The film stars Ralph Fiennes, Angela Bassett, Juliette Lewis, Tom Sizemore, Michael Wincott, Brigitte Bako, and Vincent D'Onofrio.

Set in Los Angeles on the last two days of 1999, the film follows Lenny Nero (Fiennes), a black marketeer of an electronic device that allows a user to experience the recorded memories and physical sensations of other people, and Lornette "Mace" Mason (Bassett), a bodyguard and limousine driver, as they are drawn into a criminal conspiracy involving Nero's ex-girlfriend Faith Justin (Lewis) and friend Iris (Bako).

Blending science fiction with film noir conventions, Strange Days explores themes such as racism, abuse of power, rape and voyeurism.

Lenny Nero, a former LAPD officer turned black marketeer of SQUID recordings, buys the robbery clip from his main supplier Tick.

Lenny pines for Faith and relies on emotional support from his two best friends - Max Peltier, a private investigator, and Lornette "Mace" Mason, a bodyguard and limousine driver.

Mace has unrequited feelings for Lenny from when he was still a cop and acted as a father figure for her son after her boyfriend was arrested on drug charges, but disapproves of his SQUID-dealing business.

While in the car with Mace, Lenny plays the disc the contact gave him and watches as Iris is brutally raped and murdered by an attacker at the Sunset Regent hotel.

[5] Bigelow was motivated to start work on Strange Days shortly after a series of cultural incidents that occurred in the United States in the early nineties, such as the Lorena Bobbitt trial and the 1992 Los Angeles riots that followed the Rodney King verdict.

[8] Both Strange Days and Cameron's 1994 action film True Lies were part of a multimillion-dollar production deal between Lightstorm Entertainment and 20th Century Fox.

[10] Fiennes' breakthrough role in Schindler's List, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor just days later, impressed Bigelow enough to cast him as Lenny.

"[5] The Hollywood Reporter also announced that Bono was expected to join Fiennes and Bassett in the role of Faith's love interest and manager Philo Gant.

[5] The scene where the crowd celebrates the turn of the new millennium at the end of the film was shot at the corner of the 5th and Flower streets, between the Westin Bonaventure Hotel and the Los Angeles Public Library.

[5][13] The filmmakers also hired rave promoters Moss Jacobs and Philip Blaine to produce performances featuring Aphex Twin, Deee-Lite, as well as "all the cyber-techno bands they could garner".

In addition to their score, Deep Forest teamed with Peter Gabriel to write an original song for the film's end credits, titled "While the Earth Sleeps".

[15] Revell also teamed with singer-songwriter Lori Carson to write an original song that appears over the film's final scene, titled "Fall in the Light".

[18] Alternative rock band Skunk Anansie appeared in the film, performing at the New Year's Eve party, and were encouraged to jam between takes, so Bigelow could record them live and give the rave a greater sense of authenticity.

[5] Industrial punk band Season to Risk performed the song "Undone" live in the nightclub scene, selected for their sound and stage presence.

Other musicians featured on the soundtrack included British trip hop artist Tricky, Belgian electronic group Lords of Acid and American heavy metal bands Prong.

[19] In addition, 60,000 promotional CD-ROMs, which contained production material from the film and music clips from the soundtrack, were made available only through the "College Special" issue of Rolling Stone magazine that was sold at record stores.

"[7] In 2015, The Washington Post editor Sonny Bunch felt that Strange Days was still relevant, comparing the imagery captured by the SQUID units to that of first-person shooters or cellphone videos on YouTube.

He added that events such as Jeriko One's murder and the subsequent coverup of the crime by the two police officers contribute to activist movements like Black Lives Matter, and that their media documentation amplifies their reception and consequences.

[3] Bigelow considered Strange Days her most personal film, claiming that "It's a synthesis of all the different tracks I've been exploring, either deliberately or unconsciously, ever since I started making art.

[33] In a mixed review, Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a "B−" rating, concluding that Strange Days "has a dazzling atmosphere of grunge futurism, but beneath its dark satire of audiovisual decadence lurks a naggingly conventional underworld thriller.

[26][37][8] Writing for Chicago Tribune, film critic Michael Wilmington praised Fiennes' performance because it captures "the weaselly, pleading side of Lenny", while noting "the slight formality of his diction", which he felt gives the character depth.

[8] Similarly, in her review for The New York Times, Janet Maslin said that Fiennes "gleefully captures Lenny's sleaziness while also showing there is something about this schlockmeister that is worth saving, despite much evidence to the contrary.

"[26] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone called Strange Days Bigelow's "magnum opus" and credited Bassett's "standout" performance, describing her as "fierce, funny and heart rending".

Roger Ebert's correspondent Michael Mirasol felt that Strange Days had some obvious weaknesses, including a dialogue that is too polished for its setting, but nevertheless judged its "devotion to its characters, its remarkable use of POVs to create its consistent atmosphere of apprehension and excitement, and most of all, its fearlessness.

"[23] In 2009, Drew Morton of the Pajiba website considered Strange Days an "extremely underappreciated film" and "the best piece of cyberpunk to grace celluloid since Ridley Scott's Blade Runner.

The website's consensus states: "Strange Days struggles to make the most of its futuristic premise, but what's left remains a well-directed, reasonably enjoyable sci-fi fantasy.

[44] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "B" on a scale of A+ to F.[45] Strange Days was released on VHS in the United States by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment on April 2, 1996.