History Literature / AScannerDarkly

* 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.

* BittersweetEnding: Going almost into DownerEnding territory. [[spoiler: By the end of the book, Bob/Fred has completely lost his sanity and sense of self, and he's shipped off to the only rehab center for Substance D in existence. Only it turns out that the people running the rehab center are the ones growing the flowers that Substance D is distilled from, and that Donna was really an undercover cop who purposely pushed Bob/Fred into his breakdown so she'd have a mole in their organization. The only thing keeping the book from looking too down is that Bob/Fred retains enough presence of mind to send the flower back home to his superiors...]]

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ScannerDarkly_7077.jpg]]

* MoralDissonance: In the bicycle scene mentioned above, it's pointed out by one of the psychiatrists that it took "a negro" to point out to the others how speeds on a bicycle work. Perhaps when the book was written, this kind of comment could have been made without even considering the UnfortunateImplications, or perhaps not. Either way, the line was excluded from the movie.

* 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.

* ComedicSociopathy: Barris, both as written and as played by Robert Downey Jr.

* WellIntentionedExtremist: [[spoiler: Mike, Donna/Audrey and Bob's psych evaluators intentionally get fellow officer Bob hooked and 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 a couple of the ways he conducts himself:

** 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 drugs from her.

* 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 influence on Arctor's behavior.

* JekyllAndHyde: Arctor's druggie persona and his narc persona separate more and more as the story goes on. [[spoiler:Ultimately, he forgets he's narcing on himself, until a psychiatrist [[TomatoInTheMirror reminds him]].]]

* NietzscheWannabe:
** Bob/Fred
** Well, it's kinda both subverted and inverted. His bleak outlook on life is a reflection of the events he perceives happening.

* [[spoiler: 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.]]

* TypeCasting:
** Keanu Reeves, spaced out once more.
** In fact, the whole cast fits this trope. Who better to play a closed circle of stoners who sit around and shoot the shit than Woody Harrelson, Robert Downey Jr, Keanu Reaves, Winona Ryder and Rory Cochrane of {{Dazed and Confused}} fame. You also have crazy conspiracy theorist Alex Jones making a cameo as a crazy conspiracy theorist. Honestly, it wouldn't be surprising if the psychiatrists in the movie were actually accredited psychiatrists.
** Could also be seen as MetaCasting.

* CastingGag: RobertDowneyJr, who's infamous for his highly publicized drug problems (which he was just recovering from at the time the movie came out) is cast as a drug addict living in a household full of them.

-->"What does a scanner see? I mean, really see? Into the head? Down into the heart? Does a passive infrared scanner ? see into me ? into us ? clearly or darkly? I hope it does see clearly, because I can't any longer these days see into myself. I see only murk. Murk outside; murk inside. I hope, for everyone's sake, the scanners do better. Because if the scanner sees only darkly, the way I myself do, then we are cursed, cursed again and like we have been continually, and we'll wind up dead this way, knowing very little and getting that little fragment wrong too."

** In fact, the whole cast fits this trope. I mean, who better to play a closed circle of stoners who sit around and shoot the shit than Woody Harrelson, Robert Downey Jr, Keanu Reaves, Winona Ryder and Rory Cochrane of {{Dazed and Confused}} fame. You also have crazy conspiracy theorist Alex Jones making a cameo as a crazy conspiracy theorist. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if the psychiatrists in the movie were actually accredited psychiatrists.

** Could also be seen as MetaCasting.

* ThroughTheEyesOfMadness: The more drugs Arctor takes, the less sense everything makes. The few

In 2006, it was [[AnimatedAdaptation adapted]] into a [[TheFilmOfTheBook movie]] by RichardLinklater, starring Keanu Reeves, Woody Harrelson, Robert Downey, Jr., and Winona Ryder. 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. Both versions of the story are well-loved, although some significant elements of the film are different from the novel.

When Arctor appears in public, doing anti-drug talks or comparing notes with other narcs, he wears a special suit that hides his features completely by changing how he looks every second and removes the affect from his voice. This is supposed to be to protect the narcs from internal corruption; not knowing what your fellow undercover agents look like makes it much harder for a crooked cop to sell out to the cartels.

Bob only wears this suit when he's in straight society. In the world he's infiltrating, a world of poverty and crime, he uses no disguise and simply goes by "Fred". As "Fred", he blends in well, fitting in more with the people he scopes out than with the straights. He even uses Substance D, the better to blend in. The narcs are aiming for the big dealers, and they hope that Arctor will lead them to the people they're hunting for by hanging out with the small fish.

So Arctor talks, in disguise, with his superior, also in disguise, to get his next case. The boss seems understanding about his losing his quarry. So they discuss all the Substance D users in the neighborhood; this requires him to talk about "Fred" as if he were someone else, since doing otherwise would make it clear who he was and make him a direct target for corrupt cops. His boss determines that the "Fred" he reports on is behaving suspiciously and getting large amounts of money at irregular intervals; it's actually reward money from Bob's successful tips, but, not knowing "Fred" is a narc, the boss thinks he might be a dealer... and so Bob is given the assignment of ''spying on himself''. Which doesn't make things easier on his drug-addled brain.

* ThroughTheEyesOfMadness: The more drugs Arctor takes, the less sense everything makes. The few brief times reality is seen through Freck's eyes, all sanity takes a leave of absence.
* TitleDrop
-->"What does a scanner see? I mean, really see? Into the head? Down into the heart? Does a passive infrared scanner ? see into me ? into us ? clearly or darkly? I hope it does see clearly, because I can't any longer these days see into myself. I see only murk. Murk outside; murk inside. I hope, for everyone's sake, the scanners do better. Because if the scanner sees only darkly, the way I myself do, then we are cursed, cursed again and like we have been continually, and we'll wind up dead this way, knowing very little and getting that little fragment wrong too."
* 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.
* TypeCasting:
** Keanu Reeves, spaced out once more.
** In fact, the whole cast fits this trope. I mean, who better to play a closed circle of stoners who sit around and shoot the shit than Woody Harrelson, Robert Downey Jr, Keanu Reaves, Winona Ryder and Rory Cochrane of {{Dazed and Confused}} fame. You also have crazy conspiracy theorist Alex Jones making a cameo as a crazy conspiracy theorist. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if the psychiatrists in the movie were actually accredited psychiatrists.
** Could also be seen as MetaCasting.
----

* HeyItsThatVoice:
** Who knew [[DragonBallZ Cell]] was also a morally ambiguous police officer?
** [[spoiler:That rehab guy that Bob/Fred was talking to at the end of the film? That's [[Manga/AzumangaDaioh Chiyo's Dad]].]]