Scanners is a David Cronenberg film and is the Matryoshka doll of stories. The nature of the conflict shifts frequently: from corporate espionage to a civil war among the titular group to a more intimate, but Biblically mythic show down. Scanners’ soundtrack sounds similar to Blade Runner’s soundtrack, which makes sense when the origins of the conflict are revealed. Scanners is classic Cronenberg body horror with Hitchcock influences and though dated in many ways, it clearly influenced future films (the X-Men franchise) and TV shows (Firefly).
Scanners is such a classic that you may believe that you have seen it already because many of the scenes have been widely disseminated and can even be considered iconic. It is times like this that I miss having the IMDb message boards because I am sure that someone has already done an in depth analysis of the names featured in Scanners: Cameron Vale, Kim Obrist, Darryl Revok, Braedon Keller, Paul Ruth, Benjamin Pierce, Ephemerol, ConSec. Apparently Scanners spawned quite a number of sequels without Cronenberg’s hand at the till, which probably means that they are poor quality.
I can see a viewer thinking that the movie is silly in retrospect. People look at each other with wide eyes and shake convulsively yet we know that nothing is really happening. Our smart phones would run laps around their technology. The body horror is over the top, possibly gruesome, if it was not so obviously fake: bulging veins and melting eyes. Yet much of what makes Scanners great is timeless: the story and the acting.
It is clear that even though the viewer and the main character become aware of the story long after it began, it was unfolding decades if not longer before the people on screen were born. People complain that Stephen Lack is not an actor so he is not good as a main character, Cameron Vale, but I think that he is perfect for the role. He is supposed to be the polar opposite of Michael Ironside, who perfectly plays Darryl Revok. Think Magneto except less friendly.
Technically Vale was born yesterday so he should not be approachable. Even though the scientist has an agenda, what makes Vale terrifying is that while he does not theoretically disagree with that agenda, he is not necessarily on the same page and is a wild card-he may take pleasure in destruction as much as Ironside, chill with the girl or something else entirely. He just wants to be sane and have an identity, but by the end of Scanners, you realize that his idea of sanity and identity is completely alien to our own. He is a terrifying anti-hero. At least Ironside just wants to kill everyone and be in charge—his desires are conventional albeit terrible. When Vale says that “we won,” you realize that the “we” could be a royal we, a reference to Vale and the independent Scanners, a reference to him and Revok or something else entirely. He is more machine than human, but he is still made of flesh and blood. If Hal 2000 was a person, he would be Lack except no one can stop him, and he has literally no boundaries: mental, physical or moral. I don’t think that is a happy ending even though it is the extreme result of the peaceful Scanners’ communal ideal.
Scanners and The Brood reveal Cronenberg’s growing obsession with how rational science can lead to madness and chaos because human beings, who are inherently flawed and riddled with madness and chaos, create science. There is a great rant scene by Dr. Ruth, which I rewatched after watching the film. Seemingly out of nowhere, there is a tremendous crack in his professional façade, and he appears to be losing his mind, which made me realize that he was always crazy, he just seemed rational to me before. There is literally no foreboding of this break. Cronenberg does not trust scientists.
I am sure that there is so much to say about Scanners, and I am just sorry that I saw it at such a late stage in my life when I don’t have the time to research and rewatch the film multiple times to suck it dry. If you are not into horror, skip it, but if you are, Scanners is a must see classic, especially for Cronenberg fans.