The Lawnmower Man

Don't let the smile fool you, he's not that happy.

"I am God here!"

—Jobe Smith

A 1992 movie starring Pierce Brosnan and Jeff Fahey, directed by Brett Leonard.

Basically, think Flowers for Algernon meets certian plot elements that you'd later see in Serial Experiments Lain, and you're somewhere on the right track.

The CGI, which was quite impressive at the time, hasn't aged well. Especially Jobe's Digital Avatar, which sometimes enters Uncanny Valley. Then again, the avatar isn't supposed to be photorealistic: it's the self-made A God Am I image of an abused mental-defective who just got superhuman powers from untested military psychotropic drugs. Bizarreness is to be expected.

Tropes used in The Lawnmower Man include:

• Abusive Parents: Peter's father. Father McKeen could fit this trope as well.
• A God Am I: The original title of the movie was Cyber God, before it was combined with the Stephen King short story, The Lawnmower Man.
• Anti-Hero: Arguably, Jobe himself.
• The Bad Guy Wins: Phones ringing at the end means Jobe wins...
• Cyberspace
• Cyberpunk
• Digital Avatar
• Do Not Adjust Your Set: The Lawnmower Man's desired outcome. First the telephone network, then the world!
• Dumb Is Good: ...and smart is bad
• Everything Is Online: When Jobe escapes into cyberspace he gains control over every phone in the world.
• Freak-Out: Jobe after Terry, one of the few people who was ever nice to him, is accidentally killed by guards targeting him.
• Holographic Terminal: When in cyberspace.
• In Name Only: This film and Stephen King's original short story are both called The Lawnmower Man, and that's about it. You might think the identical titles are just a coincidence, but apparently not- several promotional posters referred to the film as Stephen King's The Lawnmower Man, at least until the author took legal action (see below).
  • Stephen King actually sued to distance himself from the film. The court actually explicitly forbade New Line Cinema from using Stephen King's name in conjunction with the film and required them to pay him 2.5 million dollars in damages. Not content with the ruling, New Line actually attempted to stealth market the film under the name "Stephen King's The Lawnmower Man" in several major cities. New Line Cinemas was found to be in contempt of court and had to pay King $10,000 per day until they removed his name from all associated product.
    • Strangely enough, King did like the film. It just wasn't his story, which led to the suit.
• Kiss Me, I'm Virtual: Jobe and Marnie's sex scene, which unfortunately turns into Mind Rape.
• Mind Rape: Besides the Jobe and Marnie virtual sex scene that leaves her catatonic when it turns into rape due to Jobe's loss of control over his powers, there is also the scene when Jobe, who's now both more in control of his growing powers and becoming more villainous, psychically unleashes a "Lawnmower Man" inside the head of a bully, purposely rendering him catatonic as well.
• Psychic Powers
• Time Bomb: Dr. Angelo had fifteen minutes to escape from the building before it blew up. Plenty of time, but then he went to talk to God Mode Jobe...
• Title Drop
• Tron Lines: Jobe gets a pretty Tron like outfit once he starts killing people in the real world.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Could be argued this is what happened to Jobe.