In 2029, Major Motoko Kusanagi spies on a building, where a foreign diplomat conspires with a hacker to seek asylum in his country. The hacker is wanted to fix a “bug” in something called Project 2501. As police from another section raid the room, Kusangi takes off her clothes, jumps from the roof and employing “thermo-optic camouflage,” fires through the window, blowing the diplomat’s head off.

Kusanagi is completely synthetic except for her brain and a segment of her spinal cord. Rogue programmers have learned to “ghost hack” into cybernetic bodies like hers, reading their thoughts, or even controlling their actions. One such hacker is The Puppet Master, and when it’s discovered he hacked into the diplomat’s interpreter, Kusanagi joins the hunt for him.

Joined by Togusa – a cop with most of his original body – and Batou, Kusanagi tracks down a garbage man who hacked into the interpreter. He’s under the control of another hacker, who uses high velocity ammo to shoot it out with Batou. Kusanagi uses her thermo-optics to turn invisible and disarm the hacker. Interrogation reveals that both men have been planted with false memories by the Puppet Master to carry out his bidding.

Kusanagi wonders what it means to be human and whether she still qualifies. The investigation gets a break when a cybernetic female assembled at the same plant as Kusanagi escapes and is hit by a truck. Analysis of the shell indicates that there is a “ghost,” or sentient mind, inside. The ghost in the shell is the Puppet Master, who reveals that it never had a body, but is a computer program created by the government. It has achieved consciousness, and wants asylum.

While this is being debated, a government agent sneaks into the building using thermo-optics and snatches the Puppet Master’s body. As Kusanagi chases it by helicopter, indications are that the Puppet Master was created by the government to do its dirty work, and now they want to eradicate the runaway program. Kusanagi shoots it out with a walking tank, and is asked by the Puppet Master to merge with her body and give birth to a new entity.

Directed by Mamoru Oshii and adapted by Kazunori Ito from the manga by Masamune Shirow, Ghost In The Shell was one of the first anime films to cross over and become a cult hit in the U.S. The Wachowski Brothers acknowledged its influence on The Matrix, and even showed the film to producer Joel Silver to indicate the style of movie they had in mind.

The Matrix started in the present day and gradually immersed us in its futuristic cybertronic world, with the assured voice of Laurence Fishburne to guide us along. There is no road map for Ghost In The Shell. I had to watch it three times and conduct research – first on the manga, then on the film – to figure out what was going on.

There are arresting visuals throughout, from Kusanagi plunging through the sea while diving, to the two shootouts, which are as high volume and exciting as any found in the Wachowski trilogy. As loud as the movie is in some moments, it’s contemplative in others. It asks intriguing questions. There’s a very good story in here about the ethics of merging humanity with technology.

But this is a disorienting movie. That could be good, or bad, depending on what you’re in the mood for. It’s never made clear what “ghost hacking” is, why the characters are doing anything, or where they are (the manga was modeled after Kobe, the film after Hong Kong). Once I was fine not having any of that explained to me, like a standard Hollywood action spectacle, I really dug this.