For this week’s mission, I decided to watch a throwback 80’s or 90’s movie with VR as a main theme. As the concept of Virtual Reality was quite popular in that era, lots of “virtual reality movies” was created to accommodate for the curious & rebellious audience who wants more than just an ordinary film. With 1080p resolution, decent recording equipments and limitless creativity, some of the best movies are made in this era, including the Matrix, Pulp Fiction, Titanic, etc. that has defined the decade and has set out to change the film industry once and for all.
The movie that I watched this week is called “The Lawnmower Man” (1992) , a sci-fi movie based on the novel by Stephen King with the same name, that takes the concept of Virtual Reality to the next level. The question repeats itself several times as how can we use Virtual Reality to “upgrade” the human cognitive behavior / conciousness, where would be the limit and how would we know when to stop. Even in the 90s, people have already realized that this technology isn’t just all fun and games. One wrong code or action could potential take away someone’s life.
The movie starts out quite slow, with a scientist in a semi-sketchy lab trying out a new formula that he is experimenting that he think could eventually help the humankind to push/define the limits of our 3-dimensional world, a common theme in many of these VR-centered movies. I find it fascinating because it was created in the late 1980 – early 1990s and a lot of its prediction turns out to be quite accurate. And just to see how they created the actually equipments back in the days was nice, i.e the VR headsets, the connecting cords, the bionic suits, the omni-directional hamsterwheel – which you can hook in your arms and legs, and essentially become one with the Virtual World. The mad scientist , Dr. Angelo, was a neighbor to an average Joe, who is known to have a mind of a 10-year-old. Joe was a son of a farmer, he was working out on the farm and mowing the lawn everyday as so he did get ripped. Some girl actually liked him before he got his “superintelligence” as Joe was a decent-looking guy with a good frame and lots of strength. Even so, I have to admit that Joe was looking quite crazy with his hair undone!
One day, Dr. Angelo asked if Joe wanted to play a game. Out of curiosity, Joe was like “Hell yea! I wanna play a game”, so Joe & Peter went at each other at a rocket-racing game. There were obstacles that they had to dodge, curves and corners that they have to maneuver around, plus a few cool features that regular 2D game just couldn’t deliver. It was a pretty interesting game 🙂 Joe lost, and he got butthurt, indeed so butthurt that he didn’t want to do anything else. Fastfoward to the point where Dr.Angelo tells Joe there is a game that could boost Joe’s intelligence. Joe was tired of people calling him dumb and akward, so that gave him a status quo to overcome. From my perspective, Joe was more innocent than dumb, which people mistaken him as. So, Joe decided to take the serums that Dr.Angelo just created which boosted his intelligence.
Soon after, his intelligence allowed him to do superficial things he couldn’t before, like driving a car, seducing women, kinetic abilities etc. Not long after, Joe’s intelligence got the better of him and he decided his consciousness to the “NET”. This guy is crazy!! He thinks of himself as a god. He started terrorizing people with his god-like superficial abilities, or in other words, revenge against the people who did him wrong before he got powers. A reverse role of villians and superheros are quite interesting. Dr.Angelo was supposedly be the villian with several PhD & personal Lab, Joe was a poor farmboy with ill-wit intelligence; and as the movie progresses, Joe became a villian with crazy superpower, and Dr. Angelo “fixing his mistakes” , trying to help Joe to become civil again. The movie takes me on a rollercoaster of emotions, some good, some bad, but mostly excited the whole time to witness what is about to happen next. Although the quality of product is fair incomparision to today’s technology, I find it beautiful made and full of wonderful details! Thanks James & Bruce for offering a chance to watch movie for credit, and I’m looking forward to a hopeful quarter.
Virtuoso Journal 