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Scanners

Scanners

  • Status: Released
  • 14-01-1981
  • Runtime: 103 min
  • Score: 6.7
  • Vote count: 1208

After a man with extraordinary, and frighteningly destructive, telepathic abilities is nabbed by agents from a mysterious rogue corporation, he discovers he is far from the only possessor of such strange powers. Some of the other “scanners” have their minds set on world domination, while others are trying to stop them.

Jennifer O'Neill

Kim Obrist

Stephen Lack

Cameron Vale

Patrick McGoohan

Dr. Paul Ruth

Lawrence Dane

Braedon Keller

Michael Ironside

Darryl Revok

Robert A. Silverman

Benjamin Pierce

Lee Broker

Security One

Mavor Moore

Trevellyan

Adam Ludwig

Arno Crostic

Murray Cruchley

Programmer 1

Fred Döderlein

Dieter Tautz

Géza Kovács

Killer in Record Store

Sonny Forbes

Killer in Attic

Jérôme Tiberghien

Killer in Attic

Denis Lacroix

Killer in Barn

Elizabeth Mudry

Killer in Barn

Victor Désy

Dr. Gatineau

Louis Del Grande

First Scanner

Anthony Sherwood

Scanner in Attic

Ken Umland

Scanner in Attic

Anne Anglin

Scanner in Attic

Jock Brandis

Scanner in Attic

Jack Messinger

Scanner at Door

Victor Knight

Dr. Frane

Karen Fullerton

Pregnant Girl

Margaret Gadbois

Woman in Mall

Terrance P. Coady

Security 1 Car Passenger

Steve Michaels

Security 1 Car Driver

Malcolm Nelthorpe

Security 2 Car Driver

Nicholas Kilbertus

Security 2 Car Partner

Don Buchsbaum

Large Man in Mall

Roland Nincheri

Large Man in Mall

Kimberly McKeever

Hallucinating Guard

Robert Boyd

Hallucinating Guard

Graham Batchelor

Yoga Technician

Dean Hagopian

Programmer 2

Alex Stevens

Programmer 3

Neil Affleck

Student

John Brasington

Hazmat-Suit Worker (uncredited)

Chris Britton

Hazmat-Suit Worker (uncredited)

Jack Canon

Hazmat-Suit Worker (uncredited)

Richard Chapman Jr.

Hazmat-Suit Worker (uncredited)

Leon Herbert

Hazmat-Suit Worker (uncredited)

William Hope

Hazmat-Suit Worker (uncredited)

Thomas Kovacs

Boyfriend (uncredited)

Michael Maloley

Doctor in Hall (uncredited)

Ian McQue

Scanner / Security Guard (uncredited)

Chuck Shamata

Tony (uncredited)

Sam Stone

Security Guard (uncredited)

CinemaSerf

When a demonstration to potential investors goes quite spectacularly wrong, it is clear that the eponymous characters have astonishing psychic powers and that creates dollar signs in the eyes of the executives at "ConSec". Thing is, chief amongst the "scanners" is the quite literally mind-blowing "Revok" (Michael Ironside) and he is determined to galvanise all of his kind, destroy this company and take over the world! A few years later and "Vale" (Stephen Lack) is minesweeping from a burger joint in a mall when an altercation with two judgemental women results in an escalator chase throughout the building then a dart in the arm. He awakens to a meeting with "Dr. Ruth" (Patrick McGoohan not Ruth Westheimer) who manages to convince this man that "Revok" is a baddie and that his gang must be infiltrated if he is to be thwarted. "Vale" has a limited understanding of his talents, but armed with the calming drug "Ephemerol" sets off to try and track down his new nemesis. What now ensues follows his increasingly perilous and frequently quite surreal investigations to track down his quarry - and with bodies dropping like flies, he finds his only ally in "Kim" (Jennifer O'Neill) and discovers that there has got to be a leak at the company. The special effects aren't the best here, but it's a decent story with Vale and Ironside delivering quite well as we discover that the real story is nowhere near as simplistic as we'd been led to believe. McGoohan is as hammy as ever and O'Neill, well she never was much good and isn't really here, either. The make-up artists get to have some fun with the quirky denouement and all in all this isn't a bad sci-fi horror film that has a little menace, swipes at large scale pharma and has it's tongue firmly in it's cheek throughout.