Scanners

For other uses, see Scanner (disambiguation).

Scanners
Theatrical release poster
Directed byDavid Cronenberg
Written byDavid Cronenberg
Produced byClaude Héroux
Starring
CinematographyMark Irwin
Edited byRonald Sanders
Music byHoward Shore
Production
company
Filmplan International
Distributed by
Release dates
  • January 14, 1981 (1981-01-14) (United States)
  • January 16, 1981 (1981-01-16) (Canada)
Running time
103 minutes[2]
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish
BudgetCAD$4.1 million
Box office$14.2 million or $6.3 million[3]

Scanners is a 1981 Canadian science fiction horror film written and directed by David Cronenberg and starring Stephen Lack, Jennifer O'Neill, Michael Ironside, and Patrick McGoohan. In the film, "scanners" are psychics with unusual 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.[4][5][6][7] It brought Cronenberg and his controversial style of body horror attention from mainstream film audiences for the first time and has since been reevaluated as a cult classic.[8][9] It is particularly well known for a scene that depicts Revok psychically causing a rival scanner's head to explode.

  1. ^ "Scanners". Library and Archives Canada. May 12, 2015. Retrieved September 28, 2021.
  2. ^ "SCANNERS (X)". British Board of Film Classification. February 10, 1981. Retrieved October 19, 2014.
  3. ^ Donahue, Suzanne Mary (1987). American film distribution : the changing marketplace. UMI Research Press. p. 292. ISBN 9780835717762. Please note figures are for rentals in US and Canada
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference ebert was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference canby was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference boxoffice was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ "Scanners". www.tcm.com. Retrieved December 28, 2020.
  8. ^ "Looking back at David Cronenberg's Scanners". Den of Geek. November 23, 2012. Retrieved December 28, 2020.
  9. ^ "Exploding head aside, Scanners is one of Cronenberg's most conventional films". The A.V. Club. July 16, 2014. Retrieved December 28, 2020.