A Scanner Darkly (2006)

Director:

Richard Linklater

Writers (WGA):

Philip K. Dick (novel)
Richard Linklater (screenplay)

Release Date:

28 July 2006 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Crime | Drama | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

What Does A Scanner See?

Plot:

An undercover cop in a not-too-distant future becomes involved with a dangerous new drug and begins to lose his own identity as a result.

Plot Keywords:

Drugs | Substance | Substance D | Undercover | Undercover Cop

Awards:

2 wins & 6 nominations

Cast

Rory Cochrane	...	Charles Freck
Robert Downey Jr.	...	James Barris
Mitch Baker	...	Brown Bear Lodge Host
Keanu Reeves	...	Bob Arctor
Sean Allen	...	Additional Fred Scramble Suit Voice (voice)
Cliff Haby	...	Voice from Headquarters (voice)
Steven Chester Prince	...	Cop
Winona Ryder	...	Donna Hawthorne
Natasha Valdez	...	Waitress
Mark Turner	...	Additional Hank Scramble Suit Voice (voice)
Woody Harrelson	...	Ernie Luckman
Chamblee Ferguson	...	Medical Deputy #2
Angela Rawna	...	Medical Deputy #1
Eliza Stevens	...	Arctor's Daughter #1
Sarah Menchaca	...	Arctor's Daughter #2

MPAA:

Rated R for drug and sexual content, language and a brief violent image.

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | SDDS | DTS

Certification:

Ireland:16 | UK:15 | Australia:M | Finland:K-15 | Italy:T | Singapore:M18 (cut) | New Zealand:R13 | Argentina:16 | USA:R (certificate #42344) | South Korea:15 | Malaysia:18PL (DVD) | Brazil:16 | Japan:R-15 | Germany:16 | Canada:14A (Canadian Home Video rating) | Sweden:15 | Norway:15 (TV rating)

Filming Locations:

Austin, Texas, USA

Company:

Warner Independent Pictures (WIP)

Trivia:

The Red Pills known as Substance Death, a drug that alters a user's reality, bear a striking resemblance to the Red Pills given to the character Douglas Quaid in the film Total Recall (1990) that, in this instance, are used to bring Quaid out of the Rekall Memory Implant-induced reality.

Goofs:

Continuity: While Bob/Fred is giving a speech at the NewPath building, he takes his arms off the Podium and turns his side to the crowd. In the next shot, he's facing forward and his hands are on the podium again.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Freck: [on the phone] I looked them up. They're aphids. They're in my hair, on my skin, in my lungs. And the pain, Barris, it's unreasonable. They're all over the place. Oh, they've completely gotten Millie too.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Be My Oswald (2006)

Soundtrack:

Fog

Radiohead fans will love this movie.

For some reason I can't get separate the way I feel about Radiohead's Kid A and Amnesiac albums from the way I feel about this movie. If you love adult sci-fi that is complex and strangely moving then this is a must see movie. This captures Philip K. Dick's spirit better than any movie since BLADERUNNER and is even more difficult to pin a reaction on. SCANNER is a more intimate film. Anybody who has seen Richard Linklater's mind boggling WAKING LIFE will be instantly familiar (and comfortable) with the way SCANNER looks. The rotoscoping technique doesn't seem that much further evolved from WAKING except for the scrambler suit whose effect is a continuous wonder to behold. The look beautifully suits the story because they both speak to the large disconnect that has happened in our society via technology. Interpersonal and immediately accessible intercommunication devices have allowed us to avoid real communication and immediate interaction with our surroundings and the people who inhabit them at any moment on a grander scale than ever before. I find it rather depressing and annoying when my current reality in interrupted by a bloody cell phone (unless, of course, it is mine that is ringing). Dick's work often addressed alienation and sinking so far into your own that reality became a liquid element usually washing us up onto the shores paranoia and madness. SCANNER evokes this strangeness in a way few movies ever have.