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Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - The Laughing Man

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - The Laughing Man

Science Fiction · Animation · Action · 2005

The year is 2030 and six years have passed since a criminal known only as "The Laughing Man" swept through top medical nanotechnology firms committing acts of cyber-terrorism, kidnapping, and espionage leaving no known suspects. New information is revealed, as Section 9 enters the hunt for a suspect capable of unfathomable actions in this compilation of Stand Alone Complex content.

Movie details

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - The Laughing Man

“Get out of the Network!”

2005 Science Fiction · Animation · Action 2h 40m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

7.7 / 10

Community rating

The year is 2030 and six years have passed since a criminal known only as "The Laughing Man" swept through top medical nanotechnology firms committing acts of cyber-terrorism, kidnapping, and espionage leaving no known suspects. New information is revealed, as Section 9 enters the hunt for a suspect capable of unfathomable actions in this compilation of Stand Alone Complex content.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - The Laughing Man?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. 2nd GIG - Individual Eleven

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Animation · 2006

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2112; the summer before Akane Tsunemori was assigned to Division One of the Public Safety Bureau's Criminal Investigation Department. Teppei Sugo, an accomplished pilot of the Defense Army's 15th Integrated Task Force, joins the military operation in Okinawa. Three months later, an unmanned combat drone opens fire on the Ministry of Defense in Tokyo. Enforcer Tomomi Masaoka of CID Division One is dispatched to Sugo's military base to investigate the truth behind this case.

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The story is set in 2027, one year after the end of the fourth non-nuclear war. New Port City is still reeling from the war's aftermath when it suffers a bombing caused by a self-propelled mine. Then, a military member implicated in arms-dealing bribes is gunned down. During the investigation, Public Security Section's Daisuke Aramaki encounters Motoko Kusanagi, the cyborg, wizard-level hacker assigned to the military's 501st Secret Unit. Batou, a man with the "eye that does not sleep," suspects that Kusanagi is the one behind the bombing. The Niihama Prefectural Police detective Togusa is pursuing his own dual cases of the shooting death and a prostitute's murder. Motoko herself is being watched by the 501st Secret Unit's head Kurutsu and cyborg agents.

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Action · 2014

The upcoming installment's story takes place amidst signs of postwar reconstruction in the winter of 2028. Tensions are rising in New Port City as demonstrations are held concerning the interests of foreign cartels. This leads to a shooting incident involving riot police. It all started with a cyberbrain infection released by the terrorist "Fire Starter." An independent offensive unit led by Makoto Kusanagi entrusts the suppression of the situation to their ghosts and aims for their own justice. Below the surface of the incident, lies the "tin girl" Emma and the "scarecrow man" Burinda Junior. As Kusanagi deals with the incident, she draws near to what those two ghosts were seeking.

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Ghost in the Shell

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Action · 1995

In the year 2029, the barriers of our world have been broken down by the net and by cybernetics, but this brings new vulnerability to humans in the form of brain-hacking. When a highly-wanted hacker known as 'The Puppetmaster' begins involving them in politics, Section 9, a group of cybernetically enhanced cops, are called in to investigate and stop the Puppetmaster.

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Kenji Kamiyama

Written by

Dai Sato · Junichi Fujisaku · Taiki Sakurai · Kenji Kamiyama

Atsuko Tanaka

Atsuko Tanaka

Motoko Kusanagi (voice)

Osamu Saka

Osamu Saka

Daisuke Aramaki (voice)

Yutaka Nakano

Yutaka Nakano

Ishikawa (voice)

Koichi Yamadera

Koichi Yamadera

Togusa/The Laughing Man (voice)

Toru Okawa

Toru Okawa

Saito (voice)

Taro Yamaguchi

Taro Yamaguchi

Borma (voice)

Sakiko Tamagawa

Sakiko Tamagawa

Tachikoma (voice)

Court is in session

Put Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - The Laughing Man on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Arthouse Gremlin

“Its refusal to behave is the point.”

The strange choices create the kind of friction that follows you out of the theatre and into the argument.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“Oddness is not depth.”

A film can break every rule and still leave nothing behind but the memory of how hard it tried to be singular.