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Overview
User Rating:
Director:
Writer:
David Cronenberg (written by)
Release Date:
14 January 1981 (USA) more
Tagline:
There are 4 billion people on earth. 237 are Scanners. They have the most terrifying powers ever created... and they are winning. more
Plot:
A scientist sends a man with extraordinary psychic powers to hunt others like him. full summary | full synopsis
Awards:
3 wins & 9 nominations more
NewsDesk:
(43 articles)
Win Val Kilmer & Cuba Gooding Jr. In ‘Hardwired’
(From Screen Rant. 26 October 2009, 8:19 PM, PDT)
Weekly DVD & Blu-Ray Chopping List 10/13/2009
(From Fangoria. 10 October 2009, 11:19 PM, PDT)
User Comments:
"We'll do this the Scanner way...I'm going to suck your brain dry!" more (118 total)
Cast
(Cast overview, first billed only) | Jennifer O'Neill | ... | Kim Obrist |
| Stephen Lack | ... | Cameron Vale |
 | 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 |
Additional Details
Also Known As:
Telepathy 2000
more
Parents Guide:
Runtime:
103 min
Country:
Language:
Color:
Color (Eastmancolor)
Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Certification:
Italy:VM14 | Finland:K-18 (original rating) (1981) | Portugal:M/16 | Germany:16 (re-rating) (2007) | West Germany:18 (original rating) | Finland:K-15 (DVD rating) | Brazil:16 | New Zealand:R16 | Australia:R | Canada:R | Finland:K-16 | France:-12 | Iceland:(Banned) | Norway:16 (cut) | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | USA:R
Filming Locations:
Fun Stuff
Trivia:
A very early treatment from 1976, entitled "Telepathy 2000" takes place in the future, begins with the protagonist (who is named Harley Quinn) telepathically raping a woman in a subway, and was set as a spy movie. In this version, a company called Cytodyne Amalgamate was breeding evil Scanners to take over the world and the U.S. Government was employing good Scanners to stop them. more
Goofs:
Crew or equipment visible: When Cameron Vale first visits Kim Obrist, before going up the stairs to meet her, some lighting equipment and the boom microphone is reflected in the glass door as it closes behind him. more
Quotes:
Darryl Revok:
This was a test campaign used in 1947 to market a new product. The product was a drug, a tranquilizer called 'Ephemerol'. It was aimed at pregnant women. If it had worked it would have been marketed all over North America. But the campaign failed and the drug failed, because it had a side effect on the unborn children. An invisible side effect.
Cameron:
It created Scanners.
more
Movie Connections:
Referenced in The Fly Papers: The Buzz on Hollywood's Scariest Insect (2000) (TV) more
FAQ
This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.more (118 total)
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Vagrant Cameron Vale (Stephen Lack) is revealed to be a "Scanner", or a person with incredibly potent mental powers. He is mentored by Dr. Paul Ruth (Patrick McGoohan), who hopes to use him to ferret out rogue Scanner Darryl Revok (Michael Ironside, in his first substantial bad guy role), a psychopath with plans for world domination.
Another truly creepy Cronenberg work in which, George Romero-style, he combines a sense of intelligence - utilizing his recurring theme of biological aberration - with a heavy accent on visceral, blood and guts type horror. He gets an unnerving performance from Ironside as the evil maniac, and is aided not only by the repulsive yet undeniably compelling gore (the exploding head scene is the one most people probably think of in reference to this film, although the final showdown is equally gruesome) but an impressively ominous music score by Howard Shore.
Lack is awfully low-key as the hero, but it does fit the character. He starts out as a lone fringe dweller, and is only slowly adapting to the reality around him. Jennifer O'Neill, however, does little more than look beautiful as a new cohort who ends up assisting him in his mission. Frequent Cronenberg collaborator Robert Silverman is typically amusing in one of his standard eccentric roles.
"Scanners" is effective and entertaining, and one of the better Cronenberg films that I've seen.
8/10