First, let’s wipe Johnny Mnemonic from our collective hard disk-augmented recollection. ‘Yes, we’re sure we want to delete this.’ Now. With a Neuromancer film finally–supposedly–in the works, Hollywood has a shot at redemption. But have amends already been made? Maybe.
Christopher Nolan’s latest, Inception, asks many of the same ‘what if?’ questions that substantiated Gibson’s Sprawl Trilogy. “How fine is the line dividing reality and perception?” “How does one define ‘reality’?” “What is truly ‘real?'” Does it really matter?
Don’t get so lost in thought as you are up your own behind.
Inception’s plot revolves around a grand heist in the interest of corporate espionage. DiCaprio plays “Cobb,” whose specialty as an “Extractor” is to infiltrate a dreamer’s mind and and steal their secrets. Put on his toughest job yet, Cobb assembles a crack team of obscure specialists. Most are in it for the money–simple as that. But Cobb’s after something more: His freedom.
Sound familiar? Replace ‘infiltrating a dreamer’s mind’ with “JACKING INTO THE MATRIX,” and you’ve got yourself a hefty chunk of Count Zero’s main plot.
Turner
Replace Cobb and the gang with Turner and his team of “maverick techs who liked earning danger money.” (Count Zero, pg. 63). Replace Inception’s mind heist with Count Zero’s man heist. Swap 2Jane for Mal, and the kid in Inception for the kid in CZ– Ellen Page for Bobby Newmark.
It’s no secret that today, information warfare permeates the upper echelons of society.
Today’s world isn’t a far cry from Gibson’s nformation warfare permeates society’s upper echelons. Inception’s story revolves around a grand heist in the interest of corporate espionage. Information warfare permeates society’s upper echelons.