History Literature / AScannerDarkly

* FullBodyDisguise: The scramble-suits mask an agent's identity commpletely.

* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** "Hank", Bob/Fred's superior in the police force, drops some subtle foreshadowing about {{the reveal}} at the end when he's telling "Fred" how his investigation will work. He says "No one in the police force will know who you are. You could be Jim Barris, Ernie Luckman, or even Arctor himself. Hell, you could be ''Donna'' for all we know..." [[spoiler: At the end, it turns out that "Hank" was a disguised Donna all along]].
** Contemplating his neighborhood, Bob/Fred speculates that at the rate [=McDonald's=] sales tally is going, everyone will wind up selling the same hamburgers back and forth to one another. [[spoiler: Because Donna is actually Hank, the drugs she's been selling Bob/Fred are most likely the same ones he's been turning in to his superiors, over and over.]]

* TheReveal: [["Hank" is actually a disguised Donna.]]

** The cops are using questionable means, the drug dealers are pushing a drug that kills people, and the [[spoiler: rehab clinic is growing the drug it claims it's trying to stop]]. No real good guys here...

* BungledSuicide: Freck's attempt, in the movie. In the book, the suicide attempt is his last appearance in the story, so it may have actually worked or [[TethercatPrinciple he may really be hearing his sins, in shifts, for eternity]].
* ChekhovsGun: [[spoiler: Bob's psychiatric evaluators keep dropping hints that he should give Donna some flowers to help kindle romance. It's a ploy to plant the idea of retrieving flowers from New Path's farms once he's been turned into a ManchurianAgent]].
* ComedicSociopathy: Barris, both as written but especially as played by Robert Downey Jr.

** [[spoiler: Evil Plan - New Path are the ones making and distributing Substance D. Given their size and power they have had the laws changed so they can't be investigated by the police and are thus verging on a GovernmentConspiracy]].
** [[spoiler: CovertGroup - A number of the police force are certain that New Path are the ones responsible for Substance D and are working undercover to bring them to justice. Doing so requires... [[IDidWhatIHadToDo questionable methods]] however]].
* CorporateConspiracy: New Path, the company that runs the only existing rehab centers for Substance D addicts, [[spoiler:is actually the one growing the plants the drug is distilled from, and is ManufacturingVictims to give them a convenient source of patients and slave labor]].
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: [[spoiler:Given that their business plan appears to be "manufacture enough Substance D to get the majority of the US hooked on it, so that the government will grant us even more power" it's safe to say that the bosses at New Path are all this]].

* TheDeadHaveNames: The epigraph to both the novel and the film.

** [[spoiler: Donna is actually Hank who is actually Audrey, part of a cabal of police officers covertly investigating New Path]].
** [[spoiler: Mike is Audrey's colleague and although he's been successfully infiltrating New Path for years he's been unable to get access to the farms where he suspects Substance D is being manufactured]].
** And at the very end, [[spoiler: Arctor becomes one to the point that even he's not aware of it, as his mind has been thoroughly addled by his Substance D usage - but he retains the subconscious thought that he should send one of the flowers back to his friends.]]

* DisproportionateRetribution: As seen in the page quote, this was Dick's assessment of the impacts of their drug use.

* EmptyShell: [[spoiler: Arctor]] becomes this by the end of the story.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: "Hank", Bob/Fred's superior in the police force, drops some subtle foreshadowing about {{the reveal}} at the end when he's telling "Fred" how his investigation will work. He says "No one in the police force will know who you are. You could be Jim Barris, Ernie Luckman, or even Arctor himself. Hell, you could be ''Donna'' for all we know..." [[spoiler: At the end, it turns out that "Hank" was a disguised Donna all along]].
** Contemplating his neighborhood, Bob/Fred speculates that at the rate [=McDonald's=] sales tally is going, everyone will wind up selling the same hamburgers back and forth to one another. [[spoiler: Because Donna is actually Hank, the drugs she's been selling Bob/Fred are most likely the same ones he's been turning in to his superiors, over and over.]]
* FantasticDrug: Substance-D. Though, as Dick said, "Everything in ''A Scanner Darkly'' I actually saw".
* FullBodyDisguise: The scramble-suits.

* InsaneTrollLogic: Everything that goes through Barris' head, ever.

* KnowNothingKnowItAll: Implied with Barris.
* ListOfTransgressions: To quote the film version --

* LiteraryAllusionTitle: It's a reference to a bit about "a mirror, darkly" in Literature/TheBible. There's also a {{Title Drop}}.

* ManchurianAgent: [[spoiler: Bob Arctor is turned into one by way of drug addiction]].
* MandatoryTwistEnding: Well, it ''is'' Philip K. Dick. Read the spoiler under BittersweetEnding if you really want to know.
* ManufacturingVictims: [[spoiler: New Path, the company that runs the only existing rehab centers for Substance D addicts, is the organization that's been manufacturing Substance D all along. It's implied that they created the drug specifically to destroy addicts' minds so that they'd have an easy source of slave labor who wouldn't rat them out.]]

* TheMole: [[spoiler: Donna, technically, since as a drug dealer that puts her into villain territory]]
* MoodWhiplash:
** On the one hand, the movie shows the utter destruction of a man's life because of drugs. On the other, watching the stoners fool around can be hilarious.
** Also: Charles Freck's suicide attempt!

* PoisonAndCureGambit: [[spoiler: New Path]] is behind Substance D, while providing rehabilitation for its addicted users, which includes doing farm work-growing more of the drug.
* PowerTrio: Arctor, Barris and Luckman.
* TheReveal: [[spoiler: The leaders of New Path have been manufacturing Substance D at their rehab clinics all along, and "Hank" is actually a disguised Donna.]]
* RidiculousFutureSequelisation: At one point, Donna asks Bob to take her to a drive-in to see a marathon of all ''11'' of the ''Franchise/PlanetOfTheApes'' films. Even counting both reboots, the franchise is still only up to eight as of 2015.
* SanitySlippage: Bob/Fred as Substance D takes its toll on him.
* SinisterSurveillance: A keystone of the plot, and shown ostentatiously at the start of the film when Bob phones Donna to buy some drugs. We cut to an operative at one of a hundred surveillance consoles where the phone conversation is voice-[=IDed=] to Donna, and then cycles through half a dozen CCTV cameras to pin down Bob Arctor as he walks down the street.
* SplitPersonality: Bob/Fred (obviously)

* TitleDrop

* ToxicFriendInfluence: Barris, as Donna notes his influence on Arctor's behavior.
* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: 1994 or 1995 in the book (Luckman was born in 1962 and is said to be 32), "seven years from now" in the movie.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: [[spoiler: Mike, Donna/Audrey and Bob's psych evaluators intentionally get fellow officer Bob hooked and [[EmptyShell completely nuked]] on Substance D so he can be used as a sleeper agent to unknowingly infiltrate New Path's farms]].
* WithFriendsLikeThese: Barris. Barris, Barris, Barris. Let's look at some of the ways he conducts himself:

** He stands idly watching as Luckman is choking to death and makes the least effective emergency call ''ever''... and then has the balls to blame Luckman.
--->'''Barris''': I swear to ''god'' that a toddler has a better understanding of the intricacies of chew-swallow-digest-don't-kill-yourself-on-your-TV-dinner! And yet you've managed to turn this near death fuckup of yours [[NeverMyFault into a moral referendum on me]]!

A classic 1977 [[BlackComedy darkly comic]] [[{{Dystopia}} dystopian]] ScienceFiction novel by Creator/PhilipKDick. Dick dedicated the book to numerous people he personally knew that died, became insane or irreversibly ruined their health because of drugs. Among that list he placed himself, as his own early 70's drug use had destroyed his pancreas and eventually caused his premature death in 1982.

-->'''Narrator:''' One thousand years later, they had reached the sixth grade, the year he had [[ADateWithRosiePalms discovered masturbation.]]

* DrugsAreBad:
** The whole point behind the anvils it drops.
** However, what was different in this book is that though it clearly shows that the drugs are destructive, it asks the question: if the reality without drugs isn't a world you want to live in, what's the point? It shows the pay off: a brief life of dark instability where wonderful moments can still happen, terminated quickly by damage, psychosis and death; or a world of straight living where nothing changes and routine just whiles away the interminable time of your long life. That entire struggle is manifest in Arctor's decision to become an undercover cop, and then in the identity split between Fred and Arctor. Par the course, really, for PKD's dystopian view of reality, the question is discussed vigorously and never answered.
*** Well, until the afterword anyway, where the long list of Dick's now dead, dying or incurably insane addict friends essentially screams "NOT WORTH IT".

** Donna warns Bob that he acts like a crazy person whenever [[PoisonousFriend Barris]] is around.

* PoisonousFriend: Barris, though Robert Downey, Jr.'s performance is so funny one often loses sight of this -- which only makes it more frightening. Donna notes his [[ToxicFriendInfluence influence on Arctor's behavior]].

In 2006, it was [[AnimatedAdaptation adapted]] into a [[TheFilmOfTheBook movie]] by Creator/RichardLinklater, starring Creator/KeanuReeves, Woody Harrelson, Creator/RobertDowneyJr, and Creator/WinonaRyder. Neither a traditional live-action nor animated feature, the movie was recorded on digital video and then [[{{Rotoscoping}} rotoscoped]] to create a graphic novel-like visual effect, in a similar style to Linklater's earlier film ''Film/WakingLife''. Both versions of the story are well-loved, although some significant elements of the film are different from the novel.

** At one point Bob sees his flatmates partly change into huge cockroaches, which is what happened to TheProtagonist of Film/NakedLunch.

* TwwntyMinutesIntoTheFuture: The very first scene states that the story takes place "seven years from now", which turns out to look kind of like the '70s (when the book was written), the early '90s (when the story was set), and the early 21st century when it was made... [[AnachronismStew all scrambled together]]. {{Justified|Trope}} insofar as the characters are living in a rundown part of town that likely hasn't been renovated in decades.

* Fanservice: The film shows Bob having sex with a woman, whom he hallucinates is Donna when watching a recording of it.

* ManufacturingVictims: [[spoiler: New Path, the company that runs the only existing rehab centers for Substance D addicts, is the organization that's been manufacturing Substance D all along. It's implied that they created the drug specifically to destroy addicts' minds so that they'd have an easy source of slave labor.]]

* ReverseMole: [[spoiler: Donna, technically, since as a drug dealer that puts her into villain territory]]

* AsTheGoodBookSays: The title is a modern spin on the famous quote by St Paul in 1 Corinthians, (to see imperfectly) "through a glass, darkly".

** Provides Freck with some cocaine so as to get into Donna's pants. Even CloudCuckoolander Freck is surprised at this as he's got no interest in her sexually and just wants to buy D from her.

** He stands idly watching Luckman is choking to death and makes the least effective emergency call ''ever''... and then has the balls to blame Luckman.

* HollywoodSilencer: Realistically averted with Barris' homemade silencer, which completely fails to work, but for a logical reason. His cheap homemade silencer might actually have worked normally (the principles behind silencers aren't rocket science, the PillowSilencer actually works in real life), but he's putting it on a revolver, which normally can't be silenced due to gas exploding from the cylinder in addition to the barrel (with a few very specific exceptions such as the Russian Nagant pistol).

* ShoutOut: The reference to an unnamed Leonardo [=DiCaprio=] movie about [=DiCaprio's=] character [[Film/CatchMeIfYouCan "pretending to be other people"]].

-->'''Barris''': I swear to ''god'' that a toddler has a better understanding of the intricacies of chew-swallow-digest-don't-kill-yourself-on-your-TV-dinner! And yet you've managed to turn this near death fuckup of yours into a moral referendum on me!

* HollywoodSilencer: Realistically averted with Barris' homemade silencer, which completely fails to work, but for a logical reason. His cheap homemade silencer might actually have worked normally (the principals behind silencers aren't rocket science, the PillowSilencer actually works in real life), but he's putting it on a revolver, which normally can't be silenced due to gas exploding from the cylinder in addition to the barrel (with a few very specific exceptions such as the Russian Nagant pistol).

->''[[Music/TheBarenakedLadies Hard to admit I fought the war on drugs\\