Johnny Mnemonic (1995) a retrospective
Despite its allusions to Blade Runner and The Matrix, Robert Longo’s debut feature still disappoints
Considering the over 500 film reviews within my personal writing vault I was somewhat surprised to discover that I hadn’t penned my thoughts on a debut film for the year 1995 and a cursory glance within the internet at the 106 films noted as being a director’s debut feature showed me rather slim pickings indeed. I hope you’ll forgive me for not plumping for Toy Story (John Lasseter) as quite frankly I’ve already watched this film for many lifetimes to come as it was a staple and constant viewing with my then very young beautiful son and I couldn’t put myself through this memory inducing madness one more time! Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (Steve Oedekerk) was considered on the basis that I have a great fondness for Jim Carrey and watched it multiple times in the latter part of the 1990’s, but this was dismissed far quicker than even Bad Boys as I have a rather large distaste for the films of Michael Bay and so, both reluctantly and in hope, I decided to treat myself to a first ever viewing of Johnny Mnemonic and even in spite of its allusions to the future dystopia of Blade Runner and being an arguable forerunner of The Matrix, I was more than a little disappointed with a film that simply didn’t get going or find its cinematic feet amid some stiff, wooden acting, a clunky script containing the lamest of dead jokes and a film I was bored with way before the end.
Maybe I should’ve watched Toy Story again after all!
Here are the opening 10 minutes:
During a lengthy opening crawl (think Star Wars), this cyberpunk described film, which I’d easily classify more in the dystopian category, sets out the agenda for the coming 96 minutes: Here in the second decade of the 21st Century “Corporations Rule” and with the world threatened by a “new plague” and “NAS — Nerve Attenuation Syndrome”, there is an on-going “InfoWar” and whilst corporations hire The Yakuza to defend their interests in a civil war with street resistance fighters, hackers, data pirates and guerrilla fighters called “Lo-Teks”, the most valued information is entrusted to “Mnemonic Couriers”, elite agents who smuggle data via “wet wired brain implants”.
“Johnny” or “Mr. Smith” (Keanu Reeves) is one such elite mnemonic.
We cut to “INTERNET 2021” and the opening credits of the film reminiscent of future films such as The Matrix and even Fight Club (with electrical computer circuits replacing the human veins beneath the skin of David Fincher’s classic and equally dystopian masterpiece from 1999) and Johnny awakening in a hotel room at 10.30am on 17th January 2021, the date and time immediately evident and seen through Johnny’s eyeball. An overhead shot reveals our data carrying hero to be naked in bed as an unnamed woman dresses in an adjoining bathroom before entering the bedroom and after making her excuses, leaves the room. Johnny now uses the remote control for the TV to call his supposed friend “Ralfi” (Udo Kier) and requests an update as to the removal of his implant. To Johnny’s anger and dismay the price has almost doubled, from $800K to $1.5M and although Johnny desperately wants a “full restoration”, Ralfi offers him a final job, “one more run” and a lucrative job in Beijing that will raise the excess funds he needs.
Cut to “CENTRAL BEIJING” and Johnny exiting a taxi before walking serenely through a dense crowd of protesters fighting heavily armoured police. This is now starkly juxtaposed with the calm and opulence of his hotel meeting place as he playfully watches two children through a fish tank in the central foyer before being paged to reception. Now walking to the elevator, large screens depict rolling news stories of “Black Shakes” before it seemingly cuts to a central unnamed figure urging people to “snatch back your brain zombie!” as he enters the elevator. Now alone, Johnny inserts an adapter inside a hole on the side of his head and connects this to an external storage capacity machine or a “memory doubler” and seconds later he now has 160GB. As a warning from the machine itself cautions him not to exceed the memory capacity we cut to a wide shot of the city eerily reminiscent of Blade Runner before we cut back inside the hotel and Johnny’s destination, a hotel room full of nervous scientists awaiting Johnny’s arrival. Upon entering the room and with several guns drawn and trained on, Johnny lifts his briefcase to eye level as he drops the first of many lame jokes: “double cheese with anchovies”, before the eager if nervous scientists confirm the memory data is in excess of 320GB and its destination, Newark. Johnny places a motion sensor on the inside of the hotel room door and although aware of both this data being in excess of what he can store and the threat this has for corruption of the data and his own physical well being, he lies to the scientists before urging they begin the download procedure.
As Johnny opens his briefcase and meticulously prepares for the download we cut for the first time to four black clad and heavily armed Yakuza entering the hotel’s elevator before we cut back to Johnny detailing pre and post download instructions to the scientists gathered around him. Inserting an adapter inside the hole on the side of his head, biting down hard on a mouth guard and placing what appears to be a futuristic VR headset over his eyes, the download begins as Johnny grips the armrests of the chair and shakes furiously. We cut once more to the Yakuza now leaving the elevator and walking purposely, guns cocked, towards the hotel room as a further cut now sees Johnny, post download, unsteady on his feet and asking where the bathroom is. Stumbling into the bathroom, the scientists follow Johnny’s post download instructions as we cut back to the bathroom and Johnny, steadying and centering himself via tai chi poses in the mirror before drops of blood drip from his nose and into the bathroom sink.
Clearing away the blood and reentering the main hotel bedroom, the motion sensors on the rear of the door begin beeping…
So there’s the opening 10 minutes to Johnny Mnemonic and now you’re on your own with a film that disappointed me greatly and which, via the wizards and witchcraft of both the internet (how ironic) and Wikipedia, I’ve now discovered that the making of the film, the final cut of the film and through both pre and post production, both writer William Gibson and director Robert Longo were constantly plagued with issues and ultimately unhappy with process and final released version of the film.
In 2021 and for a 25th anniversary celebration of the film, director Robert Longo recut the film and reverted it to black and white as he originally intended and wanted over two decades before and after originally planning to release his film on Youtube, a deal was struck with Sony to release it the following year on Blu-ray. Whilst I’d be intrigued to see this B&W version, I have no desire to rewatch this 1996 original again!
Thanks for reading. I hope this message in a bottle in The Matrix finds you well, prospering, and the right way up in an upside down world.
Whilst you’re here I may as well brag about the release of my two recently self-published books. Both are free to read if you subscribe to Amazon Kindle “Unlimited” or reasonably priced in both paperback and hardback. Go on, treat yourself or a loved one and help out an Indie Author! Buy the books if you’re financially able to. They also look far, far better in print!
We HAVE to keep the spirit of reading books alive and well.
Thanks.
"still life, with gooseberry" - link to Amazon
"Rasputin and Raspberry Jam" - link to Amazon