I watched the film by James Cameron and Robert Rodriguez Alita: Battle Angel (2019), based on Yukito Kishiro’s manga, belonging to the genre of cyberpunk action. The movie is full of intense action, fights, beautiful animation, and budding romance (but within PG-13 limits). The target audience is Gen Z teenagers.

But behind the colorful and dynamic surface lies a philosophical parable about the future of humanity and the social changes driven by technology.

For those who haven’t seen it, I’ll briefly describe the world in which the characters live.
The story takes place in the 26th century, three hundred years after a devastating war between Earthlings and Martians. High above the Earth floats the city of Zalem — unreachable for ordinary people, a symbol of luxury and progress. Beneath it lies the Iron City — a place of poverty, violence, and survival.

Dr. Ido finds the remains of a battle cyborg in a scrapyard and restores her, giving her the name Alita. Alita has no memory, but gradually realizes that her body and hidden combat skills far exceed those of an ordinary cyborg. Alita meets a boy named Hugo, who dreams of reaching Zalem, and soon becomes entangled in the world of bounty hunters, underground cyber-part trading, and the deadly sport of Motorball.

The Motorball tournament is a mix of sports and gladiator battles. For Iron City residents it’s entertainment and the illusion of a chance to rise upward. For Zalem, it’s a way to distract the masses, channel aggression, and simultaneously select the best technologies and fighters.
Zalem is a closed, elitist system that survives on the resources and labor of Iron City. The myth of “ascending to Zalem” as a Motorball champion serves as a tool of control: it sustains people’s hope, though in reality no one ever makes it there.
In Iron City, instead of police, order is maintained by bounty hunters (Hunter-Warriors) who work for rewards from the Factory — an organization directly tied to Zalem.

Here, parts needed for cybernetic upgrades serve as currency. Hugo and his friends scavenge parts for Vector, the Motorball boss and intermediary of Zalem. This brings them capital, though it’s illegal.
On Alita’s path stand both mercenaries and the giant cyborg Grewishka, who acts under the orders of the mysterious Dr. Nova — the unseen overseer of Zalem, controlling Vector.

Nova is the true master of Zalem. He rarely acts directly, preferring to rule through intermediaries like Vector or Grewishka. His ability to inhabit other people’s bodies underscores the idea of absolute control.

Nova represents not just a “mad genius” but the essence of technocratic power: governing economics, politics, and human destinies. A reminder that behind technological progress stands cold calculation and a power entirely detached from humanity.

I don’t want to reveal the entire plot. It’s dynamic and, in some sense, tragic. Instead, I’d like to focus on its social foundations.
Zalem in the film embodies the metaphor of the “golden billion.” Robots and technologies make the labor of most people unnecessary. The masses live on handouts, degrading intellectually and socially to base instincts: the family as an institution collapses, childbirth is maintained by artificial means, education and work lose their meaning.

Meanwhile, in Zalem, a new type of being forms — those whom the Strugatsky brothers would have called “Ludens.” These are superhumans, virtually immortal thanks to transplants and cybernetics. Their consciousness is directly connected to databases, they control technologies, and they determine the direction of progress, having fully separated themselves from the “lower” classes.
Running alongside this is the story of Alita and Hugo.

Here the creators attempt to draw an ideal model of relationships for shaping the worldview of Gen Z.
Hugo falls in love not with Alita’s body, which isn’t even human, but with her personality, bravery, and inner integrity. The love portrayed is free of sexual “objectification,” since bodies can be swapped like shells, and what matters most is essence, not form. And it is precisely male objectification that has become proverbial in women’s verbal complaints about today’s dating market.

Alita — outwardly a fragile teenage girl — surpasses men and monsters alike in martial arts. This reflects modern cultural trends in which a woman can be physically and morally stronger than a man.

Moreover, the woman is shown as purer and spiritually higher than the man. When Vector suggests to Hugo that he betray Alita, Hugo hesitates. At the same time, when Alita learns that he needs money to fulfill his dream of reaching Zalem, she pulls her heart from her chest and is ready to give it to him. Her motto: “All or nothing.”

However, in real life, gender competition often leads to problems. Many girls, taking this idea literally and challenging men to physical contests, end up facing humiliation or injury.

Hugo’s line, “Some guys might be intimidated by you,” directly echoes the post-#MeToo situation: men are increasingly reluctant to take initiative, fearing ridicule or accusations, while women, making the first move and then being rejected, tend to interpret it as male intimidation rather than lack of interest or incompatibility.