Scanners

1981

1h 43m

IMDb RATING

6.7/10

1.3K

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99+ Images

Science Fiction

Horror

After a man with extraordinary, and frighteningly destructive, telepathic abilities is nabbed by agents from a mysterious rogue corporation, he discovers he is far from the only possessor of such strange powers. Some of the other “scanners” have their minds set on world domination, while others are trying to stop them.

Directors

David Cronenberg

Writers

David Cronenberg(writer by)

Stars

Stephen Lack

Jennifer O'Neill

Michael Ironside

See production, box office & company info

Videos5

Photos132

Top cast

Cameron Vale

Kim Obrist

Darryl Revok

Dr. Paul Ruth

Braedon Keller

Benjamin Pierce

Security One

Trevellyan

Arno Crostic

Programmer 1

Dieter Tautz

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First Scanner

Directors

David Cronenberg

Writers

David Cronenberg(writer by)

All cast & crew

Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

User reviews1

Review

Featured review

7/10

When a demonstration to potential investors goes quite spectacularly wrong, it is clear that the eponymous characters have astonishing psychic powers and that creates dollar signs in the eyes of the executives at "ConSec". Thing is, chief amongst the "scanners" is the quite literally mind-blowing "Revok" (Michael Ironside) and he is determined to galvanise all of his kind, destroy this company and take over the world! A few years later and "Vale" (Stephen Lack) is minesweeping from a burger joint in a mall when an altercation with two judgemental women results in an escalator chase throughout the building then a dart in the arm. He awakens to a meeting with "Dr. Ruth" (Patrick McGoohan not Ruth Westheimer) who manages to convince this man that "Revok" is a baddie and that his gang must be infiltrated if he is to be thwarted. "Vale" has a limited understanding of his talents, but armed with the calming drug "Ephemerol" sets off to try and track down his new nemesis. What now ensues follows his increasingly perilous and frequently quite surreal investigations to track down his quarry - and with bodies dropping like flies, he finds his only ally in "Kim" (Jennifer O'Neill) and discovers that there has got to be a leak at the company. The special effects aren't the best here, but it's a decent story with Vale and Ironside delivering quite well as we discover that the real story is nowhere near as simplistic as we'd been led to believe. McGoohan is as hammy as ever and O'Neill, well she never was much good and isn't really here, either. The make-up artists get to have some fun with the quirky denouement and all in all this isn't a bad sci-fi horror film that has a little menace, swipes at large scale pharma and has it's tongue firmly in it's cheek throughout.

Geronimo196708 Feb, 2024