Johnny Mnemonic
                                      
Director: Robert Longo
Year: 1995
Rating: 7.0
I think time has caught up with Johnny Mnemonic. When this was released in 1995, the critics had a party ripping it to pieces. Didn't make sense, idiotic, over the top, bewildering, chaotic etc. I vaguely recall seeing it back then and feeling the same. What the hell did I just see? But now it feels enormously influential on sci-fi films that have come after it - both stylistically and thematically. The film takes place in 2021, and it is almost prescient. Democracies have died, corporations run the world, hired criminals (the Yakuza) protect the status quo, giant protests are taking place and a pandemic is killing millions. This is based on a short story by William Gibson who was the Godfather of cyberpunk - futuristic stories of man interrelating with technology, robotics, the internet and computer networks. Far ahead of his time. The books of his that I have read are brilliant and watching this puts me in the mood to go back and read some more of his work.



Apparently, this differs widely from his short story - forced by the studios who wanted a big fat blockbuster after Keanu Reeves went big in Speed. They got the big fat part down, but the film did a nosedive at the box office. The director Robert Longo and Gibson had only wanted a small art film - but as Longo said, "it started out as an arty 1.5-million-dollar movie, and it became a 30-million-dollar movie because we couldn't get a million and a half.". Hollywood. But now it feels worth it. Thirty years later, this doesn't feel as farfetched and cluttered as it might have in 1995. Maybe this world isn't here yet, but this is how we can see the future now.



The world is a pool of anxiety and misery. The wealthy who run the corporations are doing very well - luxury is still available to those who can afford it. The rest of the population is trying to stay a step ahead of the pandemic and their heads above economic desperation. It is a claustrophobic crowded pushing mélange of humanity cutting every corner they can. Johnny (Reeves) is doing what he can to live among the comfortable. He likes comfort. In one of the oddest monologues in the film when his world is falling apart, he screams at fate "I just want my shirts laundered and a club sandwich delivered by room service". He is entirely presentable with his sharp cut hair and no sideburns, a well-fitted suit and tie. He is a Mnemonic Courier - meaning that he carries and delivers data around the world that can't be trusted to be sent any other way. He carries it literally in his head. He has a portal slot in the back of his head in which data can be uploaded. The person delivering it takes three quick photos that are sent to the receiver - and only these three photos can access the information and extract it. To have made room for the data, he has dumped his long-term memory - his childhood.



His agent Ralfi (Udo Kier) has gotten him a job that pays very well. Ralfi leaves a trail of slime behind him and has two female bodyguards that lick him when they can. Johnny goes to a hotel suite where a group of very nervous Asian men ask him if he can upload 320 gb. A paltry amount by today's standards but back in 1995 computer hard drives were measured in megabytes.  He is only built to take up to 160 gb but he needs the job to pay for those club sandwiches and so takes it. But unless he can get it out within three days, it will begin to implode and kill him. Which becomes a problem when a group of Yakuza show up, kill everyone and he goes on the run. The order goes out to the Yakuza world that they need his head. Preferably without the body.



He has to deliver to what is referred to as the Free City of Newark. He isn't sure what he is carrying but they want it. For profit. Something that can save the world. He gets the assistance of Dina Meyer as a bodyguard, Ice-T who has a low-tech in the shadows gang, Henry Rollins as a doctor - trying to kill him is Takeshi Kitano and Dolph Lundgren who is a Jesus zealot crucifying people with nails. The studio told the director to find a role for him and whenever he shows up it sort of takes the film into another arena of the absurd. The studio also wanted a bunch of explosions. Because that makes a great film. They got them. There is also a Ghost in the Machine which is very Gibson. A pulpy mess.