This one messes with your head by attacking the one thing every Ghost in the Shell fan takes for granted: that Motoko knows who she is. Ghost Pain is built around false memory, a dead superior named Mamuro whose ghost keeps whispering through the network, and a Motoko who doesn't even own the body she walks around in because the 501st holds the lease. Kazuchika Kise's redesign, Maaya Sakamoto's younger and hungrier Major, and Cornelius scoring over Kenji Kawai's chants make it feel like a deliberate provocation, and the Logicoma skittering around is the closest thing to comfort food here. Yes, it leans on explosions and Batou showing up as a sniper trying to kill her instead of sitting in the philosophy, and yes, the bribery conspiracy plot moves faster than it earns. But watching her interrogate her own recollections, unsure which memories were installed, is the exact nerve this franchise exists to press. Section 9 doesn't exist yet, and that's the point.

New Port City, 2027. One year after the fourth non-nuclear war, the city is still recovering when a self-propelled mine sets off a bombing. Soon after, a soldier tied to bribes in arms dealing is shot dead. While investigating, Daisuke Aramaki of Public Security meets Motoko Kusanagi, a cyborg and wizard-class hacker serving in the military's 501st Secret Unit. Batou, known for his eye that never sleeps, believes Kusanagi is responsible for the bombing. Togusa, a detective with the Niihama Prefectural Police, works two cases of his own: the shooting and the killing of a prostitute. Meanwhile Kurutsu, head of the 501st, has Kusanagi watched by cyborg agents. The film is a psychological sci-fi action thriller.