Scanners
A scientist trains a man with an advanced telepathic ability called 'scanning' to stop a dangerous Scanner with extraordinary psychic powers from waging war against non-Scanners.
Critics Sentiment
Revok counter-scans the ConSec operative, causing his head to explode
Vale finds Kim Obrist's scanner group, which Revok's men then massacre
The film drops sharply from the iconic head-explosion peak at minute 15 (9.2) into the sluggish, poorly-acted mid-film investigative stretch around minute 45 (5.2), a swing of 4.0 points that defines the film's central weakness.
Scanners opens with two electrifying set pieces that generate enormous goodwill, but audience sentiment collapses through a long, convoluted, and woodenly-acted middle section that most reviewers found boring and underdeveloped. The film recovers strongly in its final act, with the telephone-scanning sequence and the spectacular telepathic duel restoring much of the goodwill lost in the middle, leaving audiences with a memorable if uneven experience that rewards patient viewers.
Full cast
Showing 20 of 49
Stephen Lack
Cameron Vale
Jennifer O'Neill
Kim Obrist
Michael Ironside
Darryl Revok
Patrick McGoohan
Dr. Paul Ruth
Lawrence Dane
Braedon Keller
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
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Sonny Forbes
Killer in Attic
Jérôme Tiberghien
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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
Crew
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