The year is 2021, and a virtual reality-based user interface has been fully implemented on the Internet. The powerful Yakuza crime syndicate has their tendrils wrapped around the world's governments and corporations, and cybernetic augmentation is not only commonplace, but necessary to survival. Johnny Mnemonic is classic William Gibson - chrome, neon, computers and graphic violence seem all-too-normal against the backdrop of a planet in the throes of post-postmodern reality."Johnny, just Johnny" is a mnemonic courier - a wetwired brain implant allows him 160 gigabytes of ultra-secure storage space. Only problem is, someone loaded him with well over 300 gigs, causing synaptic seepage and putting Johnny in mortal danger - he's only got a couple days to get the download code and empty his brain before synaptic seepage destroys it. Keanu Reeves does a great job as Johnny, but perhaps the greatest joy of the show was seeing Henry Rollins crucified with dissection scalpels by Dolph Lundgren, who plays a cyborg street preacher more resilient than the Terminator. Watch the movie for the special effects. Don't expect the plot to be much better than the story, though the additions don't really hurt it, except when Johnny whines about having to be the one to save the world (screw saving the world - the story was better without that silly device.)
Gibson is the unquestioned founder of the cyberpunk genre and one of the most important figures in contemporary science fiction literature. As much as any original designer of the Internet, Gibson has affected the way we link our computers and use global networking technology. When virtual reality was barely a concept in our cultural consciousness, Gibson had imagined a world not far into the future where a VR Internet is taken for granted as the source of information/communications, and brain implants, bionic arms and Ono-Sendai cyberdecks are within everybody's reach.
I was worried about cheese, because as a serious computer geek, I have a low tolerance for stupid technology. Don't worry. From the opening computer animation scene, "Internet: 2021," to the nerve-enhancing implants of Johnny's bodacious bodyguard, the technology is as seductive as it is realistic.