Fox (Christopher Walken) and X (Willem Dafoe) are industry spies for high-tech companies, helping R&D scientists get out of their contracts. Easier said than done. These companies kill defectors.
Fox hires Sandii (Asia Argento) to seduce tech genius Hiroshi (Yoshitaka Amano) away from Maas to work for their competitor, Hosaka.
X is falling in love with Sandii, and Sandii wants X to leave his work behind and run away with her. X says they’ll talk about it after she gets back.
From what Fox and X hear from the inside, everything goes smoothly. So what’s the problem?
A virus planted by a spy wiped out Hosaka’s entire lab, Sandii vanished, and Fox and X’s money disappeared. Hosaka thinks Fox and X are the masterminds, sending them on the run.
It’s hard to make sense of this movie while watching it. Based on a William Gibson story, you can only expect so much coherence.
The movie’s pacing is wacky. The plot doesn’t start developing until an hour into the movie. We spend most of the runtime watching X and Sandii fuck each other in different locations or Sandii performing karaoke. The story hints that more interesting events are happening elsewhere.
Everyone gives solid performances with what little they have to work with. Fox and X are not compelling characters to watch, though. They’re just two rich dudes plotting and fucking for most of the movie.
Once the movie kicks in, the last thirty minutes are pretty good. I’m not sure it’s worth the previous hour to get there.