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Scanners

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Scanners

R

Released Jan 14, 1981

1h 42m

Sci-Fi

Horror

Mystery & Thriller

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

68%

Tomatometer

44 Reviews

64%

Popcornmeter

25,000+ Ratings

Scanners are men and women born with incredible telepathic and telekinetic powers. There are many who exercise the benefits of their special gifts in a safe and judicious manner. However, there is a group of renegade scanners who plan to create a race that will rule the world.

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Critics Consensus

Scanners is a dark sci-fi story with special effects that'll make your head explode.

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Bruce McCabe

Boston Globe

Scanners, according to David Cronenberg's new film, are people who can control others with their thoughts...The idea has a certain cachet. But Scanners doesn't pay off on it.

Apr 28, 2018

Full Review

Keith Phipps

The Dissolve

The generous selection of bonus features includes vintage elements, like a trailer made up almost entirely of the exploding-head scene, a handful of radio spots, and a 1981 talk-show appearance in which Cronenberg discusses his work up to that point.

Rated: 4/5

Jul 14, 2014

Full Review

Nathan Lee

Film Comment Magazine

Scanners consolidates the ruling problematic of the Cronenberg project from the sex slugs of Shivers to the financial abstractions of Cosmopolis: what are the effects of signals on an organism?

Jul 7, 2014

Full Review

Brian Bisesi

Horror Movie Club Podcast

Scanners would benefit from more focus on its main character. The intricacies of its plot would be more potent if filtered through an expressive and complex character. But the ideas are captivating, the effects are impressive, and the score is incredible.

Rated: 3.5/5

May 28, 2025

Full Review

Alan Mount

Starburst

It’s a film that staggers the imagination as much today as it did four decades ago and it’s not difficult to understand why.

Mar 20, 2025

Full Review

Joe Lipsett

Anatomy of a Scream Podcast Network

Obviously the exploding head is iconic, but the rest of the film is nearly as messy. An on-the-fly script and paper thing characters hint at more intriguing ideas than what is actually seen on screen.

Rated: 3/5

Jul 21, 2023

Full Review

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jabroKnee t

Starts slow, but that's not entirely the fault of the actors (although Steven Lack can be wooden). The script doesn't present us with any strong characters to latch onto making the first forty minutes, which are laden with expository dialogue, feel very sluggish aside from one famous head explosion. From the art gallery scene and on things really start to pick up as Vale has finally been given a mission/purpose and I found myself engrossed for the remaining run time, all the way through to a truly spectacular ending. Loved the tone of this movie. It felt like an unpublished Philip K Dick novel with all the tropes: psychic corporate espionage, drugs as tools/weapons, meditation and transcendentalist themes, a scanner used to hunt scanners -- even the film's own title. Maybe it's just the direction SciFi was heading circa late '70s/early '80s. Many of the sequences are bolstered by great cinematography and a soundtrack with lots of lovely analogue synths. Just wish the first 3rd of the movie was a little tighter. 7/10

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

04/27/25

Full Review

Madam D

Nothing good about this movie except the scenes with the exploding heads.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/17/25

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Keith N

Weird ass movie, only watched it in my Film Story Analysis class

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/29/25

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Daniel C. M

Very nice effects, story, thrills, action and direction. Though, with the sole exception of Michael Ironside as the antagonist, everyone's acting is pretty bad and actively hurts the film.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

12/22/24

Full Review

D. Hunter P

Decent thriller movie that really gets better in the final scene of the movie. It could have benefited from more of that throughout the rest of the movie.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

12/15/24

Full Review

Mason M

A classic Cronenberg film, he again gives us his signature grotesque body horror done amazingly well. This film is famous for it's great head explosion scene at the start, and memorable for it's shocking and grotesque ending. The sound design is also amazing. Scanners may not be the best film, but it's definitely worth a watch

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

09/09/24

Full Review

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Synopsis

Scanners are men and women born with incredible telepathic and telekinetic powers. There are many who exercise the benefits of their special gifts in a safe and judicious manner. However, there is a group of renegade scanners who plan to create a race that will rule the world.

Director: David Cronenberg
Producer: Claude Héroux
Screenwriter: David Cronenberg
Distributor: AVCO Embassy Pictures
Production Co: Filmplan, Canadian Film Development Corporation (CFDC)
Rating: R
Genre: Sci-Fi, Horror, Mystery & Thriller
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jan 14, 1981, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Mar 11, 2017
Runtime: 1h 42m
Sound Mix: Stereo, Mono
Aspect Ratio: Flat (1.85:1)

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