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Cameron Vale is a derelict.
After a psychic assault in a shopping mall he attracts the attention of two ConSec agents,
who promptly capture him. He meets Dr Paul Ruth, who reveals that Vale is a Scanner,
a freak of nature born with the capacity for ESP.
ConSec has decided to reveal the work they are doing with scanners.
However, a rival agent, Darryl Revok, infiltrates the conference,
assassinats the scanner and escapes by using scanning techniques.
It is decided that Vale should be trained and used as a spy to uncover Revok's organisation.
Vale's investigations lead him to another underground group,
but all are killed except Vale and another scanner, Kim Obrist.
They encounter corporate-espionage, Ruth is murdered,
and the ConSec computers are ransacked by Vale,
(computers can be scanned too.)
Ruth was responsible for the development of a tranquiliser called Ephemerol, which,
when given to pregnant women has the inadvertent side-effect of creating scanners.
Revok has been mass-producing the drug and shipping it out across the nation
with the intention of creating his own army.
They are captured by Revok who reveals that he and Vale are brothers and Ruth their father,
who tested Ephemerol on his own wife.
He tries to recruit Vale to his cause and when he fails, a scanner showdown ensues.
Revok says Vale will join him whether he wants to or not,
he's gonna do this the scanner way, suck out his consciousness.
But Vale seems to achieve a state of intense focus and calm, even though his body begins
to burn.
We cut to Obrist, who comes across the aftermath of the battle and finds Vale's corpse burnt
to a cinder. She then finds Revok, though he now had Vale's
blue eyes and the scar on his forehead has vanished.
In Vale's voice, he tells her "We've won."
The exploding head is the oft-cited special effect, and probably the one scene that this
film is most famous for. But Scanners is so much more than an empty
spectacle of splatter gore effects. It's a good place to start though.
Head imagery is rife in this film. Not just the infamous money shot, the artwork,
created by deranged scanner artist Benjamin Pierce, for example.
When he speaks to Vale they are literally inside a giant head.
And Revok drilling a hole in his forehead, to "let the people out."
There is a subtext of mental illness here which is particularly poignant.
Scanners are tormented people, the hopeless and helpless dregs of society and seem to
wind up on the streets or in mental institutes, their scanning powers driving them to the
point of madness, and frequently beyond.
"How do you stop them? Your voices."
"My art. My art keeps me sane."
This reinforces one of the key details about this film. Being a scanner is an affliction,
rather than a superpower. Those who suffer from it end up social misfits,
overloading on the constant babble of other people's voices in their heads.
"Why are you such a derelict? Such a piece of human junk? The answer's simple you're
a scanner. But you don't realise. 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."
The early part of the film takes its time to explain scanners - not just establishing
the rules of this universe but the psychopathology of scanners as a social
group. It seems Cronenberg is just as interested
in what it is to be a scanner as he is in what they're capable of doing.
I think it's very telling that an early working title of this production was "The Sensitives",
though it probably wouldn't have sold so well.
The film itself is constructed as a thriller rather than horror or science fiction,
complete with obligatory car chases and shootouts. Corporate espionage, conspiracies,
agents and double agents, all fitting in well with an atmosphere of paranoia and anxiety.
This also serves to reinforce the theme of corporations exploiting people.
It was a failed drugs trial that unwittingly created scanners in the first place;
ConSec's only interest in scanners is to exploit them as potential weapons or tools of espionage.
There is of course a parallel to thalidomide especially with the movie's time-setting.
One can't help wondering how much that real life horror-story helped develop the plot
of scanners.
As with much of Cronenberg's work, there is a strong emphasis on body horror,
though this film has none of the *** preoccupations that frequently litter his work.
It's also worth mentioning that this was Cronenberg's most mainstream and most profitable film at
the time, doubtless helping to ease him into the studio
system, the direction his career has subsequently taken.
The score by Howard Shore is stark and abstract, reaffirming the themes of isolation and intrusion.
It's also frequently incorporated into the sound effects during "scanning" scenes,
where atonal bursts help to suggest the application of unseen mental powers.
Scanners is not without its flaws. The suddenness of the ending is particularly jarring,
and Stephen Lack often gets slated for his wooden performance.
(That said, it should just be mentioned in his defence that Lack is supposed to be playing
a very low key hero. He's not a superhero and only reluctantly
manipulated into the position of spy.)
The psychic link to a computer is perhaps a little dicey,
especially compared to the strictly rationalist Sci-fi approach Cronenberg takes to ESP in
general. Though this conceit is easily forgiven, given
the context.
Most of the flaws are budgetary. A cheap film anyway,
Cronenberg was also forced to push it into immediate production in order to secure financing.
Before the screenplay was even complete in fact. It's said that he had to wake early,
work on the script for a few hours, before heading off to do a day's shooting.
But at the end of the day it's the imagery and ideas simmering just beneath the surface
that lift this film above its financial limitations and its genre archetypes.
The 90s saw a slew of sequels which Cronenberg had no involvement with.
As far as they go, the law of diminishing returns seems to apply.
More recently, a remake has been threatened.