Ghost in the Shell

Director - Mamoru Oshii
Writers - Kazunori Ito and Masamune Shirow

Cast Character
Atsuko Tanaka ...Major Motoko Kusanagi
Richard Epcar ... Bateau
Akio Otsuka ... Bato
Tamio Oki ... Cheif Aramaki
Iemasa Kayumi ... The Puppet Master
Koichi Yamadera ... Togusa



The beginning of Ghost in the Shell warns of advancement in computerization that could wipe out nations and ethnic groups. Its heroes Major Kusanagi and Bateau are cyborgs working for Section 9 in an anti-terrorism task-force. Their nemesis is the infamous Puppet Master who can hijack into people's ghosts or consciousness in order to control them. As they progress further Major Kusanagi battles her reliance on her robotic parts and whether she is fully human outside of her ghost. There is also an aspect of these police that overly rely on their ghost rather than instinct. Or are the two one and the same?

The film begins with Major Kusanagi who listens in on a politician with possible ties to the ghost hacker AKA The Puppet Master. Section 9 is the like the FBI who is the muscle whereas Section 6 in the film is like the CIA investigating matters before they are pulled off. The man being investigated has taken a classified programmer outside the country which a serious violation in international laws. Before he finishes hearing his rights being read to him Kusanagi blows his head up through the window.

The Section 9 Chief Aramaki meets the head of Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He is protecting a man seeking political asylum because of his connections to funding he helped with before. Section 9 finds the Minister's interpreter whose brain was ghost hacked by the Puppet Master. He is most likely trying to get classified information from the Republic of Gavel's meeting that will take place and assassinate key delegates.

Kusanagi explains to Bato she picked him because he is honest, never stepped out of line and is a family man and is almost completely human save for the brain augmentation. She doesn't want a predictable task-force to take down criminals. A garbage man hacks into many terminals on the garbage route that has raised suspicion to the task-force. He has been ghost hacked by the Puppet Master. The Puppet Master is revealed as he leaves a chip under the phone for the brainwashed garbage man to pick up. He uses high velocity bullets to tear the police van in shreds.

On top of that he uses an invisibility camouflage/therm-optics just as Major Kusanagi did earlier. The manhunt scene is one of the best in the movie. Bateau chases the Puppet Master on the boats while Kusanagi fires at him from the rooftops. Kusanagi finds him as he thinks he is free and uses her invisibility cloak to finish him off. As he lies there he says he won't give up any information to which Kusanagi says, "Can you remember your mother's name or what she looks like? Or how about where you were born? Do you even know who you are?" He looks blank as his mind has been ghost hacked. They realize he in fact is not the Puppet Master but a puppet himself.

They interrogate the garbage man and explain all his memories are simulated experiences. None of them are real. They were created in order to execute jobs ordered by the Puppet Master. They cannot fully repair his old memories. Because most of the characters in the film are cyborg their memories are fragile like files on a computer. Ghost hacking is similar to brain damage as seen in trauma. So even though you can make multiple copies of a file, a bad file can only be copied as a bad file. This is why the Puppet Master is such an enormous threat to Section 9. A way to deal with memory issues is to reinforce them with external things and experiences in order for them to be more believable and stronger such as one's employment, surroundings and day to day activities. These concrete places validate that their environment and experiences are real and not simulated. So they in fact are as human as possible even with their robotic parts.

Kusanagi after having a long talk with Bateau explains how she feels lucky to be a cyborg - having enhanced brains, cybernetic bodies and controlled metabolism. Even though she is a machine her thoughts ad memories are unique to her with a sense of her own destiny. When asked about what it is like to scuba dive as a cyborg she says, "I feel like I am becoming someone else." Here she alludes to the future entity in the story she merges to create a new being - one that is connected with everything around her. She has a new computerized DNA because of it. Now she is no longer a lonely individual but an equal part of the community and net. This gives her a stronger equanimity and freedom to create herself as a new entity in the net to go anywhere and have a true purpose about her.

A truck hits a cyborg which Section 9 recovers. They run tests to find it was most likely ghost hacked that came from Megatech. The body took off on its own. Even though this cyborg is completely synthetic it shows trace remnants of having a ghost. The strongest concern for the group is that the body they recover is the same make and model of Kusanagi's.

Aramaki and a man talk about the Puppet Master and he explains to Aramaki he is the most dangerous and brilliant hacker in cyber-crime. Kusanagi looks at him and is attracted to the possibilities. They lure him to a body and capture him. The Puppet Master awakens and explains himself to be sentient life form and demands political asylum. After his polite and detailed explanation on how he gave self birth to himself in a sea of information he escapes by overloading the computer systems.

Bato fires an electronic tracker bullet to follow the car. Later Aramaki's inside guy tells him that Dr. Willis was a top researcher of a company that researched in Artificial Intelligence. Section 6 tried to stop Mr. Daito from defecting explains Aramaki's investigator. He tells Aramaki the Puppet Master most likely is connected to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and is used to get his way with things. If the Puppet Master explains this to the world there would be a huge international outcry over this. Official heads would be convicted. This is why they are so hellbent on finding Project 2501, The Puppet Master.

Bateau drops off Kusanagi to the empty building the Puppet Master is believed to be in. A camo cloaked tank shoots at her in one of the most explosive finales in an anime movie. Kusanagi tells the helicopter to back off because she will dive into it. She does so not because she wants power but because she needs freedom. She needs to be more than a shell inhabiting a ghost. She wants to merge with a collective whole. She dodges the bullets long enough for it to run out of ammo.

She tries unsuccessfully to rip out the head of the tank ripping her arms off. Bateau shoots at the head off the tank enough to stall it rescuing Kusanagi life. They find the Puppet Master's body in the car inactivated. Kusanagi tells Bateau she will jack into him. As they communicate The Puppet Master reveals the whole time he was looking for her. He says he wants to meet her because although he is a sentient being he lacks the ability to give birth and die. Kusangi argues he can copy himself to which he counters that a copy does not have the ability to have organized ideas or diversity. On top of that a virus could make a copy.

He wants to unify with Kusanagi to create a new being one that is stronger and can provide survival for his electronic DNA. He explains he chooses her as she is his counterpart in psyche. They are mirror images of one another. They create a new being on the net which is indestructible. Her new ghost is put in a younger body representing rebirth and a new start. She says she is no longer Kusanagi or The Puppet Master. She is a new being - choosing to be called 2501.

The film deals with many issues such as the increasing inter-connectivity and advancement in evolution because of technology. Such themes are further explored in Spielberg's A.I.