The Lawnmower Man
Life on the Edge

By Ben Delaney, Publisher

This article first appeared in CyberEdge Journal #8, March/April 1992. © 1992 CyberEdge Information Services, Inc.

We saw The Lawnmower Man tonight. Quite honestly, I was prepared to be totally disgusted. But The Lawnmower Man was better than I expected. Whether it does anything good for virtual reality remains to be seen.

VR is a big part of the raison d'etere of The Lawnmower Man. The plot is simple, if not simplistic: Brilliant, but naive, scientist makes breakthrough in VR research, but it drives his chimp subjects mad. Evil corporate boss wants the experiments to continue, searching for some ill defined, sinister use for VR. Simpleminded gardener (The Lawnmower Man) becomes new subject in clandestine, after hours research. VR (and mind altering drugs) makes Lawnmower Man into evil monster who wants to take over the world's computer network, and lead humankind to a higher plane. In the end the bad guys get spherized, the (you have to see it), the neighbor kid survives, the brilliant scientist gets the girl and they steal off into the night, as the transformed Lawnmower Man disappears into the net with a fiendish laugh.

The best parts of The Lawnmower Man are the computer graphics and special effects, produced by Angel Studios, The Gosney Company, Homer & Associates, Reel EM and Xaos. The representations of virtual environments are believable, if beyond today's state of the art by several years. The film reminded me a lot of TRON, the Disney computer adventure film of a few years back, in terms of the graphics and the interactivity portrayed.

The dangers of technology

Throughout history, artists have tried to warn society of the danger of new technology. Mary Shelly's Frankenstien was such a work, as were many of the 1950's sci-fi films that portrayed giant bugs, created by accidental exposure to radioactivity. The Lawnmower Man follows that path, portraying virtual reality as a technology rife with danger and potential for abuse. The film makes no attempt to present any applications of VR other than some games (The producers came up with one interesting game concept; two networked systems which are motion platforms for prone players, who fly through virtual worlds in a race.); there is absolutely no discussion of other uses for the technology, other than the hero's ill defined research. I found this disappointing, though not surprising.

The downside of The Lawnmower Man? Well, the acting left a bit to be desired, as did the dialogue. The point of the research was far from obvious. The bad guys were such typical corporate bad guys that they might have dropped in from another movie. The story was predictable. The VR lab was totally fantastic; a cross between an airport lounge and Dr. Frankenstein's basement workshop. The sound track was surprisingly ordinary, despite the accessibility of 3D sound technology from producers such as Q Sound, which has been used in other films. The fluorescent body suits (that mysteriously lit up whenever the Lawnmower Man thought bad thoughts) were far fetched, but somewhat sexy.

So what we get in The Lawnmower Man is a decent sci fi yarn, fairly well presented, with good graphics, that explains the basic concept ofvirtual reality in an understandable fashion. But how will this effect VR? Is it likely to cause a backlash of fearful ignorance? Will we have politicians mounting their soapboxes to rail against this evil science, urging that it be put back in its box? Or will The Lawnmower Man be seen for what it is, a mildly interesting B movie? Only time will tell. The plot line is obviously set up for a sequel, so watch out for the return of Lawnmower Man. (He's back, and he's angry!)

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