Movies - The Lawnmower Man

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	Movies - The Lawnmower Man

The Lawnmower Man is a short story by Stephen King, first published in Cavalier in 1975. It tells the story of a man who hires an odd individual to cut his lawn for him. The story appears in the short story collection Night Shift.

A movie of the same name starring Jeff Fahey as Jobe Smith and Pierce Brosnan as Dr. Lawrence Angelo was made by New Line Cinema and released in 1992. It was released In Japan under the title Virtual Wars. It was very loosely based on King's story, so much so that King sued the filmmakers for removal of his name from the film's original title (Stephen King's The Lawnmower Man). After two court rulings in King's favor, New Line Cinema still did not comply and initially released the home video version as Stephen King's Lawnmower Man. A third ruling granted the author $10,000 a day in compensation and all profits derived from sales until his name was removed.¹

An unsuccessful sequel (Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace, retitled to Lawnmower Man 2: Jobe's War for the video release) was released in 1996. A sample from the film, :"There is nothing to be afraid of. Virtual reality will rehabilitate your mind, and eventually your body. You'll be all right, I promise. Just concentrate. We'll try some music." was used in a trance music track by Miranda!.

An earlier short film, also titled The Lawnmower Man and a more faithful adaptation of the short story directed by Jim Gonis dates to 1987 .

Short story

In Stephen King's short story, Harold Parkette hires "Pastoral Greenery and Outdoor Services Inc." to cut his lawn. The serviceman who turns up to do the job unsettles Parkette by using the interjection 'by Circe' amid his more proletarian idiom. The lawnmower man eventually deploys an 'aged red power mower' which autonomously mows the lawn while he crawls in its trail on all fours, naked, devouring the grass. The lawnmower then chases after a mole, chopping it up, before returning to its track. The lawnmower man eats the shredded mole. It emerges that the lawnmower man is working for Pan. At this point, Parkette tries to call the police. The lawnmower man notices this, and directs the mower into the house, chewing up the carpet and a coffee table. Parkette tries to escape, but the mower catches up with him on the lawn and runs him over like the mole earlier.

1992 adaptation

Dr. Angelo works for Virtual Space Industries. His part in "Project 5" involves increasing the intelligence of chimpanzees using drugs and virtual reality. One of the experiment's chimps escapes using the warfare technology he was being trained to use. Angelo, it transpires, is generally a pacifist, who would much rather explore the intelligence-enhancing potential of his research without having to apply it for military purposes.

Jobe, the "lawnmower man" of the title, suffers from a form of mental retardation; he lives in the garden shed owned by the local vicar, Father Francis McKeen. McKeen's brother, Terry, is a local landscape gardener and employs Jobe to help him with odd jobs. When Father McKeen finds insects around the church altar he blames Jobe and beats him with a leather strap, for forgetting his chores.

While Dr. Angelo records audio notes about needing a human subject, Jobe is mowing his lawn. It turns out that Peter, the young son of Angelo's neighbors, is friends with Jobe. Angelo invites them to play some virtual reality games and persuades Jobe to participate in his experiments, telling him it will make him smarter. Jobe agrees and begins a program of accelerated learning, using psychotropic drugs, virtual reality input and cortex stimulation. Dr. Angelo makes it a special point to redesign all the intelligence-boosting treatments without the "aggression factors" used in the chimpanzee experiments.

Jobe soon becomes smarter, and Dr. Angelo starts taking Jobe to his lab at work to use the technology there. Jobe is seduced by a housewife, Marnie, during his daytime job; he learns Latin in an hour and a half at the lab at night. Jobe starts to have telepathic and hallucinatory experiences, but continues with the experiment at the lab, until an accident makes Angelo call a halt. The project director, employed by a mysterious agency known as "The Shop", keeps a secret watch on the progress of the experiment, and soon swaps Angelo's new medications for the old Project 5 "aggression factors".

Jobe acquires telekinetic powers and takes Marnie to the lab to join him in virtual reality, the experience is so traumatic she is permanently brain damaged. Jobe's powers and abilities continue to grow, although the treatments seem to be affecting his mental stability, and soon he takes revenge on those who abused him when he was 'dumb'; Father McKee is engulfed in flames and a young man named Jake is tortured by a 'lawnmower man' continually mowing his brain. Jobe directs a real lawnmower to run a man down in his third and most brutal act and makes the investigating police officers attribute it all to "bizarre accidents".

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