#johnnymnemonic — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #johnnymnemonic, aggregated by home.social.
-
Movies of the day (4/8) 🎬 The Day After Tomorrow(2004) 🎬 Interceptor(2022) 🎬 Johnny Mnemonic(1995) 🎬 Menace II Society(1993) © TMDB #TheDayAfterTomorrow #Interceptor #JohnnyMnemonic #MenaceIISociety #Action #Adventure #Crime #Drama #ScienceFiction #Thriller #Movie #MovieOfTheDay
-
Movies of the day (4/8) 🎬 The Day After Tomorrow(2004) 🎬 Interceptor(2022) 🎬 Johnny Mnemonic(1995) 🎬 Menace II Society(1993) © TMDB #TheDayAfterTomorrow #Interceptor #JohnnyMnemonic #MenaceIISociety #Action #Adventure #Crime #Drama #ScienceFiction #Thriller #Movie #MovieOfTheDay
-
Tarot and the Lo-Teks
Yesterday’s post was, obviously, about a new shop item on my ko-fi page. All the proceeds from my ko-fi page go toward web-hosting Sage Sips without ads, keeping the Substack paywall-free, and maybe generating a few donations for causes I care about (more about that in a later post.) I’m not going back into business. Handwritten Tarot readings are not a money-maker.
Trust me, I’ve tried it before.
I originally offered tangible, pen and paper Tarot readings years ago, when AI was the stuff of cyberpunk fiction – not anything anyone actually used in normal day-to-day life.
I’ve always been a William Gibson fan, dating back to Neuromancer. I originally offered handwritten Tarot because it was cool and niche. Bringing back handwritten Tarot is more the Lo-Teks from Gibson’s short story turned Keeanu Reeves movie, Johnny Mnemonic.
I never imagined that a person to person email with a digital photo would seem low-tech next to computer-generated art and writing, but here we are. Physical paper and handwriting seems like ancient, mysterious wizardshit by comparison.
If you want a talking type of reading – eesy peesy. There are psychics by the dozens out there doing that and it is up to you to figure out if they are trustworthy or not. (The Tao of Finding a Psychic might help) As far as I know, there are only a handful of us working in the typed-word and email formats, and fewer still that do handwritten pen and ink readings.
“A thought is powerful, the spoken word even more so, but the written word is the most powerful of all”
Sallie Christensen, psychic and author
I’m not going back into business, but I am offering these readings as a quiet rebellion against AI. This is my Lo-Tek Tarot.
Handwritten Tarot is magical and powerful – arguably even more so than spoken in-person ones. This kind of Tarot can never be digitally replicated. My bad handwriting and cringy doodles show you they are 100% real, 100% HUMAN .
Handwritten Tarot has all the advantages of any distance reading: You can’t unintentionally give body language cues. There are no leading questions, no stage mentalism, no tricks – these readings are pure spirit and intuition. No drama, no AI slop – just quiet wisdom in the ancient way of pen and ink writing.
Please include your name, U.S. mailing address, and question for the reading with your order. If you don’t include a question or topic, no problem! I’ll automatically do an open style reading and let intuition lead the way.
Sent folded into a standard #10 envelope, this Tarot reading is discreet and private. This is highly customized folk art with no refunds or exchanges. Available to USA mailing addresses ONLY.
This nominal charge is only to cover the cost of paper, postage, driving to the post office and the extra effort that these take to create.
Just like always, these readings are highly customized ephemeral folk art for entertainment and personal spritual enrichment, and do not predict the future. No refunds or exchanges or any of that other business-y stuff. Caveat emptor and whatnot.
Order one from my ko-fi shop HERE if you are interested in giving it a try.
#AIRebellion #cyberpunk #handwriting #johnnyMnemonic #letterWriting #loTek #PenAndInk #quote #sageSips #SallieChristenson #scienceFiction #spirituality #taoOfFindingAPsychic #TaoCraftTarot #tarot #tarotReadings #williamGibson #writing -
Tarot and the Lo-Teks
Yesterday’s post was, obviously, about a new shop item on my ko-fi page. All the proceeds from my ko-fi page go toward web-hosting Sage Sips without ads, keeping the Substack paywall-free, and maybe generating a few donations for causes I care about (more about that in a later post.) I’m not going back into business. Handwritten Tarot readings are not a money-maker.
Trust me, I’ve tried it before.
I originally offered tangible, pen and paper Tarot readings years ago, when AI was the stuff of cyberpunk fiction – not anything anyone actually used in normal day-to-day life.
I’ve always been a William Gibson fan, dating back to Neuromancer. I originally offered handwritten Tarot because it was cool and niche. Bringing back handwritten Tarot is more the Lo-Teks from Gibson’s short story turned Keeanu Reeves movie, Johnny Mnemonic.
I never imagined that a person to person email with a digital photo would seem low-tech next to computer-generated art and writing, but here we are. Physical paper and handwriting seems like ancient, mysterious wizardshit by comparison.
If you want a talking type of reading – eesy peesy. There are psychics by the dozens out there doing that and it is up to you to figure out if they are trustworthy or not. (The Tao of Finding a Psychic might help) As far as I know, there are only a handful of us working in the typed-word and email formats, and fewer still that do handwritten pen and ink readings.
“A thought is powerful, the spoken word even more so, but the written word is the most powerful of all”
Sallie Christensen, psychic and author
I’m not going back into business, but I am offering these readings as a quiet rebellion against AI. This is my Lo-Tek Tarot.
Handwritten Tarot is magical and powerful – arguably even more so than spoken in-person ones. This kind of Tarot can never be digitally replicated. My bad handwriting and cringy doodles show you they are 100% real, 100% HUMAN .
Handwritten Tarot has all the advantages of any distance reading: You can’t unintentionally give body language cues. There are no leading questions, no stage mentalism, no tricks – these readings are pure spirit and intuition. No drama, no AI slop – just quiet wisdom in the ancient way of pen and ink writing.
Please include your name, U.S. mailing address, and question for the reading with your order. If you don’t include a question or topic, no problem! I’ll automatically do an open style reading and let intuition lead the way.
Sent folded into a standard #10 envelope, this Tarot reading is discreet and private. This is highly customized folk art with no refunds or exchanges. Available to USA mailing addresses ONLY.
This nominal charge is only to cover the cost of paper, postage, driving to the post office and the extra effort that these take to create.
Just like always, these readings are highly customized ephemeral folk art for entertainment and personal spritual enrichment, and do not predict the future. No refunds or exchanges or any of that other business-y stuff. Caveat emptor and whatnot.
Order one from my ko-fi shop HERE if you are interested in giving it a try.
#AIRebellion #cyberpunk #handwriting #johnnyMnemonic #letterWriting #loTek #PenAndInk #quote #sageSips #SallieChristenson #scienceFiction #spirituality #taoOfFindingAPsychic #TaoCraftTarot #tarot #tarotReadings #williamGibson #writing -
Tarot and the Lo-Teks
Yesterday’s post was, obviously, about a new shop item on my ko-fi page. All the proceeds from my ko-fi page go toward web-hosting Sage Sips without ads, keeping the Substack paywall-free, and maybe generating a few donations for causes I care about (more about that in a later post.) I’m not going back into business. Handwritten Tarot readings are not a money-maker.
Trust me, I’ve tried it before.
I originally offered tangible, pen and paper Tarot readings years ago, when AI was the stuff of cyberpunk fiction – not anything anyone actually used in normal day-to-day life.
I’ve always been a William Gibson fan, dating back to Neuromancer. I originally offered handwritten Tarot because it was cool and niche. Bringing back handwritten Tarot is more the Lo-Teks from Gibson’s short story turned Keeanu Reeves movie, Johnny Mnemonic.
I never imagined that a person to person email with a digital photo would seem low-tech next to computer-generated art and writing, but here we are. Physical paper and handwriting seems like ancient, mysterious wizardshit by comparison.
If you want a talking type of reading – eesy peesy. There are psychics by the dozens out there doing that and it is up to you to figure out if they are trustworthy or not. (The Tao of Finding a Psychic might help) As far as I know, there are only a handful of us working in the typed-word and email formats, and fewer still that do handwritten pen and ink readings.
“A thought is powerful, the spoken word even more so, but the written word is the most powerful of all”
Sallie Christensen, psychic and author
I’m not going back into business, but I am offering these readings as a quiet rebellion against AI. This is my Lo-Tek Tarot.
Handwritten Tarot is magical and powerful – arguably even more so than spoken in-person ones. This kind of Tarot can never be digitally replicated. My bad handwriting and cringy doodles show you they are 100% real, 100% HUMAN .
Handwritten Tarot has all the advantages of any distance reading: You can’t unintentionally give body language cues. There are no leading questions, no stage mentalism, no tricks – these readings are pure spirit and intuition. No drama, no AI slop – just quiet wisdom in the ancient way of pen and ink writing.
Please include your name, U.S. mailing address, and question for the reading with your order. If you don’t include a question or topic, no problem! I’ll automatically do an open style reading and let intuition lead the way.
Sent folded into a standard #10 envelope, this Tarot reading is discreet and private. This is highly customized folk art with no refunds or exchanges. Available to USA mailing addresses ONLY.
This nominal charge is only to cover the cost of paper, postage, driving to the post office and the extra effort that these take to create.
Just like always, these readings are highly customized ephemeral folk art for entertainment and personal spritual enrichment, and do not predict the future. No refunds or exchanges or any of that other business-y stuff. Caveat emptor and whatnot.
Order one from my ko-fi shop HERE if you are interested in giving it a try.
#AIRebellion #cyberpunk #handwriting #johnnyMnemonic #letterWriting #loTek #PenAndInk #quote #sageSips #SallieChristenson #scienceFiction #spirituality #taoOfFindingAPsychic #TaoCraftTarot #tarot #tarotReadings #williamGibson #writing -
Tarot and the Lo-Teks
Yesterday’s post was, obviously, about a new shop item on my ko-fi page. All the proceeds from my ko-fi page go toward web-hosting Sage Sips without ads, keeping the Substack paywall-free, and maybe generating a few donations for causes I care about (more about that in a later post.) I’m not going back into business. Handwritten Tarot readings are not a money-maker.
Trust me, I’ve tried it before.
I originally offered tangible, pen and paper Tarot readings years ago, when AI was the stuff of cyberpunk fiction – not anything anyone actually used in normal day-to-day life.
I’ve always been a William Gibson fan, dating back to Neuromancer. I originally offered handwritten Tarot because it was cool and niche. Bringing back handwritten Tarot is more the Lo-Teks from Gibson’s short story turned Keeanu Reeves movie, Johnny Mnemonic.
I never imagined that a person to person email with a digital photo would seem low-tech next to computer-generated art and writing, but here we are. Physical paper and handwriting seems like ancient, mysterious wizardshit by comparison.
If you want a talking type of reading – eesy peesy. There are psychics by the dozens out there doing that and it is up to you to figure out if they are trustworthy or not. (The Tao of Finding a Psychic might help) As far as I know, there are only a handful of us working in the typed-word and email formats, and fewer still that do handwritten pen and ink readings.
“A thought is powerful, the spoken word even more so, but the written word is the most powerful of all”
Sallie Christensen, psychic and author
I’m not going back into business, but I am offering these readings as a quiet rebellion against AI. This is my Lo-Tek Tarot.
Handwritten Tarot is magical and powerful – arguably even more so than spoken in-person ones. This kind of Tarot can never be digitally replicated. My bad handwriting and cringy doodles show you they are 100% real, 100% HUMAN .
Handwritten Tarot has all the advantages of any distance reading: You can’t unintentionally give body language cues. There are no leading questions, no stage mentalism, no tricks – these readings are pure spirit and intuition. No drama, no AI slop – just quiet wisdom in the ancient way of pen and ink writing.
Please include your name, U.S. mailing address, and question for the reading with your order. If you don’t include a question or topic, no problem! I’ll automatically do an open style reading and let intuition lead the way.
Sent folded into a standard #10 envelope, this Tarot reading is discreet and private. This is highly customized folk art with no refunds or exchanges. Available to USA mailing addresses ONLY.
This nominal charge is only to cover the cost of paper, postage, driving to the post office and the extra effort that these take to create.
Just like always, these readings are highly customized ephemeral folk art for entertainment and personal spritual enrichment, and do not predict the future. No refunds or exchanges or any of that other business-y stuff. Caveat emptor and whatnot.
Order one from my ko-fi shop HERE if you are interested in giving it a try.
#AIRebellion #cyberpunk #handwriting #johnnyMnemonic #letterWriting #loTek #PenAndInk #quote #sageSips #SallieChristenson #scienceFiction #spirituality #taoOfFindingAPsychic #TaoCraftTarot #tarot #tarotReadings #williamGibson #writing -
A todo esto, vi hace poco #JohnnyMnemonic , que la vi de pequeña y no me enteré, y es bastante disfrutona. Con un Keanu Reeves menos experimentado, mucha imaginación #cyberpunk y un mensaje tristemente vigente.
Y eso sí, una trama hetero metidísima con calzador.
-
"Your storage capacity is 80 gigabytes. Doubler loading". #johnnymnemonic
LOL. I have 512 GB micro SD card that i can stick into my ear. In some cases SciFi is underwhelming.
-
#AfricanFilmPoster #GhanaFilmPoster
In Ghana 🇬🇭 when posters can't be imported, local artists will bootleg them to the best of their abilities. Some often are more imaginative than the official studio releases.#JohnnyMnemonic (1995)
A data courier, literally carrying a data package inside his head, must deliver it before he dies from the burden or is killed by the Yakuza. -
10 More Hacker Movies You Have Missed
Everyone loved the first one of these, so a follow up was inevitable.
These are ten more hacker related movies you have probably missed that aren’t the traditional three or four choices everyone always picks like Hackers, Sneakers, Swordfish or WarGames.
This time around it is a very 1990s heavy affair, with 1995 being the real opening of the floodgates for movies about hackers or techno-thrillers where hacking plays an important part in the movie plot.
Keanu Reeves in Johnny Mnemonic (1995)I am by no means a professional movie reviewer and I tend to be very indulgent of movies that feature hacking, especially lower budget movies where they are trying something a little new.
I plan to do an entirely separate list of best hacker documentaries.
10. Fair Game (1995)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5zrZnV-4dk
Watching this will make you think of better movies like Die Hard, The Net or maybe even Enemy of the State. Fair Game is a movie about a cop who hates computers (William Baldwin) having to team up with a somewhat tech savvy lawyer (Cindy Crawford) to dodge a team of KGB assassins who need to do computer stuff to steal millions of dollars.
William Baldwin got the role after they couldn’t get Sylvester Stallone and boy is he not a good actor in this, Cindy Crawford does her best and Steven Berkoff and Miguel Sandoval could sleepwalk through portraying villains and still be fantastic.
Watching even a crappy 90s movie like this reminds me how good movies used to look though, real sets, real effects, real explosions, this now doesn’t seem as bad as people thought it was 30 years ago.
9. Tom Clancy’s NetForce (1999)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBSiWxqzoyE
From the master of “technically detailed espionage”, Tom Clancy.
This movie was a little late in the day to portray technology as essentially magical and branch out into the world of science fiction but it was set in the far flung future of 2005. Scott Bakula runs a government agency attached to the FBI that has to solve digital crimes and police the internet and my god this is a funny movie. Even back in 1999 a newspaper critic described it as “pretty silly stuff”.
I think you can find this movie in various languages and in fifteen minute chunks on YouTube, be warned it is over two and a half hours long as it was made for TV.
8. Fled (1996)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcI_nr9zgr0
Second Baldwin brother on this list and he’s even worse than William, in Fled we get Stephen Baldwin as a computer hacker who winds up fleeing a prison work camp with Laurence Fishburne.
The film meanders a lot, there isn’t much hacking involved really, although listening to Stephen Baldwin recite his lines talking about computers, phones and hacking is absolutely hilarious. There is some little charm to this movie though.
7. Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace (1996)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfbI3yRTrYM
This movie is just really insane and I have a real soft spot in my heart for it as a result, I didn’t even know they made a sequel with some of the original cast returning in 1996 until a few years ago. Imagine my surprise.
Jobe survives the first movie, although he is severely maimed, and is made to work on a virtual reality operating system chip, he also crashes various forms of transportation as part of some big conspiracy to pursue world domination by the people behind the magic microchip.
The kid from the first movie is now part of a teenage hacker gang who live in a subway tunnel. Just check it out, it is hard to describe.
6. Webmaster (1998)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvdOYwyVfd8
This was described in marketing at the time of its release as the Danish Bladerunner” and I think that sets the bar way, way too high for what is a likeable little cyberpunk movie.
The story is centered around a guy who helps run the online infrastructure of a major mobster in a dystopian future, something goes wrong though and he has to figure out who is responsible before the mobster killed him.
This is yet another 90s movie on the list with VR goggles, a very rudimentary understanding of tech or the internet and a plot that at times veers drastically off course, but I really like it.
You may struggle to find the english dubbed version, though subtitled copies are easier to track down.
5. Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lnvvh9PLWGQ
Sandra Bullock is back from the first speed movie to make her second hacking related movie (see The Net) and also star in a movie that spawned a ton of jokes about sequels having “Cruise Control” appended to the title.
Willem Defoe plays a deranged former cruise ship employee and hacker who decides to sabotage the cruise ship Sandra Bullock’s character is vacationing on with her new boyfriend and that is probably as much as you need to know.
Everyone hated this when it came out but I think once again attitudes have mellowed a little with time. Worth watching just for Willem Defoe being diabolical.
4. Nirvana (1997)
You may struggle to find a copy of this with the english dub, there are various subtitled versions floating around though.
Christopher Lambert is a video game programmer who accidentally creates an artificial intelligence within one of his games that he then has to try and save from an evil corporation.
This movie looks really beautiful in parts and like an 80s episode of Dr Who in others, I really enjoyed it though as it brings a 90s intensely European sci-fi aesthetic that just feels different to the usual fare.
3. Avalon (2001)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXRXclj99Xg
Avalon is a cyberpunk movie that is a Japanese and Polish international co-production with a Polish cast and a Japanese director, if that doesn’t make you curious nothing will.
Another unique looking movie, Avalon is beautiful in parts but at times it really feels like a movie that should be on screens in a cool nightclub with the audio off for people to admire as they dance.
This is another on the list that involves gaming, VR and a gritty dystopian future. If you wish the Matrix looked like an art house movie and made slightly less sense then look no further.
2. Mercury Rising (1998)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lodj3ZT4tOU
This movie is firmly in the camp of 90s movie that is related to hacking where the protagonist is a cop or professional who isn’t a hacker, with Bruce Willis playing an FBI agent. We also get our third Baldwin brother on this list, arguably the best Baldwin, Alec.
Willis has to protect a little autistic boy who can crack a secret NSA code (named “Mercury”), I went back and forth on even including this as I really don’t like media that portrays autistic people as human supercomputers but here we are.
Before Willis was cast the had considered Nicolas Cage for the lead role and I kind of wish we had seen that version of the movie.
1. Johnny Mnemonic (1995)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFJY_BZ55sI
As R.U. Sirius and St. Jude wrote in the Cyberpunk Fakebook “This is a motion picture with a serious moral: if you somehow offend the gods of cyberspace They’ll have Hollywood make a movie from your dreams”.
Like many of the movies on this list have a warm place in my heart for this movie, I think there was a genuine attempt to produce something that stayed true to the source material. I also think people have generally mellowed on this, especially given how people love Keanu Reeves now.
Reeves plays a data courier, with his own memories replaced with data that is stored in his head that he needs to deliver before it destroys him.
There is a black and white version of this movie that I have yet to see that is supposedly a revelation.
Conclusion
That’s it for now, I want to do a top ten “proto-hacker” movies from before 1980 and a list of the best hacker documentaries soon, so look out for those and sign up for updates if you’d like.
You can also follow realhackhistory or Bluesky and Mastodon, I’d love to hear what you think of this list and if there are any movies I’ve missed.
#1980s #BruceWillis #ChristopherLambert #CodeMercury #FairGame #film #hacked #hacker #hackers #hacking #JohnnyMnemonic #KeanuReeves #LaurenceFishburne #LawnmowerMan #Matrix #MercuryRising #movie #Movies #SandraBullock #Speed #TomClancy #WarGames #WillemDefoe #WilliamGibson
-
10 More Hacker Movies You Have Missed
Everyone loved the first one of these, so a follow up was inevitable.
These are ten more hacker related movies you have probably missed that aren’t the traditional three or four choices everyone always picks like Hackers, Sneakers, Swordfish or WarGames.
This time around it is a very 1990s heavy affair, with 1995 being the real opening of the floodgates for movies about hackers or techno-thrillers where hacking plays an important part in the movie plot.
Keanu Reeves in Johnny Mnemonic (1995)I am by no means a professional movie reviewer and I tend to be very indulgent of movies that feature hacking, especially lower budget movies where they are trying something a little new.
I plan to do an entirely separate list of best hacker documentaries.
10. Fair Game (1995)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5zrZnV-4dk
Watching this will make you think of better movies like Die Hard, The Net or maybe even Enemy of the State. Fair Game is a movie about a cop who hates computers (William Baldwin) having to team up with a somewhat tech savvy lawyer (Cindy Crawford) to dodge a team of KGB assassins who need to do computer stuff to steal millions of dollars.
William Baldwin got the role after they couldn’t get Sylvester Stallone and boy is he not a good actor in this, Cindy Crawford does her best and Steven Berkoff and Miguel Sandoval could sleepwalk through portraying villains and still be fantastic.
Watching even a crappy 90s movie like this reminds me how good movies used to look though, real sets, real effects, real explosions, this now doesn’t seem as bad as people thought it was 30 years ago.
9. Tom Clancy’s NetForce (1999)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBSiWxqzoyE
From the master of “technically detailed espionage”, Tom Clancy.
This movie was a little late in the day to portray technology as essentially magical and branch out into the world of science fiction but it was set in the far flung future of 2005. Scott Bakula runs a government agency attached to the FBI that has to solve digital crimes and police the internet and my god this is a funny movie. Even back in 1999 a newspaper critic described it as “pretty silly stuff”.
I think you can find this movie in various languages and in fifteen minute chunks on YouTube, be warned it is over two and a half hours long as it was made for TV.
8. Fled (1996)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcI_nr9zgr0
Second Baldwin brother on this list and he’s even worse than William, in Fled we get Stephen Baldwin as a computer hacker who winds up fleeing a prison work camp with Laurence Fishburne.
The film meanders a lot, there isn’t much hacking involved really, although listening to Stephen Baldwin recite his lines talking about computers, phones and hacking is absolutely hilarious. There is some little charm to this movie though.
7. Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace (1996)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfbI3yRTrYM
This movie is just really insane and I have a real soft spot in my heart for it as a result, I didn’t even know they made a sequel with some of the original cast returning in 1996 until a few years ago. Imagine my surprise.
Jobe survives the first movie, although he is severely maimed, and is made to work on a virtual reality operating system chip, he also crashes various forms of transportation as part of some big conspiracy to pursue world domination by the people behind the magic microchip.
The kid from the first movie is now part of a teenage hacker gang who live in a subway tunnel. Just check it out, it is hard to describe.
6. Webmaster (1998)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvdOYwyVfd8
This was described in marketing at the time of its release as the Danish Bladerunner” and I think that sets the bar way, way too high for what is a likeable little cyberpunk movie.
The story is centered around a guy who helps run the online infrastructure of a major mobster in a dystopian future, something goes wrong though and he has to figure out who is responsible before the mobster killed him.
This is yet another 90s movie on the list with VR goggles, a very rudimentary understanding of tech or the internet and a plot that at times veers drastically off course, but I really like it.
You may struggle to find the english dubbed version, though subtitled copies are easier to track down.
5. Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lnvvh9PLWGQ
Sandra Bullock is back from the first speed movie to make her second hacking related movie (see The Net) and also star in a movie that spawned a ton of jokes about sequels having “Cruise Control” appended to the title.
Willem Defoe plays a deranged former cruise ship employee and hacker who decides to sabotage the cruise ship Sandra Bullock’s character is vacationing on with her new boyfriend and that is probably as much as you need to know.
Everyone hated this when it came out but I think once again attitudes have mellowed a little with time. Worth watching just for Willem Defoe being diabolical.
4. Nirvana (1997)
You may struggle to find a copy of this with the english dub, there are various subtitled versions floating around though.
Christopher Lambert is a video game programmer who accidentally creates an artificial intelligence within one of his games that he then has to try and save from an evil corporation.
This movie looks really beautiful in parts and like an 80s episode of Dr Who in others, I really enjoyed it though as it brings a 90s intensely European sci-fi aesthetic that just feels different to the usual fare.
3. Avalon (2001)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXRXclj99Xg
Avalon is a cyberpunk movie that is a Japanese and Polish international co-production with a Polish cast and a Japanese director, if that doesn’t make you curious nothing will.
Another unique looking movie, Avalon is beautiful in parts but at times it really feels like a movie that should be on screens in a cool nightclub with the audio off for people to admire as they dance.
This is another on the list that involves gaming, VR and a gritty dystopian future. If you wish the Matrix looked like an art house movie and made slightly less sense then look no further.
2. Mercury Rising (1998)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lodj3ZT4tOU
This movie is firmly in the camp of 90s movie that is related to hacking where the protagonist is a cop or professional who isn’t a hacker, with Bruce Willis playing an FBI agent. We also get our third Baldwin brother on this list, arguably the best Baldwin, Alec.
Willis has to protect a little autistic boy who can crack a secret NSA code (named “Mercury”), I went back and forth on even including this as I really don’t like media that portrays autistic people as human supercomputers but here we are.
Before Willis was cast the had considered Nicolas Cage for the lead role and I kind of wish we had seen that version of the movie.
1. Johnny Mnemonic (1995)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFJY_BZ55sI
As R.U. Sirius and St. Jude wrote in the Cyberpunk Fakebook “This is a motion picture with a serious moral: if you somehow offend the gods of cyberspace They’ll have Hollywood make a movie from your dreams”.
Like many of the movies on this list have a warm place in my heart for this movie, I think there was a genuine attempt to produce something that stayed true to the source material. I also think people have generally mellowed on this, especially given how people love Keanu Reeves now.
Reeves plays a data courier, with his own memories replaced with data that is stored in his head that he needs to deliver before it destroys him.
There is a black and white version of this movie that I have yet to see that is supposedly a revelation.
Conclusion
That’s it for now, I want to do a top ten “proto-hacker” movies from before 1980 and a list of the best hacker documentaries soon, so look out for those and sign up for updates if you’d like.
You can also follow realhackhistory or Bluesky and Mastodon, I’d love to hear what you think of this list and if there are any movies I’ve missed.
#1980s #BruceWillis #ChristopherLambert #CodeMercury #FairGame #film #hacked #hacker #hackers #hacking #JohnnyMnemonic #KeanuReeves #LaurenceFishburne #LawnmowerMan #Matrix #MercuryRising #movie #Movies #SandraBullock #Speed #TomClancy #WarGames #WillemDefoe #WilliamGibson
-
10 More Hacker Movies You Have Missed
Everyone loved the first one of these, so a follow up was inevitable.
These are ten more hacker related movies you have probably missed that aren’t the traditional three or four choices everyone always picks like Hackers, Sneakers, Swordfish or WarGames.
This time around it is a very 1990s heavy affair, with 1995 being the real opening of the floodgates for movies about hackers or techno-thrillers where hacking plays an important part in the movie plot.
Keanu Reeves in Johnny Mnemonic (1995)I am by no means a professional movie reviewer and I tend to be very indulgent of movies that feature hacking, especially lower budget movies where they are trying something a little new.
I plan to do an entirely separate list of best hacker documentaries.
10. Fair Game (1995)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5zrZnV-4dk
Watching this will make you think of better movies like Die Hard, The Net or maybe even Enemy of the State. Fair Game is a movie about a cop who hates computers (William Baldwin) having to team up with a somewhat tech savvy lawyer (Cindy Crawford) to dodge a team of KGB assassins who need to do computer stuff to steal millions of dollars.
William Baldwin got the role after they couldn’t get Sylvester Stallone and boy is he not a good actor in this, Cindy Crawford does her best and Steven Berkoff and Miguel Sandoval could sleepwalk through portraying villains and still be fantastic.
Watching even a crappy 90s movie like this reminds me how good movies used to look though, real sets, real effects, real explosions, this now doesn’t seem as bad as people thought it was 30 years ago.
9. Tom Clancy’s NetForce (1999)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBSiWxqzoyE
From the master of “technically detailed espionage”, Tom Clancy.
This movie was a little late in the day to portray technology as essentially magical and branch out into the world of science fiction but it was set in the far flung future of 2005. Scott Bakula runs a government agency attached to the FBI that has to solve digital crimes and police the internet and my god this is a funny movie. Even back in 1999 a newspaper critic described it as “pretty silly stuff”.
I think you can find this movie in various languages and in fifteen minute chunks on YouTube, be warned it is over two and a half hours long as it was made for TV.
8. Fled (1996)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcI_nr9zgr0
Second Baldwin brother on this list and he’s even worse than William, in Fled we get Stephen Baldwin as a computer hacker who winds up fleeing a prison work camp with Laurence Fishburne.
The film meanders a lot, there isn’t much hacking involved really, although listening to Stephen Baldwin recite his lines talking about computers, phones and hacking is absolutely hilarious. There is some little charm to this movie though.
7. Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace (1996)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfbI3yRTrYM
This movie is just really insane and I have a real soft spot in my heart for it as a result, I didn’t even know they made a sequel with some of the original cast returning in 1996 until a few years ago. Imagine my surprise.
Jobe survives the first movie, although he is severely maimed, and is made to work on a virtual reality operating system chip, he also crashes various forms of transportation as part of some big conspiracy to pursue world domination by the people behind the magic microchip.
The kid from the first movie is now part of a teenage hacker gang who live in a subway tunnel. Just check it out, it is hard to describe.
6. Webmaster (1998)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvdOYwyVfd8
This was described in marketing at the time of its release as the Danish Bladerunner” and I think that sets the bar way, way too high for what is a likeable little cyberpunk movie.
The story is centered around a guy who helps run the online infrastructure of a major mobster in a dystopian future, something goes wrong though and he has to figure out who is responsible before the mobster killed him.
This is yet another 90s movie on the list with VR goggles, a very rudimentary understanding of tech or the internet and a plot that at times veers drastically off course, but I really like it.
You may struggle to find the english dubbed version, though subtitled copies are easier to track down.
5. Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lnvvh9PLWGQ
Sandra Bullock is back from the first speed movie to make her second hacking related movie (see The Net) and also star in a movie that spawned a ton of jokes about sequels having “Cruise Control” appended to the title.
Willem Defoe plays a deranged former cruise ship employee and hacker who decides to sabotage the cruise ship Sandra Bullock’s character is vacationing on with her new boyfriend and that is probably as much as you need to know.
Everyone hated this when it came out but I think once again attitudes have mellowed a little with time. Worth watching just for Willem Defoe being diabolical.
4. Nirvana (1997)
You may struggle to find a copy of this with the english dub, there are various subtitled versions floating around though.
Christopher Lambert is a video game programmer who accidentally creates an artificial intelligence within one of his games that he then has to try and save from an evil corporation.
This movie looks really beautiful in parts and like an 80s episode of Dr Who in others, I really enjoyed it though as it brings a 90s intensely European sci-fi aesthetic that just feels different to the usual fare.
3. Avalon (2001)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXRXclj99Xg
Avalon is a cyberpunk movie that is a Japanese and Polish international co-production with a Polish cast and a Japanese director, if that doesn’t make you curious nothing will.
Another unique looking movie, Avalon is beautiful in parts but at times it really feels like a movie that should be on screens in a cool nightclub with the audio off for people to admire as they dance.
This is another on the list that involves gaming, VR and a gritty dystopian future. If you wish the Matrix looked like an art house movie and made slightly less sense then look no further.
2. Mercury Rising (1998)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lodj3ZT4tOU
This movie is firmly in the camp of 90s movie that is related to hacking where the protagonist is a cop or professional who isn’t a hacker, with Bruce Willis playing an FBI agent. We also get our third Baldwin brother on this list, arguably the best Baldwin, Alec.
Willis has to protect a little autistic boy who can crack a secret NSA code (named “Mercury”), I went back and forth on even including this as I really don’t like media that portrays autistic people as human supercomputers but here we are.
Before Willis was cast the had considered Nicolas Cage for the lead role and I kind of wish we had seen that version of the movie.
1. Johnny Mnemonic (1995)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFJY_BZ55sI
As R.U. Sirius and St. Jude wrote in the Cyberpunk Fakebook “This is a motion picture with a serious moral: if you somehow offend the gods of cyberspace They’ll have Hollywood make a movie from your dreams”.
Like many of the movies on this list have a warm place in my heart for this movie, I think there was a genuine attempt to produce something that stayed true to the source material. I also think people have generally mellowed on this, especially given how people love Keanu Reeves now.
Reeves plays a data courier, with his own memories replaced with data that is stored in his head that he needs to deliver before it destroys him.
There is a black and white version of this movie that I have yet to see that is supposedly a revelation.
Conclusion
That’s it for now, I want to do a top ten “proto-hacker” movies from before 1980 and a list of the best hacker documentaries soon, so look out for those and sign up for updates if you’d like.
You can also follow realhackhistory or Bluesky and Mastodon, I’d love to hear what you think of this list and if there are any movies I’ve missed.
#1980s #BruceWillis #ChristopherLambert #CodeMercury #FairGame #film #hacked #hacker #hackers #hacking #JohnnyMnemonic #KeanuReeves #LaurenceFishburne #LawnmowerMan #Matrix #MercuryRising #movie #Movies #SandraBullock #Speed #TomClancy #WarGames #WillemDefoe #WilliamGibson
-
I wonder what would happen if I click on "Open moderation interface for #JohnnyMnemonic"
-
"Partly, I think, he took the dive to buy himself a few seconds of the dignity of silence. She’d killed him with culture shock." #JohnnyMnemonic
-
"But he rose in my mind like a cheap religious hologram, glowing, the enlarged chip on his Hawaiian shirt looming like a reconnaissance shot of some doomed urban nucleus." #JohnnyMnemonic
-
#JohnnyMnemonic: It looks like a full-service shop here. How are you on #BrainImplants? #SiliconImplants, #NeuralOverlays, #MemoryAugmentation?
Spider: We don't get much of that out here in Newark, #JustJohnny. Kind of upscale for us, you know?
-
#JohnnyMnemonic: It looks like a full-service shop here. How are you on #BrainImplants? #SiliconImplants, #NeuralOverlays, #MemoryAugmentation?
Spider: We don't get much of that out here in Newark, #JustJohnny. Kind of upscale for us, you know?
-
#JohnnyMnemonic: It looks like a full-service shop here. How are you on #BrainImplants? #SiliconImplants, #NeuralOverlays, #MemoryAugmentation?
Spider: We don't get much of that out here in Newark, #JustJohnny. Kind of upscale for us, you know?
-
#JohnnyMnemonic: It looks like a full-service shop here. How are you on #BrainImplants? #SiliconImplants, #NeuralOverlays, #MemoryAugmentation?
Spider: We don't get much of that out here in Newark, #JustJohnny. Kind of upscale for us, you know?
-
#JohnnyMnemonic: It looks like a full-service shop here. How are you on #BrainImplants? #SiliconImplants, #NeuralOverlays, #MemoryAugmentation?
Spider: We don't get much of that out here in Newark, #JustJohnny. Kind of upscale for us, you know?
-
#JohnnyMnemonic: It looks like a full-service shop here. How are you on #BrainImplants? #SiliconImplants, #NeuralOverlays, #MemoryAugmentation? Spider: We don't get much of that out here in Newark, #JustJohnny. Kind of upscale for us, you know?
-
#JohnnyMnemonic: It looks like a full-service shop here. How are you on #BrainImplants? #SiliconImplants, #NeuralOverlays, #MemoryAugmentation? Spider: We don't get much of that out here in Newark, #JustJohnny. Kind of upscale for us, you know?
-
#JohnnyMnemonic: It looks like a full-service shop here. How are you on #BrainImplants? #SiliconImplants, #NeuralOverlays, #MemoryAugmentation? Spider: We don't get much of that out here in Newark, #JustJohnny. Kind of upscale for us, you know?
-
The only worthwhile part of Johnny Mnemonic
-
30 years later and this scene still kicks ass.
-
"The Magnetic Dog Sisters were on the door that night, and I didn’t relish trying to get out past them if things didn’t work out. They were two meters tall and thin as greyhounds. One was black and the other white, but aside from that they were as nearly identical as cosmetic surgery could make them. They’d been lovers for years and were bad news in a tussle. I was never quite sure which one had originally been male."
-
"Schaltet eure Videorekorder an, wir übertragen 320GB an Heilmitteldaten in 2 Minuten!"
-
🤖 Johnny Mnemonic (1995) - a wild cyberpunk ride into the future! 🔜 2021 🤯 Keanu Reeves stars as a data courier with 160GB of secrets in his head! 💾 Dolph Lundgren is a cyborg street preacher! 🐬 A dolphin on heroin! 🤖 Bonkers tech, even for 1995! 🎥 #JohnnyMnemonic #Cyberpunk #90sSciFi #KeanuReeves
🍅 : https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/johnny_mnemonic
⭐ :https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113481/
-
Had no idea that this existed, but there's a special black and white version of Johnny Mnemonic that was released a few years back? Just got the bluray recently and can't wait to check it out.
#cyberpunk #johnnymnemonic -
To celebrate "Johnny Mnemonic" turning 29 years old recently, I'm posting about this classic CyberPunk themed film.
Although interesting, it should be obvious that a thumbnail concealed laser whip that Shinji uses in could pose as much danger to its user as its intended target.
Also the laser whip clearly inspired the monowire in Cyberpunk 2077.
#OTD #Movies #Film #WilliamGibson #RobertLongo #JohnnyMnemonic #KeanuReeves #UdoKier #DolphLundgren #DinaMeyer #CyberPunk #CyberPunk2077
-
To celebrate "Johnny Mnemonic" turning 29 years old recently, I'm posting about this classic CyberPunk themed film.
One of the most unintentionally (or intentionally) funny scenes is between Johnny and Ralfi. Udo Kier chews up the scene here, it's impossible he didn't see Johnny in the mirror before he looked away. Everyone's acting is completely over the top.
#OTD #Movies #Film #WilliamGibson #RobertLongo #JohnnyMnemonic #KeanuReeves #UdoKier #DolphLundgren #DinaMeyer #CyberPunk
-
To celebrate "Johnny Mnemonic" turning 29 years old recently, I'm posting about this classic CyberPunk themed film.
Corporate grade encryption displayed in "Johnny Mnemonic" certainly took a different path then what we currently use in the real world.
#OTD #Movies #Film #WilliamGibson #RobertLongo #JohnnyMnemonic #KeanuReeves #UdoKier #DolphLundgren #DinaMeyer #CyberPunk
-
On this day 29 years ago in 1995, "Johnny Mnemonic" premiered.
To celebrate, I'll be posting about this classic CyberPunk themed film over the next few days.
Uploading 160 GB of data certainly looked a little different back when "Johnny Mnemonic" was first released. I guess this is what 2021 looked like in the far distant past of 1995.
#OTD #Movies #Film #WilliamGibson #RobertLongo #WilliamGibson #JohnnyMnemonic #KeanuReeves #UdoKier #DolphLundgren #DinaMeyer #CyberPunk
-
Bed time. Big run tomorrow.
#BedTime #Movies #Film #WilliamGibson #RobertLongo #JohnnyMnemonic #KeanuReeves #UdoKier
-
Action movies released in 1995…pick your favorite. Poll 2 of 2.
-
Action movies released in 1995…pick your favorite. Poll 2 of 2.
-
Action movies released in 1995…pick your favorite. Poll 2 of 2.
-
Action movies released in 1995…pick your favorite. Poll 2 of 2.
-
Action movies released in 1995…pick your favorite. Poll 2 of 2.
-
I was today years old when I realized that Dina Meyer played both Jane in Johnny Mnemonic and Dizzy in Starship Troopers.
#Movies #Film #Cinema #WilliamGibson #RobertLongo #JohnnyMnemonic #RobertAHeinlein #PaulVerhoeven #StarshipTroopers #DinaMeyer
-
#CriterionChannel gets it.
#AI collection #NowPlaying including #DemonSeed, #GhostInTheShell (not whitewashed, #ScarJo), #JohnnyMnemonic (#color and #BlackAndWhite versions), #AfterYang, #2046, and more #features and #shorts.
-
#CriterionChannel gets it.
#AI collection #NowPlaying including #DemonSeed, #GhostInTheShell (not whitewashed, #ScarJo), #JohnnyMnemonic (#color and #BlackAndWhite versions), #AfterYang, #2046, and more #features and #shorts.
-
#CriterionChannel gets it.
#AI collection #NowPlaying including #DemonSeed, #GhostInTheShell (not whitewashed, #ScarJo), #JohnnyMnemonic (#color and #BlackAndWhite versions), #AfterYang, #2046, and more #features and #shorts.
-
#CriterionChannel gets it.
#AI collection #NowPlaying including #DemonSeed, #GhostInTheShell (not whitewashed, #ScarJo), #JohnnyMnemonic (#color and #BlackAndWhite versions), #AfterYang, #2046, and more #features and #shorts.
