[[caption-width-right:330:Don't let the [[SlasherSmile smile]] fool you, he's not that happy.]]

->''"[[AGodAmI I am God here]]!"''
-->-- '''Jobe Smith'''

A 1992 movie starring PierceBrosnan and [[{{Lost}} Jeff Fahey]]. It was directed by BrettLeonard. Brosnan plays [[ReluctantMadScientist Dr. Lawrence Angelo]], who works for Virtual Space Industries developing a intellect-enhancing program known as Project 5, which increases the intelligence of chimpanzees using drugs and [[CyberSpace virtual reality]].

One of the chimps goes on a rampage with a gun through the lab, which causes Angelo to leave and start a new life elsewhere. He soon meets Jobe Smith (played by Jeff Fahey), a mentally handicapped [[TitleDrop lawnmower man]], whose guardian is [[AbusiveParents an abusive priest]] named Father [=McKeen=]. Jobe is also friends with Peter, Angelo's neighbors' young son.

Angelo decides he would like to continue his studies of intelligence enhancement, but without needing to apply it for military purposes. He realizes that he needs a human subject, and that Jobe would be the perfect candidate.

Angelo convinces Jobe to be the subject of his experiments, telling him it will make him smarter. Within a short time, Jobe's intelligence begins to show an increase, and Angelo takes Jobe to his lab to continue the experiments there.

Soon Jobe notices that he can [[MindOverMatter manipulate objects with his mind]], as well as [[{{Telepathy}} hear the thoughts]] of others. The project director, under guidance of [[GovernmentConspiracy The Shop]], replaces Angelo's new medication with the original Project 5 aggression drugs.

Jobe's powers and intelligence continue to grow, and he soon takes it upon himself to punish those who wronged him. First he burns Father [=McKeen=] to death, followed by torturing a gas station owner named Jake by forcing his brain to be continuously chopped to bits by a lawnmower man with a lawnmower for a mouth ([[DisproportionateRetribution because Jake punched him]]). Jobe finishes his revenge by killing Peter's abusive father, by literally mowing him down with a lawnmower. Then he uses his powers to convince the police that the murders were only "bizarre accidents".

Jobe then decides it's time for him ascend to the final level of human evolution, by becoming pure energy within the VSI computer system at the lab. After his ascension, he plans to exit the computer and escape into every system in the world, where his first act will be [[DoNotAdjustYourSet to make every telephone in the world ring in unison]].

The Shop sends a team to capture Jobe, but are quickly defeated by Jobe's immense powers. Jobe returns to the lab, killing the guards along the way before entering the VSI mainframe. Once inside, he finds himself unable to leave, as Angelo has disabled all the connections.

Angelo returns to the lab with Peter and his mother, and heads into the building to plant bombs. Angelo then joins Jobe in the virtual world and argues with him; an angry Jobe overpowers and crucifies him, then enters his mind and finds out about the bombs.

Jobe tries to defuse the bombs, but discovers without his body, he can no longer manipulate objects in the physical world. At that moment, Peter runs into the building. Jobe, still caring about Peter, releases Angelo, and the two run out of the building as it blows up all around them. Seconds before the mainframe can be destroyed, Jobe finds a hidden exit and escapes the computer.

As the film ends, Angelo, Peter, and Peter's mother are all back home, as Angelo contemplates Jobe's death. Suddenly, Angelo's phone begins to ring, followed by another, and another. We cut to see different cities across the globe, as every phone begins to ring at once.

Basically, think ''Literature/FlowersForAlgernon'' crossed with ''{{Film/Tron}}'' and a latter act taking cues from ''Anime/ElfenLied'', and you're somewhere on the right track.

The CGI, which was quite impressive at the time, [[SpecialEffectFailure hasn't aged well]]. Especially Jobe's DigitalAvatar, which sometimes enters UncannyValley. Then again, the avatar[[note]]or the rest of the CG, for that matter[[/note]] isn't supposed to be photorealistic: it's the self-made AGodAmI image of an abused mental-defective who just got superhuman powers from untested military psychotropic drugs. Bizarreness is to be expected.

The film performed modestly at the box office, making over $32 million (against its $10 million budget). It became successful on home video when a sequel was greenlit called ''Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace'' in 1996. Almost none of the main actors reprise their roles (with the exception of Austin O'Brien, who plays Peter) and was poorly received by critics and audiences, even landing a spot on the IMDb Bottom 100 list.

!!This film contains examples of the following tropes:
* AbusiveParents: Peter's father. [=Father McKeen=] could fit this trope as well.
* AssholeVictim: All of Jobe's victims fall under this trope, [[AcceptableTargets which is why nobody really feels bad]] [[PayEvilUntoEvil when Jobe kills them]]. [[spoiler: The sole exception being Marnie, though her MindRape isn't caused by Jobe but by VSI's director reverting the VR system to the original aggressive programming. It is implied that this is why that particular trip goes bad.]]
* AntiHero: Arguably, Jobe himself.
* [[spoiler: TheBadGuyWins[=/=]DownerEnding: Phones ringing at the end means Jobe wins...]]
* CyberSpace
* CyberPunk
* DigitalAvatar
* DoNotAdjustYourSet: The Lawnmower Man's desired outcome. First the telephone network, then the world!
* DumbIsGood: ...and smart is bad.
** Maybe, although you could interpret the film in a way where [[spoiler: Dr. Angelo is guilty of scientific hubris and exploiting an abused mentally handicapped man while Jobe's intentions are more or less benevolent, arguably even after Dr. Angelo's boss meddles with the experiments and he goes on a killing spree of abusive jerks.]] Whether such ambiguities are intentional, however...
* EverythingIsOnline: When Jobe escapes into cyberspace he gains control over every phone in the world.
* EvilSoundsDeep: Jobe has a deep menacing voice after he transfers himself into cyberspace. When he discovers that Peter, the boy he befriended, is inside the booby-trapped installation looking for him and Angelo, Jobe's voice briefly returns to normal as he releases Angelo so the latter can save Peter.
* FreakOut: Jobe after [[spoiler: Terry, one of the few people who was ever nice to him,]] is accidentally killed by guards targeting him.
* AGodAmI: The original title of the movie was Cyber God, before it was combined with the Creator/StephenKing short story, ''[[Literature/NightShift The Lawnmower Man]]''.
* GoryDiscretionShot: We don't see the moment when Jobe messily kills [[spoiler:Peter's father]] with a telekinetically-controlled lawnmower. Averted later on however, as we get a fairly graphic shot of Jobe forcing the sniper who unwittingly killed [[spoiler:Terry]] to shoot himself through the head.
* HolographicTerminal: When in cyberspace.
* {{Hypocrite}}: Angelo convinces Jobe to go through with the initial experiment by arguing that the experiment could make Jobe smart enough that people could no longer take advantage of him, like Angelo is doing.
* InNameOnly: 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 sued to distance himself from the film. The court 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 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.
** The film does have a short scene where [[spoiler: Peter's abusive father is butchered by a telekinetically steered lawnmower]] that's modeled after the short story, but, apart from both the movie and the short story having to do with lawnmowers, that's about it.
** Interestingly, the movie references ''[[GovernmentAgencyOfFiction The Shop]]'', [[Literature/FireStarter which comes straight out another King novel]] and more or less has the same GovernmentConspiracy role.
* KissMeImVirtual: Jobe and Marnie's sex scene, which unfortunately turns into MindRape.
* MindRape: Besides the Jobe and [[spoiler: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.
* PsychicPowers: Jobe starts off by gaining telepathy, then telekinesis, followed by pyrokinesis, and finally the ability to cause people to disintegrate on the molecular level.
* StartOfDarkness: His inadvertently destroying [[spoiler:Marnie]]'s mind is implied to be what starts Jobe's descent into outright villainy.
* ThatMakesMeFeelAngry: Jobe says this pretty much word-for-word in the first film's climax, after Angelo calls him a "freak."
* TimeBomb: Dr. Angelo had fifteen minutes to escape from the building before it blew up. Plenty of time, but then he went to [[WhatAnIdiot talk to God Mode Jobe...]]
* TitleDrop
* TronLines: Jobe gets a pretty {{Tron}} like outfit once he starts killing people in the real world.
* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity: Could be argued this is what happened to Jobe.