The cyberpunk drama, Johnny Mnemonic, was set in 2021. Although they got a lot of the tech wrong, it is still very relevant to watch and see how much they got right. There is a worldwide pandemic, different from what we experienced, but not really inconceivable. The general theme is that, “Those who control the information control the world”, and this has become an undeniable fact. Corporate influence and the pursuit of money and power have disabled society; keeping everyone desperate and difficult to trust. Considering the original short story by William Gibson, was published in 1981, the accuracy of his dystopian world is quite impressive.

The film’s main protagonist Johnny Mnemonic is a courier of sensitive data through a cybernetic implant in his brain. (Forgive them for thinking 80 G was a lot, terabytes were rather inconceivable in the mid-90s).
When Johnny downloads more than he can handle, he is up against the clock to get the data out of his head. Mid transfer, the Yakuza attacks. Now everyone wants his head and he needs to break the encryption to get it out. Fighting to stay alive, Johnny is rescued by Jane (one for the feminists), a woman enhanced with cybernetics. Played by Dina Meyer, she becomes his bodyguard. They enlists the help of the Lo-Tek , a rebel anti-establishment group. Lo-Tek is run by J-Bone, played by Ice-T (more for woke audiences).

Watch the cyber movie Altered States

For those not familiar with cyberpunk, it’s a genre of sci-fi that makes the establishment nervous to say the least. The secret service raided a RPG publisher and confiscated their Gurps Cyperpunk, along with their computer systems. William Gibson is said to have pioneered this genre, he even coined the term cyberspace, long before it existed. The world of Johnny Mnemonic may not be a reality in 2023, but it’s potential is more realistic than most of us believed when the movie came out. Remember that you have been warned; using cyberspace leaves traces of you, no matter how insignificant or innocuous you think it is. Only low tech/ no technology (lo-tek) trumps high technology.

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The subplot in the scent of a woman is about prep-school and standing your ground for what you believe in. The Thanksgiving part of it is reduced to a mere holiday weekend and excuse for the principle characters to meet. But by the end we feel that Pacino’s tough guy is thankful; and expressing his gratitude to the boy Charlie Simms (played by Chris O’Donnell) who was hired to watch him over the holidays and ended up giving him a reason to live again.

For those of you who like a little movie trivia: Pacino, practiced assembling and disassembling his weapon with his eyes closed. When ever he got it right, under 45 seconds, the soldier who trained him yelled “Hoo-ah” which Pacino incorporated into his character for the scent of a woman to show excitement. (No Thanksgiving would be complete without a “Hoo-Ah” yell) The scenes at the Braid all boys school, were actually filmed in an all girl’s school, Emma Willard School. Pacino originally turned down the role, his agent advised him to take it.

The character of Charlie Simms the scent of a woman was auditioned for by both Leonardo DiCaprio and Chris Rock. Just think about that…Dicaprio at the time was the new kid on Growing Pains and in the process of filming the show’s Thanksgiving special.

Jack Nicholson was first choice for Frank Slade and I can see him as the character until we get to “the scent of the woman”…the tango scene; Pacino sweeps you off your feet with his performance.

All in all Classic TV Movies gives this Thanksgiving holiday movie a 7 /10.

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