Johnny Mnemonic in B&W

Robert Longo’s 1995 directorial debut feature, Johnny Mnemonic, starring Keanu Reeves, released in the early days of the “world wide web,” was based on the even more prescient 1981 novel by cyberpunk novelist William Gibson. In an imagined 21st century, the information superhighway has developed so far that cyberspace is the norm for all business and personal dealings. Information has become so important that to shield the most delicate files from cyberspace hackers, the data [in a nod to Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451] is transported in the heads of mnemonic couriers. Johnny (Keanu Reeves) is the best of the bunch, but this time the raw data he carries is so sensitive that he is being pursued by many interested parties, and his failure to deliver the information will hand him the ultimate lateness penalty.

Directed by Longo in 1995 and released in color, the film was reimagined and reworked by the artist in 2021 in black & white, which Longo—whose drawings famously use black & white (as well as big-screen scale) to powerful effect—found much more successful and artistically satisfying than the original color release. (One of Longo’s most acclaimed bodies of work was his charcoal on paper hand renderings of famous and colorful abstract expressionist oil paintings.)