"In 1992, the original Lawnmower Man was way ahead of its time. Loosely based on the Stephen King short story of the same name, the cyberpunk film turned a neurodivergent gardener into a kind of pre- Matrix badass in a virtual world. Starring Jeff Fahey as Jobe and Pierce Brosnan as Dr. Lawrence Angelo, The Lawnmower Man was a haunting, bizarre sci-fi horror movie, which is utterly unlike anything else in cinema history."
"Taking place a number of years after the first film, Lawnmower Man 2 uses a group of hacker teens, utterly unconnected to events from the first film, as a plot device to reenter the twisted cyberspace world created by Dr. Lawrence Angelo (now played by Patrick Bergin), and inhabited by a digital version of Jobe (now embodied by Matt Frewer)."
"Why was Frewer such an interesting choice to bring into the paranoid VR world of The Lawnmower Man? Well, because in some ways, Frewer's visage pioneered modern pop culture notions of digital personalities. The metafictional AI character "Max Headroom" was played by Frewer in his various incarnations, including, most famously, a faux-talk show style series, as well as a drama series called Max Headroom, in which the quirky digital character advised ordinary humans throughout a variety of capers and mysteries."
The original 1992 Lawnmower Man adapted Stephen King's short story into a cyberpunk film that transformed a neurodivergent gardener into a pre-Matrix virtual-world figure. The 1996 sequel, Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace, rebooted the concept with an almost entirely new cast and released January 12, 1996. The sequel centers on hacker teenagers who reenter the cyberspace world created by Dr. Lawrence Angelo (now Patrick Bergin) and encounter a digital Jobe embodied by Matt Frewer. Frewer's prior portrayal of the metafictional AI Max Headroom informed his digital persona. Some retooling choices suggested potential strengths despite mixed reception.
Read at Inverse
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