Rating: R
Genre:
Science Fiction
Release Date: 11/26/1997
SubTitles: English/Espanol
Dubbed: English/French/Espanol
Sound: 5.1/2
Run Time: 98 Minutes
Flags: Violence, Questionable for Children, Profanity
Distributor/Studio: Columbia TriStar
In a near-future world in which the fast-paced digital lifestyle has given rise to a worldwide plague called Nerve Attenuation Syndrome,
Johnny (
Keanu Reeves), a data courier, accepts an assignment that he hopes will allow him to pay for the restoration of the childhood memories he dumped in order to outfit his brain with the microchip necessary for him to carry out his profession. Narrowly escaping a Yakuza ambush in which his employers are killed and the mnemonic trigger capable of unlocking the data in his brain is partially destroyed,
Johnny travels from Beijing to New Jersey, where he hopes to recover the data before "neural seepage" destroys his mind. Teaming up with would-be bodyguard
Jane (
Dina Meyer) and a rebel group known as the LoTeks who live in an abandoned bridge, he tries to outrun the assassins of mysterious businessman
Takahashi (
Beat Takeshi Kitano) -- and
the Street Preacher (
Dolph Lundgren), a bionic madman. Along the way, he meets a mysterious electronic entity, a sentient dolphin, and
Spider (
Henry Rollins), a cybernetics expert, all of whom attempt, with various degrees of success, to learn why the data in
Johnny's head is so important.
Science fiction author
William Gibson's original short story
Johnny Mnemonic helped usher in the age of cyberpunk when it appeared in
Omni magazine in 1981; it later appeared in the collection
Burning Chrome (alongside the story that provided the basis for
Abel Ferrara's
New Rose Hotel). Although
Gibson himself wrote the screenplay for
Johnny Mnemonic, the film diverges considerably from the story.
Molly Mirrors, a recurring character in
Gibson's fiction, was replaced by the figure of
Jane to fend off licensing conflicts with any future film version of
Neuromancer, the author's most celebrated novel. Other plot elements -- most notably the LoTeks' bridge habitat -- were borrowed from later
Gibson fiction such as the novel
Virtual Light.
~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
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