Scanners
Encyclopedia
Scanners is a 1981 science-fiction
horror film
written and directed by David Cronenberg
and starring Jennifer O'Neill
, Stephen Lack
, Michael Ironside
, and Patrick McGoohan
. The film postulates a society in which certain individuals possess telepathic powers, and explores the potential dark side—for both the individuals and the society—of such a situation.
), and the power to cause things to happen simply by thinking about them (telekinesis). As such, they are feared and ostracized by the general public, and most scanners keep their talents secret. ConSec, a purveyor of weaponry and security systems and the proverbial "evil corporation", searches out and enslaves scanners for its own nefarious purposes.
Most scanners are unhappy people, condemned to "hearing" an unstoppable flood of strangers' thoughts and living in constant fear of discovery by militant citizens, vigilantes, or ConSec agents. Cameron Vale (Lack) has uncommonly powerful scanning abilities but cannot handle the pressure and has withdrawn completely from society. A homeless derelict, he lives in a shopping mall and survives by telepathically inducing food court customers to give him food. When he psychically overhears two women denigrating him he inadvertently induces violent convulsions in one, which in turn attracts the attention of ConSec agents who tranquilize and abduct him.
Meanwhile ConSec is holding a press conference, attempting to convince the public that scanners are generally harmless, and the company's intentions in "recruiting" them are noble. Dr. Paul Ruth (McGoohan), head of ConSec's Scanner Section, introduces the company's most senior scanner who offers to "scan" a volunteer to demonstrate the banality of the process. Unfortunately his volunteer, Darryl Revok (Ironside) is a renegade with formidable telepathic powers who has declared war on ConSec and all scanners who voluntarily work for it. The demonstration does not go well; the ConSec scanner's head explodes in spectacular fashion. Ruth tries to detain Revok but he escapes, killing several ConSec agents in the process.
Ruth decides to use his newest acquisition—Vale—to find Revok by infiltrating the secretive scanner community. At the same time, a new head of security, Braedon Keller (Lawrence Dane), joins ConSec. Ruth tells Vale that scanners can suppress their telepathic powers by injecting themselves with the drug ephemerol and sends him to find Revok. The only lead is Benjamin Pierce (Robert A. Silverman
), an artist and fellow scanner who tried to kill his family as a child.
After discovering Pierce's address in a gallery exhibiting his morbid sculptures, Vale goes to visit him and finds him living in isolation. Revok, intent on killing all Scanners unwilling to join his renegade faction, sends four assassins to dispatch Pierce. Pierce is shot and killed, and Vale flings the assassins into unconsciousness. As Pierce is dying, Vale scans his mind and obtains information on where to find other Scanners.
Vale meets Kim Obrist (O'Neill) and other scanners who have adjusted to their powers by forming a mutual telepathic circle. The gathering is ambushed by Revok's assassins, who kill Obrist's scanner friends before Vale and Obrist can kill them.
Vale infiltrates Revok's Ripe Program and finds out about a large quantity of ephemerol being delivered. He and Obrist go back to ConSec to inform Ruth. They find out that Keller is a traitor. Keller kills Ruth by Revok's orders. Vale and Obrist escape by scanning the ConSec guards. Vale then infiltrates the Ripe Program computers through a payphone. In a last attempt to kill Vale, Keller orders a group of computer scientists to make the program self-destruct as Vale is plugged into it. The plan backfires and the laboratory explodes, killing Keller.
Vale and Obrist visit Dr. Frane, who has been prescribing Ephemerol to pregnant women. Obrist is shocked that an unborn baby has scanned her. As they leave his office, they are ambushed by Revok and shot with tranquilizer darts. When Vale wakes up, he is in Revok's office. Revok reveals that they are brothers and the sons of Dr Ruth, who has tested Ephemerol on their pregnant mother. Revok says all Scanners are the children of pregnant women who were prescribed Ephemerol and he plans to distribute Ephemerol and make an army of Scanners to take over the world. He invites Vale to join him but Vale refuses, saying that he is beginning to sound like Dr Ruth and that he could in some way be the "reincarnation" of Ruth. Vale picks up a paper weight and hits Revok. Revok retaliates, threatening to suck Vale's brain dry, and they engage in a battle through mind control. Vale proves no match for Revok, and is swiftly overpowered. Mutilated to the point of death, Vale makes a surprising move by setting himself alight, whilst directing one final gaze at Revok. The scene suddenly cuts to black as Revok screams.
Obrist wakes up later and finds Vale's incinerated body on the floor. Obrist psychically senses Vale's thoughts and calls out to him. Obrist discovers Revok is cowering in a corner, hidden under Vale's jacket. He reveals that he now has Vale's blue eyes (and is missing the characteristic scar between the eyebrows) and utters the last words of the film, "We've won" in Vale's voice (revealing that during their battle, Vale had switched his own mind with Revok's).
, 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, with Cronenberg writing the script between 4 a.m. and 7 a.m. each morning throughout shooting. Since the production design team had no time to build sets, in some instances the crew had to drive around looking for things to shoot. As a result, Cronenberg has said, Scanners was a nightmare to make.
Make-up artist Dick Smith (The Exorcist
, Sweet Home) provided the prosthetic make-up effects for the often-cited exploding head and the climactic scanner duel. The effect was made by filling a prosthetic head with bought livers and shooting the head from behind with a shotgun.
, and grossed $14,225,876 at the box office.
, with positive reviews from Chicago Reader, the Austin Chronicle
, and TV Guide
.
Film critic Roger Ebert
gave Scanners two out of four stars and wrote, "Scanners is so lockstep that we are basically reduced to watching the special effects, which are good but curiously abstract, because we don't much care about the people they're happening around". In his review for The New York Times
, Vincent Canby
wrote, "Had Mr. Cronenberg settled simply for horror, as John Carpenter
did in his classic Halloween
(though not in his not-so-classic The Fog
), Scanners might have been a Grand Guignol
treat. Instead he insists on turning the film into a mystery, and mystery demands eventual explanations that, when they come in Scanners, underline the movie's essential foolishness".
in 1981 for "Best International Film", and, in addition, the "Best Make-Up" award went to Dick Smith in a tie with Altered States
. The film had also been nominated for "Best Special Effects."
Scanners also won "Best International Fantasy Film" from Fantasporto
in 1983, and was nominated for eight Genie Awards in 1982, but did not win any.
(director of Saw II
, Saw III
and Saw IV
) was announced to direct a remake of the film, to be released by The Weinstein Company
and Dimension Films
. David S. Goyer
was assigned to script the film. The movie was planned for an October 17, 2008 release, but the date came and went without further announcements, and all the parties involved have since moved on to other projects.
Science fiction film
Science fiction film is a film genre that uses science fiction: speculative, science-based depictions of phenomena that are not necessarily accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial life forms, alien worlds, extrasensory perception, and time travel, often along with futuristic...
horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
written and directed by David Cronenberg
David Cronenberg
David Paul Cronenberg, OC, FRSC is a Canadian filmmaker, screenwriter and actor. He is one of the principal originators of what is commonly known as the body horror or venereal horror genre. This style of filmmaking explores people's fears of bodily transformation and infection. In his films, the...
and starring Jennifer O'Neill
Jennifer O'Neill
-Early life:O'Neill was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the daughter of a famous Spanish-Irish dental supply import/export businessman, Oscar D' O'Neill and his English wife. As a teenager, O'Neill worked as a fashion model and appeared in television commercials and on magazine covers before moving...
, Stephen Lack
Stephen Lack
Stephen Lack is a Canadian painter and a film actor best known for his role as the lead character, Cameron Vale, in David Cronenberg's film Scanners.-Life:...
, Michael Ironside
Michael Ironside
Michael Ironside is a Canadian-born actor. He has also worked as a voice actor, producer, film director, and screenwriter in movie and television series in various Canadian and American productions. He is best known for playing villains and "tough guy" heroes, though he has also portrayed...
, and Patrick McGoohan
Patrick McGoohan
Patrick Joseph McGoohan was an American-born actor, raised in Ireland and England, with an extensive stage and film career, most notably in the 1960s television series Danger Man , and The Prisoner, which he co-created...
. The film postulates a society in which certain individuals possess telepathic powers, and explores the potential dark side—for both the individuals and the society—of such a situation.
Plot
Scanners are people with the ability to read ("scan") other people's thoughts (telepathyTelepathy
Telepathy , is the induction of mental states from one mind to another. The term was coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Fredric W. H. Myers, a founder of the Society for Psychical Research, and has remained more popular than the more-correct expression thought-transference...
), and the power to cause things to happen simply by thinking about them (telekinesis). As such, they are feared and ostracized by the general public, and most scanners keep their talents secret. ConSec, a purveyor of weaponry and security systems and the proverbial "evil corporation", searches out and enslaves scanners for its own nefarious purposes.
Most scanners are unhappy people, condemned to "hearing" an unstoppable flood of strangers' thoughts and living in constant fear of discovery by militant citizens, vigilantes, or ConSec agents. Cameron Vale (Lack) has uncommonly powerful scanning abilities but cannot handle the pressure and has withdrawn completely from society. A homeless derelict, he lives in a shopping mall and survives by telepathically inducing food court customers to give him food. When he psychically overhears two women denigrating him he inadvertently induces violent convulsions in one, which in turn attracts the attention of ConSec agents who tranquilize and abduct him.
Meanwhile ConSec is holding a press conference, attempting to convince the public that scanners are generally harmless, and the company's intentions in "recruiting" them are noble. Dr. Paul Ruth (McGoohan), head of ConSec's Scanner Section, introduces the company's most senior scanner who offers to "scan" a volunteer to demonstrate the banality of the process. Unfortunately his volunteer, Darryl Revok (Ironside) is a renegade with formidable telepathic powers who has declared war on ConSec and all scanners who voluntarily work for it. The demonstration does not go well; the ConSec scanner's head explodes in spectacular fashion. Ruth tries to detain Revok but he escapes, killing several ConSec agents in the process.
Ruth decides to use his newest acquisition—Vale—to find Revok by infiltrating the secretive scanner community. At the same time, a new head of security, Braedon Keller (Lawrence Dane), joins ConSec. Ruth tells Vale that scanners can suppress their telepathic powers by injecting themselves with the drug ephemerol and sends him to find Revok. The only lead is Benjamin Pierce (Robert A. Silverman
Robert A. Silverman
Robert A. Silverman was born on February 24, 1943 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Robert is one of several actors often cast by writer/director David Cronenberg. Silverman is sometimes credited as Bob Silverman or Robert Silverman. He has appeared in 5 films directed by David Cronenberg...
), an artist and fellow scanner who tried to kill his family as a child.
After discovering Pierce's address in a gallery exhibiting his morbid sculptures, Vale goes to visit him and finds him living in isolation. Revok, intent on killing all Scanners unwilling to join his renegade faction, sends four assassins to dispatch Pierce. Pierce is shot and killed, and Vale flings the assassins into unconsciousness. As Pierce is dying, Vale scans his mind and obtains information on where to find other Scanners.
Vale meets Kim Obrist (O'Neill) and other scanners who have adjusted to their powers by forming a mutual telepathic circle. The gathering is ambushed by Revok's assassins, who kill Obrist's scanner friends before Vale and Obrist can kill them.
Vale infiltrates Revok's Ripe Program and finds out about a large quantity of ephemerol being delivered. He and Obrist go back to ConSec to inform Ruth. They find out that Keller is a traitor. Keller kills Ruth by Revok's orders. Vale and Obrist escape by scanning the ConSec guards. Vale then infiltrates the Ripe Program computers through a payphone. In a last attempt to kill Vale, Keller orders a group of computer scientists to make the program self-destruct as Vale is plugged into it. The plan backfires and the laboratory explodes, killing Keller.
Vale and Obrist visit Dr. Frane, who has been prescribing Ephemerol to pregnant women. Obrist is shocked that an unborn baby has scanned her. As they leave his office, they are ambushed by Revok and shot with tranquilizer darts. When Vale wakes up, he is in Revok's office. Revok reveals that they are brothers and the sons of Dr Ruth, who has tested Ephemerol on their pregnant mother. Revok says all Scanners are the children of pregnant women who were prescribed Ephemerol and he plans to distribute Ephemerol and make an army of Scanners to take over the world. He invites Vale to join him but Vale refuses, saying that he is beginning to sound like Dr Ruth and that he could in some way be the "reincarnation" of Ruth. Vale picks up a paper weight and hits Revok. Revok retaliates, threatening to suck Vale's brain dry, and they engage in a battle through mind control. Vale proves no match for Revok, and is swiftly overpowered. Mutilated to the point of death, Vale makes a surprising move by setting himself alight, whilst directing one final gaze at Revok. The scene suddenly cuts to black as Revok screams.
Obrist wakes up later and finds Vale's incinerated body on the floor. Obrist psychically senses Vale's thoughts and calls out to him. Obrist discovers Revok is cowering in a corner, hidden under Vale's jacket. He reveals that he now has Vale's blue eyes (and is missing the characteristic scar between the eyebrows) and utters the last words of the film, "We've won" in Vale's voice (revealing that during their battle, Vale had switched his own mind with Revok's).
Production
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 science fiction thriller Cronenberg had made up to that point, lacking the sexual content of ShiversShivers (film)
Shivers is a 1975 Canadian body horror film written and directed by David Cronenberg. Cronenberg won "Best Director" at the 1975 Sitges Film Festival.-Plot:Dr...
, Rabid
Rabid
Rabid is a 1977 horror film written and directed by David Cronenberg. It features Marilyn Chambers in the lead role, supported by Frank Moore, Howard Ryshpan, Joe Silver and Robert A...
, or The Brood
The Brood
The Brood is a 1979 Canadian horror film written and directed by David Cronenberg, starring Oliver Reed, Samantha Eggar and Art Hindle.The film depicts a series of murders committed by what seems at first to be a group of children...
; it was also his most profitable film until The Fly
The Fly (1986 film)
The Fly is a 1986 science fiction horror film co-written and directed by David Cronenberg. Produced by 20th Century Fox, and Brooksfilms, the film stars Jeff Goldblum, Geena Davis and John Getz. It is a remake of the 1958 film of the same name, but retains only the basic premise of a scientist...
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, with Cronenberg writing the script between 4 a.m. and 7 a.m. each morning throughout shooting. Since the production design team had no time to build sets, in some instances the crew had to drive around looking for things to shoot. As a result, Cronenberg has said, Scanners was a nightmare to make.
Make-up artist Dick Smith (The Exorcist
The Exorcist (film)
The Exorcist is a 1973 American horror film directed by William Friedkin, adapted from the 1971 novel of the same name by William Peter Blatty and based on the exorcism case of Robbie Mannheim, dealing with the demonic possession of a young girl and her mother’s desperate attempts to win back her...
, Sweet Home) provided the prosthetic make-up effects for the often-cited exploding head and the climactic scanner duel. The effect was made by filling a prosthetic head with bought livers and shooting the head from behind with a shotgun.
Release
Scanners was released in the United States on January 14, 1981 by Embassy PicturesEmbassy Pictures
Embassy Pictures Corporation was an independent studio and distributor responsible for such films as The Graduate, The Lion in Winter, This Is Spinal Tap and Escape from New York.-Founding:The company was founded in 1942 by producer Joseph E...
, and grossed $14,225,876 at the box office.
Reviews
Scanners maintains a 76% on Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, with positive reviews from Chicago Reader, the Austin Chronicle
Austin Chronicle
The Austin Chronicle is an alternative weekly, tabloid-style newspaper published every Thursday in Austin, Texas, United States. The paper is distributed through free news-stands, often at local eateries or coffee houses frequented by its targeted demographic...
, and TV Guide
TV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
.
Film critic Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
gave Scanners two out of four stars and wrote, "Scanners is so lockstep that we are basically reduced to watching the special effects, which are good but curiously abstract, because we don't much care about the people they're happening around". In his review for The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby was an American film critic who became the chief film critic for The New York Times in 1969 and reviewed more than 1000 films during his tenure there.-Life and career:...
wrote, "Had Mr. Cronenberg settled simply for horror, as John Carpenter
John Carpenter
John Howard Carpenter is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, editor, composer, and occasional actor. Although Carpenter has worked in numerous film genres in his four-decade career, his name is most commonly associated with horror and science fiction.- Early life :Carpenter was born...
did in his classic Halloween
Halloween (1978 film)
Halloween is a 1978 American independent horror film directed, produced, and scored by John Carpenter, co-written with Debra Hill, and starring Donald Pleasence and Jamie Lee Curtis in her film debut and the first installment in the Halloween franchise. The film is set in the fictional midwestern...
(though not in his not-so-classic The Fog
The Fog
The Fog is a 1980 horror film directed by John Carpenter, who also co-wrote the screenplay and composed the music for the film. It stars Adrienne Barbeau, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Atkins and Janet Leigh...
), Scanners might have been a Grand Guignol
Grand Guignol
Le Théâtre du Grand-Guignol — known as the Grand Guignol — was a theatre in the Pigalle area of Paris . From its opening in 1897 until its closing in 1962 it specialized in naturalistic horror shows...
treat. Instead he insists on turning the film into a mystery, and mystery demands eventual explanations that, when they come in Scanners, underline the movie's essential foolishness".
Awards and honors
Although Scanners was not nominated for any major awards, it did receive some recognition. The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films gave the film its Saturn AwardSaturn Award
The Saturn Award is an award presented annually by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films to honor the top works in science fiction, fantasy, and horror in film, television, and home video. The Saturn Awards were devised by Dr. Donald A. Reed in 1972, who felt that films within...
in 1981 for "Best International Film", and, in addition, the "Best Make-Up" award went to Dick Smith in a tie with Altered States
Altered States
Altered States is a 1980 American science fiction-horror film adaptation of a novel by the same name by playwright and screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky. It was the only novel that Chayefsky ever wrote, as well as his final film. Both the novel and the film are based on John C...
. The film had also been nominated for "Best Special Effects."
Scanners also won "Best International Fantasy Film" from Fantasporto
Fantasporto
Fantasporto, also known as Fantas, is an international film festival, annually organized since 1981 in Porto, Portugal. Giving screen space to commercial feature films, auteur films and experimental projects from all over the world, Fantasporto has created enthusiastic audiences, ranging from...
in 1983, and was nominated for eight Genie Awards in 1982, but did not win any.
Sequels and other adaptations
Scanners spawned sequels and a series of spin-offs; a remake was announced in 2007, but as of 2010 has not been put into production. None of these projects has involved Cronenberg as director.Sequels
- Scanners II: The New OrderScanners II: The New OrderScanners II: The New Order is the 1991 sequel to the 1981 feature film Scanners. The sequel was written by B.J. Nelson and directed by Christian Duguay...
(1991) - Scanners III: The TakeoverScanners III: The TakeoverScanners III: The Takeover is the second sequel to the film Scanners, and the last film in the trilogy. It was directed by Christian Duguay. The story has nothing to do with the previous films, other than the Ephemerol drug...
(1992)
Spin-offs
- Scanner CopScanner CopScanner Cop is a 1994 Canadian film. It is the fourth film in the Scanners series and the first film in the Scanner Cop series. It was written, produced, and directed by Pierre David.-Plot:...
(1994) - Scanners: The ShowdownScanners: The ShowdownScanners: The Showdown is the 1995 sequel to Scanner Cop. It is the last film in both the Scanners series and the Scanner Cop series.-Synopsis:...
(a.k.a. Scanner Cop II) (1995)
Remake
In February 2007, Darren Lynn BousmanDarren Lynn Bousman
Darren Lynn Bousman is an American film director and screenwriter.-Personal life:Bousman was born in Overland Park, Kansas, the son of Nancy and Lynn Bousman. He is a graduate of the Film School at Full Sail University. He attended high school at Shawnee Mission North High School in Overland Park,...
(director of Saw II
Saw II
Saw II is a 2005 Canadian-American horror film directed by Darren Lynn Bousman and co-written by Bousman and the first film's co-writer Leigh Whannell. It is a sequel to 2004's Saw and the second installment in the seven-part Saw film series...
, Saw III
Saw III
Saw III is a 2006 Canadian-American horror film directed by Darren Lynn Bousman from a screenplay by Leigh Whannell and story by James Wan and Whannell. Wan and Whannell directed and wrote Saw and Bousman wrote and directed Saw II. It is the third film in the seven-part Saw film series and stars...
and Saw IV
Saw IV
Saw IV is a 2007 Canadian-American horror film and midquel to 2006's Saw III. It was directed by Darren Lynn Bousman and written by newcomers Patrick Melton, Marcus Dunstan and Thomas Fenton. The film was released in North America on October 26, 2007...
) was announced to direct a remake of the film, to be released by The Weinstein Company
The Weinstein Company
The Weinstein Company is an American film studio founded by Bob and Harvey Weinstein in 2005 after the brothers left the then-Disney-owned Miramax Films, which they had co-founded in 1979...
and Dimension Films
Dimension Films
Dimension Films is a motion picture unit currently a part of The Weinstein Company. It was formerly used as Bob Weinstein's label within Miramax Films, to produce and release genre films...
. David S. Goyer
David S. Goyer
David Samuel Goyer is an American screenwriter, film director and comic book writer.-Early life:Goyer was born and raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He attended Hebrew school and has described himself as "half Jewish"...
was assigned to script the film. The movie was planned for an October 17, 2008 release, but the date came and went without further announcements, and all the parties involved have since moved on to other projects.