The Lawnmower Man

Dr. Lawrence Angelo works for Virtual Space Industries and runs experiments using psychoactive drugs and virtual reality to enhance cognitive performance, using chimpanzees as test subjects, in an experiment labeled "Project 5". Angelo has benevolent aims, but VSI is funded by "The Shop", a clandestine group hoping to find military applications for Angelo's research. One of the chimpanzees, gifted with new intelligence, warfare training, and increased aggression, escapes. Angelo consequently decides to recruit intellectually disabled greenskeeper Jobe Smith as a test subject, telling the man he will become smarter. Angelo redesigns the intelligence-boosting treatments to remove the "aggression factors" used in the chimpanzee experiments. Jobe's intelligence is enhanced and he develops psychokinesis and telepathy. He continues training at the lab until an accident forces Angelo to abort the experiment.