Inside the world of Ghost In The Shell

A human-cyborg hybrid, cyber-terrorists, and communication via telepathic implants; Ellen E Jones takes a trip to Ghost In The Shell's dystopian near future

Welcome to the world of Ghost In The Shell: brace yourself for a culture shock. This new movie realises in spectacular detail a world first imagined by Masamune Shirow’s seminal Manga series.

The story takes place in a near future metropolis where grime-streaked skyscrapers compete for space with towering holograms and airborne taxis.

It’s a place where the people are tough and the cyborgs are even tougher. Here, you might be served your drink by a bartender’s bionic arm or communicate with colleagues via telepathic implants instead of intra office email.

Yet, even in this context, The Major is something special. She’s the first of her kind, a human brain (or “ghost”) housed in an entirely synthetic cyber body (or “shell”). As a child her parents were killed by a terrorist attack on the refugee boat which brought her to this country.

The Major’s own injuries were extensive, but her ghost was salvaged and repurposed by the powerful corporation Hanka Robotics. Now all she retains of her past are some haunting glitches in the code.

Scarlett Johansson as The Major

This makes The Major perfectly suited to her job at crimefighting agency Section 9 — you might even say she was “made for it”.

The multicultural, multilingual, all-action unit is headed up by softly spoken veteran Daisuke Aramaki, while The Major’s key ally is Batou, a fiercely professional cop whose only soft spot is reserved for the local pack of stray dogs.

So what kind of crime do they fight at Section 9? All these upgrades and enhancements have left the networked brains of humans vulnerable to a new kind of attack called ghost hacking. It’s no longer just your bank details or browser history that criminals seek to exploit, it’s your entire consciousness.

Of all their targets, it’s shadowy cyber terrorist Kuze who presents the most disturbing threat. He seems to hold a grudge against Hanka Robotics and anything associated with the company, including the Section 9 team, yet The Major feels inexplicably drawn to him.

However strongly Batou and Daisuke advise her against a direct confrontation, she’s powerless to resist. So who’s who in the world of Ghost In The Shell? Click through the gallery below to meet the cast.