Information technology has become ubiquitous with people inhabiting cyberspace but also infusing their bodies with technology. Corporate wars and infighting are everywhere and the line between organised crime and business is very grey. Some fight back against oppression in the real world others in cyberspace.
Living on the fringes of the corporate world is Johnny (Keanu Reeves) who transports data for money, uploaded into his mind through an implant. His latest job goes badly wrong after he overloads his mind with stolen data just as vengeful Yakuza turn up to take it, killing his customers in the process.
Escaping, he heads to the drop-off hoping to offload the data, pursued by the Yakuza who want to remove it from his head slightly more forcefully. When he arrives he falls in with local bodyguard for hire Jane (Dina Meyer) who says she knows a guy who can help.
This kind-of-adaptation of the William Gibson short keeps much of the story but infuses it with a mid-90s vibe that felt dated even at the time. The character of Molly is rewritten as Jane and we get a really dull addition in Street Preacher (Dolph Lundgren).
Keanu is awful. Dina Meyer's Jane is completely deprotagonised and gets nothing much to do other than be a romantic interest who happens to know the town. Ice-T and Henry Rollins are probably better in their supporting roles than either of the leads.
Udo Kier gurns as Johnny's fence and Takeshi Kitano seems to be making a different, more serious, film to everybody else.
Many of the elements of Gibson's Sprawl books are kind of in here but in a hugely popcorn pop culture mashup kind of way. Jones the dolphin is awesome not tragic, the bridge is a dieselpunk place populated by comedy relief and the Yakuza just cannon fodder villains. They even weave in a "heroic" narrative around the data in Johnny's head.
It was a huge disappointment at the time and still is 3/10, but it's been many a year since I've seen this little shown turkey so I thought it was worth a watch.