Ghost in the Shell (2017)

Directed by: Rupert Sanders

Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains some spoilers for this film!

Synopsis: Based on the popular manga and anime. Major Mira Killian (Scarlett Johansson) is a cyborg with a human brain rescued from an accident. With her unique abilities she fights terrorism but suspects there is something more to her past than she is being told.

Kitty Cameo: Major suffers from “glitches” in which she sees things that are not there. One time she spots a tabby cat that appears and disappears in pixels in her room.

Ghost in the Shell - tabby cat glitch in apartment stall

Ghost in the Shell - Major Scarlett Johansson looking at tabby cat glitch in apartment stall animated gif

Eventually Major tracks down these glitches, which are actually memories, and visits the home of a woman (Kaori Momoi). Outside the door she is approached by a tabby cat, the same one she has seen before.

Ghost in the Shell - tabby cat Pumpkin outside apartment

Ghost in the Shell - tabby cat Pumpkin being picked up outside apartment

The woman emerges from her apartment calling for the cat, who is named Pumpkin. The woman invites Major in.

Ghost in the Shell - Major Scarlett Johansson holding tabby cat Pumpkin outside apartment

Ghost in the Shell - woman Kaori Momoi looking at Major Scarlett Johansson holding tabby cat Pumpkin outside apartment

The woman explains that her daughter disappeared some years before. The daughter’s room is kept the same. Major spots Pumpkin lying on the girl’s plastic-covered futon.

Ghost in the Shell - tabby cat Pumpkin lying on plastic covered futon

According to the American Human Association’s website, the cat actor was kept on the set via a plastic wire placed all around the base of the scene. Scarlett Johansson was acquainted with the cat actor before filming and instructed on how to handle the cat. The animal wrangler for the film was Sue Chipperton.