As far as the
movie goes, it’s not spectacular, and I wonder if William Gibson, the
screenplay writer, felt he should have stayed truer to the original story.
Based on his 1981 short story of the same name, the film strays far from the
source material. Other than borrowing the story structure and the world it’s
set in, the movie adds a lot to flesh out its own version of that world and the
characters in it.
In this
adaptation, Johnny is more of an anti-hero, and the additional characters make
the movie feel like an over-budget B-movie. It was one of the Sci-Fi movies of
the 90s, that I never got to see back then, but always had it in mind to see,
but now that I have, I wonder if this movie was meant to be enjoyed back in the
90s.
This cyberpunk
action thriller stars Keanu Reeves as Johnny, and it was Dolph Lundgren’s last
theatrical release before The Expendables (2010). The story follows
Johnny, a data trafficker who has undergone cybernetic surgery to have a data
storage system implanted in his head. This allows him to store sensitive
digital information that’s too risky to transmit online. Johnny doesn’t know
what the data is, and it’s password-protected, with only the intended recipient
knowing the code.
At this point,
the movie takes a sharp turn from the source material, turning Johnny into an
anti-hero. In the book, Johnny survives by being a blackmailer, but the movie
introduces a disease called NAS (Nerve Attenuation Syndrome), which Johnny
seems uniquely positioned to solve. How he does this is something you’ll have
to watch the movie to find out.
While various
groups are hunting Johnny, time is running out for him. He must either survive
the people trying to kill him or find a way to remove the data from his head
before it kills him.
This “save the
world” addition to the plot takes the movie in an unnecessary direction,
forcing us to learn more about Johnny’s personal struggles and watch him
grapple with the idea of doing good instead of just looking out for
himself—something the short story didn’t bother with.
Johnny Mnemonic is
a popular movie for those who grew up with it, but even watching it now, I
understand why I didn’t love it back then. The short story it’s based on
doesn’t include about 90% of the characters in the movie, so if you read the
story, don’t be surprised.
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