Scanners
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- See scanner for references to devices like image scanners.
Scanners is a 1981 Canadian sci-fi horror movie written and directed by David Cronenberg.
Plot Summary
Template:Spoiler Scanners are people with telepathic and telekinetic abilities. ConSec, a corporation specialising in weaponry and security systems, is attempting to exploit their talents. At the start of the film, ConSec's last scanner is murdered by renegade Darryl Revok (Michael Ironside): in a notorious scene, Revok makes the scanner's head explode. Revok is captured by ConSec staff but uses his powers to escape.
Dr. Paul Ruth, the head of ConSec's scanner section, then recruits protagonist Cameron Vale (a drifter who can hear others' thoughts) to infiltrate Revok's underground organization.
The story is structured as a futuristic thriller, involving industrial espionage and intrigue, car chases, conspiracies, and shoot-outs (including a gruesome scanner duel between Vale and Revok at the end). It was the nearest thing to a conventional sci-fi thriller Cronenberg had made up to that point, lacking the sexual content of Shivers, Rabid or The Brood; it was also his most profitable film until The Fly six years later.
Because of the oddities of Canada's film financing structures at the time, it was necessary to begin shooting with only two weeks' pre-production work, before the screenplay had been completed. As a result, Cronenberg has said, Scanners was a nightmare to make.
Cast
(incomplete)
- Stephen Lack ...as Cameron Vale
- Michael Ironside ...as Darryl Revok
- Patrick McGoohan ...as Dr. Paul Ruth, psychopharmacist
- Jennifer O'Neill ...as Kim Obrist
Sequels
Scanners also has sequels, a series of spinoffs, and a remake, none of which involved Cronenberg:
Sequels
- Scanners II: The New Order (1991)
- Scanners III: The Takeover (1992)
Spinoffs
- Scanner Cop (1994)
- Scanner Cop II (1995)
Remake
- Scanners (2005 'In production')