I remember when I was little and my dad was flipping through the channels. He landed on that scene. When the guy's head explodes, he says "Goddamn" and quickly changes the channel.
Michael Ironside was great in this movie. I have to say this was a very cool movie. I was a youg kid when I saw this movie at the show and it shocked the hell out me. The exploding head and the last battle was truly an over-the-top FX for the 80's. The meeting...the final battle.."Alright...were going to do it the scanner way, I am going to suck your brain dry!"
My best friend & I had this movie on BETAMAX back in the 80's, along with other 'video nasties' like Dawn of the Dead, Rabid, Shivers, The Brood, Visiting Hours, The Burning etc. We thought we were the Video Nasty Boys of our town, staying up all night & drinking cans of Newcastle Brown Ale, until we got The Exorcist... & ended up sitting side by side in the middle of the couch! Ahem!! ;-)
Great movie, great concept. I always remember the artwork on the VHS cover too while strolling the local movie library. Is it just me? I loved the artwork for horror movie covers back then.
Yes! The covers were important & meant to grab the eye. Many of the covers were better than the movie. lol Do you remember Atari 2600 & Intellivision video game covers/art? They were awesome too! Anyway, back in the early 80's when my parents bought our first VCR, I remember Scanners was 1 of the first movies we rented. My brother & I must have rewound & replayed the "exploding head" scene like 100 times, lol. (& watched it in slow motion) I also remember back in the early 80's, movies were crazy expensive, to both buy & rent, & there were many places to rent movies. Gas stations, grocery stores, convenience stores, pharmacies, (I remember Rite Aid rented videos & had a large selection) etc. I remember 1 Easter vacation, my mom refused to rent a movie for us. They (a local convenience store/gas station) joyfully proclaimed their "special Easter price" of $16.95,...for 1 freakin' movie, 1 day rental & it had to be back before 9:00AM!!! With inflation,...that is like $50. I remember my uncle bought Shindler's List VHS on the day it was released. Cost = $105. ($170 w/inflation!) Movie studios & rental stores definitely raped the public back then, but in the end they got theirs, compliments of the digital age & file sharing.
If u like that...look at the artwork of stranger things..the new netflix serie...its a complete 80ties homage. www.google.nl/search?q=stranger+things+season+2&espv=2&biw=1920&bih=955&tbm=isch&source=lnms&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjroN2z2cjOAhVMBcAKHQ0tCTkQ_AUIBygC#imgrc=Hhlt3qG4qLN7zM%3A
** man alive i joined this convo 5 years too late ** but Y|ES mate the 80s artwork for stuff was ace, Goonies, Indiana Jones, and the creepy stuff like this just one look 'up' to the top shelves in a VHS rental shop from an 7/8 year old could mean a bad nights sleep !! I agree with the comment s on Atari and Stranger Things too... ATARI were knigs at making games of coloured lines/rectangles look ace - Pong, Breakout and Missile Command for example....ahhhh the good ol' days mate
I remember the poster for this when I was a kid. Some dude with his veins poppin out his arms, eyes turned white and hair up in flames. Caused quite an impression...they should do a remake.
My mother dragged me to the drive-in to see this movie with her. (Presumably, she was without a baby sitter). I was 3 and the back of the station wagon ended up covered in vomit. Thanks, Mom!
Funny how things scare you when you're a kid, not so much now when you're an adult. This was one of those films, an head explosion in the 80's was huge special events!
THEY added the exploding head in the trailer? THAT IS NUTS. Talk about giving away one of the best scenes. I live in Montreal. Would love to know where the filming locations are.
My dog is a scanner i swear. About 10 years ago I was chilling on the couch watching some saturday afternoon TV with my dog. My dog was dead asleep but then he got up for no reason and started staring hard at the TV. After about 10 seconds of this the screen snapped and some smoke came out the back and it was broken. Then my dog just went back to sleep. I always tell my friends about this when they watch TV at my place.... it was pretty freaky.
This is such a great film! I love Cronenburg - one of his best! Also, part of it was sampled in one of Biosphere's albums, Patashnik, called 'Decryption' - good track.
This Trailer hit me with 14 competely unexpectd shown before "Buddy Buddy" with Jack Lemmon /Walter Matthau which my parents took me to..Quite a shock.
It had been announced that a remake for this has been planned and it's gonna be directed by the guy who directed "Saw 2 through 4". If I were Cronenberg, I wouldn't stand for that.
Tyler Touchdown By Darren Lynn Bousman? Huh, I saw another remake he made, and it was actually superior to the original, Mothers Day, then again, the original film sucked, and the remake's ending was a HUGE disappointment. I just hope he doesn't fuck this up
Saw Scanners when it was originally in the theater, along with The Brood, also saw that when it was orignally released in the theater. I think Cronenberg's best movies were Shivers through Videodrome, during those periods. When he directed Naked Lunch, it wasn't as interesting.
No...the idea is that Scanners can form a sort of physiological bond with other people, allowing them to read minds, control other people's bodies, or a variety of other things. The man's head explodes because the man scanning him engages him in a kind of "psychic duel" and wins.
What darrell is really doing is extracting info about all the other scanners from the bald guys brain. Neuron by neuron,frying the rest of the poor guys brain cells in the process. BOOM! Feedback from blocking darrell's intrusion. Still cool after many years. :)
Sometimes resulting in nosebleeds, earaches, stomach cramps, nausea.... Sometimes other symptoms of a similar nature.... like your head exploding like an M-80 in a cantaloupe.
Is it just me or does anyone else think Michael Ironside's wasn't acting? lol I mean Starship Troopers, Highlander 2, Hell in animated in Heavy Metal 2000. He plays the same character in all of them. The badass who can do all the things no one else can. Coincidence?
@phillydisco My bad! McGoohan also played the title character in the 60s TV show The Prisoner. If they remake this thing today, it'll have Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez as Scanners, running from some other teeny bopper scanners.
@SpazChat That's why you don't scan so hard, but lightly other wise the target's head blows up. I did like this movie though, especially the part where they find that guinea pig for the scanner. "Now try and form a link to his heart and make it beat faster and FASTER!" >:)
@justcallmemrmetal Michael Ironside was pretending to be just a regular person. Louis Del Grande (the guy in glasses) was supposed to be doing the scanning, but ended up having his brains blown out by a much more powerful scanner.
It would be interesting if they had a commentary on the DVD that explained how the exploding head effect was done. However, I don't think the DVD has any commentary, period.
I can't wait for the remake..have hans zimmer on the movie..perfect for this effect before the head explodes...loved this movie as a kid..it was so fucked up and badass
I love exploding heads. I have 2 videos with exploding heads. Japanese fable of ages and Too much information. I dunno, but Scanners wrote the book on exploding heads, so yeah?
@bosh8888 Which Joker? Batman or The Dark Knight? No, scratch that, because either way, IT'S NOT. That is definitely NOT Jack Nicholson, and I don't see how anyone in that scene could be mistaken for him, and in 1981, I highly doubt that Heath Ledger would even be so much as ABLE to act. I highly doubt you know any of the actors in this movie, although they actually did a really good job in my opinion, despite the low budget.
@TheNp42 it's all very nice to generalize, but I wasn't even commenting on the ethical importance of this film. Thanks for the compliments. I was talking about the idiots who say all 13 year olds have the same intellect, interests, and maturity. I don't think I'm smarter, I just think I have different interests thaan the ones who don't bother to spell right.
I'm a little confused with this scene since I never seen the movie. What exactly happened? Were they both scanners? What was the guy in the glasses talking about?
I remember perfectly when i saw this trailer, i was 10 years old and went with my mom to see "heavenly dog" and they put THIS before a family movie, i was so shocked that i had a headache the rest of the day and i thought my head was going to explode. But i still can´t understand why they blew (literally) the best shocker of the movie in the trailer??? that was plain stupid.
@phillydisco What? Oh! I get it........There is NOTHING wrong with the original/actors. Ironside was awesome! I only mean that if they did a remake, IMO they would need good/name actors in the remake too. I did not imply that the original actors sucked or anything. They were perfect. I really like Patric Patrick McGoohan (the doctor). He played Edward the Long Shanks in "Braveheart" & also the MI6 spy in "Ice Station Zerba" (awesome film!!!)
I remember when I was little and my dad was flipping through the channels. He landed on that scene. When the guy's head explodes, he says "Goddamn" and quickly changes the channel.
It's a lot harder to get that reaction out of audiences now. The habituation, sadly.
@K L It was right before he left you and your mom to start another family
lol...
Michael Ironside was great in this movie. I have to say this was a very cool movie. I was a youg kid when I saw this movie at the show and it shocked the hell out me. The exploding head and the last battle was truly an over-the-top FX for the 80's. The meeting...the final battle.."Alright...were going to do it the scanner way, I am going to suck your brain dry!"
the early 80s was a golden age for cool ass movies
My best friend & I had this movie on BETAMAX back in the 80's, along with other 'video nasties' like Dawn of the Dead, Rabid, Shivers, The Brood, Visiting Hours, The Burning etc. We thought we were the Video Nasty Boys of our town, staying up all night & drinking cans of Newcastle Brown Ale, until we got The Exorcist... & ended up sitting side by side in the middle of the couch! Ahem!! ;-)
i just watched scanners and loved it
great story and easy to watch
what a great film
Great movie, great concept. I always remember the artwork on the VHS cover too while strolling the local movie library. Is it just me? I loved the artwork for horror movie covers back then.
Yes! The covers were important & meant to grab the eye. Many of the covers were better than the movie. lol Do you remember Atari 2600 & Intellivision video game covers/art? They were awesome too! Anyway, back in the early 80's when my parents bought our first VCR, I remember Scanners was 1 of the first movies we rented. My brother & I must have rewound & replayed the "exploding head" scene like 100 times, lol. (& watched it in slow motion) I also remember back in the early 80's, movies were crazy expensive, to both buy & rent, & there were many places to rent movies. Gas stations, grocery stores, convenience stores, pharmacies, (I remember Rite Aid rented videos & had a large selection) etc.
I remember 1 Easter vacation, my mom refused to rent a movie for us.
They (a local convenience store/gas station) joyfully proclaimed their "special Easter price" of $16.95,...for 1 freakin' movie, 1 day rental & it had to be back before 9:00AM!!! With inflation,...that is like $50. I remember my uncle bought Shindler's List VHS on the day it was released. Cost = $105. ($170 w/inflation!) Movie studios & rental stores definitely raped the public back then, but in the end they got theirs, compliments of the digital age & file sharing.
If u like that...look at the artwork of stranger things..the new netflix serie...its a complete 80ties homage.
www.google.nl/search?q=stranger+things+season+2&espv=2&biw=1920&bih=955&tbm=isch&source=lnms&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjroN2z2cjOAhVMBcAKHQ0tCTkQ_AUIBygC#imgrc=Hhlt3qG4qLN7zM%3A
** man alive i joined this convo 5 years too late ** but Y|ES mate the 80s artwork for stuff was ace, Goonies, Indiana Jones, and the creepy stuff like this just one look 'up' to the top shelves in a VHS rental shop from an 7/8 year old could mean a bad nights sleep !! I agree with the comment s on Atari and Stranger Things too... ATARI were knigs at making games of coloured lines/rectangles look ace - Pong, Breakout and Missile Command for example....ahhhh the good ol' days mate
"Scanners" was great! Nothing like an exploding head to make the audience inhale their popcorn.
My art keeps me sane. Art, sane.
I forgot he directed the remake of The Fly, in 1986. That was really the only one he's done in 23 years that I have viewed more than once.
I remember the poster for this when I was a kid. Some dude with his veins poppin out his arms, eyes turned white and hair up in flames. Caused quite an impression...they should do a remake.
David Cronenburg is a legend and in my eyes the greatest film maker in existence!!!!
My mother dragged me to the drive-in to see this movie with her. (Presumably, she was without a baby sitter).
I was 3 and the back of the station wagon ended up covered in vomit. Thanks, Mom!
According to IMDb, Scanners was released Jan '81 and Raiders was June '81.
Funny how things scare you when you're a kid, not so much now when you're an adult. This was one of those films, an head explosion in the 80's was huge special events!
This video has to be one of the first uploads on CZcams...this video was uploaded 17 years ago which is around about the same time CZcams was created.
A TRUE CLASSIC!!
I cannot believe that Cameron switched places with Daryl even though he almost died. How bad ass is that.
THEY added the exploding head in the trailer? THAT IS NUTS. Talk about giving away one of the best scenes. I live in Montreal. Would love to know where the filming locations are.
I remember seeing this trailer for the first time at a midnight Rocky Horror show, early 80s. The regulars were yelling "Should've greased it!!!".
Ironside is superb.
OMG that was unbelievable !!
To this day that trailer is still epic! Too bad the movie hasn't aged well over time.
Darryl Revok is such a cool name for a character
Great film !
My dog is a scanner i swear. About 10 years ago I was chilling on the couch watching some saturday afternoon TV with my dog. My dog was dead asleep but then he got up for no reason and started staring hard at the TV. After about 10 seconds of this the screen snapped and some smoke came out the back and it was broken. Then my dog just went back to sleep. I always tell my friends about this when they watch TV at my place.... it was pretty freaky.
I remember seeing the tim burton batman movies as a kid....that freaked me out, Lol
This is such a great film! I love Cronenburg - one of his best! Also, part of it was sampled in one of Biosphere's albums, Patashnik, called 'Decryption' - good track.
I saw this trailer as a kid.. can't imagine the damage it cause me ha ha
This Trailer hit me with 14 competely unexpectd shown before "Buddy Buddy" with Jack Lemmon /Walter Matthau which my parents took me to..Quite a shock.
Michael Ironside kicks some serious tail! :p
This is a great movie.
such a great cronenberg film...he is a great GORE director.
and a great soundtrack too,very horror,very 80's...very cool.
esta pelicula es una obra maestra en lo que es el cine de terror/ciencia ficcion. al igual que Michael Ironside es un grande
awesome!
I'm surprised they show that in a trailer in the eighties
Yes. And also the voice of Sam Fisher from Splinter Cell.
fantastic film. its a good candidate for a remake also i think
It had been announced that a remake for this has been planned and it's gonna be directed by the guy who directed "Saw 2 through 4". If I were Cronenberg, I wouldn't stand for that.
Tyler Touchdown By Darren Lynn Bousman? Huh, I saw another remake he made, and it was actually superior to the original, Mothers Day, then again, the original film sucked, and the remake's ending was a HUGE disappointment. I just hope he doesn't fuck this up
That is just too funny!
I remember this film growing up, this was kronenberg at his best although I hate to say it he lost his way later on with "Crash"
truly...classic. nuf sed.
Yep I watch it this movie recently and it was freaky ending.
the director for this movie is Christian Duguay, he is making his new movie called "straight edge"? have anyone heard of this?
the best Cronenberg movie ever, thats' what it is
Saw Scanners when it was originally in the theater, along with The Brood, also saw that when it was orignally released in the theater. I think Cronenberg's best movies were Shivers through Videodrome, during those periods. When he directed Naked Lunch, it wasn't as interesting.
No...the idea is that Scanners can form a sort of physiological bond with other people, allowing them to read minds, control other people's bodies, or a variety of other things. The man's head explodes because the man scanning him engages him in a kind of "psychic duel" and wins.
i love this movie.. it was fucking awesome.. so was the fury
I love you too.
great film..especially when that guys head explodes..lol!
What darrell is really doing
is extracting info about all
the other scanners from the
bald guys brain.
Neuron by neuron,frying the rest of
the poor guys brain cells in the process.
BOOM! Feedback from blocking darrell's
intrusion. Still cool after many years. :)
that was one of the R-restricted previews they`d play sometimes..freaked me out...
I remember reading about in Fangoria and yes it was a shotgun..
head explodes a weak AH from the crowd. LOL
The concept is cool. It's the production design and music which haven't aged well, sad to say.
Theres a remake being made I think. Its being directed by the guy that directed the Saw films
my side by side moment was "the descent"
i love how the audience doesn't go aaaaaah! they go eewwwwwww.
Nice
At 1:45 it sounds like two people were mildly surprised lol
0:14 - 0:30 Was sampled In Loefah - The Goat Stare :)
Sometimes resulting in nosebleeds, earaches, stomach cramps, nausea.... Sometimes other symptoms of a similar nature.... like your head exploding like an M-80 in a cantaloupe.
That explosion reminds me of Pillsbury Pizza Pop commercial XD
I LOAD WITH PIZZA STUFF
I think the guy with the glasses ran into another, more powerful scanner than he was.
No, they were both scanners, the guy who made his head explode was a more powerful scanner.
Ive seen ths exploding head clip for...well...ever, and literally just today i know what its from. Thanks CZcams!
Is it just me or does anyone else think Michael Ironside's wasn't acting? lol I mean Starship Troopers, Highlander 2, Hell in animated in Heavy Metal 2000. He plays the same character in all of them. The badass who can do all the things no one else can. Coincidence?
Hey I tried this while standing on a down power line,..it works.
ive now been loking for machokingwwf´s comment for 2 weeks i am almost out of water and have lost all hope of ever finding it
@phillydisco My bad! McGoohan also played the title character in the 60s TV show The Prisoner. If they remake this thing today, it'll have Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez as Scanners, running from some other teeny bopper scanners.
@SpazChat That's why you don't scan so hard, but lightly other wise the target's head blows up. I did like this movie though, especially the part where they find that guinea pig for the scanner. "Now try and form a link to his heart and make it beat faster and FASTER!"
>:)
one of the earliest examples of a Canadian film that was actually innovative!1 and creepy all in one instance!!
I used to look for machokingwwf's comment, but then I took an look at the date.
@justcallmemrmetal Michael Ironside was pretending to be just a regular person. Louis Del Grande (the guy in glasses) was supposed to be doing the scanning, but ended up having his brains blown out by a much more powerful scanner.
yes and it look very believable without todays effects
este michael ironside es un genio
It would be interesting if they had a commentary on the DVD that explained how the exploding head effect was done. However, I don't think the DVD has any commentary, period.
Shotgun blast to a prosthetic head
that one has more blood and is almost made in the same time. :)
1:46 oW! WOOOOOOOOO! THAT WAS KOOL! HOW ABOUT YOU BOB, WAS IT GOOD FOR YO....OHMAGOD!!
He thought of Eve’s and Gwen Stephani’s “Let me Blow your Mind” song.
Ironsides is one of the best along w/ Buscemi and Ernie Hudson
how did they do that explosion? was it like a pumpkin or something?
I can't wait for the remake..have hans zimmer on the movie..perfect for this effect before the head explodes...loved this movie as a kid..it was so fucked up and badass
Loefah - The Goat Stare
This would not have shown on TV
tame for nowadays , but really good in sci-fi plot but i really liked videodrome ,
I love exploding heads. I have 2 videos with exploding heads. Japanese fable of ages and Too much information. I dunno, but Scanners wrote the book on exploding heads, so yeah?
lol i finally found out where the exploding head came from
*o* OOh my GOD!!!
@bosh8888 Which Joker? Batman or The Dark Knight? No, scratch that, because either way, IT'S NOT. That is definitely NOT Jack Nicholson, and I don't see how anyone in that scene could be mistaken for him, and in 1981, I highly doubt that Heath Ledger would even be so much as ABLE to act. I highly doubt you know any of the actors in this movie, although they actually did a really good job in my opinion, despite the low budget.
@TheNp42 it's all very nice to generalize, but I wasn't even commenting on the ethical importance of this film. Thanks for the compliments. I was talking about the idiots who say all 13 year olds have the same intellect, interests, and maturity. I don't think I'm smarter, I just think I have different interests thaan the ones who don't bother to spell right.
IRONSIDED!
I'm a little confused with this scene since I never seen the movie. What exactly happened? Were they both scanners? What was the guy in the glasses talking about?
michael ironside commented years later:
if he was in the exploding head shot,
he woulded have needed surgery!
LONG LIVE THE NEW FLESH!!
wats the movie about
is there a better synced video??
@kgunby i know right? i watched that while eating once thinking it would be edited on tv and like i had to leave the room i am 17 :(
I remember perfectly when i saw this trailer, i was 10 years old and went with my mom to see "heavenly dog" and they put THIS before a family movie, i was so shocked that i had a headache the rest of the day and i thought my head was going to explode. But i still can´t understand why they blew (literally) the best shocker of the movie in the trailer??? that was plain stupid.
no idea wut that means but ill watch it wen i get time o.O
@phillydisco What? Oh! I get it........There is NOTHING wrong with the original/actors. Ironside was awesome! I only mean that if they did a remake, IMO they would need good/name actors in the remake too. I did not imply that the original actors sucked or anything. They were perfect. I really like Patric Patrick McGoohan (the doctor). He played Edward the Long Shanks in "Braveheart" & also the MI6 spy in "Ice Station Zerba" (awesome film!!!)