Hello to everyone who has been following this blog for many years - I'm still blogging, I'm just moving over to https://www.claireheffer.com/blog - please continue to follow and let me take this opportunity to thank everyone who has been kind enough to visit over the years. May the lists continue...

Friday 30 March 2018



FILM 1763: JOHNNY MNEMONIC

TRIVIA: The film takes place in January 2021.

During the scene in the back room of Crazy Bob's Computer Store, it sounds like Johnny asks for an "iPhone", twelve years before it was launched. While it would still be cute if the scriptwriter of a 90's cyberpunk movie had just made up a word, which would later become the name of a ubiquitous piece of information technology, what Johnny asks for is actually an "Eyephone", an early head-mounted interface designed by Jaron Lanier (in fact, Johnny calls it a "Thomson Eyephone", a reference to the fact that Lanier's patent was bought by Thomson Electronics).

The script was rumored to have been dumped on the doorstep of Keanu Reeves' house, a tactic that piqued his interest, and led to him accepting the role of Johnny.

Robert Longo and William Gibson originally envisaged making an art film 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 thirty-million-dollar movie, because we couldn't get a million and a half."

William Gibson was very unhappy with what became of this adaptation of his own story. Despite being credited as the sole screenwriter, he has insisted for years that it wasn't his screenplay that was ultimately produced.

The song "I See Through" was performed by Rollins Band and written by Henry Rollins, Melvin Gibb, Sim Cain, and Chris Haskett. Henry Rollins appears in the film as Spider.

Johnny apparently takes a Concorde to Newark, New Jersey. In real-life, the Concordes were retired in 2003.




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