A simple man is turned into a genius through the application of computer science.A simple man is turned into a genius through the application of computer science.A simple man is turned into a genius through the application of computer science.
- Director
- Writers
- Stephen King(based on a short story by)
- Brett Leonard(screenplay by)
- Gimel Everett(screenplay by)
- Stars
Top credits
- Director
- Writers
- Stephen King(based on a short story by)
- Brett Leonard(screenplay by)
- Gimel Everett(screenplay by)
- Stars
- Awards
- 3 nominations
Michael Valverde
- Day Gate Guard
- (as Mike Valverde)
- Director
- Writers
- Stephen King(based on a short story by) (credit removed following lawsuit)
- Brett Leonard(screenplay by)
- Gimel Everett(screenplay by)
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaNew Line Cinema had obtained the rights to the Stephen King short story "The Lawnmower Man", and the producers also had an unrelated script called "Cyber God". For economical reasons, they simply placed King's title on the production of "Cyber God", and early promotional material with that claim even went public. King was furious at this abuse of his name, and he sued the studio to have his name and title removed from the film and promotion. The studio refused, but was eventually ordered to pay ten thousand dollars and full profits to King.
- GoofsAt the start of the film text appears explaining virtual reality; one of the very first words printed is 'Millenium' which should have been spelled 'Millennium'.
- Quotes
Dr. Lawrence Angelo: This is all so new.
Jobe Smith: It's not new. I realized that nothing we've been doing is new. We haven't been tapping into new areas of the brain - we've just been awakening the most ancient. This technology is simply a route to powers that conjurers and alchemists used centuries ago. The human race lost that knowledge and now I'm reclaiming it through virtual reality.
Dr. Lawrence Angelo: You're moving too fast. Even with all these new abilities, there are dangers. Man may be able to evolve a thousand-fold through this technology, but the rush must be tempered with wisdom.
- Crazy creditsAt the start of the movie, just after the New Line Cinema logo, the following Virtual Reality 'statement' is given (the director stated that this was rewritten many times): By the turn of the millenium a technology known as VIRTUAL REALITY will be in widespread use. It will allow you to enter computer generated artificial worlds as unlimited as the imagination itself. Its creators foresee millions of positive uses - while others fear it as a new from of mind control...
- Alternate versionsA director's cut was released with 39 minutes of additional footage which included the following material:
- When Rosco 1138 was shot in the theatrical version he died, but in the directors cut he survived
- A scene when Jobe Smith is attacked by Rosco 1138, but Rosco looks at his pupils and sees he is not a threat
- Dr. Angelo gives some soldiers a briefing on capturing Rosco
- Jobe speaks to Rosco thinking he is a comic book super hero called Cyboman
- Father McKeen finds Rosco with Jobe and calls V.S.I., Dr. Angelo's place of work
- The soldiers go to Jobe's house and Dr. Angelo wants to get Rosco alive, but the soldiers kill Rosco and Jobe starts to cry
- Father McKeen talks to Jobe and tells him how he endangered the church by letting Rosco in his house
- Jobe and Terry McKeen are at the gas station and Jobe tells Terry and Jake about Cyboman and Jake makes fun of him
- Dr. Angelo talks into his audio journal and wonders why Rosco bonded with the retarded man Jobe
- In the theatrical version Dr. Angelo's wife leaves him, but in the director's cut she goes out with her friends. Dr. Angelo follows her to her car and she leaves; then he talks to Peter's mom [Carla Parkett] and they talk about how Peter reminds him of himself at that age
- Terry McKeen and Jobe are in a diner and Jake starts harassing him about Cyboman
- Father McKeen sees Jobe reading and yells at him and Terry defends him and tells Father McKeen to let Jobe be a man. Then Father McKeen leaves and tells Jobe he'll teach him to drive, but he learnt how already with the V.R. treatments he has been getting from Dr. Angelo
- Jobe is with Dr. Angelo on the way to V.S.I. and asks if he is going to do to him what he did with Rosco
- Jobe is scared because he can read minds; he asks Mrs. Angelo where Dr. Angelo is and he reads her mind
- Dr. Angelo asks his wife where Jobe is and she does not respond because she is under Jobe's control
- Dr. Angelo is tied up and his wife asks if he and Jobe need anything, still being under his control
- The agents are going to pick up Jobe and Dr. Angelo when Jobe tells Dr. Angelo "Now you will witness the impossible" and makes Dr. Angelo watch his wife kill an agent and then is killed by the other two while he watches through V.R.
- ConnectionsEdited into Beyond the Mind's Eye (1993)
- SoundtracksJobe's Fury
Written and Performed by Sterling
Review
Featured review
Back when movies were crazy, fun rides instead of dark, grisly adventures.
The movies of yesterday get quite a beating by the moviegoers of today.
"Cheesy" is the word used most often, for movies like MANNEQUIN or WEIRD SCIENCE, that have silly or unbelievable plots surrounded by fun and humor. Movies like WARGAMES and TRON get bashed, because of their dated looks and technology-related plots that are clearly not possible today, only because the technology of today renders them ridiculous.
ROLLERBALL also suffers this fate, ironically, because its supposed to be a brutal future-sport based on Roller Derby, which by now has all but disappeared from the sporting world.
Taking all of this into account, I still love THE LAWNMOWER MAN. Jeff Fahey plays Job, a slow, mentally and physically abused man who is laughed at and mocked by his entire community, save Jeffrey Lewis playing Terry, his partner and friend throughout the film.
Pierce Brosnan plays the scientist Lawrence Angelo, a man who is obsessed with exploring the higher dimensions of the functioning brain by using chimpanzees as guinea pigs. All is going very well for him, until "the Shop" (admittedly a bad pun on Stephen King's work, most notably FIRESTARTER) demands that his research be used to modify the chimps into killing machines. When one of his chimps suddenly escapes, and cannot tell reality from the simulated virtual reality he was being trained in, all hell breaks loose.
As a result, the project is halted, and the doctor is out. Way out. He sinks into depression, questioning his life and his purpose. He decides one day, when he sees Job come to mow his lawn, a potential new guinea pig for his experiments.
Looking back at this picture, I can see that the doctor's intentions went way beyond his actions. He used Job as an experiment, and the experiment went awry. Mix in the fact that the Shop interferes, much in the same way that it did for the mass-murdering chimp, and even more hell breaks loose than before.
Now, is there a level of "cheesy", here? Absolutely. Some of the moments in the film where Job is having side-effects of his treatments come across as overdone, and the fears of the effects of Virtual Reality of yesterday are nothing but jokes today, because the tech still isn't really going anywhere. The ideas are strong, without the tech to back it up.
But you could make similar arguments about TRON. You could probably make similar arguments about ANY sci-fi pictures that came out before the nineties. Hell, you could probably make similar arguments about any sci-fi picture at all, once you debunk the science behind it.
What we've forgotten is how to have FUN at movies. The reason why silly movies like this one were so good is because we DIDN'T know how the world worked. We DIDN'T care about the tech behind it, because we knew it was FICTION. There are too many movies coming out today that are based on reality. Too much of what we see on the screen, both big and little, are rooted in the grim, grisly world of today.
If you want to enjoy this movie, like I still do, sit back, put your feet up, and pretend that what you see before you is actually possible. Let the actors do their jobs (which they did very well) and enjoy the ride. Enjoy the score, the theme, the plot, and even the silly CGI that doesn't hold up to today's standards, but looked pretty good for the crazy movie they were making back in the day. Stop taking everything so seriously.
Because I think THAT is the reason why "Hollywood can't come up with anything original anymore". Original, back in the day, was synonymous with "silly" and "chancy".
You wouldn't want any of that today, would you?
"Cheesy" is the word used most often, for movies like MANNEQUIN or WEIRD SCIENCE, that have silly or unbelievable plots surrounded by fun and humor. Movies like WARGAMES and TRON get bashed, because of their dated looks and technology-related plots that are clearly not possible today, only because the technology of today renders them ridiculous.
ROLLERBALL also suffers this fate, ironically, because its supposed to be a brutal future-sport based on Roller Derby, which by now has all but disappeared from the sporting world.
Taking all of this into account, I still love THE LAWNMOWER MAN. Jeff Fahey plays Job, a slow, mentally and physically abused man who is laughed at and mocked by his entire community, save Jeffrey Lewis playing Terry, his partner and friend throughout the film.
Pierce Brosnan plays the scientist Lawrence Angelo, a man who is obsessed with exploring the higher dimensions of the functioning brain by using chimpanzees as guinea pigs. All is going very well for him, until "the Shop" (admittedly a bad pun on Stephen King's work, most notably FIRESTARTER) demands that his research be used to modify the chimps into killing machines. When one of his chimps suddenly escapes, and cannot tell reality from the simulated virtual reality he was being trained in, all hell breaks loose.
As a result, the project is halted, and the doctor is out. Way out. He sinks into depression, questioning his life and his purpose. He decides one day, when he sees Job come to mow his lawn, a potential new guinea pig for his experiments.
Looking back at this picture, I can see that the doctor's intentions went way beyond his actions. He used Job as an experiment, and the experiment went awry. Mix in the fact that the Shop interferes, much in the same way that it did for the mass-murdering chimp, and even more hell breaks loose than before.
Now, is there a level of "cheesy", here? Absolutely. Some of the moments in the film where Job is having side-effects of his treatments come across as overdone, and the fears of the effects of Virtual Reality of yesterday are nothing but jokes today, because the tech still isn't really going anywhere. The ideas are strong, without the tech to back it up.
But you could make similar arguments about TRON. You could probably make similar arguments about ANY sci-fi pictures that came out before the nineties. Hell, you could probably make similar arguments about any sci-fi picture at all, once you debunk the science behind it.
What we've forgotten is how to have FUN at movies. The reason why silly movies like this one were so good is because we DIDN'T know how the world worked. We DIDN'T care about the tech behind it, because we knew it was FICTION. There are too many movies coming out today that are based on reality. Too much of what we see on the screen, both big and little, are rooted in the grim, grisly world of today.
If you want to enjoy this movie, like I still do, sit back, put your feet up, and pretend that what you see before you is actually possible. Let the actors do their jobs (which they did very well) and enjoy the ride. Enjoy the score, the theme, the plot, and even the silly CGI that doesn't hold up to today's standards, but looked pretty good for the crazy movie they were making back in the day. Stop taking everything so seriously.
Because I think THAT is the reason why "Hollywood can't come up with anything original anymore". Original, back in the day, was synonymous with "silly" and "chancy".
You wouldn't want any of that today, would you?
helpful•245
- vesil_vesalier
- Oct 30, 2018
Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Le cobaye
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $10,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $32,100,816
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $7,751,971
- Mar 8, 1992
- Gross worldwide
- $32,100,816
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content
