Rating “Cyberfilms” (Part 4)

Cyberfilms is a collection of 11 sci-fi short stories that were turned into movies at some point. Movies that, with the exception of Total Recall, I have never seen. So I cecided to review each story on their own merrits, and let you know if I could see a movie in each story. Today we have two rather well-known entries: Johnny Mnemonic and Enemy Mine. I didn’t end up liking either one too much, though To read about some stories that I did like, I suggest visiting parts 1, 2 and 3 of this series. Or wait for the weekend, when I will review the final two stories from this book. Anyway, on to this week’s reviews!

Johnny Mnemonic (William Gibson)
1981
Score: D

Johnny Mnemonic was adapted by the author and turned into the film of the same name, directed by Robert Longo, and starring Keanu Reeves, Dina Meyer and Ice-T.

Yep, that’s me giving William Gibson’s story a D. I didn’t understand it. It might be a great tale, but the density of information that Gibson crams into every sentence and description is staggering. And unfortunately, it is done in such a way that my brain can’t follow. Gibson’s writing just doesn’t create any images in my mind, and an entire action scene might be over before I even realized it. Or understand what just happened.

Johnny Mnemonic is a futuristic data delivery boy, carrying around information that is firmly implanted in a part of his brain that even he cannot access. Apparently he is getting screwed over by his last employer (“Ralfi”), and prepares to do something about it at their next meeting. Things happen quickly then: Ralfi was dealing in stolen Yakuza information, the Japanese aren’t too happy about that fact and want the information (and that means Johnny) dead. Somehow, a girl assassin named Molly Millions injects herself into the deal, and she, Johnny and Ralfi are off to outrun the Yakuza and hide above Nighttown, a place where the “Lo Teks” live. I think. It sounds about right when I think back at the story, but I might be missing about 3000 details. Other memories are vaguely swirling through my brain: an assassin who takes out Ralfi and gets into the final standoff with Molly, a cybernetic dolphin with a drug habit who helps extract the deadly information from Johnny’s brain, “Dog”, the doberman-augmented Lo Tek.

I might be able to understand the story details better if I read Johnny Mnemonic a second time. But who wants to have to do that? It’s one thing to create an intricate future world that is brimming to the edge with details, but it needs to be presented in a way that the average reader can follow. William Gibson is a pioneer when it comes to writing cyberpunk – he established the genre with Neuromancer, in fact. But to be honest, that novel never did anything for me, either, and I never finished reading it. Purists might accuse me of not being a true fan, of not being able to appreciate the original master of the genre – which might very well be true. But instead of worrying too much about it, I reach for similar fare from authors who I can actually understand. Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash, for example. Or Tad William’s Otherland epic.

As for screen-worthiness, Johnny Mnemonic’s cinematic potential is vast, of course! I don’t have to understand (or even like) Gibson’s writing to know that the consensus opinion hold his visions of the future in high regard. I’m sure I would see it, too, if I read Johnny Mnemonic a few more times. So I can believe that even these days, a fully realized version of the story would manage to impress. Time and resources are key, of course, so that the filmmakers aren’t required to drastically downscale the original vision. That’s exactly what seems to have happened to the movie adaptation. I remember how mundane and drab the PR shots looked when the movie came out – of course something like a junkie dolphin won’t ever feel right when the world and characters looks so everyday! Somebody might revisit this story in a couple of decades and bring it to the screen the way it was envisioned. Until then, I’ll be okay with the fact that it didn’t do much for me, though.

Enemy Mine (Barry B. Longyear)
1980
Score: C

This story was adapted by Edward Khmara. It was directed by Wolfgang Petersen and starred Dennis Quaid and Louis Gossett Jr.

The making of Enemy Mine was all over German TV. In the 80s there was a resurgence of German film making at the Bavaria Film Studios, led by Wolfgang Petersen, and Enemy Mine was one of those projects. That’s about as much as I remember. I was only 9 years old, and I don’t remember ever actually seeing the movie. So, let’s talk about the original story instead!

In an undetermined future, Humans and Drac, a humanoid reptile race of hermaphrodites, are fighting for the same galactic real estate. Apparently they hate each other, and when Willis E. Davidge and the Drac Jeriba Shigan shoot each other out of the sky and crash on the hostile, uninhabited planet of Fyrine IV, they naturally go after each other immediately. But they just as quickly realize that they will have to work together if they are to survive the situation: they are stuck on a small island in the middle of the raging ocean, and will quickly be swallowed up by the water unless they act. In fact, Davidge and “Jerry” are soon swept off the island and onto the main land, where they settle in a cave. Davidge and Jerry survive on wild snakes, whose leather they also fashion into clothing.
A hard winter brings Human and Drac together – they get to know and appreciate each other, and they learn each other’s languages. Davidge learns about Drac customs and the “line of Jeriba”, which is the complete recorded history of Jerry’s family line (spanning 199 generations). He better had, as well, because before we know it Jerry has died during the birth of its child, Zammis – and Davidge is left to raise and teach the alien kid all by himself. Will they ever make it off the planet? Will Davidge get to present Zammis before the “Jeriba Archives”, as he promised Jerry on his deathbed? Of course he will…well, sort of.

The concept of Enemy Mine is classic: two bitterly opposed sides are forced to come together, and the experience makes us understand that hey, underneath all this hate and zeal, we’re all the same! The other guys might even have some damn good ideas about life and the universe. And Enemy Mine isn’t a bad story. In fact, it’s probably a pretty good story, as evidenced by the couple of Hugo Awards that it won back when it was released. But Barry Longyear’s tale never grabbed me. It didn’t seem to kick into high gear – in fact, it felt decidedly quaint to me. Enemy Mine is a story about survival, and there are a few situations in which the hardship of the two survivors is examined. But it doesn’t feel like Longyear was really interested in this aspect of the story. The focus, then, is on Jerry and Davidge themselves, but that part doesn’t particularly work for me, either. The two featured races are thought out reasonably well. There’s a few bits and pieces in which we find out about the two characters’ past. But honestly, the world out there feels mundane. When Davidge eventually travels to the Drac homeworld, I feel like I’m in a Star Trek episode. The old, dated kind. And with fierce reptile alien warriors being called Jerry, it’s hard to fully get sucked into the grittyness of the situation.

As for cinematic potential, it’s certainly there. Humanizing the sworn enemy is a concept that has been tackled in various stories. Saving Private Ryan had the Steamboat Willie scene, for example, in which a German soldier is trying to connect with his American captors. Unfortunately I can’t think of Enemy Mine and not think of actors in reptile rubber suits. I can not think of said dated Star Trek episodes. And I just feel like I’ve seen this movie before. Not the actual movie, of course. But the concept that it’s based on. So I won’t rush out to complete my DVD collection now that I’ve read Enemy Mine. But I would probably pick it up and watch it for historic interest if I ever saw the DVD in the bargain bin somewhere. Wolfgang Petersen directed some great films in the 80s (Das Boot being a classic, of course), and he is lined up to direct the Ender’s Game movie. Might be good to know the entirety of his cinematic history – because boy, his last outing Poseidon certainly didn’t deliver the goods!

Rating “Cyberfilms” will conclude after the weekend, with reviews of “Nightflyers” and “Herbert West: Reanimator”.