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Johnny Mnemonic (film)
Encyclopedia
Johnny Mnemonic is a 1995 cyberpunk
film, loosely based on the short story "Johnny Mnemonic" by William Gibson
. The title character, a man with a cybernetic brain implant designed to store information, is played by Keanu Reeves
. The film portrays Gibson's dystopian view of the future with the world dominated by megacorporations and with strong East Asia
n influences. The film has garnered a cult following
over the years for its dystopian and cyberpunk themes.
The film was directed by Robert Longo
on location in Canada, with Toronto and Montreal filling in for the film's Newark, New Jersey
and Beijing
settings. A number of local monuments, including Toronto's Union Station
and Montreal's skyline and Jacques Cartier Bridge
, feature prominently.
The film was premiered in Japan first on April 15, 1995, with a longer version (103 mins) that is closer to the director's cut and features a previously composed score by Michael Danna, different editing, and more scenes with Japanese star Takeshi Kitano
and Dolph Lundgren
notably.
) is a "mnemonic courier" with a data storage device implanted in his brain, allowing him to discretely carry information too sensitive to transfer across the Net, the virtual-reality equivalent of the Internet. While lucrative, the implant has cost Johnny his childhood memories, and he seeks to have the implant removed to regain these; his handler, Ralfi (Udo Kier
) assigns him one more job that would cover the costs of the operation, sending Johnny to Beijing. At the designated place, he finds a group of frantic scientists who have the data he is to carry, but it far exceeds Johnny's storage capacity, even with the use of compression. Johnny accepts the job anyway, well aware of psychological damage and potential death he risks should he not be able to remove the data in time. After downloading their data, the group is attacked by Yakuza
, but Johnny manages to escape with a portion of the encryption password and the name of a doctor in Newark, New Jersey, the designated receiver.
Johnny returns to Newark and soon finds that two groups are after the data he carries. One are agents of the international pharmacological company, PharmaCon, led by its United States executive, Takahashi (Takeshi Kitano
), believing the data to be critical to the company's interests. The other is the Yazuka guided by Shinji (Denis Akayama), who wishes to deny this information to Takahashi and claim it for themselves; Johnny soon learns that Ralfi is in the Yazuka's employ. Johnny is soon aided by a cybernetically-enhanced bodyguard, Jane (Dina Meyer
), and the Lo-Teks, an anti-establishment
group led by J-Bone (Ice-T
), and evades capture by both groups. Jane takes Johnny to meet her friend and street doctor Spider (Henry Rollins
) who had installed Jane's implants. In discussions, Spider reveals he and his allies at a local clinic were to be the recipients of Johnny's data, supposedly PharmaCon's unpublished cure for "nerve attenuation syndrome" (NAS), a plague ravaging mankind due to the over-reliance on technology and causing politic strife. Though Spider could remove Johnny's implant, this may cause both the loss of this invaluable data as well as Johnny's life; instead, Spider directs Johnny to "Jones" that resides at Heaven, the Lo-Tek base built on the underside of the Brooklyn Bridge. The clinic is soon invaded by the assassin Karl, the Street Preacher (Dolph Lundgren
), hired by Takahashi to retrieve Johnny's head before Shinji can; Spider is killed while Johnny and Jane escape.
At Heaven, they find that Jones is a dolphin, once part of the Navy for his decryption capabilities. Jones attempts to discover the remainder of the password to the data, but Heaven is soon attacked by the Yakuza, Takahashi's forces, and the Street Preacher. Johnny, Jane, and the Lo-Teks fight off all three groups, and emerge victorious, killing Takahashi, Shinji, the Street Preacher, and their agents. Takahashi, in a dying gesture, provides Johnny with a portion of the remaining password to the data. While this helps, Johnny is told by J-Bone that he must "hack his own brain" to find the final portion, unlocking the data so that the Lo-Teks can download it and transmit it across the globe. Johnny and Jones again start the procedure, but find themselves helped by a mysterious artificial intelligence
from PharmaCon's mainframe, providing the last portion of the password. The data for the NAS cure is safely recovered, and Johnny discovers he can now recall his memories of his youth, including his mother. As Johnny recovers from the process, he, Jane, and the Lo-Teks observe the PharmaCon building under fire, a sign that the cure's transmission was successful.
on a small budget, but failed to get financing. Longo commented that the project "started out as an arty 1½-million-dollar movie, and it became a 30-million-dollar movie because we couldn't get a million and a half." The unbounded spread of the Internet in the early 1990s and the consequent rapid growth of high technology culture had made cyberpunk increasingly relevant, and this was a primary motivation for Sony Pictures's decision to fund the project in the tens of millions. Prior to its release, the film had been hailed by critic Amy Harmon
as an epochal moment when cyberpunk counterculture would enter the mainstream.
into "Jane", as the film rights to Molly were owned by a company unaffiliated with the film's producers
. The character Chrome appears in the film as an AI who confers with zaibatsu
antagonist Takahashi, but is transformed from her original security challenge-response program nature in Gibson's short story to a conscience figure.
Nerve Attenuation Syndrome (NAS) is a fictional disease in the film, which is not present in the short story. NAS, also called "the black shakes", is caused by an overexposure to electromagnetic radiation from omnipresent technological devices, and is presented as a raging epidemic
affecting the world in the future. The plot of the film revolves around the one pharmaceutical corporation that has found a cure but chooses to withhold it from the public in favor of a more lucrative treatment program. The code-cracking Navy dolphin Jones's reliance on heroin was one of many scenes cut during an editing process.
News of the compromises of the script spurred pre-release concerns that the film would prove a disappointment to hardcore cyberpunks, a fear which was ultimately borne out by the film's reception.
The Japanese soundtrack was composed by Mychael Danna
but re-composed by Brad Fiedel
for the international version. It also contains tracks from independent industrial band Black Rain
who had initially recorded a score for Robert Longo
that had been rejected.
There are three extended scenes revolving around the character of Takahashi, as the actor portraying this character, Takeshi Kitano
, is a popular entertainer/director/actor in Japan. These scenes include: Takahashi sitting in what appears to be his late daughter's room, watching a 3D hologram of his daughter playing; Takahashi watching a videotape of his daughter while self-medicating, and
Takahashi killing two of Shinji's henchmen as punishment for bringing them under his command without permission.
A number of other differences exist in the Japanese version. There is no "laser" effect added to the opening text, which is plain, white and scrolling. The scene near the beginning with the protesters is longer, with extensive crane shots and the voice of a news anchor in the background. There is a scene added in the Beijing Hotel where Johnny obtains the "memory doubler" from a dealer who informs him that he was unable to get an upgrade as advanced as was originally agreed upon. In the scene in the mens restroom at the club where Ralphie (Udo Kier
) yells at his bodyguard for hitting Johnny on the head, the bodyguard states that it had been a long time since she was in this room. In the book, the Dog Sisters (bodyguards) are muscle grafted creations, and are lovers, one of whom was originally a man. Jane refers to her grenade as a "bottle opener" on two different occasions instead of the US dialogue that refers to it simply as a grenade. The Street Preacher (also known as Karl Honig and played by Dolph Lundgren
) character has an added scene where he is addressing his followers where he claims to have been "stricken by the sickness that devours the silver pathways of the soul," and has been healed by the Lord making him "post-human." He then notices Takahashi's henchmen arriving with a cryogenic container (for Johnny's head) and tells his followers that he must now leave to meditate. Throughout the movie, his character has a few extra lines that are shouted out during action scenes.
There are minor additions (usually less than a second or two in length) throughout the film. The scenes where the troops storm the bridge near have been edited resulting in a slightly different order of events. The final "hack your own brain" sequence has also been similarly edited with the inclusion of altered dialogue.
, while the corporation's digital effects division Sony ImageWorks issued a CD-ROM videogame version for DOS
, Mac and Windows 3.x.
The Johnny Mnemonic videogame, which was developed by CineACTIVE and directed by Douglas Gayeton
, offered an innovative interface and 90 minutes of full motion video storytelling and puzzles. A Mega-CD/Sega CD version of the game was also developed, but never released despite being fully completed. This version was eventually leaked on the Internet many years later. A pinball machine based on the film designed by George Gomez
was released in August 1995 by Williams
.
Sony realised early on the potential for the reaching their target demographic through Internet marketing, and its new-technology division promoted the film with an online scavenger hunt offering $20,000 in prizes. One executive was quoted as remarking "We see the Internet as turbo-charged word-of-mouth. Instead of one person telling another person something good is happening, it's one person telling millions!". The film's website facilitated further cross-promotion by selling Sony Signatures-issued Johnny Mnemonic merchandise such as a "hack your own brain" t-shirt and Pharmakom coffee cups. Screenwriter William Gibson
was deployed to field questions about the videogame from fans online. The habitually reclusive novelist, who despite creating in cyberspace one of the core metaphors for the internet age had never personally been on the Internet, likened the experience to "taking a shower with a raincoat on" and "trying to do philosophy in Morse code."
Cyberpunk
Cyberpunk is a postmodern and science fiction genre noted for its focus on "high tech and low life." The name is a portmanteau of cybernetics and punk, and was originally coined by Bruce Bethke as the title of his short story "Cyberpunk," published in 1983...
film, loosely based on the short story "Johnny Mnemonic" by William Gibson
William Gibson
William Gibson is an American-Canadian science fiction author.William Gibson may also refer to:-Association football:*Will Gibson , Scottish footballer...
. The title character, a man with a cybernetic brain implant designed to store information, is played by Keanu Reeves
Keanu Reeves
Keanu Charles Reeves is a Canadian actor. Reeves is perhaps best known for his roles in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Speed, Point Break and the science fiction-action trilogy The Matrix...
. The film portrays Gibson's dystopian view of the future with the world dominated by megacorporations and with strong East Asia
East Asia
East Asia or Eastern Asia is a subregion of Asia that can be defined in either geographical or cultural terms...
n influences. The film has garnered a cult following
Cult following
A cult following is a group of fans who are highly dedicated to a specific area of pop culture. A film, book, band, or video game, among other things, will be said to have a cult following when it has a small but very passionate fan base...
over the years for its dystopian and cyberpunk themes.
The film was directed by Robert Longo
Robert Longo
Robert Longo is an American painter and sculptor. Longo became famous in the 1980s for his "Men in the Cities" series, which depicted sharply dressed businessmen writhing in contorted emotion.-Early life and education:...
on location in Canada, with Toronto and Montreal filling in for the film's Newark, New Jersey
Newark, New Jersey
Newark is the largest city in the American state of New Jersey, and the seat of Essex County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Newark had a population of 277,140, maintaining its status as the largest municipality in New Jersey. It is the 68th largest city in the U.S...
and Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
settings. A number of local monuments, including Toronto's Union Station
Union Station (Toronto)
Union Station is the major inter-city rail station and a major commuter rail hub in Toronto, located on Front Street West and occupying the south side of the block bounded by Bay Street and York Street in the central business district. The station building is owned by the City of Toronto, while the...
and Montreal's skyline and Jacques Cartier Bridge
Jacques Cartier Bridge
The Jacques Cartier Bridge is a steel truss cantilever bridge crossing the Saint Lawrence River from Montreal Island, Montreal, Quebec to the south shore at Longueuil, Quebec, Canada...
, feature prominently.
The film was premiered in Japan first on April 15, 1995, with a longer version (103 mins) that is closer to the director's cut and features a previously composed score by Michael Danna, different editing, and more scenes with Japanese star Takeshi Kitano
Takeshi Kitano
is a Japanese filmmaker, comedian, singer, actor, film editor, presenter, screenwriter, author, poet, painter, and one-time video game designer who has received critical acclaim, both in his native Japan and abroad, for his highly idiosyncratic cinematic work. The famed Japanese film critic...
and Dolph Lundgren
Dolph Lundgren
Dolph Lundgren is a Swedish actor, director, and martial artist. He belongs to a generation of film actors who epitomise the movie action hero stereotype including Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Chuck Norris, Steven Seagal and Jean-Claude Van Damme.A graduate in chemical...
notably.
Plot
In 2021, Johnny (Keanu ReevesKeanu Reeves
Keanu Charles Reeves is a Canadian actor. Reeves is perhaps best known for his roles in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Speed, Point Break and the science fiction-action trilogy The Matrix...
) is a "mnemonic courier" with a data storage device implanted in his brain, allowing him to discretely carry information too sensitive to transfer across the Net, the virtual-reality equivalent of the Internet. While lucrative, the implant has cost Johnny his childhood memories, and he seeks to have the implant removed to regain these; his handler, Ralfi (Udo Kier
Udo Kier
Udo Kier is a German actor, known primarily for his work in horror and exploitation movies.-Early life:...
) assigns him one more job that would cover the costs of the operation, sending Johnny to Beijing. At the designated place, he finds a group of frantic scientists who have the data he is to carry, but it far exceeds Johnny's storage capacity, even with the use of compression. Johnny accepts the job anyway, well aware of psychological damage and potential death he risks should he not be able to remove the data in time. After downloading their data, the group is attacked by Yakuza
Yakuza
, also known as , are members of traditional organized crime syndicates in Japan. The Japanese police, and media by request of the police, call them bōryokudan , literally "violence group", while the yakuza call themselves "ninkyō dantai" , "chivalrous organizations". The yakuza are notoriously...
, but Johnny manages to escape with a portion of the encryption password and the name of a doctor in Newark, New Jersey, the designated receiver.
Johnny returns to Newark and soon finds that two groups are after the data he carries. One are agents of the international pharmacological company, PharmaCon, led by its United States executive, Takahashi (Takeshi Kitano
Takeshi Kitano
is a Japanese filmmaker, comedian, singer, actor, film editor, presenter, screenwriter, author, poet, painter, and one-time video game designer who has received critical acclaim, both in his native Japan and abroad, for his highly idiosyncratic cinematic work. The famed Japanese film critic...
), believing the data to be critical to the company's interests. The other is the Yazuka guided by Shinji (Denis Akayama), who wishes to deny this information to Takahashi and claim it for themselves; Johnny soon learns that Ralfi is in the Yazuka's employ. Johnny is soon aided by a cybernetically-enhanced bodyguard, Jane (Dina Meyer
Dina Meyer
Dina Meyer is an American film and television actress, best known for her roles as Dizzy Flores in Starship Troopers and Detective Allison Kerry in the Saw films. She portrayed Mrs. Hong as a recurring guest star on ABC's Scoundrels.-Personal life:Meyer was born in Queens, New York...
), and the Lo-Teks, an anti-establishment
Anti-establishment
An anti-establishment view or belief is one which stands in opposition to the conventional social, political, and economic principles of a society. The term was first used in the modern sense in 1958, by the British magazine New Statesman to refer to its political and social agenda...
group led by J-Bone (Ice-T
ICE-T
* Ice-T, an American rapper and actor* ICE T , a tilting model of the German InterCityExpress series of high-speed trains...
), and evades capture by both groups. Jane takes Johnny to meet her friend and street doctor Spider (Henry Rollins
Henry Rollins
Henry Rollins is an American singer-songwriter, spoken word artist, writer, comedian, publisher, actor, and radio DJ....
) who had installed Jane's implants. In discussions, Spider reveals he and his allies at a local clinic were to be the recipients of Johnny's data, supposedly PharmaCon's unpublished cure for "nerve attenuation syndrome" (NAS), a plague ravaging mankind due to the over-reliance on technology and causing politic strife. Though Spider could remove Johnny's implant, this may cause both the loss of this invaluable data as well as Johnny's life; instead, Spider directs Johnny to "Jones" that resides at Heaven, the Lo-Tek base built on the underside of the Brooklyn Bridge. The clinic is soon invaded by the assassin Karl, the Street Preacher (Dolph Lundgren
Dolph Lundgren
Dolph Lundgren is a Swedish actor, director, and martial artist. He belongs to a generation of film actors who epitomise the movie action hero stereotype including Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Chuck Norris, Steven Seagal and Jean-Claude Van Damme.A graduate in chemical...
), hired by Takahashi to retrieve Johnny's head before Shinji can; Spider is killed while Johnny and Jane escape.
At Heaven, they find that Jones is a dolphin, once part of the Navy for his decryption capabilities. Jones attempts to discover the remainder of the password to the data, but Heaven is soon attacked by the Yakuza, Takahashi's forces, and the Street Preacher. Johnny, Jane, and the Lo-Teks fight off all three groups, and emerge victorious, killing Takahashi, Shinji, the Street Preacher, and their agents. Takahashi, in a dying gesture, provides Johnny with a portion of the remaining password to the data. While this helps, Johnny is told by J-Bone that he must "hack his own brain" to find the final portion, unlocking the data so that the Lo-Teks can download it and transmit it across the globe. Johnny and Jones again start the procedure, but find themselves helped by a mysterious artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
from PharmaCon's mainframe, providing the last portion of the password. The data for the NAS cure is safely recovered, and Johnny discovers he can now recall his memories of his youth, including his mother. As Johnny recovers from the process, he, Jane, and the Lo-Teks observe the PharmaCon building under fire, a sign that the cure's transmission was successful.
Production
Longo and Gibson originally envisaged making an art filmArt film
An art film is the result of filmmaking which is typically a serious, independent film aimed at a niche market rather than a mass market audience...
on a small budget, but failed to get financing. Longo commented that the project "started out as an arty 1½-million-dollar movie, and it became a 30-million-dollar movie because we couldn't get a million and a half." The unbounded spread of the Internet in the early 1990s and the consequent rapid growth of high technology culture had made cyberpunk increasingly relevant, and this was a primary motivation for Sony Pictures's decision to fund the project in the tens of millions. Prior to its release, the film had been hailed by critic Amy Harmon
Amy Harmon
Amy Harmon is a Pulitzer Prize-winning correspondent for The New York Times. After receiving a B.A. degree in American Studies from the University of Michigan, she began her career in journalism as the Opinion page editor of the Michigan Daily, the university's student newspaper...
as an epochal moment when cyberpunk counterculture would enter the mainstream.
Differences from the source material
The story in the movie significantly deviates from the short story, most notably turning Johnny, not his girlfriend, into the primary action figure. In fact, the movie transforms this girlfriend from Molly MillionsMolly Millions
Molly Millions is a recurring character in stories and novels written by William Gibson, particularly his Sprawl trilogy. She first appeared in Johnny Mnemonic, to which she makes an oblique reference in Neuromancer...
into "Jane", as the film rights to Molly were owned by a company unaffiliated with the film's producers
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
. The character Chrome appears in the film as an AI who confers with zaibatsu
Zaibatsu
is a Japanese term referring to industrial and financial business conglomerates in the Empire of Japan, whose influence and size allowed for control over significant parts of the Japanese economy from the Meiji period until the end of World War II.-Terminology:...
antagonist Takahashi, but is transformed from her original security challenge-response program nature in Gibson's short story to a conscience figure.
Nerve Attenuation Syndrome (NAS) is a fictional disease in the film, which is not present in the short story. NAS, also called "the black shakes", is caused by an overexposure to electromagnetic radiation from omnipresent technological devices, and is presented as a raging epidemic
Epidemic
In epidemiology, an epidemic , occurs when new cases of a certain disease, in a given human population, and during a given period, substantially exceed what is expected based on recent experience...
affecting the world in the future. The plot of the film revolves around the one pharmaceutical corporation that has found a cure but chooses to withhold it from the public in favor of a more lucrative treatment program. The code-cracking Navy dolphin Jones's reliance on heroin was one of many scenes cut during an editing process.
News of the compromises of the script spurred pre-release concerns that the film would prove a disappointment to hardcore cyberpunks, a fear which was ultimately borne out by the film's reception.
Japanese release
The film was released in Japan first, in a version closer to the director's vision.The Japanese soundtrack was composed by Mychael Danna
Mychael Danna
Mychael Danna is a Canadian film composer.-Life and career:Mychael Danna is the brother of fellow composer Jeff Danna. He has been scoring films since his 1987 feature debut for Atom Egoyan's Family Viewing, a score which earned Danna the first of his thirteen Genie Award nominations. He has won...
but re-composed by Brad Fiedel
Brad Fiedel
Brad Ira Fiedel is an American movie music composer. Raised in the Village of Bayville, on Long Island's tony North Shore, Fiedel graduated from The Barlow School in upstate New York....
for the international version. It also contains tracks from independent industrial band Black Rain
Black Rain
Black Rain may refer to:* Black rain, a term used by survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to describe the nuclear fallout from the bombs, which initially occurred in the form of precipitation- A film :...
who had initially recorded a score for Robert Longo
Robert Longo
Robert Longo is an American painter and sculptor. Longo became famous in the 1980s for his "Men in the Cities" series, which depicted sharply dressed businessmen writhing in contorted emotion.-Early life and education:...
that had been rejected.
There are three extended scenes revolving around the character of Takahashi, as the actor portraying this character, Takeshi Kitano
Takeshi Kitano
is a Japanese filmmaker, comedian, singer, actor, film editor, presenter, screenwriter, author, poet, painter, and one-time video game designer who has received critical acclaim, both in his native Japan and abroad, for his highly idiosyncratic cinematic work. The famed Japanese film critic...
, is a popular entertainer/director/actor in Japan. These scenes include: Takahashi sitting in what appears to be his late daughter's room, watching a 3D hologram of his daughter playing; Takahashi watching a videotape of his daughter while self-medicating, and
Takahashi killing two of Shinji's henchmen as punishment for bringing them under his command without permission.
A number of other differences exist in the Japanese version. There is no "laser" effect added to the opening text, which is plain, white and scrolling. The scene near the beginning with the protesters is longer, with extensive crane shots and the voice of a news anchor in the background. There is a scene added in the Beijing Hotel where Johnny obtains the "memory doubler" from a dealer who informs him that he was unable to get an upgrade as advanced as was originally agreed upon. In the scene in the mens restroom at the club where Ralphie (Udo Kier
Udo Kier
Udo Kier is a German actor, known primarily for his work in horror and exploitation movies.-Early life:...
) yells at his bodyguard for hitting Johnny on the head, the bodyguard states that it had been a long time since she was in this room. In the book, the Dog Sisters (bodyguards) are muscle grafted creations, and are lovers, one of whom was originally a man. Jane refers to her grenade as a "bottle opener" on two different occasions instead of the US dialogue that refers to it simply as a grenade. The Street Preacher (also known as Karl Honig and played by Dolph Lundgren
Dolph Lundgren
Dolph Lundgren is a Swedish actor, director, and martial artist. He belongs to a generation of film actors who epitomise the movie action hero stereotype including Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Chuck Norris, Steven Seagal and Jean-Claude Van Damme.A graduate in chemical...
) character has an added scene where he is addressing his followers where he claims to have been "stricken by the sickness that devours the silver pathways of the soul," and has been healed by the Lord making him "post-human." He then notices Takahashi's henchmen arriving with a cryogenic container (for Johnny's head) and tells his followers that he must now leave to meditate. Throughout the movie, his character has a few extra lines that are shouted out during action scenes.
There are minor additions (usually less than a second or two in length) throughout the film. The scenes where the troops storm the bridge near have been edited resulting in a slightly different order of events. The final "hack your own brain" sequence has also been similarly edited with the inclusion of altered dialogue.
Transmedia presence and promotion
Johnny Mnemonic was touted with pride by Sony as a film project of unparalleled corporate synergy. Simultaneous with Sony Pictures's release of the film, its soundtrack was released by Sony subsidiary Columbia RecordsColumbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
, while the corporation's digital effects division Sony ImageWorks issued a CD-ROM videogame version for DOS
DOS
DOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...
, Mac and Windows 3.x.
The Johnny Mnemonic videogame, which was developed by CineACTIVE and directed by Douglas Gayeton
Douglas Gayeton
Douglas Gayeton is an award-winning American multimedia artist, filmmaker, writer, and photographer who divides his time between a farm near Petaluma, California and Pistoia, a medieval Tuscan town....
, offered an innovative interface and 90 minutes of full motion video storytelling and puzzles. A Mega-CD/Sega CD version of the game was also developed, but never released despite being fully completed. This version was eventually leaked on the Internet many years later. A pinball machine based on the film designed by George Gomez
George Gomez
George Gomez is an industrial designer, video game designer, and pinball designer who has worked for Bally, Williams, and Stern Pinball, among other companies. He worked on the team that created the Tron video game, and headed the team that created Spy Hunter. In 1984 after the 1983 video game...
was released in August 1995 by Williams
Williams (gaming company)
WMS Industries, Inc. is an American electronic gaming and amusement company based in Waukegan, Illinois. The company's main operating subsidiaries are WMS Gaming and Orion Gaming. WMS traces its roots as far back as 1943, the Williams Manufacturing Company, founded by Harry E. Williams...
.
Sony realised early on the potential for the reaching their target demographic through Internet marketing, and its new-technology division promoted the film with an online scavenger hunt offering $20,000 in prizes. One executive was quoted as remarking "We see the Internet as turbo-charged word-of-mouth. Instead of one person telling another person something good is happening, it's one person telling millions!". The film's website facilitated further cross-promotion by selling Sony Signatures-issued Johnny Mnemonic merchandise such as a "hack your own brain" t-shirt and Pharmakom coffee cups. Screenwriter William Gibson
William Gibson
William Gibson is an American-Canadian science fiction author.William Gibson may also refer to:-Association football:*Will Gibson , Scottish footballer...
was deployed to field questions about the videogame from fans online. The habitually reclusive novelist, who despite creating in cyberspace one of the core metaphors for the internet age had never personally been on the Internet, likened the experience to "taking a shower with a raincoat on" and "trying to do philosophy in Morse code."
Reception
Critical response was negative overall. The film was a financial disappointment, grossing $19,075,720 in the domestic American market against its $26m budget. It was released in the United States on May 26, 1995 to 2,030 theaters, grossing $6,033,850 in the opening weekend.External links
- "Johnny Mnemonic – Deleted Scenes" at YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....