfordX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DeptfordX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeptfordX)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2017, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bright-will-smith-does-shadowrun/791797/19 "2017-07-23T22:20:31Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#): > > This just makes it a ['magic comes back](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheMagicComesBack)’ [urban fantasy](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/UrbanFantasy). This is not a rare enough genre to call any use of it, without the cyberpunk trappings (which your point 2 is part of, not a separate aspect), ‘doing Shadowrun’, since Shadowrun’s defining point is the combination of Urban Fantasy with Cyberpunk. > > I also see nothing in the trailer to suggest that Bright is The Magic Comes Back and not simply a world with no [Masquerade](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Masqueradehttp://). I assumed from the whole ‘first orc’ thing it was a fairly recent ‘Magic coming back’, could be wrong though. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2017, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bright-will-smith-does-shadowrun/791797/20 "2017-07-24T07:23:18Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#): > > 'S like I’m invisible, or something…I think I’m on the wrong side of the Masquerade. Apologies [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bright-will-smith-does-shadowrun/791797.md?page=2)