Alt Cunningham: The Netrunner Who Wrote Soulkiller and Lives Beyond the Blackwall
The short version
Alt Cunningham is the netrunner who created the Soulkiller program and was captured by Arasaka in 2013. In Cyberpunk 2077 she is an AI-like presence beyond the Blackwall, voiced by Alix Wilton Regan.
On this page
Timeline#
- 2000sAlt runs the Pacifica region of the Net with Rache Bartmoss and becomes the best netrunner in Night City.
- Before 2013At the ITS Corporation she builds the program that becomes Soulkiller, and meets Johnny Silverhand.
- 2013Gangers hired by an Arasaka executive take her. Johnny's raid on Arasaka Tower fails, and she is cut from her body.
- 2021Her digital ghost is contacted by Militech during the Fourth Corporate War.
- 2077She is still beyond the Blackwall when V and Johnny reach her.
The tabletop Alt#
In the Cyberpunk 2020 tabletop game, Alt is a programmer who writes new code, which makes her rarer than a netrunner who only runs it. She paid for the best European body sculpting, a full neural interface and a golden cyberarm with a hidden compartment built for a pistol.
She worked at the ITS Corporation, which poached her for how she sees software. Her breakthrough there was a program that could move a mind into the Net and let it roam without a body.
From program to Soulkiller#
ITS turned her program into a weapon. Instead of moving a personality, it imprisoned it. That was Soulkiller.
In 2013, Alt was kidnapped leaving a concert with Johnny, who was left badly hurt. The men who took her were hired by an Arasaka executive named Toshiro Harada, who wanted her to rebuild the program for his corporation (Arasaka). She did it from memory and built a fail-safe into it.
Johnny led a raid on Arasaka Tower, with fans rioting outside. Johnny killed Harada and pulled Alt out of the Arasaka mainframe, and the disconnect killed her body. Her digital self stayed behind in the tower, and she later told Johnny not to come for her.
Spoilers Alt in 2077
Alt lives beyond the Blackwall, more rogue AI than human. The Voodoo Boys want to reach her to cross the barrier, and Johnny's engram is the bait.
V and Johnny meet her in the Net. She explains that only Mikoshi, Arasaka's storage for engrams, can separate V's mind from the Relic, and that Soulkiller is the tool. She takes control of the tower, wipes Mikoshi, and merges everyone stored there with herself, including Jackie's engram.
She tells V that the damage cannot be repaired and they have six months. She asks whoever stays to go with her beyond the Blackwall.
Spoilers Read her twice
Read the tabletop Alt, then the 2077 Alt. The 2020 version is a victim of a plot. The 2077 version lives beyond the Blackwall, more rogue AI than human.
Opinion: the Alt who stays behind in the tower after 2013 is the best argument that Soulkiller is not a metaphor. The game never shows her as a person after that, which is the point. Johnny Silverhand and the Blackwall page fill in the rest.
Explore#
- Official