- In X2: X-Men United when Col. Stryker explains how his wife was telepathically Driven to Suicide.
- In Wayne's World, when Wayne has abandoned the new corporate-owned version of his show, leaving Garth alone on the set with no idea what he's supposed to do, leading to this line from one of the crew."Did you ever see that scene in Scanners when the dude's head blows up?"
- In the Saturday Night Live sketch "Jimmy Tango's Fat Busters", Jim Carrey is promoting a dangerous weight loss treatment (in that it's primarily based upon crystal meth use) when a successful user of it (Will Ferrell) declares he is the Devil. Carrey says "But talk is cheap — scan me!" A scanner duel ensues (with Carrey directly impersonating Revok in the film's climax); Ferrell gives up when blood starts squirting from his brainpan.
- In the Supernatural episode "Peace of Mind", a Muggle store clerk compares a young man's head being psychically blown up to Scanners. Castiel asks which of the first three movies, specifically.
- In the The Big Bang Theory episode "The Cooper-Hofstadter Polarization", Sheldon keeps trying to psychically blow up people's heads like in the movie.Leonard: You can not blow up my head with your mind.
Sheldon: Then I'll settle for an aneurysm. - Mystery Science Theater 3000: In the Gunslinger episode, Dr. F's invention is the Scanner Planner, which teaches the reader how to psychically make people's heads explode. (It even has the movie's original poster art on its cover.) He manages to make Tom Servo's temporary balloon head explode before the experiment, and TV's Frank's head explode after.
- The first Farm Film Report sketch on SCTV has Big Jim McBob and Billy Sol Hurok give a rave review to this movie — they love Stuff Blowing Up in general, so they particularly appreciate the Your Head Asplode scene.
- Metal Gear Solid built much of its plot on the back of this film. See a side-by-side plot comparison here: https://opinionerded.wordpress.com/2020/08/20/10-kojimas-metal-gear-solid-was-inspired-by-cronenbergs-scanners/
. - Psychonauts: Psychic boy Dogen Boole lists Scanners as one of his favorite movies on his Character Blog. This is because he has powers similar to that of Revok.
