Scanners

"10 Seconds: The Pain Begins. 15 Seconds: You Can’t Breathe. 20 Seconds: You Explode."

1981 1h 43m EN

👍

6.7

SOLID

★6.7TMDB · 1,443

Science FictionHorror

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

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.

“10 Seconds: The Pain Begins. 15 Seconds: You Can’t Breathe. 20 Seconds: You Explode.”

WhatsApp X Facebook Telegram

Where to watch · US

Cast

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

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: David Cronenberg
Writers: David Cronenberg
Languages: English
Countries: Canada

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $4.1M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Made its money back 3.5× over at the box office.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

45 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "Scanners Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by David Cronenberg, shot by Mark Irwin. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Howard Shore. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Ronald Sanders shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Stephen Lack and Jennifer O'Neill and Michael Ironside carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

David Cronenberg directs. Mark Irwin behind the camera. Howard Shore scores. Ronald Sanders cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in Canada. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Shot for just $4.1M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
2Made its money back 3.5× over at the box office.
345 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
4Part of the "Scanners Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
5Directed by David Cronenberg, shot by Mark Irwin. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by Howard Shore. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor Ronald Sanders shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Stephen Lack and Jennifer O'Neill and Michael Ironside carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "10 Seconds: The Pain Begins. 15 Seconds: You Can’t Breathe. 20 Seconds: You Explode.".
10IMDB entry: tt0081455 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
11Classified under 11 themes, including "mind control", "telepathy", "paranormal phenomena", "telekinesis".
12Released under 12 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Mark Irwin
Original score: Howard Shore
Editing: Ronald Sanders
Costume design: Delphine White
Makeup / hair: Brigitte McCaughry
Sound: Mike Hoogenboom
Stunt coordinator: Alex Stevens
Runtime: 103 min · 1h 43m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $4,100,000
Box office: $14,225,876
Return: 347% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Scanners (1981)

Awards

Saturn Award for Best International Film

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Part of

Scanners Collection

A science-fiction action horror film series created by David Cronenberg about people with unusual telepathic and telekinetic powers.

Also by

David Cronenberg

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2024-02-08
★ 7/10
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.

Production companies