Line #55 Film/SCANNERS


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/scanners_dvd_cover_12.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:''"I would like to scan all of you in this room, one at a time."'']]
3
4	->''"You are 35 years old, Mr. Vale. Why are you such a derelict? Such a piece of human junk? The answer's simple. You're a scanner, which you don't realize. And that has been the source of all your agony. But I will show you now that it can be a source of great power."''
5	-->-- '''Dr. Paul Ruth'''
6
7	A drifter is arrested at a train station for, somehow, putting a woman into convulsions.
8
9	A conference attendee evades arrest for [[YourHeadASplode blowing up the speaker's head]].
10
11	The drifter, Cameron Vale (Stephen Lack), is delivered into the custody of Dr. Paul Ruth (Creator/PatrickMcGoohan), who informs him that he is a scanner. A scanner is a person born with a derangement of their brain, giving them {{telepathy}}. They can "scan" you. Unfortunately, this telepathy is very much of the BlessedWithSuck variety: most scanners can hear your thoughts, [[PowerIncontinence and can't block them out]]. They get {{Psychic Nosebleed}}s. They can alter your bodily functions. A particularly powerful one, like BigBad Darryl Revok (Creator/MichaelIronside) can [[YourHeadASplode blow up your head]].
12
13	Revok is a psychotic [[SuperSupremacist scanner-supremacist]] who wants to TakeOverTheWorld (reportedly, some of the later characterization for ComicBook/{{Magneto}} was based on him), and, with his terrorist sect of scanners, probably could. Now the question remains: Is Vale a badder dude than Revok?
14
15	''Scanners'' is a 1981 sci-fi thriller written and directed by Creator/DavidCronenberg, full of the standard Cronenberg trademarks: brilliant special effects, a great Music/HowardShore score, constant unease, thematic focus on the battle between mind and body, and, of course, generous helpings of BodyHorror. By his own account (see ''Cronenberg on Cronenberg''), the movie was a nightmare to work on, however; due to the oddities of the Canadian film industry at the time, he only had a few weeks of pre-production before he had to start shooting without a finished script. His daily schedule consisted of waking up early in the morning to [[WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants write a few pages]], and then film that for the rest of the day, ''all of it completely out of order''. It's an impressive demonstration of Cronenberg's writing skills that the resulting story holds together as well as it does, and the film wound up being his breakout hit.
16
17	The movie was followed by a number of DirectToVideo continuations: two sequels and two spin-offs. None of these involved Cronenberg or anyone else involved in the production of the first film or follow on from its story (other than a passing reference in the second).
18	* ''Film/ScannersIITheNewOrder'' (1991)
19	* ''Film/ScannersIIITheTakeover'' (1992)
20	* ''Film/ScannerCop'' (1994)
21	* ''Film/ScannerCopII'' (1995), also known as ''Scanners: The Showdown''.
22
23	----
24	!!The first film provides examples of:
25
26	* AbusiveParents: [[spoiler:The reveal about Dr. Paul Ruth's past changes him into one: not only did he experiment on his pregnant wife, turning both his sons into maladjusted psychics, he then abandoned both of them and when one of them later becomes a problem, he arranges for the other son to kill his brother.]]
27	* AdaptationExpansion: The film is inspired by a few paragraphs of the book ''Literature/NakedLunch'' (which Cronenberg went on to [[Film/NakedLunch adapt into its own film]]), detailing a group of telepaths called "senders," one of the many factions of [[WretchedHive Interzone]].
28	* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: A rare example where the lack of communication is mostly the fault of the minority: scanners are mostly very socially maladjusted, if not outright diabolical.
29	* AppealToForce: When psychic Cameron Vale [[{{Technopath}} infiltrates ConSec's computer system through the telephone system]], Revok's mole within [=ConSec=] orders a computer technician to wipe their whole system in an attempt to hurt Cameron. The technician initially refuses to do so because that kind of data loss can only be authorized by the company's board of directors. The mole's response is to shove a gun in the guy's face.
30	-->Mister, ''this'' is your authorization.
31	* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Revok threatens Vale with "I'm gonna suck your brain dry. Everything you are is gonna become me." [[spoiler: That kind of does happen, but [[GrandTheftMe not in the way Revok likely intended]].]]
32	* BerserkButton: Revok becomes absolutely livid when Vale tells him that he's no different from Ruth. [[spoiler:Revok utterly despises the father who abandoned both his sons and threw Revok in a mental asylum.]]
33	* BlankWhiteEyes: After ''[[YourHeadAsplode that]]'' scene, this is perhaps the film's most famous scene. Vale uses the scanner power on Revok too much, and Revok's eyes turn blank white (as seen [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqDmKeFc6Ns here]]). This scene is also illustrated in both the original movie poster and the Criterion Collection's DVD cover art.
34	* BigNo: Cameron loudly rejects Revok's [[WeCanRuleTogether offer to build an empire together]] with a Big "No!" after Revok has murdered so many scanners, punctuated by hitting him in the face with a desk ornament.
35	* BioAugmentation: The telepaths or 'scanners' in this film are the product of a drug that accidentally mutated [[BizarreBabyBoom hundreds of unborn children]], allowing them to link their nervous system to other people. This mutation only works on embryos; the drug has no noticeable effect on adult humans who aren't scanners.
36	%%* BioPunk
37	* BizarreBabyBoom: The plot is about a wave o' babies ([[WaveOfBabies not literally]]) with BodyHorror-tastic psychic powers. Revok, one of the children of the original boom, is plotting to start a second one, and then create an army of evil scanners and TakeOverTheWorld. And he probably ''could'' do it. [[LeftHanging Maybe he does]]. [[WordOfGod Cronenberg says]] that [[CanonDiscontinuity the sequels aren't considered canonical]].
38	* BlessedWithSuck: It's no fun being a scanner, mostly because of all that PowerIncontinence. Also, hearing the thoughts of everyone around you gets noisy and distracting.
39	* BodyHorror: It's a Creator/DavidCronenberg film; what did you expect? Specifically, the final face-off between Revok and Vale.
40	* BrainBleach: Revok tried to drill a hole in his skull to let the voices out.
41	* BrokenPedestal: The Ripe Program brings out some rather bad memories for Dr. Ruth right before [[spoiler:Keller kills him]]. When Revok later reveals to Cameron [[spoiler:that Ruth is their father, Vale rejects them both.]]
42	* CainAndAbel: [[spoiler:The evil scanner and good scanner, Darryl Revok and Cameron Vale, are revealed at the end to actually be long-lost brothers, who then proceed to psychically battle each other to death.]]
43	%%* CallingTheOldManOut: "That was Daddy."
44	* CorporateConspiracy: Biocarbon Amalgamate, a pharmaceutical company producing Ephemerol that is actually under the control of Darryl Revok, carrying out his plan to create a race of psychic supermen by prescribing Ephemerol to pregnant women, causing psychic mutations in the fetuses.
45	* CreativeClosingCredits: The ending credits are displayed as part of a computer program, with green text scrolling upwards. This was rather novel in 1981, and computer programs play a vital part into the film's psychic world domination conspiracy plot. (A later Cronenberg film, ''Film/TheFly1986'', has a bit of a call back to this by having its end credit scroll use the same teal-colored font as the telepod-controlling computer in the film.)
46	* CreepyChild: In the OB-GYN's waiting room, an unborn fetus "scans" Kim. Despite the fact Kim isn't expecting it, the fetus appears to be more powerful than Kim is.
47	* DeconstructorFleet: Analyzes and subverts many of the tropes relating to the classic Hero's Journey, including {{Mentors}}, the {{Love Interest\|s}}, and the BigBad being [[APupilOfMineUntilHeTurnedToEvil a former student of the mentor]].
48	* DisastrousDemonstration: The famous exploding-head scene takes place at what was ''supposed'' to be [=ConSec=]'s official debut of its scanner program before representatives of other intelligence agencies.
49	* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Revok forces Security One to shoot himself.]]
50	* DuelToTheDeath: A BodyHorror version of this happens at the end of the film and a pretty awesome one, too. "Awesome" in both the slang and literal senses of the word. This would not be the last time [[Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheFellowshipOfTheRing a supernatural duel was fought with mind powers]] while the music of Music/HowardShore played.
51	* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Revok's famous [[YourHeadASplode opening scene]].
52	* ExplosiveInstrumentation: Justified using the in-universe explanation for how scanner abilities work. If Revok can blow up people's heads, Vale can blow up computers because both people and computers are essentially just neural networks.
53	* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep / NoNameGiven: Keller's predecessor as [=ConSec=]'s chief of internal security is only identified by his codename: "Security One."
54	* EyeScream: Exploding eyeballs. Made more excruciating in its detail, but mildly softened due to [[spoiler:Cameron no longer needing the eyes, as his personality entered and erased Darryl's, meaning he's in Darryl's brain now using Darryl's eyes]].
55	* FantasticRacism: Revok seem to have developed a hatred for normal humans due to his experiences, seeing scanners as inherently superior to them.
56	* FetusTerrible: A major clue in unraveling the mystery.
57	* GanglandDriveBy: As Cameron and a group of friendly "scanners" attempt to flee from Revok's hitmen in a van, they are attacked by another van filled with more gun-toting hitmen. The good guys' driver is killed in the process, causing them to crash into a record store.
58	* TheGenerationGap: [[http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Lefties+and+Hippies+and+Yuppies,+Oh+My!+David+Cronenberg%27s+Scanners...-a0305562549 One reviewer]] has noted that the movie is a fairly good examination of the post-World War 2 generational conflict: Obrist representing the hippies, Revok representing the yuppies, and Ruth the "Greatest Generation" (especially as he is [[spoiler:Revok and Vale's father]]). The ending is particularly interesting; [[spoiler:Revok kills Vale, but in the process Vale is able to imprint his consciousness onto Revok, the combined entity inheriting their father's company and power - resulting in a weirdly-prescient portrayal of the internet generation; prewar power and yuppie greed tempered by hippie communalism.]]
59	* TheGoodKingdom: The MegaCorp [=ConSec=] fills this role, recruiting the heroic [[TheDrifter drifter]] Cameron Vale to neutralize the diabolical saboteur who has sworn a vendetta against them. Making them a weapons corporation is part of the film's [[GreyAndGrayMorality elaborate plot]] to make us not really care about the stakes; the movie aims less for mere entertainment and more for making you uncomfortable.
60	* GreyAndGrayMorality: Revok's cult of telepathic madmen vs. a sketchy weapons manufacturer run by crotchety old men and their creepy, maladjusted top enforcer
61	%%* HeroicBSOD / VillainousBSOD: Some kinda BSOD, anyway, is suffered by Dr. Ruth. Which type depends on how ready you are to forgive him.
62	* TheHerosJourney: Deliberately set up by Dr. Ruth. The whole movie is a very uncomfortable take on this plot structure.
63	* HiveMind: Scanners sometimes share their minds to completely experience the others' minds.
64	* IntoxicatedSuperpowerSnag: A mild tranquilizer known as Ephemerol is the one thing that can temporarily disable a Scanner's PsychicPowers. As such, Cameron Vale uses it to blot out the voices that torment him, while [[MegaCorp ConSec]] makes sure to keep some on hand in case unfriendly Scanners come knocking. It's eventually revealed that Ephemerol's effects aren't just due to its nature as a tranquilizer: [[spoiler: it's actually responsible for the BizarreBabyBoom that created Scanners in the first place.]]
65	* TheInfiltration: Cameron Vale poses as one of Darryl Revok's scientists to infiltrate his chemical company. While there, he discovers Revok's 'Ripe Program', a master plan to [[spoiler:create a new army of scanners by bribing physicians to prescribe Ephemerol to their pregnant patients]].
66	* InstantlyProvenWrong: After shutting down the computer, a technician says, "See, no fireworks." Immediately a console blows up in his face.
67	* KillAndReplace: [[spoiler:Vale succeeds in defeating Revok by possessing his body during their scanner duel.]]
68	* LeftHanging: [[spoiler: Vale and Revok merge into a single being (though not in a BodyHorror sense),]] but it's pretty unclear what will happen next.
69	* LittleNo: Cameron near-whispers "no" when Revok [[spoiler: tells Cameron that he's Revok's kid brother.]]
70	* LongLostRelative: [[spoiler:Cameron Vale and Darryl Revok. Revok is trying to get Cameron to [[WeCanRuleTogether join him]], but when the reunion comes, they kill each other with PsychicPowers.]] [[LeftHanging Probably.]]
71	* LukeIAmYourFather: [[spoiler:Darryl Revok, the villain, reveals that he and Cameron Vale, the hero, are [[CainAndAbel the sons]] of Dr. Paul Ruth, the BrokenPedestal mentor]].
72	* MagicAntidote: Ephemerol, which temporarily shuts down a scanner's powers but has no apparent effect on normal humans. Except that [[spoiler: when used on pregnant women, it mutates their unborn children into scanners.]]
73	* MasterOfYourDomain: Dieter Tautz, a yoga master, is said to be capable of controlling his heart rate and several other usually uncontrollable body functions. However, Cameron's biokinetic powers prove too much even for him to control.
74	* MegaCorp: [=ConSec=], a rare sympathetic, if somewhat morally dubious, example. They fill much the same role in the story as TheGoodKingdom would in standard fantasy.
75	%%* MindRape:
76	%%** Repeatedly happens. The movie starts with the hero ''[[PowerIncontinence accidentally]]'' doing this to somebody.
77	%%** In the original screenplay, where he would be more of a VillainProtagonist, it wasn't going to be quite so accidental.
78	* MooseAndMapleSyrup: Pierce lives in a cabin in the woods, and Revok and [[spoiler: Keller]] can be seen meeting at what is clearly the Yorkdale subway station in Toronto. You can see the sign and everything. Both Cronenberg and Creator/MichaelIronside are Torontonians, and Stephen Lack has a quite pronounced accent. There's plenty of French signage visible in the background, and the [=ConSec=] helicopter has a Canadian registration.
79	* CharactersDroppingLikeFlies: [[spoiler:Only 2 of the main cast remain alive by the end of the movie.]]
80	* MusicalSpoiler: To introduce [[spoiler:the presence of enemy scanners in multiple scenes,]] the music begins to play high buzzing noises getting louder.
81	* MysticalWhiteHair: Both Kim Obrist and Cameron Vale are scanners with a shock of gray hair at their hairlines.
82	* TheNameIsBondJamesBond: "Revok! Darryl Revok!"
83	* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Darryl Revok. Probably deliberate. After all, he likely chose the name himself. To a lesser extent, naming the mysterious antihero "Vale."
84	* NeutralityBacklash: A MegaCorp trying to weaponize telepaths known as 'scanners' finds itself at war with a murderous scanner called Revok trying to build a scanner army of his own. There is also a faction of "good" scanners who have decided to remain neutral in this conflict. Problem is, Revok is a SuperSupremacist who will [[JoinOrDie murder any scanner who isn't willing to join him]]. Consequently, most of the "good" scanners are massacred by Revok's hitmen.
85	* NextSundayAD: The film was shot in 1980 and released the following year, but based on statements within the film[[note]]Cameron Vale is 35 years old, and was born a year after Ephemerol hit the market in 1947[[/note]], it actually takes place in 1983.
86	* NotSoDifferentRemark: Early in the film, Dr. Ruth says that scanners have a potential to bring "a brilliance and a glory" to the world. Toward the end, Revok [[WeCanRuleTogether asks Cameron to help him]] create a "an empire so brilliant, so glorious, it'll be the envy of the world."
87	-->'''Cameron:''' You sound just like him.
88	* {{Patricide}}: [[spoiler:Revok orders Keller to kill Ruth if he discovers their plot, who is later revealed to be Revok's father and [[CreateYourOwnVillain responsible for Revok's turn towards evil]].]]
89	* PowerNullifier: Dr. Ruth invented a serum that blocks the constant mind-reading of a scanner. This immediately makes Cameron side with him.
90	* PresentDay: Unusually for a film about super-psychics, this doesn't take place in the future (although the original script treatment ''Telepathy 2000'' did, as you might have guessed from the title). Of course, this film's PresentDay is the early [[TheEighties '80s]].
91	* PsychicAssistedSuicide: Revok makes one [=ConSec=] agent crash his car into a wall (where it [[EveryCarIsAPinto promptly explodes]]) and another shoot two allies and then himself.
92	* PsychicGlimpseOfDeath: Kim Obrist takes Cameron Vale to meet her friends, a group of fellow scanners. In the safety of their hideout, they establish a PsychicLink among multiple people, something they describe as frightening but thrilling. Unfortunately, they are not as safe as they think: Revok sends {{Mooks}} to pursue Vale, and they gun down most of the scanners while their consciousness is linked. Obrist screams in horror, and her pain sets off a telekinetic AngstNuke that knocks out several gunmen. Only she and Vale make it out alive.
93	--> '''Kim Obrist:''' Now I know how it feels to die.
94	* PsychicNosebleed: The {{Trope Maker\|s}}, in fact. It's used throughout all the subsequent movies.
95	* PsychicPowers: While psychic powers tend to be portrayed as a supernatural phenomenon in most media, being a scanner is presented as a medical condition. The scanners came about as a result of pregnant women taking an experimental drug, which then altered the brain chemistry of their babies. The plausible, clinical explanation makes Vale and Revok's fantastical abilities feel that much more believable.
96	* PsychoSerum: [[spoiler:Ephemerol is originally introduced as a scanner suppressant. It's later revealed that Dr. Ruth originally developed it as a tranquilizer for pregnant women, and that unborn children who are exposed to it become scanners.]]
97	%%* PubertySuperpower: Averted altogether. Quite creepily.
98	* PunctuatedForEmphasis: REVOK! [[TheNameIsBondJamesBond DARRYL! REVOK!]]
99	* PuttingOnTheReich: [=ConSec=]'s security guards wear all-black uniforms with shiny knee-high black leather jackboots and peaked military style officer's caps, and more than a handful also sport black {{Badass Longcoat}}s. Heck, the [=ConSec=] emblem is essentially one point away from resembling a Swastika.
100	* RankScalesWithAsskicking: The scanner terrorists' leader is one of the most powerful scanners around. [[spoiler:This is because both he and the hero were the first products of Ephemerol.]]
101	* TheReveal: [[spoiler: At the end, Revok [[LukeIAmYourFather reveals]] that [[CainAndAbel both he and Vale]] are the [[LongLostSibling sons]] of Dr. Ruth.]]
102	* SelfMadeOrphan:
103	** Benjamin Pierce tried to kill his family in his backstory.
104	** [[spoiler:Revok also orders Keller to kill Ruth.]]
105	* SmokyGentlemensClub: Dr. Ruth is relaxing in a comfy leather chair in such an establishment when Vale calls him over the phone to report back to him. Other members are seen reading the newspaper and playing chess in the background.
106	* StayingAlive: [[spoiler:Cameron Vale, losing his blood and organs against a vein-ridden Darryl Revok, is not expected to be the victor of their fight, until Kim finds his voice, in Darryl's body, telling her they've "won."]]
107	* StrongerWithAge: Vale and Revok are said to be the two strongest scanners because they are the oldest. This is because [[spoiler:they were the first two fetuses that Dr. Ruth experimented on with Ephemerol.]]
108	* StuffBlowingUp: When Vale is disconnected from the computer, both the computer and the gas station from where Vale hacked into it. Of course, that's not [[YourHeadASplode the only thing]] that blows up.
109	* SuddenlyShouting: Revok doesn't take Vale's NotSoDifferentRemark very well.
110	-->'''Revok:''' No, I'm not like him. [[TheNameIsBondJamesBond LIKE REVOK! DARRYL REVOK!]]
111	* TakeOverTheWorld: Revok plans to do this by [[spoiler:initiating a country-wide scheme of covertly prescribing pregnant women with a dangerous drug that will turn their unborn children into scanners, who he will then convert to his cause - being one himself with a deep hatred for normal humans]].
112	* {{Technopath}}: Vale psychically hacks a computer.
113	* {{Telepathy}}: Pretty much the core point of the plot.
114	* TitleByYear: This film, released in 1981, had a WorkingTitle of ''Telepathy 2000'', reflecting its setting of TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture.
115	* TranquillizerDart: The two [=ConSec=] agents who hunt down Vale in the opening shoot him with a tranquilizer dart. Revok does the same to Vale and Kim near the end of the film.
116	* TurnOutLikeHisFather: [[spoiler:Revok's greatest fear. His own brother comparing Revok's dream of a scanner supremacy to Ruth's dream of a scanner utopia is a massive source of irritation for Revok, who utterly despises his father and what he put him through.]]
117	* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: Both Revok and Ruth seem to believe this. Dr. Ruth wants to create some sort of peaceful co-existence of humans and scanners where the latter's unique gifts are explored for the good of mankind. Revok wants to create nothing but a scanner supremacy ruled by his "superior" kind.
118	* VillainsBlendInBetter: Vale lives as a derelict on the fringes of society because he cannot control his powers and conceal the fact that he's a scanner. He can seemingly conceal himself from other people's perception to some degree, or at least use mind control to make them ignore him, allowing him to do things like swipe their french fries, but generally leads a miserable existence. Compare this to Revok, who has ''supreme'' control over his powers and (except for a rough adolescence that saw him institutionalized) not only passes as an ordinary human without any difficulty (enough to fool ''even other scanners'') but is also a wealthy businessman in charge of a huge pharmaceutical company.
119	* VillainousBreakdown: Revok finally loses his cool at the end when Cameron negatively compares him to [[spoiler:their father]] and refuses his offer of WeCanRuleTogether, deciding to "do things the scanner way" (read: lots of BodyHorror) instead of trying to convince him.
120	* WeCanRuleTogether: Revok offers this to Vale [[spoiler:so they can rule their new empire as brothers]]. He seems to feel genuinely hurt and betrayed when the offer is refused.
121	%%* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity
122	* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: As we learn more of Darryl Revok's backstory, it becomes increasingly apparent that he became a psychic supremacist with ambitions of world conquest due to all the abuse he suffered because of his supernatural abilities. He transformed his inferiority complex into a superiority complex to cope with being called a freak and locked up in a mental asylum for years, as pointed out by Dr. Paul Ruth:
123	-->'''Dr. Ruth:''' At the age of 22 he was extremely self-destructive; now at the age of 35 he is ''simply'' destructive.
124	* WritersCannotDoMath: [[spoiler:Darryl Revok]] reveals himself to be [[spoiler:Cameron Vale]]'s older brother, then tells him that one of them was born in 1943, the other in 1948. Earlier in the film ''both'' characters are stated to be thirty-five years old by Dr. Ruth. Either their birth dates are incorrect or one of their ages is (or Ruth is lying).
125	* YourHeadASplode: One of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_Lnz64vXB8 the most infamous examples]]. According to WordOfGod, they used a fake head full of animal parts and shot it with a twelve gauge shotgun aimed at the back of its neck.[[note]]Tom Savini used the same technique for ''Film/DawnOfTheDead1978'' three years earlier.[[/note]]

Context Film / SCANNERS