Scanners

Scanners (1981) is a cult sci-fi horror film by David Cronenberg, available to watch online on iFILM. A scanner is a person who hears what you're thinking before you say it, feels pain through walls, and — under pressure — can rupture a human mind like a blood vessel. There are 237 of them on earth. Most stay hidden. One has decided to stop hiding.

That one is Darryl Revok, played by Michael Ironside with a stillness that makes every scene feel overcharged. He's building a network of scanners loyal to him and no one else — aiming for something well past personal survival. Standing opposite him is Cameron Vale, a drifter barely in control of his own ability, recruited by the corporation ConSec and guided by Dr. Paul Ruth, played by Patrick McGoohan. The mission is to find Revok before he finds everyone else. It sounds straightforward. It isn't.

Cronenberg wrote the script himself, starting with nothing but a single idea about telepathy as bodily violence. Shot in Canada on a budget under two million dollars, the film produced one of cinema's most copied shots — practical effects, no CGI, still jarring forty years later. Stream Scanners (1981) online on iFILM.