This month and next, the Roxie Theater is presenting A Keanu Summer featuring five of our dude’s most excellent films. To celebrate this series — and the man at its center — we’re each taking a moment to honor Keanu and his many, many facets.
It is no understatement to say the crowd went berserk when Keanu waltzed out of the fog at E3 in 2019 to reveal a new trailer for the video game Cyberpunk 2077 starring him.
This was his first big-time gaming role; previously, gamemakers had only used his appearance or a handful of recorded lines. This was different. Cyberpunk’s use of facial-tracking cameras and motion capture meant Keanu could, for the first time, truly embody a virtual character — in this case Johnny Silverhand, a shit-talking, revolver-spinning frontman who also happens to be a digital ghost trying to take over your body.
Keanu’s rendition of Silverhand is his most bombastic, maximalist performance. This character makes John Wick look practically demure. The latter is a superlatively skilled assassin who begrudgingly murders everyone in his path to vengeance. Silverhand is a superlatively insane rockstar-turned-revolutionary who blows up a corporate skyscraper with a nuke. They are not the same.
Later in the game, however, Keanu shifts in order to explore the sensitivities of Silverhand's trauma, using flickers of vulnerability to propel a story about destiny, loss, and the morality of radical violence. Frankly, Keanu shows more range here than in the majority of his filmography.
Cyberpunk 2077 is a brilliant sci-fi thriller in which you get to slaughter hundreds of enemies using a smorgasbord of methods. Its built environment is one of the most beautiful in the history of modern gaming. The plot demands that you consider more philosophy than the average A24 film.
But to me, what I recall most is my journey with Silverhand, made so real by Keanu’s chops and his obvious appreciation of Cyberpunk as a Serious Work of Art®. The guy made me literally cry in the third act, which — no spoilers — examines the sacrifices people make in the pursuit of idealism and liberty.
The game has multiple endings based on the decisions the player character makes, most significantly involving Silverhand himself. I played through every single path repeatedly, racking up some 200 hours in the game overall. I guess I just didn’t want to quit Keanu.
