Johnny Mnemonic

Plot synopsis:
In the 21st century, information is the ultimate commodity. The most valuable of information is transported in mnemonic implants in the heads of professional mnemonic couriers like Johnny (Keanu Reeves - Speed) who offer both security and confidentiality for the right price.But Johnny has paid a heavy price of his own - He's dumped his own memories to make room for the programmes he smuggles. To buy them back he agrees to deliver priceless data, the most important data of the 21st century, data that has already set an army of professional killers on his trail. but the massive upload is too much for his brain and johnny must find the secret codes to download the information - or die.Intro pre-title, 2nd decade of 21st century. Scrolling script sets up the story, Loteks vs. corporations, and elite agents who smuggle data by wet-wired brain implants.A man (Keanu Reeves) awakes at 10:30 am, Thursday 17 Jan 2021. An attractive woman dresses as he scans thru the TV channels. After she leaves he uses the TV to dial a man Ralfi (Udo Kier), they have a video conversation. Johnny needs $1.5M to remove the implant device and return to normal but has to do one more courier run.In Central Beijing Johnny gets out of a cab in the midst of a riot. He enters a posh hotel and goes up an elevator. Taking a small device from his pocket he inserts a wired tether into a socket in his head and watches as the progress bar formats his head with a memory doubler and a voice warning he can only handle 160 GB safely.Entering a room full of asians he is greeted by pointed weapons. The young men in charge admit they are new at hiring a data courier. Johnny installs a motion detector on the door as the men discuss his memory limits. This trip will require 320 GB but Johnny acts nonplussed.Downstairs an ominous group of black coated Yakuza prepare to enter the elevator. Johnny sets up his upload equipment and instructs the clients to take three video screen shots as the counter approaches zero. Putting on a dark visor over his eyes and a teeth clencher the painful data upload begins. The client presses the screen shot device 3 times as the data stream ends, and three photos come out of a small printer. Johnny excuses himself to the toilet as one of the men goes to fax the photos to the end user in Newark, NJ. The photos are the encryption key to enable the data download.In the washroom Johnny has a slight bloody nose and he tidies up. Meanwhile the Yakuza charge into the room and start shooting. The leader has a monofilament wire whip that slices thru anything. Johnny outfights one assailant in the washroom. In the main room fight the three photo strip is sliced in two and the fax transmission is interrupted. The Yakuza leader Takahashi (Takeshi Kitano) recovers half the photo strip, the other half is burned. Johnny manages to escape but the clients are all killed.At the airport a security scanner detects Johnny's implant but it is listed as an approved dyslexia device by the Federal government. The scanner also detects a potential medical problem, synaptic leakage, and issues a verbal warning.In an office in Newark Takahashi greets a rich man Shinji (Dennis Akayama) and tells him the courier, Johnny escaped. Shinji accepts the partial photo key and dismisses the Yakuza.In a cab Johnny calls Ralfi, he is furious at the blown deal and demands to know what is going on. At a busy night club a man Spider (Henry Rollins) meets a woman Jane (Dina Meyer) and they discuss her medical condition. She then approaches Ralfi, sitting a table with his henchmen. Jane attempts to show her ability as a bodyguard. Ralfi makes her show steady her hands are as she suffers from NAS, Nerve Attenuation Syndrome, aka "Black Shakes".The cab drops Johnny off in a dark alley. Observers, J-Bone (Ice-T) and aide, above detects the memory implant but leaves him alone. Johnny meets two armed men but when threatened, escapes the building. In a confrontation outside J-Bone helps Johnny kill the two. Johnny then goes to confront Ralfi claiming he was set up, but is taken from behind with a knockout drug.Janes sees the henchmen carry the unconscious Johnny away. In a room Johnny is strapped to a bed as Ralfi gloats, Takahashi is there as they are prepared to remove the memory device. Jane is in the ceiling above and drops down and fights off Ralfi's gang. Johnny is cut loose and joins the fight and they escape. Takahashi slices Ralfi's upper torso in frustration. Outside J-Bone and several cronies protect Johnny and Jane as they stand-off the Yakuza.Johnny and Jane get away thru a deserted subway tunnel. Jane wants to get paid, Johnny has a severe head pain episode.Shinji dresses and watches a video of a young girl. The video is interrupted as an ethereal woman's face (Barbara Sukowa) comes on and tells him the courier's data can give him new purpose in life.Back in the tunnel Johnny asks for help to get the data out of his head. He admits he had to dump some of his own childhood memories to make space for the uploaded data. Johnny wants to get out of the courier business, and wants a computer. They break into an electronics store and Johnny gears up with a VR visor and gloves. In a 3D display environment he tracks down the fax number from the Beijing hotel room. The local Newark number is for a Dr. Allcome. An IT tech notices the hack and informs Takahashi of Johnny's location. As the cars approach Johnny chats online with a head figure who mentions PharmaKom is behind it. Once again Johnny and Jane escape.In the PharmaKom skyscraper Shinji makes a video call to a Street Preacher(Dolph Lundgren) a cross and candles pseudo cleric, and offers him a contract to get Johnny's head.At a phone booth Johnny hacks into the phone system with a repairman's device and offers the 320 GB of info to PharmaKom, hoping they will negotiate. Jane then goes into spasms and has a seizure, she still manages to direct Johnny to Spider. At a dark isolated warehouse Spider lets them in, he rants about information overload but begins to examine Jane. J-Bone and his cronies observe Street P striding down the street.Shinji gets a briefing about the woman's face in his video, she is Anna Kalmann, she died in 2015 and had been imprinted into a computer in Switzerland and is now a "ghost in the machine", advising the company from her present state.Johnny explains his situation to Spider. Street P approaches the bartender Hooky (Don Francks) and freezes his prosthetic hand in a liquid, torturing him to find out where Jane is.Spider stabilizes Jane and scans Johnny. Spider is not very confident, Johnny onvinces Spider to drive them to Dr. Allcome. Driving away they run over Street Preacher. In a crowded makeshift hospital Spider tells them Dr. Allcome is merely an emergency code word, the fax was meant for them, the NAS Underground. Spider hooks Johnny up to another device and reads the data in his brain. He offers to remove the implant but it would have some severe adverse effects. The data is the cure for NAS, which can save millions of people. Johnny refuses the removal. Suddenly the Street Preacher enters and causes havoc. Spider is stabbed and killed but Johnny and Jane manage to run away.Calling PharmaKom again Johnny offers to meet at the bridge, Landfill 5. He is talking to Shinji who is using a anglo-saxon avatar to talk to Johnny. As Shinji hangs up the face of Anna Kalmann reappears warning him he is running out of time.Johnny and jane arrive by garbage truck under the bridge, two guards watch them. A burning car falls and they narrowly dodge it. Johnny loses it and rants about his desire for normalcy. J-Bone descends beside them in an elevator device. Johnny begins to have flash episodes and collapses as the three ascend to the bridge deck, the busy Lotek HQ.Back at Pharmakom Shinji prepares a katana sword and pistol and directs an aide to have Takahashi meet at the bridge. At the bridge Jane comforts Johnny and the two kiss. J-bone takes them to a work area with several stacked video monitors and a dolphin in a glass tank. The Loteks send out encrypted data to the world. The white dolphin is rigged up with a helmet and wires and is to be used as the codebreaker. Takahashi and a large squad of Yakuza soldiers arrive below the bridge.Johnny is hesitant to link with the dolphin but finally agrees to put on the wired headpiece. The Yakuza use personal ascenders to raise themselves up. Shinji arrives by helicopter. The Yakuza start killing the guards. Johnny has a painful experience as the dolphin slowly tries to finds the encrytpion key. A woman with a shoulder launched missle launcher fires at the bridge from below until J-bone shoots her with a crossbow.The codebreaking is interrupted with the fighting with only one picture resolved. Shinji confronts Johnny with a pistol and sword. Anna Kalmann appears on the monitors, in a fury Shinji slices through a wire bundle. Takahashi shoots Shinji in the back and approaches Johnny with his wire device. Jane starts a distracting fight and Johnny tries to flee, chased by the Japanese man. They fall through wreckage and hang by their fingers high above the river. Johnny manages to get control of the monofilament wire device and kills Takahashi.Back on top Johnny meets a dying Shinji who gives him the half of the photo strip key. Street Preacher arrives and in a wild fight Jane and Johnny manage to defeat the big man, burning him alive. Johnny gives J-Bone the pictures and prepares to link with the dolphin again. Ann Kalmann comes on again and appeals to Johnny. J-Bone broadcasts to the world the cure is coming and the final painful data download commences. At the end of the data stream Johnny faints but recovers quickly. J-Bone, Johnny and Jane look out onto the lights of the city with the PharmaKom tower in flames in the distance.

Tags: psychedelic, violence, sci-fi

Review:
My review of the underrated cyberpunk film, Johnny Mnemonic(1995) starring Keanu Reeves, Dina Meyer, Ice-T, Takeshi Kitano, Denis Akiyama, Dolph Lundgren, Henry Rollins, Barbara Sukowa, and Udo Kier.
Johnny Mnemonic is a 1995 American cyberpunk sci-fi action film directed by Robert Longo.
It was loosely based on the short story "Johnny Mnemonic" by William Gibson.Keanu Reeves plays the title character, a man with a cybernetic brain implant designed to store information.
In my opinion The Matrix and Johnny Mnemonic are my top 2 best Action Sci-fi flicks from Keanu Reeves of the 90's.
It is believed that the change was due to the "Molly" character being attached to the rights for any possible future Neuromancer film adaptation.The script was rumored to have been dumped on the doorstep of Keanu Reeves' house, a tactic that piqued his interest and led to him accepting the role of Johnny.B.J. Rack, one of the producers, is still credited although he left the project due to creative differences with director Robert Longo First of all, the prologue is different and more poignant.
Age of terminal capitalism.The armored towers of multinational corporations rise above the ruins of the democracies that gave them birth.Soldiers of the Yakuza defend them.Hackers, data-pirates, LoTek media rebels are the enemy, burrowing like rats in the walls of cyberspace.A new plague convulses the cities: Nerve Attenuation Syndrome, incurable, fatal, epidemic, bringing fear and misery as old as the species itself.But the most precious data is sometimes entrusted to elite private agents, wet wired to function as human data banks.Mnemonic couriers."10/10.
Over 24 hours he jumps around in the city of Newark, trying to find a way to get rid of the data and the bounty hunters.A touch in this movie that many might recognize from the film 'The Matrix' is that in this movie they tend to hook themselves up to the internet, which has become a virtual reality like, àlà The Lawnmower man.
But in the end of the film, Keanu's character completly hooks himself up to the internet for a short amount of time, walking around in it and controlling his actions as if he was in another world.
Johnny Mnemonic could have been a wonderful movie, had William Gibson not strayed so far from his original story when writing the screenplay.
Reeves, contrary to popular opinion, is alright and has a few great scenes, most notably his angry breakdown on the pile of garbage under the bridge.Having read Johnny Mnemonic several times the character of Jane is one of the most annoying factors of the movie.
In the story they are the door guards at the club and Johnny claims that they are "bad news in a tussle."  In the movie they are Ralfi's bodyguards and portrayed as pathetic and outdated rather than dangerous.
Johnny never accesses the matrix (the internet) in the story, but he does in the movie, for no apparent reason other than allowing director Longo to show off some CGI special effects.Longo also chooses to mimic Blade Runner in the opening scenes, and later on one character tells another that it's "time to die", a famous line from BR.
This is not a terrible film as claimed, but it had faults: poor pacing; weak atmosphere (visuals were there, but insufficient music track to back them up); and its largely unexplained universe.Ideally, you need to have read Gibson's short stories and "Neuromancer" first, and then all the props - cyberspace, 'black ice', grubby streets, brand-name hardware, Yakuza assassins, muscle grafts, etc - make sense.
Incidentally, many of these props appear cliched, but remember that Gibson more or less invented them; it's merely that this film appeared long after they had become standard movie fixtures.Gibson's written work has fairly sparse dialogue, and makes heavy use of precise and rather introspective visual description to convey character.
Probably, I wouldn't know another reason.Nobody says that this is a real block-buster, but it is definetely not as bad as everyone here wants to make it.It's a nice movie to enjoy (especially on DVD) and forget afterwards.
And, to make matters worse, I wasn't sure of what I was watching.There was a LOT of good things about the movie.
Oh well.Considering it was based on the short story of the same name by cyberpunk godfather William Gibson, the movie is a minor disappointment.
It's not that bad, but it could have been so much better.However, a lot of Gibson's ideas are still there, making it a solid cyberpunk movie.
if you wanted acting, WHY WERE YOU WATCHING A KEANU REEVES MOVIE?!
Keanu Reeves and Dina Meyer add to the cheese with their bland presence and occasionally funny/bad acting and we get some weird scenery chewing from Udo Kier and Dolph Lundgren, who is a Jesus freak bounty hunter also out for Johnny's head.
The film is based on William Gibson's short story "Johnny Mnemonic" and also draws heavily on his later novel "Virtual Light".
4 years later Keanu Reeves starred as a computer hacker who learns about "The Matrix".William Gibson is the writer of this movie and tries to shoehorn several of his concepts into the "Johnny Mnemonic" movie.
The story doesn't really tell anything deep or interesting about the future world.The movie is badly directed by Robert Longo who isn't a professional director , but a painter (!).
After all, the future-present seems so dull, mundane and exploited when you're living in it (planes, cars, tanks, computers, internet).Specifically about this movie I like the stark opening on the Main Character.
Each step of the way he is always closer to getting that thing out of his head and renewing his childhood memories.I agree with the other comments regarding the Main Character's desires whil e standing on a garbage heap and his life looks like garbage -- he will never live to enjoy his childhood again, nor the physical comforts he thinks he wants.The lo-techs vs.
Although the manuscript could benefit from a few extra hours of work, the movie itself and the concept behind it, is the perfect school for Keanu Reeves to learn his role as "Neo" in "The Matrix".
Keanu Reeves stars as Johnny Smith a courier who gets chased around by corporate thugs who bring in the yakuza led by Takeshi (Takeshi Kitano) who brings in the help of Street Preacher (Dolph Lundgren) a born again assassin in this visually appealing yet empty headed cyberpunk actioner.
Its funny at times, with comments like calling Johnny "Just Johnny" (by character "spider" played by Henry Rollins)after Johnny (Keanu Reeves)says his name is just Johnny.
We were just realising that things were going to change drastically in the 90's, Cyberpunk reflected that.So, is Johnny Mnemonic a good film?
it's still a shot in the arm.Before it wears out its welcome in the last 1/2 hour (too many set-ups where people "break" and run off as though dance routine-ing, when someone had the upper hand on the other, guns incl.), this is a rich body of material come to life with recognizable actors who, one would think, would want to be part of the next generation of art/culture/thought: Ice-T and Henry Rollins in a William Gibson movie?
Needing the help of some street folks like Jane (Dina Meyer), Spider (Henry Rollins) and J-Bone (Ice-T), the courier learns his brain is way overloaded and he will die if he can't find someone to accept the data.
Everyone has been saying how bad this movie was, so I guess I was entitled for a great amount of suspicion before seeing it.Cyberpunk isn't really my cup of tea, but as an avid role-player I had some basic information about it.
I saw this movie on television the other day and I didn't know much about it, I had heard about it when it had come out and thought it would be quite good because it had Keanu Reeves in it.....boy was I mistaken.This could be a worthy contender for worst film ever.
But by working on the story and make changes you can make bad books great as movies.
You know, really, the cyberpunk genre is so slim for pickings (at least in film format), that even though I *knew* this movie was going to be bad, I still rented it and watched it.Having read the short story (and just about everything else William Gibson has written), I knew what to expect, but I found it interesting how elements from his other works were incorporated into Johnny Mnemonic, such as the bartender with the artificial arm (Neuromancer), the bridge (Virtual Light and All Tommorrow's Parties), etc, etc.I found the fact that they *totally* dumbed down Molly Millions (Jane's) charachter rather upsetting...
The idea is that Keanu Reeves plays a kind of Data Courier who carries the information inside his brain, having had it transferred there by a fibre optic link.The idea is not too bad, and could make a reasonable film with a decent scriptwriter and some actors.
When you go to watch a movie and have no clue what so ever what its about,most of the time your gonna hate it for sure..This film is based on the man who has been writing the best cyberpunk books ever to come out.He's coined the term cyberspace and talks about corporations and what is in store for the future..Well about that movie its basically a told story of a man named johnny who is a courier,but not any ordinary courier he has implanted inside his head a jack that can store lots of data.He is carrying a cure for the disease nas(another deadly disease like aids or etc.A corporation who has the cure is trying to find defectors who have taken all the data of the cure to be exposed to the world..The YAKKUZA is hired to retrieve the defectors and the data,but thats where johnny comes in..Not a great screen play but for its nature,its well thought out,not bad for a movie that was suppose to be black and white and less than a  million dollar budget but turned into hollywood status overnight and began the movie..Brilliant costumes,sets,and actors playing roles ive never seen played before ..Good music and good fx..Matrix lovers should know that read all of william gibson's books and watch the matrix,farfetched plots are good but not as good as the future within our lifetimes..And seeing if the future is really about corporations and governments being in power,as they are right now,globalization i believe its called..Check out NEW ROSE HOTEL with Abel Ferrara directing the flick aobut gibson's short story from the same book as johnny mnemonic....
This Sci-Fi/Action/Thriller sure could have been about 10 zillion times better.Johnny Mnemonic certainly had oodles, and oodles of potential.
At this point, Johnny's information storage capacity is dangerously overloaded.Pursued by ruthless agents and deadly cyborgs, Johnny must deliver this all-important data to Newark within 24 hours, or else he must die.Johnny Mnemonic, most certainly, had a truly fascinating premise that if handled properly could've ranked it right up there with some of the best Sci-Fi films of all time.
In the 1980s, a writer named William Gibson wrote a short story called "Johnny Mnemonic" about a futuristic courier that uses his brain as an external hard drive.
In 1995, following Keanu Reeves's success as an action hero in Speed and right as the start of the dot com bubble, TriStar released a film adaptation of the short story.
I like Keanu Reeves a lot; his limited acting abilities make him paradoxically a great hero (as in "Speed" and "Matrix").
The story line is reasonable, but much better use of it could have been made.The 'technology' depicted in the film is laughable.Keanu Reeve's acting is awful.
Keanu Reeves (Speed, The Matrix) stars as Johnny a person in the future who has been given vital information which has been stored in his brain.
The film's action scenes are poorly done and you don't care for a second about any of the characters, especially Keanu Reeves.
I really wanted to like this movie,  after all it is based on a William Gibson story.
Its only loosely based on the William Gibson short story, and whilst the look of the film isn't too bad, and there are a few ok performances (eg Henry Rollins as the doc), in the main the acting is poor.
Some blame Keanu Reeves, but I like him much more in this than in the overrated Matrix films.
A data courier (Keanu Reeves), literally carrying a data package inside his head, must deliver it before he dies from the burden or is killed by the Yakuza.Author William Gibson said, "Basically what happened was it was taken away and re-cut by the American distributor in the last month of its pre-release life, and it went from being a very funny, very alternative piece of work to being something that had been very unsuccessfully chopped and cut into something more mainstream." That is a fairly understanding position from the author.Truthfully, this is not that bad of a movie.
Dolph Lundgren is at his psychotic best as the mercenary Street Preacher, and Ice-T is righteous and driven as the rebel leader J-Bone.All in all, this movie tries to do a lot of things and fails.
Now, I realize that Gibson himself (who wrote the original short story "Johnny Mnemonic") wrote the screenplay for this piece of garbage, but what was he doing to his fans?
All I DO know is that not only did he write in the most ridiculously laughable bad guy I have EVER seen (Dolph Lundgren's "Assassin Monk Cyborg Moron"), but he replaced an important recurring character from his other works, Molly Millions, with some chick named "Jane" who, incidentally, acts a lot like Molly.
I'm afraid I'll have to say that the only believable part in this movie is that of J-Bone, played by Ice-T who portrays the thug-with-a-heart-of-gold quite well.The plot is neither anything special nor anything terrible; it's a fairly typical sci-fi premise with a bit of a neat twist: man has portion of his memory removed in order to smuggle data for shady corporations.
Maybe it's just a guy thing, but Angela Basset's character from "Strange Days" or Thandee Newton's perfromance from "MI2" is more of what I have in mind when I envision Molly.If you read the short story in the "Burning Chrome" anthology, stay away from the movie, you'll be very disappointed with the adaptation.
The thing that left all of us scratching our heads, was who's idea was it to cast Keanu Reeves as a guy, people want for his mind?
I just saw Johnny Mnemonic for the first time and I have to say I liked it a lot.
Based on the comic books by William Goldman, "Johnny Mnemonic" takes place in 2021, when the world looks like one big trash can.
Keanu Reeves has never been an actor who carry films on his shoulders, he needs bombastic productions like "The Matrix" and "Speed" to blend in better.
Everyone acted so freaken stupid in the movie, and most notably Keanu Reeves p**s poor acting, The Matrix made him look really good with the fighting.
"Johnny Mnemonic" is a really different film from "The Matrix" with a lower budget and a lower improvement from the side of technology.It's a nice movie with a good performance by Keanu Reeves as Johnny Mnemonic and wonderful Dina Meyer as Jane.
Ice-T as J-Bone and Takeshi Kitano as Takahashi made a good performances too.The story of this movie regards a man who use his mind as a hard drive and his self as a data courier to deliver packages from one man to another.
Director Robert Longo brings writer William Gibson's story to the screen with some arresting visuals; but, their "Johnny Mnemonic" is disappointing.
The bigger names in the cast seem unfocused, with only Mr. Lundgren and some of the minor characters providing focused characterizations.***** Johnny Mnemonic (4/15/95) Robert Longo ~ Keanu Reeves, Dina Meyer, Ice-T, Dolph Lundgren.
Anyway, Keanu Reeves is very good in the lead role, and there are interesting parts by Udo Kier, Dolph Lundgren, Henry Rollins and Ice-T.
"Johnny Mnemonic" is a bad B movie.
Johnny Mnemonic is another 'cyberpunk' thriller, from a short story by William Gibson.
The movie has a great cast (Keanu Reeves, Dolph Lundgren, Ice-T, Dina Meyer, Takeshi Kitano, Udo Kier, Henry Rollins) although I didn't like Reeves in his part, becuase I found him wooden and not very believable.
I've read the original short story too, (I like Gibson) and while this film is very different, it still sticks to the basic spirit of Gibson's works.
Keanu Reeves really doesn't give away a good performance and the other actors' performances aren't really mind blowing either.In the end this is a very uninspired and disappointing movie with a very dark view on our near future.
I haven't read William Gibsons version of the story, but I doubt that it is as bad as the movie.
Sure, I was 13 when I really liked this film and watched it whenever it was on USA (a cable channel) in the afternoon during my summer vacays--but this movie isn't so bad that it would make people cry our pain.
I think that, at the time, Johnny Mnemonic was an interesting film.
As a 13 year old who was getting to know what Cyberpunk was, Johnny Mnemonic was a great film (of course, at the same time I thought Tank Girl was off the hook too.huy :P).
This movie looked interesting in the TV programme, but I was utterly disappointed by the bad acting and the incoherent plot line, especially the illogical motives of the characters.The environment is a dark and gloomy future, with some cyberspace scenes.
Despite the brilliant work of Gibson in writing the story, the movie is not at all like it.
The movie goes somewhat like this, In the future, smugglers carry data through implants in their head.