Line #31 YMMV/JohnnyMnemonic


1	%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them.
2
3	!!The film:
4	* AluminumChristmasTrees: An early model of head-mounted display built by Jaron Lanier in the early 1990s was actually called an "Eyephone". Johnny also refers to the Thomson brand--Thomson being the real-life company that actually acquired all patents from Lanier's company, including the Eyephone.
5	* AntiClimaxBoss: The Street Preacher is eventually defeated by [[spoiler: the dolphin]], of all things.
6	* {{Anvilicious}}: [[CapitalismIsBad Corporate pharmaceutical companies are evil and exploiting sick people for money!]]
7	* AssPull:
8	** After leaving the nightclub through a back alleyway once Jane saves Johnny from being decapitated, Jane stops briefly to search through a pile of garbage bags for a duffel bag, telling Johnny that she is looking for her "gear". Only problem is that there is no reason given why such a bag was left there, as it was never established beforehand that she hides her equipment here, anyway; given that she had no foreknowledge of Johnny or what would be happening to him later at the nightclub, it seems unlikely that she would have been planning on coming by that alleyway again later and needing any equipment left there. Given that she had already been shown receiving some of her equipment from the nightclub's bartender, it makes less sense for Jane to have not let the bartender hold onto ''all'' of her equipment. Or, better yet, she could have just been carrying all her things in the small duffel bag all along from the start.
9	** Johnny's ability to "double himself" when "hacking his own brain", which is essentially shown to involve duplicating both his digital avatar ''and'' mental consciousness, is not pre-established before this segment of the story, and comes across as a poor, impossible to anticipate resolution of events when [[spoiler: this ability is the only reason why Johnny was able to survive the dangerous hacking process that everyone warns would likely kill him]].[[note]]Although the reason for Johnny "doubling himself" differs, depending on the cut of the film you are watching (in the American/International cut, it helps Johnny survive a lethal attack from a computer virus; in the Japanese cut, it helps Johnny survive "looping" the final image of the download code through Jones), the end result is still a complicated measure with unique and unusual implications that go without explanation occurring just to write the hero out of a corner when he's supposed to be in a near-certain death scenario.[[/note]]
10	** Johnny's escape from the Beijing Hotel, after Shinji and his goons raid the suite where Johnny was meeting his clients, involves producing some kind of hat out of nowhere while running down a stairwell, which somehow transforms Johnny's appearance and teleports him into an elevator. This entire sequence of shots is so confusing that many first-time viewers initially mistake the disguised Johnny for a new character being introduced in the story.
11	** Shinji's laser whip, portrayed at all other times as being able to cut through absolutely anything, at one point is stifled by a flimsy chain link gate, which the movie doesn't even try to explain.
12	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The American release has some good compositions from Music/BradFiedel, who composed the music for the first two ''Terminator'' films, among others.
13	* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: Johnny's interactions with the twin girls by the gigantic fish bowl in the hotel lobby.
14	* CompleteMonster:
15	** Shinji, a {{Yakuza}} enforcer working for [[MegaCorp PharmaKom]], is tasked with hunting down the stolen data for the cure for NAS and [[WithholdingTheCure preventing the public from obtaining it]]. Shinji leads a massacre of corporate "defectors" who give the data to Johnny, [[RazorFloss slicing]] off the hand of one of the defectors before interrogating him. He attempts to decapitate Johnny in order to reacquire the stolen data, and when that fails, Shinji slices Ralfi to pieces out of anger. He later leads an assault at the [[LaResistance LoTek]] base of operations, decapitating a man and killing another, which indirectly causes the death of one of Shinji's own men. Finally, Shinji betrays and murders Takahashi when he learns the true contents of the stolen data before a final confrontation with Johnny.
16	** [[CyberneticsEatYourSoul Karl Honig]], better known as the [[ChurchMilitant Street Preacher]], leads a {{transhuman}}ist cult and functions as an [[PsychoForHire assassin]] for the pharma corporations. Knowing that murdering Johnny will deprive the people of needed cures, the Preacher decides as "God's Wrath", he is happy to do so. Often murdering people to convert himself to cybernetics, the Preacher tortures a bartender before murdering him. Ambushing Johnny's ally Spider at a clinic, the Preacher murders a patient and crucifies Spider before murdering him as well. Later encountering Johnny and his other ally Jane, the Preacher reveals [[TortureTechnician crucifixion and torture are routine]], while attempting to do it yet again in his quest to transcend humankind.
17	* DesignatedHero: Throughout the entire movie, Johnny is [[{{Jerkass}} completely self-absorbed and unsympathetic]]. He constantly whines to other people that they’re not doing enough to solve ''his'' own problems. He informs the Yakuza of the location of [=LoTek=] Headquarters. He prepares to abandon Jane when she gets sick (after she had already saved his life more than once). And, most of all, Johnny never places a higher value on the information in his head (which could save the lives of ''millions'') than on his own life. And yet, somehow, he's intended to be viewed as a hero protagonist deserving of our sympathy for being caught up in this narrative, instead of getting to enjoy the pleasures of a club sandwich and a paid prostitute.
18	* EndingFatigue: After the climatic battle at Heaven, the story suddenly slows to a crawl and just can't finish fast enough. The VirtualGhost character is given a parting speech in which she needlessly repeats exposition that is already easily understood by viewers (''"The dolphin can take you into the data. Find the third image."''), and Johnny still has to retrieve the final image of the download code in yet another extended sequence. However, with all of the major threats that Johnny and his friends had to deal with having already been defeated, the entire sequence is nowhere near as suspenseful or exciting as the one which preceded it. Even when the filmmakers try to build up a sense of risk in the absence of all other previously established threats (Johnny has to be careful of computer viruses, he can die from just attempting this, anyway, etc.), by this point, we as an audience no longer [[WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief willingly believe]] that Johnny is in any legitimate danger, and the entire hacking sequence becomes entirely drawn out, as we can already figure out what the outcome is going to be, and we don't want to have to keep waiting to get to it. Then, after that much is over, even the subversion of NotQuiteDead with the Street Preacher feels more like drawn-out {{Padding}} at a point when a story is completely over and the credits can start rolling than it does feel like a "clever" joke.
19	* SugarWiki/FunnyMoments: Aside from the film's NarmCharm, one scene that stands out is Shinji reporting to Takahashi. The two men converse briefly in Japanese, before Takahashi declares that Shinji's Japanese is terrible, and insists that he speak English for the rest of the conversation (funnier if you realize Shinji's actor, Denis Akiyama, was born in Canada.)
20	* GeniusBonus: A Japanese character viewable during our first glimpse of "Internet 2021" (found [[http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3368/3243330949_131ea8ce1e.jpg directly above the words "Internet 2021"]]) is a character very rarely seen in Japanese language[[note]]It's not even in student dictionaries; if you'd like to look it up, it's Nelson (Classic) 1179, Unicode 5957, ten strokes.[[/note]]. It's pronounced "tou" or "kasa", meaning "hackneyed, cliched" in English. Very likely [[BitingTheHandHumor one of the graphic artists having a chuckle at the expense of the paymaster]].
21	* HamAndCheese: Creator/DolphLundgren and Music/HenryRollins [[ChewingTheScenery chew up the scenery]] big time. Arguably the best parts of the movie despite the mere minutes of screen time between them.
22	* HarsherInHindsight: [[UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic The world was indeed fighting a global plague in 2021]].
23	* HilariousInHindsight:
24	** The plot of the movie involves Keanu Reeves playing a character named Johnny who uploads computer data into his own head that will kill him if he keeps it there. Fast forward to the year 2021, and the video game ''VideoGame/{{Cyberpunk 2077}}'' is centered around the player character uploading a character named Johnny played by Keanu Reeves into his/her own head and will kill him/her if he/she keeps him there.
25	** Johnny's hotel room comes with an alarm clock that works similarly to an Amazon Dot device.
26	* IAmNotShazam: The main character is never referred to as Johnny Mnemonic--he's just Johnny. Or "Just Johnny."
27	* {{Narm}}:
28	** "I '''WANT''' to get '''ON'''-line... I '''NEED''' a '''COMPUTER!'''"
29	** "[[PunctuatedForEmphasis I WANT!]] '''[[LargeHam ROOOOOM SEEEEERVICE!]]''' [[FreakOut I WANT THE CLUB SANDWICH! I WANT THE COLD MEXICAN BEER! I WANT A TEN-THOUSAND-DOLLAR-A-NIGHT HOOKER!]] [[HeroicBSOD ...I want my shirts laundered... like they do... at the Imperial Hotel... in Tokyo.]]"
30	** "'''WE GOT ALL NIGHT ASSHOLE!!!!!!'''"
31	** Jones is a cyborg dolphin. And, for those of you watching the Japanese cut or reading the original short story, Jones is a cyborg dolphin with a ''drug addiction''.
32	** Dolph Lundgren hamming it up:
33	*** "Jesus Time!"
34	*** "'''Halt, sinners!'''" Not helping is that it sounds like Dolph is doing an impression of Bullwinkle J. Moose.
35	* OneSceneWonder: The Street Preacher. [[Music/BlackFlag Henry Rollins]] also out-acts most of the ostensible stars.
36	* TheProblemWithLicensedGames: Released at a time when FMV games were at an all time low, we can all agree that [[WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment Spoony's]] review of the Johnny Mnemonic FMV game truly speaks volumes.
37	* SoBadItsGood: Overall, it's not an ideal entry point for either Creator/WilliamGibson's work or the {{cyberpunk}} genre as a whole, but it's quite an entertaining cheesefest loaded with goofy overacting, corny effects, and "WTH?" stuff like a cybernetically-enhanced assassin monk and a telepathic dolphin (who's also cybernetically-enhanced!).
38	* SpecialEffectFailure:
39	** The "Street Preacher" being run over by Spider's van is clearly a mannequin dummy dressed up as the character.
40	** Similarly, the prop bodies that fall from [=LoTeks'=] base into the body of water below ''float'' as soon as they hit it. A falling shipping crate digitally added over a shot of [[spoiler: Shinji]]'s decapitated body falling into the water is supposed to hide this, but it doesn't cover his severed head, which can be seen conspicuously and inexplicably[[note]]Apart from the obvious, cynical excuse about it being a stage prop.[[/note]] staying afloat.
41	** Several guns and firearms used by characters are actually paintball guns. Brand names of several paintball makers are visible on several occasions, and one can often see [=CO2=] blasts when the guns are fired.
42	** Closeup shots of the connector jack in the back of Johnny's head (seen when expanding his storage capacity with a "doubler" and when beginning to download the data to his implant) are obviously a mannequin prop, complete with plastic "hair."
43
44	----
45	Wanna know what causes NAS? ''[[Film/JohnnyMnemonic This]]'' causes it!

Context YMMV / JohnnyMnemonic