Johnny Mnemonic (1995)

Johnny Mnemonic came in a neon orange VHS tape. I remember badly wanting my own copy, because the movie was so COOL!

But, that was in the mid-to-late nineties, when I was ten years old.

I am 31, now, and I still quite enjoy the movie. If only in the way that people really like watching videos of people getting struck in the groin, or falling down stairs. It's schadenfreude. It's the celebration of someone else's misery.

Johnny Mnemonic is a story of a high tech courier who downloads sensitive information into his own cybernetically enhanced brain. But soon Johnny is on the run from one of the most powerful corporations in the world, and one of the deadliest yakuza gangs.

I. A Film of Contradictions

There is a lot to like in Johnny Mnemonic. But there is always a flip side, which makes the film hard to truly enjoy. Francois Protat's cinematography is skillful, and even elegant, but then the flimsy CG and practical effects seem to ugly up the proceedings. The costumes are, at times, sleek and full of attitude, and then there's Ice T's bad wig, which makes it look like he's wearing a spool of yarn on his head. The story, of a high-tech courier being double crossed by corporate interests and the yakuza, is interesting, but William Gibson's script is clunky and unwieldy (more on that, later). There are moments where the characters rattle off techno jargon convincingly, and then they launch into ham-handed tirades about the overuse of technology, and how it is "killing us." Look, guy, you can't be a high tech doctor who uses high tech gadgets to heal and treat patients (including installing cybernetic tech into high-paying customers) and then lecture the audience about our over-reliance on high tech doo-dads. Not even Henry Rollins can pull that shit off.

There are some cool cyberpunk trappings here, too. The idea that a person can make their brain a hard drive is fun. That someone would have to delete their own personal memories is intriguing and heart breaking. Jane is a free lancer who had modified her own body with muscle enhancements and other cybernetic goodies. Of course, all of that tech has given her the "black shakes," a condition that affects a person's nervous system. There's a dude who has a laser garrote. And he uses it to cut people into piece. A LASER GARROTE! On a certain level, all of that sounds freaking awesome. When collected into the confines of this movie's run time, it's all a bit lame.

It is a shame that there is so many decent things about this movie. Because it is absolutely shit-canned by all of the bad things in this movie.

It does make for a fascinating watch, however. Cyberpunk is a genre that is hard to swallow. It is political, and deals with the seedy underbelly of humanity. It's dark. It deals with technology that gets twisted into new, terrible uses by low-lifes and corporate greed.

Creating a Hollywood blockbuster just doesn't compute. You can tell the filmmakers were trying to make a film with broad appeal, but seemed to either be incapable of representing cyberpunk themes or unwilling to fully commit to them. What you get is a cool-looking knife with no cutting edge. Like something from Spencer's Gifts.

Here's the deal: this is a movie based on a William Gibson story. Gibson is, in many respects, the father of the genre. His contributions to cyberpunk lit are many and varied. But he also wrote the script to this movie. He wrote his own adaptation. And the results were incredibly, laughably bad. Johnny Mnemonic begs the question: can you make a good cyberpunk movie?

II. Fun World Building

The movie is littered with subtle nods to the wider world. There are posters and news casts and throwaway dialogue meant to entice the viewer and draw them into the world.

I think that the world of Johnny Mnemonic is an interesting one. It is rife with storytelling opportunities and hard themes begging to be explored in depth.

It's a shame that the actual movie didn't live up to the world it was hyping in the background.

III. Cyber Jesus

One of the most compelling characters in this film is Dolph Lundgren's Street Preacher. He is a cybernetically enhanced hitman with a Christianity fetish, who spouts out bible verses while stabbing people with a knife that is also a crucifix. Lundgren looks to be having a ball. He might be the only person who actually understands how ridiculous the film is, and decided to chew scenery like he was starving to death.

Oh, and he's dressed like Jesus. With a shitty fake beard and a silly sash.

It's great.

IV. Cyber Dolphin

Jones is a kind of super hacker who might just be the only person that can help Johnny extract the data load from his own brain. He is legend: he used to work for the navy "in the war," and has preternatural skills at infiltrating digital systems. Like he swims through all that data.

Jones is a dolphin. A dolphin with cybernetic implants.

Let me write that again, because it is still hard to believe: Jones, super hacker, is a dolphin.

And he lives in a little water tank in Ice T's crib.

This movie is insane.

V. Should You Watch It?

Only if you really dig bad movies. The acting is stilted, the script is absurd, and, even at 96 minutes, the movie feels too long. But there is a good movie hiding in there somewhere. And that's frustrating.

The sheer balls of this movie (Cyber Dolphin and Hitman Jesus) are tempered only by the enormity of its incompetence.

There is a reason that Hollwood doesn't like making cyberpunk movies: Johnny Mnemonic has got to be at the top of that list. They took a chance, swung for the fences (to the tune of $30 million), and struck out, hard. 1995 was a pivotal year for the cyberpunk genre. It very nearly killed it. The literature had emerged from the 80s still popular, and, in some instances, prophetic. '95 was the year Hollywood tried to milk that genre with a glut of cyberpunk fare. It just, you know, didn't work out.

Miscellany

- Johnny's brain implant can hold 80 GB at the beginning of the movie. He has it doubled to 160 GB. That must have been a truly ridiculous number in 1995. It hasn't aged well.
- Val Kilmer was originally attached, but left the film when he was offered the lead in Batman Forever (1995).
- Gibson insists that the script that was filmed was not his original script. He hates this movie.
- This was Lundgren's last theatrically released film until 2010's The Expendables.
- There was a version released in Japan that is seven minutes longer, features a different score, and is said to be closer to director Robert Longo's (and William Gibson's) original vision.
- Jones, the dolphin (a fucking dolphin), was, in the original script, a heroin addict. This scene was cut from the film. I would love to know if they ever shot it... because that shit is insane.
- Reeves was nominated for a Golden Raspberry award for Worst Acting, but lost to Pauly Shore. Pauly Shore is kind of the reverse Daniel Day Lewis: if he has a movie out, he's taking the acting award for it. Just, ya know, the shitty ones.