Overview of How Did This Get Made? — Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace (Classic)
Paul Scheer, June Diane Raphael, and Jason Mantzoukas break down the wildly confusing sci-fi sequel Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace (also referred to in the conversation as Job’s War). The episode is as much about the movie’s incoherent plotting, bizarre visuals, and strange sequel choices as it is about the hosts’ increasingly chaotic attempt to understand what anyone in the film is actually trying to do. The result is a very funny, highly energized discussion of a movie that feels like a patchwork of recycled ideas, studio interference, and late-’90s cyberpunk tropes.
What the Movie Is About
Core premise
- The sequel centers on Job (played by Matt Frewer, replacing Jeff Fahey’s role from the first film), a cyberspace entity who wants to survive and gain more power through the Chiron chip.
- A younger character from the first film reappears as an older teen living in a dystopian, post-collapse cityscape, and he becomes involved in helping Job.
- A new scientist/mentor figure, Dr. Benjamin Trace, tries to stop Job and retrieve the chip.
Why the hosts found it hard to follow
- The movie starts with a strange mix of:
- a 4:3 aspect ratio opening,
- black-and-white courtroom footage,
- a recast lead,
- and a story that seems to assume you remember the first film but also doesn’t really continue it coherently.
- The hosts repeatedly say they cannot parse the plot, the character motivations, or even the movie’s basic rules.
Key Discussion Points
1. The sequel feels like a different movie grafted onto Lawnmower Man
- Jason argues the film feels like an unrelated script repurposed into a sequel.
- The panel jokes that it has the energy of:
- Ready Player One,
- The Goonies,
- Double Dragon,
- and a generic cyberpunk adventure all smashed together.
- They point out the odd focus on kids, subway hideouts, and dystopian scavenger life, which feels tonally disconnected from the first film.
2. Job is both protagonist and villain
- The hosts struggle with the fact that Job is:
- emotionally framed as someone worth saving,
- but also acts like the movie’s main threat.
- He claims that if cyberspace dies, he dies too, which gives him both sympathetic and villainous motivations.
- His powers are treated as a mix of:
- computer access,
- control over systems,
- and near-magical domination of technology.
3. The film’s cyberspace visuals are very dated
- They joke that the cyberspace sequences look like:
- old screensavers,
- fiber-optic tunnels,
- or being physically inside a computer.
- The hosts note that the movie uses a very early-’90s understanding of the internet: people “jack in,” fly through code-like environments, and interact with cyberspace as if it were a literal physical space.
4. Matt Frewer’s performance is a standout
- Despite the confusion, the hosts praise Matt Frewer for fully committing to the role.
- They compare his energy to:
- Jim Carrey-era manic comedy,
- and his own history as Max Headroom.
- They discuss how casting Frewer makes sense because of his association with cyber-themed characters.
5. Dr. Trace is basically cyber-Indiana Jones
- Paul highlights the absurdity of Dr. Trace, who:
- dresses like an Indiana Jones-style adventurer,
- but is supposedly a scientist/tech inventor.
- The character’s look and behavior are described as a mashup of:
- archaeology adventure tropes,
- romance-novel hero aesthetics,
- and late-night cable movie swagger.
- The hosts also note the oddity of him living in or operating out of the Griffith Park Observatory, which is never really acknowledged as a famous landmark.
6. The movie has bizarre action logic
- They call out scenes involving:
- a subway-train switch battle,
- an ice cube used in a chip heist,
- a dog interacting with a computer,
- and action beats that feel lifted from other franchises.
- One recurring complaint is that the film keeps introducing rules but never explains them well enough to make the stakes clear.
Notable Bits and Jokes
- The hosts repeatedly riff on the title:
- “Beyond Cyberspace”
- “Job’s War”
- and even joking variants like “Job’s Warbs.”
- They joke that the movie is basically:
- “Goonies meets Indy meets the internet.”
- They also discuss how the film’s use of “jacked in” sounds unintentionally funny now.
- A recurring bit is the line “I forget,” which Jason and Paul find genuinely hilarious when Job is asked about his memory.
Second Opinions and Reception
Audience response
- The episode includes a few listener/Amazon-style reviews:
- Some people give it 5 stars, often because they loved the first movie or got the combo pack.
- Another review complains the DVD didn’t play, which the hosts treat as a separate kind of failure.
- The overall takeaway is that, even among fans, the sequel’s reputation is mixed to terrible.
Box office and legacy
- Paul shares that the film was a major box office flop, costing around $15 million and making roughly $2.4 million.
- The hosts note that it released in a crowded 1996 landscape of better-known sci-fi/action movies.
- They also mention the film’s production history, including:
- director/screenwriter Farhad Mann,
- and that he also worked on Max Headroom and Return to Two Moon Junction, which leads to a side discussion about Molly Shannon appearing in unexpected places.
Final Verdict
Paul
- Despite the confusion, Paul is fascinated by the movie’s audacity and weirdness.
- He leans toward recommending it as a spectacle of bad, bizarre, ambitious filmmaking.
June
- June is far more negative.
- She says the movie was exhausting, confusing, and genuinely unpleasant to watch during an already stressful time.
Jason
- Jason says he’d recommend it because it is so insane, but only if the viewer accepts from the start that the plot will not make sense.
Bottom Line
Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace is remembered here as a profoundly strange sequel that:
- barely resembles the first movie,
- has confusing cyberpunk world-building,
- features an over-the-top Matt Frewer performance,
- and seems to be built from other movies’ leftovers.
The episode’s big takeaway is simple: this is a perfect How Did This Get Made? movie because it is ambitious, ridiculous, and nearly impossible to explain.