Scanner Cop II (also known as Scanners: The Showdown) is the last movie in the Scanners series, released in 1995.
After the events of the first Scanner Cop, Sam Staziak (Daniel Quinn) is still working for the LAPD, using his abilities to better stop criminals. He is also looking for any remaining blood relatives, thinking his biological mother might still be alive. Carl Volkin (Patrick Kilpatrick), a psychopathic scanner whom Staziak put away years ago for going on a murder spree with his brother has returned to target Staziak. Being weaker than his enemy, Volkin starts to resort to draining other scanners of their powers, going on another murder spree to become the most powerful psychic in the world.
This film provides examples of:
- Avenging the Villain: Carl Volkin was committing home invasions and rapes together with his equally psychotic brother until officer Sam Staziak stopped them both and killed the younger Volkin. After getting out of prison Carl vows to get revenge on Staziak.
- Big Bad: Carl Volkin.
- Big "YES!": Volkin gives one after he absorbs the psychic energy from his first two victims.
- Darker and Edgier: The film avoids the Lighter and Softer direction that movie sequels often tended to go in during the 90s. The villain is another psychopath seeking revenge on the protagonist like in the first Scanner Cop, though in this scenario he's a scanner, which makes him more dangerous.
- Duel to the Death: Staziak and Volkin hold a scanner duel at the end of the film.
- Ear Ache: At the beginning, Staziak causes a hostage taker's ear to melt off by scanning through his earpiece.
- Evil Wears Black: Volkin is notably the only villain in this entire series to go around entirely in black.
- Film Noir: It has it all: Volkin wears a black trenchcoat; most of the film is shot at night with atmospheric lighting; there's a transition to black-and-white flashbacks in one scene; and the final showdown takes place in the dusty attic of a retirement home.
- Gorn: It's a Scanners film, what else do you expect? The head explosions were synonymous with the series by this point.
- Handwave: In the very first scene, two cops discuss how Sam is taking "a new form of Ephemerol" so he has all his Scanner powers and none of the complications.
- Heroic Suicide: Staziak's real mother kills herself by jumping off a balcony, to prevent Volkin from absorbing her power so he can use it against her son.
- Large Ham: Volkin (Patrick Kilpatrick) is basically orgasming while draining scanners of their life force.
- Life Energy: Scanners possess psychic energy that can be consumed by certain other scanners, absorbing the victim's power into their own.
- Master of Illusion: During the final battle Staziak repeatedly creates a diversion by making Volkin attack an illusory projection of himself, causing Volkin to waste energy trying to kill Staziak.
- Psychic-Assisted Suicide: Volkin kills an orderly at the psychiatric institution he escaped from by forcing him to shoot himself, and later directs a police officer to stand in front of an oncoming car.
- Psychic Nosebleed: Happens whenever a person is scanned.
- Serial Killer: Carl Volkin systematically kills other scanners so he can steal their life energy, and therefore, their powers. It's also implied that he and his brother would gang rape and kill young women during house invasions.
- Technopath: Scanners use their minds to control personal computers. Staziak even melts some hostage takers' ears by scanning through their headsets.
- Title Drop:Volkin: I'm waiting for you, Scanner Cop!
- Vampiric Draining: Volkin devours the lifeforce of other scanners to add to his own power. Staziak even compares him to a vampire at one point.
- Your Head Asplode: This is how Staziak kills Volkin at the end.
