Director Robert Longo's turgid sci-fi thriller, based on William Gibson's cyberpunk short story, is cyber junk. Keanu Reeves sleepwalks through the title role as a 21st-century hi-tech messenger who carries top-secret information thanks to a computer chip in his brain allied to bio-enhanced memory cells. Unfortunately, his latest employers have overloaded his cranial capacity to such an extent that his head will explode unless he downloads fast. Empty, flashy and incredibly dull, Longo's unpleasant movie fails to generate any suspense and, worse still, is lamely tarted up with incomprehensible surf-cowboy jargon, gratuitous violence and second-rate special effects.

In a dystopian 2021, Johnny is a data trafficker who has an implant that allows him to securely store data too sensitive for regular computer networks. On one delivery run, he accepts a package that not only exceeds the implant's safety limits—and will kill him if the data is not removed in time—but also contains information far more important and valuable than he had ever imagined. On a race against time, he must avoid the assassins sent to kill him and remove the data before it, too, ends his life.