History Film / Scanners

* YourHeadASplode: One of the most infamous examples.

* [[spoiler:PsychoSerum: Ephemerol is originally introduced as a scanner suppressant. We discover later that Dr. Ruth originally developed it as a tranquilizer for pregnant women, and that unborn children who are exposed to it become scanners.]]

* TakingYouWithMe: [[spoiler:After his plan is definitively foiled, Forrester tries to kill David one last time by grabbing one of the police officer's shotguns]].

* PermaStubble: Alex when he returns home.

* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: The second film seems to take place in a near future where many North American cities have become largely overrun with rampant crime and lawlessness, and air pollution is a standard part of the weather report. The third, which as one would assume is set after two, takes place in the present (1992) again.

!!The sequels and spin-offs provide examples of:

* AteHisGun: [[spoiler:The police chief, prompted by Drak]].
* BadassInANiceSuit: Helena's henchman in part three.

* CainAndAbel: The main hero and villain in ''Scanners 3'' are each other's brother and sister, respectively.

* DullSurprise: Alex.

* EvilLaugh: Helena at different points, and Drak after his rampage.
* FantasticDrug: The second movie introduces a new generation of Ephemerol, but it's ''highly'' addictive and debilitating long-term. The terminally addicted scanners look remarkably like a mix between meth addicts and cancer victims. The third uses another version to explain how Helena turned evil. Somehow.
* FollowTheLeader: The ''Scanner Cop'' series. The two sequels to a lesser extent as well, being only tangentially related to the first.
* {{Gorn}}: Heaps of it.

* HospitalHottie: One of the villainous scanners in part three.

* LargeHam: Most of the villains: Drak, Helena, Volkin...

* MindOverMatter: Alex in particular shows off some impressive telekinetic powers.
* MsFanservice: Helena and Yoyce in the third film.
* MyGreatestFailure: Alex [[AccidentalMurder accidentally kills his best friend]] at the start of ''Scanners 3'', going into self-imposed isolation for many years in a Buddhist monastery.
* PermaStubble: Alex when he returns home.

* SatelliteLoveInterest: Yoyce to Alex in the third. Alice also seems like this to David in the second, but that one at least establishes [[PreciousPuppies why she wants to become a vet]].
* SensualSlavs: Helena is apparently meant to be Canadian, but the actress's thick Polish accent comes through a lot.
* SequelHook: [[spoiler:Helena transforming into some sort of energy creature at the end of the third film (taking a note from ''Gremlins2TheNewBatch'', perhaps?), but it's forgotten in favor of ''Scanner Cop'']].
* {{Technopath}}:
** Drak is playing an arcade game. Then he does it ''without his hands''. Then he takes control of the entire arcade hall, setting a panic, and [[StuffBlowingUp blowing it up]].
** Helena mind controls people straight through cameras and television sets.
* TakeOverTheWorld: Most villains' intentions.

* HeyItsThatGuy: Yep, that's [[StargateAtlantis David Hewlett]] as [[TheDanza the lead]] in ''Scanners 2''. And [[Film/FreddyVsJason Lori's father]] as the corrupt doctor.

* RomanceOnTheSet: Christian Duguay, the director of ''Scanners II'' and ''III'', married Liliana Komorowska, who played Helen in the third.

* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: The second film seems to take place in a near future where many North American cities have become largely overrun with rampant crime and lawlessness, and air pollution is a standard part of the weather report. The third, which as one would assume is set after two, takes place in the present (1992) again.

* FoeYay: Drak constantly calling David "pretty boy".

* MindOverMatter: David in particular shows off some impressive telekinetic powers.

* ScrewTheRulesIHaveANuke: [[spoiler:Breadon Keller]] orders a [=ConSec=] technician to do a blank swipe of the [=ConSec=] computer system in an attempt to hurt Cameron while he's mentally connected to it through the telephone system, but he refuses to do so because that would wipe out all stored computer files, something he couldn't do without the written authorization of the [=ConSec=] leadership. [[spoiler:Braedon Keller]]'s response is to shove a gun in the guy's face.
-->'''[[spoiler:Braedon Keller]]''': Mister, ''this'' is your authorization.

->-- '''Dr. Paul Ruth'''

** This motif of the protagonist-as-a-pawn was one that Cronenberg later returned to in ''{{Videodrome}}'', where the manipulation is a good deal more sinister.

* WhatMightHaveBeen: In the original screenplay, the protagonist's name was going to be Harley Quinn (note that ''BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' did [[NamesTheSame not exist yet]]) and he was going to be a [[VillainProtagonist much darker character]] than Vale - it was going to start with him [[MindRape Mind Raping]] a woman in a subway on purpose, as opposed to Vale's accidental crime in the opening scene of the completed film.

* ShallowLoveInterest: Yoyce to Alex in the third. Alice also seems like this to David in the second, but that one at least establishes [[PreciousPuppies why she wants to become a vet]].

Revok is a psychotic [[SmugSuper scanner-supremacist]] who wants to TakeOverTheWorld (reportedly, some of the later characterization for [[XMen Magneto]] was based on him), and, with his terrorist sect of scanners, probably could. Now the question remains: Is Vale a badder dude than Revok?

* AllThereIsToKnowAboutTheCryingGame: Most people don't know it as ''Scanners'', but as "that one where the guy's head explodes".
* AntiHero

* BondJamesBond: ("Revok! Darryl Revok!")

* CanadaEh: Pierce lives in a cabin in the woods, and Revok and [[spoiler: Keller]] can be seen meeting at what is clearly the Yorkdale subway station in Toronto. Both Cronenberg and MichaelIronside are Torontonians. The [=ConSec=] helicopter also has a Canadian registration.

* DeconstructorFleet: Analyzes and subverts many of the tropes relating to the classic Hero's Journey, including TheMentor, the LoveInterest, the BigBad, and even the evil student.

* DullSurprise: Cameron has no personality whatever, which makes Stephen Lack's job easily mistaken for simple bad acting. His acting performances normally have a somewhat [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0k0vKC2hUBk&feature=related wider range of emotion]] to them.

* FridgeBrilliance: Stephen Lack's apparent lack of acting is because Vale has little if any personality of his own.
** Benjamin Pierce's art becomes less weird when one considers the fact that he is a scanner.

* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Darryl Revok.
** Probably deliberate. After all, he likely chose the name himself.

* RedRightHand: Revok's scar.

* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: Revok seems to believe this.
* WeCanRuleTogether

* HeyItsThatGuy: Yep, that's [[StargateAtlantis David Hewlett]] as [[TheDanza the lead]] in ''Scanners 2''. And [[FreddyVsJason Lori's father]] as the corrupt doctor.

* SequelHook: [[spoiler:Helena transforming into some sort of energy creature at the end of the third film (taking a note from ''[[{{Gremlins}} Gremlins 2]]'', perhaps?), but it's forgotten in favor of ''Scanner Cop'']].

* DeconstructorFleet: Analyzes and subverts many of the tropes of the classic Hero's Journey, including TheMentor, the LoveInterest, the BigBad, and even the evil student.

* DeconstructorFleet: Analyzes and subverts many of the tropes of the classic Hero'sJourney, including TheMentor, the LoveInterest, the BigBad, and even the evil student.

* DeconstructorFleet

The movie was followed by a number of DirectToVideo continuations: two sequels and two spin-offs. None of these involved Cronenberg or anyone else involved in the production of the first film (and are subsequently non-canon with it), and also [[{{Sequelitis}} steadily declined in quality]], settling for B-movie schlock.

* TakeOverTheWorld: Revok plans to dod this by [[spoiler:initiating a country-wide scheme of covertly prescribing pregnant women with a dangerous drug that will turn their unborn children into scanners, who he will then convert to his cause - being one himself with a deep hatred for normal humans]].

* ShallowLoveInterest: Yoyce to Alex in the third. Alice also seems like this to David in the second, but that one at least establishes [[EverythingsPreciousWithPuppies why she wants to become a vet]].

* {{Technopath}}: Drak is playing an arcade game. Then he does it ''without his hands''. Then he takes control of the entire arcade hall, setting a panic, and [[StuffBlowingUp blowing it up]].

* {{Narm}}: The sequels increasingly narm things up in general. Scanner duels also seem to gradually devolve into "whoever makes the weirdest face wins".

* HeyItsThatGuy: Yep, that's [[StargateAtlantis David Hewlett]] as [[NamesTheSame the lead]] in ''Scanners 2''. And [[FreddyVsJason Lori's father]] as the corrupt doctor.