Taglines: God made him simple. Science made him a god.
The Lawnmower Man movie storyline. Dr. Lawrence Angelo works for Virtual Space Industries, running experiments in increasing the intelligence of chimpanzees using drugs and virtual reality. One of the chimps escapes using the warfare tactics he was being trained for. Dr. Angelo is generally a pacifist, who would rather explore the intelligence-enhancing potential of his research without applying it for military purposes. His wife Caroline is unhappy with the way he is ignoring her to focus on this project.
Jobe Smith, a local greenskeeper with an intellectual disability, lives in the garden shed owned by the local priest, Father Francis McKeen. McKeen’s brother, Terry, is a local landscape gardener and employs Jobe to help him with odd jobs. Father McKeen punishes the challenged Jobe with a belt whenever he fails to complete his chores.
Dr. Angelo realizes he needs a human subject to work with, and he spots Jobe mowing his lawn. Peter Parkette, Dr. Angelo’s young neighbor, is friends with Jobe. Dr. Angelo invites both of them over to play some virtual reality games. Learning more about Jobe, Angelo persuades him to participate in his experiments, letting him know it will make him smarter. Jobe agrees and begins the program. Dr. Angelo makes it a point to redesign all the intelligence-boosting treatments without the “aggression factors” used in the chimpanzee experiments.
Jobe soon becomes smarter, for example, learning Latin in only two hours. Meanwhile, Jobe also begins a sexual relationship with a young rich widow, Marnie. However, Jobe begins to display telepathic abilities and has hallucinations. He continues training at the lab, until an accident makes Dr. Angelo shut the program down. The project director, Sebastian Timms, employed by a mysterious agency known as The Shop, keeps tabs on the progress of the experiment, and discreetly swaps Dr. Angelo’s new medications with the old Project 5 supply (reintroducing the “aggression factors” into the treatment).
The Lawnmower Man is a 1992 American science fiction action horror film directed by Brett Leonard and written by Brett Leonard and Gimel Everett. The Lawnmower Man is named after a Stephen King short story of the same name; but, aside from a single scene, the stories are unrelated. The film stars Jeff Fahey as Jobe Smith, a simple-minded gardener, and Pierce Brosnan as Dr. Lawrence Angelo, the scientist who decides to experiment on him.
The film was originally titled Stephen King’s The Lawnmower Man, but King successfully sued the producers for attaching his name to the film and stated in court documents that the film “bore no meaningful resemblance” to his story. An earlier short film, also titled “The Lawnmower Man”, is a more faithful adaptation of the short story. It was directed by Jim Gonis in 1987.
The Lawnmower Man (1992)
Directed by: Brett Leonard
Starring: Jeff Fahey, Pierce Brosnan, Jenny Wright, Geoffrey Lewis, Mark Bringelson, Jeremy Slate, Rosalee Mayeux, Colleen Coffey, Michael Gregory, John Laughlin
Screenplay by: Brett Leonard, Gimel Everett
Production Design by: Alex McDowell
Cinematography by: Russell Carpenter
Film Editing by: Alan Baumgarten
Costume Design by: Mary Jane Fort
Set Decoration by: Jacqueline Masson
Art Direction by: Chris Farmer
Music by: Dan Wyman
MPAA Rating: R for language, sensuality and a scene of violence.
Distributed by: New Line Cinema
Release Date: March 6, 1992
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