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Scanners (1981)
Writer/director David Cronenberg's science-fiction
horror film was about the incredible and awesome abilities of certain
humans (known as 'scanners'), who had remarkable psycho-telekinetic
and mind-reading powers - similar in concept to The Fury (1978).
Scanners was Cronenberg's fourth sci-fi horror film after Shivers
(1975), Rabid (1977), and The Brood (1979).
Scanners were created as a result of scientific research
and pharmaceutical drug experimentation that went awry. Pregnant
women who had taken Ephemerol as a sedative produced mental aberrations
and hyperactive brain synapses in their unborn children - causing
them to be born with scanner powers. The film became infamous for
its early sequence of a brain-bursting, exploding-head.
- in the film's opening set in the year 1985, a private
military company known as ConSec, involved in the business of security
systems and weapons, was interested in recruiting 'scanners' (those
with telepathic and telekinetic powers) to take down a group of
renegade scanners, led by 'bad' Scanner renegade-rogue villain
Darryl Revok (Michael Ironside)
- derelict and homeless vagrant Cameron Vale (Stephen
Lack) was involuntarily causing two women to start convulsing
with his powers as a 'scanner'; he was noticed and captured by
ConSec agents and then met with one of its researchers, Dr. Paul
Ruth (Patrick McGoohan); Dr. Ruth explained how Cameron's rare
super-powered abilities could be controlled by injections of Ephemerol
that would subdue or inhibit his scanning abilities
- in ConSec headquarters during an ESP conference
and marketing event, the power-mad Revok volunteered to come on-stage
with one of ConSec's scanners (Louis Del Grande credited as First
Scanner), who was proposing to eventually scan everyone's thoughts
in the room. The ConSec scanner prefaced the powerful telepathic
demonstration with some caution: "I would
like to scan all of you in this room, one at a time. I must remind
you that the scanning experience is usually a painful one, sometimes
resulting in nosebleeds, ear-aches, stomach cramps, nausea. Sometimes
other symptoms of a similar nature."
- the scanner then instructed the volunteer Darryl
Revok to display his telekinetic powers: "Now I'd like you to think
of something specific. Something that will not breach the security
of your organization and that you will not object to having disclosed
to this group. Something personal, perhaps." After Revok responded: "All
right, yes, I have something," he demonstrated his brain-bursting
telekinetic powers.
The Infamous Brain-Bursting Exploding Head Scene:
Darryl Revok vs. ConSec Scanner
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- in a mental duel with ConSec's scanner, Revok exploded
the head of the man, showering the front of the room with blood,
brains, and skull matter, causing pandemonium and chaos in the
audience.
[Note: The special effects of the head explosion
were created by placing dog food and rabbit livers in a fake
latex head, and blasting it with a 12-gauge shotgun.]
- as Darryl
was taken away by security at gunpoint, he asserted: "I didn't
do anything." Although taken into custody,
Darryl successfully resisted an injection of Ephemerol, and killed
numerous security guards with further scanning powers before escaping
- the next day, ConSec's Chairman Trevellyan (Mavor
Moore) announced the results of their conference with 'telepathic
curiosities' known as scanners:
"The result: six corpses and a substantial loss in credibility
for our organization"; ConSec's Head of
Security Braedon Keller (Lawrence Dane) urged shutting down the program
- Dr. Ruth opposed the shutdown and argued that Revok's
dangerous group needed to be infiltrated and destroyed, and proposed
exploiting Cameron Vale as their special scanner-weapon; meanwhile,
it was revealed that Keller was a traitor and part of Revok's organization;
he secretly informed Revok of Dr. Ruth's infiltration plan into
the Scanner underworld
- while avoiding assassination attempts on his life,
Vale met up with another 'good' telepathic scanner named Kim Obrist
(Jennifer O'Neill) who was also opposed to Revok's conspiracy to
dominate the world with scanners
- after Keller's killing of Dr. Ruth (ordered by Revok),
Cameron (with his cyberpathic abilities through a payphone) was
able to infiltrate-hack into ConSec's super-computer system, to
learn about how ConSec's subsidiary company known as Biocarbon
Amalgamate (conspiratorially used by Revok) was shipping ephemerol
to doctors, to administer to their pregnant female patients in
order to turn their offspring into scanners - a new generation
for the future; Keller had planned for the ConSec supercomputer
system to self-destruct and destroy Vale when plugged in,
but his plan backfired and Keller died in an explosion
- the biggest reveal of the film was that Cameron
and Revok were long-lost scanner brothers, children of Dr. Ruth
who had used the Ephemerol sedative for their mother, and was able
to produce the most powerful two scanners in the world
- later in a second horrific scene - a vicious psychic
or telepathic showdown, Darryl threatened to use his scanner powers
on Cameron, and they engaged in a mind-control battle after
Darryl denounced his brother:
"You're not listening to me. You're not
cooperating, Cam. You're not cooperating with me at all. I've
been counting on you for years, Cameron. Tell me you're not
gonna betray me like all the rest. Tell me you're not. (Cameron
struck Darryl in the face with a large stone paperweight.)
All right. We're gonna do it the scanner way. I'm gonna suck
your brain dry! Everything you think you are is gonna become
me. You're gonna be with me, Cameron, no matter what. After
all, brothers should be close, don't you think?"
- veins in Cameron's arms became to expand dangerously
and bleed as a result of Darryl's savage psychic attack, and his
swollen face became bloodied as he grabbed at his peeling and corroding
face. [Note: The sexual symbolism - swelling veins, moaning, body stiffness, and orgasmic
release - was very evident.]
- before dying from his heart bursting and from internal
combustion, Cameron was able to send one final shot toward his screaming
brother, whose cheeks and face exhibited pulsating swollen veins
while his eyes turned white
- Cam's body spontaneously
ignited, and afterwards his incinerated corpse was found on the floor.
Only one man and mind remained. However, it was revealed that Cam
had been able to inhabit Darryl's body and take control of it.
- as a result, Darryl now had Cam's blue eyes, and
was missing the forehead scar-mark between his eyebrows. Huddled
in a corner of the room under a coat, Darryl spoke in Cam's voice
to Kim Obrist: "Kim. It's me, Kim. Cameron. I'm here. We've won. We've won."
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Cameron Vale (Stephen Lack)
Darryl Revok (Michael Ironside)
Psychic Scanner Mind-Control Dueling and Mental Assault
Between the Two Brothers: Cameron Vale and Darryl Revok
After Telepathic Battle, Cameron's Charred Corpse on
the Floor Incinerated by Darryl
Cameron Transferred Into Darryl's Body
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