Forgotten Villains: Michael Ironside’s Lem Johnston

By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues

I was recently made aware of just how many movies and television shows the younger generation have never heard of, never mind seen. So to that end, we look back at some characters you really need to see before you kick the bucket.

1988 saw the release of Watchers, a monster sci-fi movie that dealt with the themes of animal experimentation. Starring the late Corey Haim as teenager Travis with hair that looks like he stuck his finger in the nearest electrical socket and V’s likeable rogue Michael Ironside as Agent Lem Johnston, it saw Travis find an intelligent golden retriever who is being hunted by a genetically engineered killing machine called an Oxcom (Outside Experimental Combat Mammal). Both are part of a government experiment turning animals into living weapons gone wrong. The dogs are designed to enter an enemy camp and be accepted as people love dogs. The Oxcom would then go in and kill everyone in the camp. The Oxcom and dog were meant to be a symbiotic relationship but all the Oxcom wants to do is kill the dogs. Anyone it finds in the places the dog has been are ripped apart also. Now the Oxcom is killing everyone in its path as it hones in on its prey: Furface the dog. So despite what Facebook tells you, be careful of picking up stray dogs.

Michael Ironside plays a NSO agent called Lem Johnston whose job it is, along with partner Cliff, to kill or capture both subjects and keep the secret. When the bodies start piling up he uses the cover story of a psychopath on the loose to quell police questions. Ironside is the perfect choice for the role of the ruthless NSO agent intent on doing his job no matter what the collateral damage. He has a quiet menace bubbling under the surface as if he is enjoying the chaos. Coupled with a cheeky ‘I listen to nobody’ attitude he comes across as someone who will do the job without question but sees others like the local sheriff sees children in a playground. The only world is Lem’s and ordinary people are an inconvenience in it. Ironside brought the same quality to one of his most famous roles in V: Ham Tyler.

Ham loved to torment Mike Donovan as they fought the reptilian Visitors. Ham had a real sense of getting the job done and the costs of success were acceptable no matter what they were. But he had a caring side that showed through his sarcasm and poking at Donovan. As a former CIA operative who became a mercenary, Ham was the perfect soldier in the Visitor war. Lem lacks Ham’s humanity but both are soldiers focused on their mission. Ham wants to save humanity at any cost and Lem wants to protect the darkest government secrets at all costs.

Where they differ is that Lem has no humanity at all. He is acting as the concerned agent in order to gain people’s trust before he knifes them fatally in the back. He keeps Travis’ girlfriend Tracey drugged as she witnessed the monster kill her father, barely escaping with her life and pretends to take Sheriff Gaines (Duncan Fraser) into his confidence when he realises the mad killer story is a fake. He can barely contain his frustration at the local law’s insistence on sticking their nose into the murders. The later revelation of Lem’s true nature makes his cold determination make sense elevating him to more than just a man on a job. It all lies in Ironside’s delivery and barely concealed fury in his eyes. At times his mouth curls back like he is going to take a bite out of anyone questioning his authority or presence at a crime scene.

It is here that we learn just how bereft of humanity Lem is when he tells Gaines the whole story of what is committing the murders. In every sense Lem is showing a fellow law officer mutual respect only to brutally murder him on the spot and take his eyes out. The audience immediately connects this action with the Oxcom as it removes the eyes of its kills. He reveals that he is the corporation’s third experiment, a genetically engineered assassin with no conscience and callously kills his partner by shooting him in the head. Lem is taken down by first being stabbed in the neck by Travis then shot in the chest by Travis’ mother while trying to murder her, Travis and Stacey. With no conscience, Lem has no qualms about wiping out an entire family to keep the government’s secrets. With soldiers like him and the Oxcom, war will be a much cleaner effective exercise. The enemy will be identified and neutralised without any second thoughts.

Watchers is an enjoyable little movie, not a classic by any means but it did spawn two further sequels (best seen as part of a drinking game). Lem Johnston stands out in Watchers because of the flippant intensity of Ironside’s portrayal. On the outside, he is just a government servant intent on getting the job done but inside he is colder than the Terminator.