Underplayed Gems

Scanners (1981)

Scanners poster
Directed by
David Cronenberg
Genre
action film, horror film, science fiction film, mystery film, thriller film
Country
Canada
Runtime
1h 43m
Rated
R
Rating
6.7 of 10 from 1,373 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

Psychics with telepathic and telekinetic powers called scanners are hunted by a weapons company. One rogue scanner starts a war against the company, and another scanner is sent to stop him.

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What happens

Scanners is a 1981 Canadian science-fiction horror film written and directed by David Cronenberg. The film stars include Stephen Lack, Jennifer O'Neill, Michael Ironside, Lawrence Dane and Patrick McGoohan. In the film, "scanners" are psychics with telepathic and telekinetic powers. ConSec, a purveyor of weaponry and security systems, searches out scanners to use them for its own purposes. The film's plot concerns the attempt by Darryl Revok (Ironside), a renegade scanner, to wage a war against ConSec. Another scanner, Cameron Vale (Lack), is dispatched by ConSec to stop Revok. Scanners premiered in January 1981 to lukewarm reviews from critics but became one of the first films produced in Canada to successfully compete with American films at the international box office. It brought Cronenberg and his controversial style of body horror attention to mainstream film audiences for the first time and has since been reevaluated as a cult classic. It is particularly well known for a scene that depicts Revok psychically causing a rival scanner's head to graphically explode. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

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