Scanners (1981) directed by David Cronenberg

Synopsis

In David Cronenberg’s Scanners, a scientist sends a man with psychic powers on a mission to locate others like him for reasons that are definitely Science.

Directed by: David Cronenberg

Screenplay by: David Cronenberg

Starring: Jennifer O’Neill, Stephen Lack, Patrick McGoohan, Michael Ironside

Awards/Nominations:

• Saturn Award (from The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films) in 1981 for “Best International Film”
  • “Best Make-Up” award to Dick Smith
  • Nominated for “Best Special Effects”
• “Best International Fantasy Film” from Fantasporto in 1983
• Nominated for eight Genie Awards in 1982

My Edition: Criterion Collection Bluray

My Thoughts:

Do you like movies about telepathy? What about when the telepaths (my writing program is telling me that’s not a word, but I disagree – I’m keeping it) are weaponized? Me too. I bet you love Scanners too.

In the Cronenberg Canon, this was not his most critically successful films (although it did quite well financially grossing $14.2 million). But I don’t often agree with critics anyway. I love this movie. And no matter what those critics said, this movie has serious lasting power. I mean, even if you’ve never seen Scanners, if you have the internet (clearly you do) then you’ve at least seen this clip.

I mean, that right there is one of the most magical moments in modern movie history, amirite?

If you want to know how they did that, it’s covered in one of the featurettes on the Criterion edition. You can find it, and a bunch of other cool bits on the Criterion Collection YouTube channel. But I’ve saved you the trouble of navigating and included it here. You’re welcome!

Now let’s talk for a moment about that behind-the-scenes trouble this movie apparently had. I’m not sure of the provenance of this factoid, but apparently –

“David Cronenberg once called this the most frustrating film he’d ever made. The film was rushed through production – filming had to begin without a finished script and end within roughly two months so the financing would qualify as a tax write-off, forcing Cronenberg to write and shoot at the same time. Cronenberg also cited difficulty with and antagonism between the leads, particularly Patrick McGoohan and Jennifer O’Neill.”

(I found this on IMDB, and I honestly have no idea what type of credentials and/or peer review processes may or may not go into vetting the trivia items)

So, if ANY of that is true, then this movie just became infinitely better in my opinion. If Cronenberg wrote this on the fly, then I want to be his writing protege. I want to study at the feet of this obvious master of story-crafting and believable dialogue. I can’t even write like that with no deadline or interference.

The story here is totally solid science fiction fare. David Cronenberg’s Scanners centers on one Cameron Vale, a vagrant/social outcast who can hear the thoughts of absolutely everyone around him all the damn time, which sounds maddening. Well, Cameron is wandering through a shopping mall when he gets into an altercation with a mall-going, shit-talk-thinking, stuffed-dress and is subsequently captured by agents of ConSec. ConSec is a sketchball private military company. They are busy amassing ‘Scanners’ – other people with telepathic and/or psychokinetic abilities like Cameron’s. Why do they want these people? Well obviously not for any reasons that will ultimately be good for the Scanners.

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.

But right now, when we meet them, ConSec are amassing this super-powered army to bring down one Dale Revok (Toronto’s Own Mr. Michael Mother-Fuckin’ Ironside) who is…umm…totally bonkers. I mean, this guy trepanned his own damned self in order to ‘let the people out.’ I can’t find the actual quote, so that may be paraphrasing, but it was definitely something to that effect – they’re not just voices, they’re whole-ass people with arms and legs and stuff that he wanted to evict from his brain.

If you’re paying attention to the movie though, it’s a lot more than some gory sci-fi tale. It’s got all sorts of interesting themes and parallels. I meant it when I said that if Cronenberg really wrote this on the fly he’s a fucking genius. The Scanners are social pariahs. The story is a meditation on counterculture, and what happens when the counterculture finds the ways and means to rise up and become dominant.

It’s actually quite fascinating. Not to mention that the way that ConSec is ensuring themselves a steady supply of future Scanners almost directly parallels the Thalidomide scandal in the 1950s and 60s. If you aren’t familiar with that particular bit of medical shame, I’ll save you one incredibly disturbing web search and just give you a brief overview: Thalidomide was a drug that was supposed to help pregnant women combat morning sickness. And although it apparently did that, it also caused a whole host of birth defects ranging from central brain damage to a whole range of physical deformities, the scope of which changed drastically depending on when during the pregnancy the drug was taken. It’s really bizarre and distressing stuff.

I guess that I told you all of that in order to illustrate one thing: Scanners is more than meets the eye (or exploding head).

Rating:

Scanners
Directed by: David Cronenberg
US Release Date: January 14, 1981
Canadian Film Development Corporation (CFDC)
Rated R 
103 Minutes