Scanners (1981)

A scientist sends a man with extraordinary psychic powers to hunt others like him.

Director:

David Cronenberg

Writer:

David Cronenberg

Stars:

Jennifer O'Neill, Stephen Lack, Patrick McGoohan

3 wins & 9 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jennifer O'Neill	...	Kim Obrist
Stephen Lack	...	Cameron Vale (as Steven Lack)
Patrick McGoohan	...	Dr. Paul Ruth
Lawrence Dane	...	Braedon Keller
Michael Ironside	...	Darryl Revok
Robert A. Silverman	...	Benjamin Pierce (as Robert Silverman)
Lee Broker	...	Security One
Mavor Moore	...	Trevellyan
Adam Ludwig	...	Arno Crostic
Murray Cruchley	...	Programmer 1 (as Lee Murray)
Fred Doederlein	...	Dieter Tautz
Géza Kovács	...	Killer in Record Store (as Geza Kovacs)
Sonny Forbes	...	Killer in Attic (as Sony Forbes)
Jérôme Tiberghien	...	Killer in Attic (as Jerome Tiberghien)
Denis Lacroix	...	Killer in Barn

Storyline

Darryl Revok is the most powerful of all the scanners, and is the head of the underground scanner movement for world domination. Scanners have great psychic power, strong enough to control minds; they can inflict enormous pain/damage on their victims. Doctor Paul Ruth finds a scanner that Revok hasn't, and converts him to their cause - to destroy the underground movement.

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Plot Keywords:

psychic | psychic power | doctor | blood | film projector | 

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Taglines:

There are 4 billion people on earth. 237 are Scanners. They have the most terrifying powers ever created... and they are winning.

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Genres:

Horror | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

Canada

Language:

English

Release Date:

14 January 1981 (USA)

Also Known As:

Telepathy 2000

Filming Locations:

Montréal, Québec, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

CAD 4,100,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Canadian Film Development Corporation (CFDC), Filmplan, Victor Solnicki Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

103 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

William S. Burroughs' 1959 novel 'Naked Lunch' contains a chapter concerning "Senders", a hostile organization of telepaths bent on world domination, a clear literary inspiration for this film.

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Goofs

Visible wires pulling an actor through a window during the computer lab explosion.

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Quotes

Cameron Vale: You called me a scanner. What is that?
Paul Ruth: Freak of nature, born with a certain form of ESP; derangement of the synapses which we call telepathy.

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Crazy Credits

Assistant to Mr Heroux ... Kim Obrist Kim Obrist is the name of the lead female character.

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Connections

Referenced in Fear of the Flesh: The Making of 'The Fly' (2005)

User Reviews

Brilliant underrated Sci-fi shocker!

In a world populated among humans, there is a race of super-powered mutant human beings called "Scanners" who have a unique form of ESP that can read minds even destroy them literally including machines through telekinesis as well. Cameron Vale (Stephen Lack) is a homeless Scanner who was minding his own business until he is to be given a task by a kind doctor named Paul Ruth (Patrick McGoohan) to hunt down an evil scanner named Daryl Revok (Michael Ironside). Joining with him is a female Scanner named Kim (Jennifer O'Neil) along his side they must try to track him and his goons down before he has a plan to take over the human race.

A solid and underrated cult Science Fiction horror thriller from the brilliant David Cronenberg. Sure Stephen Lack's acting is very weak but the other actors like McGoohan and Ironside are just great aside from wooden Lack, i also love the realistic and gruesome make-up and gore effects by Dick Smith and Chris Wallace that still hold up today very realistically without CGI such as the famed exploding head scene everyone remembers. I also like Howard Shore's chilling music score long before his scores to "Silence of the Lambs" or "Lord of the Rings", the film is a metaphor on birth defects and how a drug can mutate a child into something different that they will grow up into even something dangerous. It also does offer a statement on humanity and how another race of being can be accepted or discriminated against sort of like how the "X-Men" movies worked out.

It's definitely not for the squeamish but for those looking for a good thrilling and intelligent Sci-fi horror thriller then this is it.

Also recommended: "Videodrome", "Akira", "Firestarter", "The Dead Zone (1983)", "Carrie", "Making Contact (a.k.a. Joey)", "Re-Animator", "Maniac (1980)", "The Brood", "The Fly (1986)", "The Toxic Avenger", "C.H.U.D.", "Dawn of the Dead (1978 and 2004)", "The X-Files 1 & 2", "X-Men Trilogy", "The Thing (1982)", "X-Men Origins: Wolverine", "Rabid", "Ichi The Killer", "Grindhouse", "Tokyo Gore Police", "The Shining", "From Beyond", "Brainstorm", "Altered States", "Blade Runner", "28 Days Later", "Return of the Living Dead 3", "28 Weeks Later", "Day of the Dead (1985)", "Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky", "ExistenZ", "Suspect Zero", "The Gift", "Tetsuo The Iron Man", "Hulk", "The Incredible Hulk (2008)", "Cannibal Apocalypse", "Inside", "Twilight Zone The Movie", "Final Destination Series", "Tourist Trap", "Chopping Mall", "Halloween III: Season of the Witch", "The Blob (1988)", "An American Werewolf in London", "Pyrokinesis", "Battle Royale" and "The Hills Have Eyes (2006)".