The recent film, Johnny Mnemonic, is based on a short story of the same title by acclaimed cyberpunk author, William Gibson. In this sci-fi adventure flick, "Johnny" (Keanu Reeves) has had the majority of his memory removed in order to download information chips for various multinational companies. Johnny acts as a courier, transporting the information in his head and with his body. When the movie opens, Johnny has downloaded a chip that is too big for his brain to handle and he must get it to its destination, a large pharmaceutical company, before the information seeps into and eventually takes over his mind.
The plot thickens when it is revealed that Johnny is carrying the
cure to a degenerative muscle disease plaguing the futuristic world. Needless to say, various people
become interested in separating Johnny's head from his body. Interestingly, a female bodyguard, Jane,
who is coincidentally stricken with the muscle disease, becomes Johnny's protector and eventually
leads him to the people who can separate the cure from Johnny's brain without lobotomizing Johnny.
Hence, the world is saved and the subversives have gained a temporary upper hand over the
multinationals insidiously controlling the world. This is a brief and sarcastic review of the film. For
a more comprehensive plot summary, see Hollywood Online's Page.
In terms of the deconstruction and destabalization of the body, Johnny Mnemonic and, in fact, the cyberpunk genre, introduce interesting new elements to the discussion. For example, the fututrisitc setting inevitably speaks to the condition of the present, as well as a general angst about the prospects for the future. Similar to Strange Days and Virtuosity, the time change and postulated future allows for more play in terms of defining and expanding the definition of "human" as well as imagining various subversive technologies. In fact, the characters in Johnny Mnemonic offer various possibilities in response to Donna Haraway's "Cyborg Manifesto." Furthermore, the "gloom and doom" of the future is enhanced by the disease motif. Bearing striking similarity to the AIDS rhetoric of today and fear over the "fin de siecle," the threat of a incurable, potentially devastating disease, which, note, decomposes the body, adds to the general pessimism of the era.
Similar to other
science fiction movies, Johnny Mnemonic incorporates a conspiracy theory. In other words, the plot
develops the idea that a divisive, powerful and unknown force threatens the safety and, most
importantly, the independence of the protagonists. In fact, fear over the loss of one's independence
or individuality pervades texts in which the sanctity/naturalness/structure of the body is blurred.
Nevertheless, in Johnny Mnemonic, the "big bad something" turns out to be a multinational
corporation, rather than a government plot or rogue political group. Therefore, the corporation, i.e.,
"embodiment" of capitalism, becomes the threat to the body as well as the individuality of the body.
Probably the most dramatic and obvious sexual/physical detail in Johnny Mnemonic is the
reversal of bodies between the protagonist and female lead. Specifically, Johnny is weak and
ineffectual physically. He can run but he cannot fight. He needs "Jane" as a physical shield and
defender. He also needs her connections in the underworld in order to remove the cure from his
brain. The removal of the chip serves to not only liberate Johnny's brain from a dangerous "seepage"
of information, but also liberates the world (and Jane) from a deadly illness. Superficially, the gender
roles are reversed. As a result of technology, "female" takes on "masculine" characteristics of
physical strength and resourcefulness. On the other hand, "male" takes on "feminine" characteristics:
he becomes the carrier/object (rather than subject) of important information. His body, in this case,
his head, is useful, not for what is inside (or, here, what was inside but has been removed). Johnny no
longer has an identity, as defined by memories or family, he is an empty receptacle. Although the
technology rendering both Johnny and Jane cyborgs breaks down the solidity of the female and male
body, it also seems to indicate that without the technology, both would return to their "natural states."
Therefore, as Peter Fitting states, for cyberpunk author, William Gibson's characters, in whom the movie characters
are based, "the loss of the ‘natural' is also the loss of the ‘real'" (Fitting 306). Yet, Fitting continues,
commenting that Gibson's characters do not want to return to the "natural" or "real:" "there is no
such concern in Gibson...many of his characters are going in the opposite direction: they are often
preoccupied with reaching a realm of illusion..." (306). Although the notion of any "natural" or
"real" state is problematic and problematized by these filmic representations of bodies, the genre of
cyberpunk itself questions "reality" as well as "normal." Fitting deconstructs the word "cyberpunk"
in order to define it:
Bibliography
Introduction
Strange DaysVirtuosityThe NetCopycat