People Actually Remember
The Lawnmower Man

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 form of mind control... movie crawltext

wtf

This is a wild thing to sum up, so I'll do my best!

You have this disabled man, Jobe, who is mistreated and made fun of, but sympathetic in your typical 90s movie fashion. His thing is mowing lawns when he is not being bullied by the pump jockey, abused by the priest, or reading comics with his best friend (who is a child). He happens to occasionally mow the lawn of this scientist obsessed with Virtual Reality and was soon hard up on a test subject for his experimental machimations. Also, they involve experimental drugs and expanding your brain power-- what can possibly go wrong?

These schenanigans do pay off-- Jobe gets smarter, can levitate chairs, and got sexy. Unfortunately, this whole operation eventually succumbs to executive meddling and war applications. Didn't help that Jobe was getting too smart for this nonsense and wants to enlighten humanity by any computeried/digital/virtual reality means neccessary (and also, whether they like it or not).

This all this cumulates into a roaring rampage of revenge (all of it satisfying) before finally Jobe sucking himself into the mainframe, having a face-off in said VR world with impressive-but-now-hilarious computer effects, a last-minute-humanity save as Kid Character Does Kid Stuff and almost gets blown up, and creepy sequel hook that actually never went anywhere.

If you were expecting murderous lawnmower hijinks, you'd be disappointed-- that only happens once (but the practical effects made it worth the wait).

So with that nonsense, it absolutely sank at the box office.

...sike! It actually did pretty well! For the year it released, it raked in $32 million domestically and performed even better overseas, nearly 5 times over. Not bad for a budget of "only" $10 million in 1992.

Reactions

While critics are known to be absolute killjoys devoid of anything fun, this was one of the few times their opinion aligned with the general audience.

Reviews generally range from baffled, amused, and outright awed at how ridiculous it gets. Most loved to hate it. Some even still loved it, despite (or because of!) the flaws.

w(hy)tf

• The CGI!
  It was outpaced pretty quickly and just looked... like that. It may have been cutting edge, but it aged worse than most 90s computer graphics!
• Actors!
  You did a double-take once you realized wtf that's Jeff Fahey
  and Pierce Brosnan
  and Jenny Wright?!
• Topics!
  Virtual reality, a prediction of The Internet, and brain powers. It's typically considered part of the early cyberpunk genre because of it.
• Drama (of the Legal kind)!
  They ultimately just borrowed the title and King's name to make this thing: if they have just called it "Cyboman" or something instead, he wouldn't have dragged them through that public humiliation ritual.
• The Cringe and Yikes Factor!!
  To say their portrayal of Jobe was "Politically Incorrect" do it a disservice. Again, this was the 90s, and people with mental disabilities were either living traumatic, tragic lives-- or were the butt of many mean-spirited jokes. Oh and also there's the rest of the movie doing 90s movie things. A lot of this did not age well.

Yeah, it sucks. But at least it's the enjoyable sort, and it does have potential. The actors were still damn good at their job, and you have to appreciate the ambition of their CGI use. It's probably why it's become a Cult Classic.

Oh yeah, here's the obligatory TVTropes page, which is totally an indicator of how prolific it is and stuff!

Sightings, References, Homages

You bet your sweet ass I saw Lawnmower Man! I consulted on it, took Brigitte Nielsen to the premiere. We were building worlds within worlds. Community, Season 06 Episode 02

[YTP] Inside Jobe is a parody mashup using footage from the sequel. Yes, there was a gotdanged sequel! Thank you, Bloofie Film Studios, for making something so quotable that's part of my vocal stimming now. Just two men clankin it!

And this The Lawnmower Man Game will most likely not be sued by Stephen King. There's also a much happier ending this time around. Ruin made this thing, so check out their other stuff!

I (do not) regret to inform you that another (Not) Torment Nexus was recreated in Meta... ten years ago.

You can see some familiar renderings in Mind's Eye: A Computer Animation Odyssey.

Where to Partake

Unless you have read the short story this blurb was suggesting as the basis for the movie titled The Lawnmower Man, you had no other recourse but to take this information at face value. Which is what many people did. Jakub Flasz, THE LAWNMOWER MAN and the Curious Case of Adaptio ad Absurdum

For the movie itself,there's no shortage of streaming services (and bootlegs) to obtain it. I strongly recommend the Director's Cut or Collector's Edition. It includes over a half-hour of content that only added to the story, upgrading it from a solid "urgh" to "okay, still urgh-- but at least there's context and a slightly better story."

The (Alleged) Inspo

Read up on the original short story so you can fully understand why King sued the pants off New Line Cinema. As the summary on this wiki makes plain, similarities really were that superficial. It was published in the 1970s, and was included in a collection titled Night Shift in 1978. You're bound to find it wherever you get your books.

A "Dollar Baby" shoft film was also made in 1987: Stephen King allowed you to buy the rights to a short story for only a buck, and you went and did the thing. You can view it on Youtube.

And, there was a comic drawn by Walt Simonson, also more true to the tale. It's original run was in 1981, and IDW republished it in 2014. You can read more about it here in this article by Bloody Disgusting, and a review of the reprint by AE Index.

Other Stuff

There are video games, too. One version of the game was just an interactive CD-ROM of the movie; the SNES version takes place immediately after the first movie. It was a jump-and-shoot types with poor controls and somehow, even more questionable graphics. General consensous was favorable on its puzzles, though.

There's the largely-overlooked sequel too, I guess. And another game, also a sequel. And a third game never materialized beyond rumor in the 64-bit era.

As for the aforementioned Cyboman Cyberchrist CyberGod script, there doesn't appear to be a surviving copy anywhere, even in an archive.

That's That

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