In Johnny Mnemonic (1995), the story is set in the year 2021.
The science-fiction film adapts William Gibson’s 1981 short story and presents a near-future world shaped by data smuggling, corporate power, and a widespread neurological illness called NAS. Keanu Reeves plays Johnny, a courier who stores encrypted information in an implanted digital memory system.
The 2021 setting was futuristic when the film was made, but it is now a past date relative to the film’s production. That time gap can cause confusion because the movie’s technology, including cybernetic implants and networked information, was designed as speculative cyberpunk rather than as a prediction of a precise real-world year.
Johnny Mnemonic is often discussed alongside cyberpunk films such as The Matrix because both portray hackers, information networks, and powerful institutions. However, the films have different characters, stories, and fictional technologies.