JOHNNY MNEMONIC

US, 1995, 95 minutes, Colour.
Keanu Reeves, Dina Meyer, Takeshi, !ce T, Dolph Lundgren.
Directed by Robert Longo.

We are taken into a grim future where people can be turned into computer communicators with Keanu Reeves as cyberspace hero, William Gibson's Johnny.

Of interest for film buffs, there is an appearance by Dolph Lundgren as a crazy Street Preacher, and of celebrated Japanese director, Takeshi Kitano, as a Yakuza head.

While there are science-fable warnings about technology versus the human, it is all rather violent – perhaps that is the point. But some of the violence seems to relish the brutal touches and Keanu Reeves is a dull lead. Brutal cyberspace prophecies.


1. A film version of William Gibson’s short story? The screenplay by Gibson himself? Some fans not liking the film because of the adaptation, despite Gibson writing it?

2. William Gibson’s science fiction, in the 1980s and 1990s? Futuristic? This setting in 2021? The Internet world, the couriers with implant messages, big business and self-protection, the Yakuza?

3. The photography, arty style, the credits, the visuals of the world, in China, in the US? An Internet and Virtual reality? Costumes and decor? The musical score?

4. The situation, the information given at the beginning, the nature of the world, the disease, humans succumbing, and Internet linking? The role of big business? a cure for the disease? Concealing it and making money? The hidden revolutionaries?

5. Johnny, in himself, having no memories, a courier, submitting to the implants? His style, clothes, wanting the high life? Asked to make sacrifices?

6. The Chinese rebels, Johnny going to the apartment, his agreement about the implant? The dangers? His flight to Newark? The connection with Ralfi, visual communication with him? His being met at Newark?

7. The contact with Spider, Spider and his connections, recommendations, his death? The meeting with Jane, her connections, personality, support of Johnny, the bond between them? Sharing in his adventures?

8. Yakuza connections, the boss, the Japanese atmosphere, sinister, his wanting the cure, desperate, his child? His arrival in Newark, the confrontation, his not being with the company, the violence, his death?

9. The rebels, the leader, the guards, the comic touches, security, the falling vehicles and fire? Johnny and Jane being received? Suspicions? The infiltrations into Pharmacon, and its agents?

10. The bizarre Street Preacher? Look and clothing? Sense of mission? Religious? Mania? The attacks on Johnny, his death?

11. Johnny and the decoding, his beginning to have memories, the extreme pain, holding on, ready to sacrifice himself?

12. The group getting the information about the cure, some hope for the world? And Johnny and Jane?

13. Audience response to this kind of futuristic scenario? The film and its influence on futuristic films which were to follow?