Scanners

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. 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. It is particularly well known for a scene that depicts Revok psychically causing a rival scanner's head to explode.
== Cast ==
* Jennifer O'Neill as Kim Obrist
* Stephen Lack as Cameron Vale
* Patrick McGoohan as Dr. Paul Ruth
* Lawrence Dane as Braedon Keller
* Michael Ironside as Darryl Revok
* Robert Silverman as Benjamin Pierce
* Mavor Moore as Curtis Trevellyan
* Anthony Sherwood as Aiden
* Fred Doederlein as Dieder Tautz
* Victor Désy as Dr. Gatineau
* Louis Del Grande as First Scanner
* Alex Stevens as ConSec Programmer
William Hope, Christopher Britton, and Leon Herbert have uncredited appearances as Bicarbon Amalgamate employees. Neil Affleck has a minor role as a medical student.
Category:1981 films
Category:1981 horror films
Category:1981 action films
Category:1981 independent films
Category:1980s science fiction horror films
Category:Canadian action horror films
Category:Canadian independent films
Category:Embassy Pictures films
Category:English-language Canadian films
Category:Films about telekinesis