R&D Session Five: The Lawnmower Man (1992)

The Lawnmower Man was an extremely interesting take on what Virtual reality can do for humans, but also the terrors of what it could lead too. In a short summary, this movie features Pierce Brosnan who plays Dr Lawrence "Larry" Angelo, a government scientist that has been using VR to help develop the brains of primates for military purposes. One night when one of his test subjects escapes, it displays acts of extreme violence and aggression.

Determined Dr Angelo changes the formula of a drug he was using to try and help Jobe Smith played by Jeff Fahey. Jobe, is a simple man and was never given a chance at education, he lives on the grounds of a local church in a shack and is referred to as the town as The Lawnmower Man, due to the gardening services he provides.

The aforementioned test subject that escaped, found it's way to Jobe's home and the Lawnmower Man was able to calm him, the two became good friends in a short amount of time. When the government agency tracks down the subject, Dr Angelo catches wind of this and tries to save his primate experiment. Cybo-Man as Jobe referred to the primate, became aggressive trying to defend Jobe when he seen that all of the agents outside were armed to the teeth and ready to take aim.

These series of events introduced Dr Angelo to his newest test subject, Jobe. The two work together over a period of weeks, with Larry's formula being altered and changed with the purpose of helping Jobe Smith reaching new academic heights to give him a better chance at life.

The government agency becomes aware of this and plants an agent to swap the formula back to the original. In a short space of time Jobe's vast intelligence and peacefulness becomes weaponized by the old formula, causing him to become mentally unstable. After only a short time on the aggressive variant of the formula, Jobe develops the ability to read minds and eventually the ability to change the fabric of reality as he wishes.

The film ends with a bitter sweet finale as the aggressive Jobe's plan was to upload his consciousness to the internet to become the ultimate evolution of mankind and that his coming would be signalled by every phone ringing on the planet. Thanks to Dr Angelo and his kid neighbour Peter, Jobe ends up helping the two escape from the government facility where Dr Angelo worked before it exploded.

Conclusion

This film reminded me of a fusion of Tron (1982) and Akira (1988), this is mainly due to how Jobe learned in virtual reality through the use of interactive games and archives. The way the technology was showcased is extremely interesting as the physical props that are used resemble some of the ones that we would use today, like the Virtual Reality headsets.

However, the reason I compared this film to Akira is the dark an sinister nature that Jobe takes on, this almost family movie quickly descends into a horror film with how Jobe decides to enact his plan. Going as far to killing people with his new powers, wiping the memories of the police when they tried to investigate and how Jobe's powers develop are comparable to that of Tetsuo's.

This movie was a lot of fun and for it's time, it is an incredible movie for what VR could have looked like in the 1990's.

Thanks for reading!