| Director | David Cronenberg |
|---|---|
| Genre | action film, horror film, mystery film, science fiction film, thriller film |
| Runtime | 103 min |
| Country | Canada |
| Budget | C$4.1 million |
| Box office | $6.3 million |
Cameron Vale, a vagrant who apparently suffers from auditory hallucination in the form of hearing voices in his head, causes a rude woman in a mall food court to have a seizure by what appears to be purely psychic means. Vale is then hunted down by unknown assailants, who capture him and deliver him to Dr. Paul Ruth, a psychologist who works for the private military company ConSec.
Ruth explains to Vale that Vale is one of 237 persons known as scanners. These scanners possess supernatural powers, namely telepathy and a form of telekinesis capable of harming another human being, just as Vale did to the woman in the subway. Ruth tells Vale that the voices Vale hears are not hallucinations, but that Vale is in fact "reading" or scanning the streams of consciousness of the strangers around him, and that it is Vale's inability to recognize and control his scanning power that is causing his apparent mental illness.
Ruth injects Vale with a drug called ephemerol which temporarily inhibits scanning abilities. Ruth then teaches him to control his power so that he is not overcome by the unfiltered "voices" of other minds. Some deeper connection between scanners, Ruth's work, and the ConSec corporation is indicated.
ConSec holds a marketing demonstration of its scanning program in which a ConSec operative with scanning ability will read the thoughts of a normal (non-scanning) audience member. An attendee named Darryl Revok volunteers to be scanned.
Revok, however, is in fact himself a powerful scanner. Instead of being scanned, Revok wreaks havoc by counter-scanning the ConSec operative. He focuses his formidable abilities against the operative, causing the latter's head to explode. It is revealed that Revok has been driven insane by his uncontrollable scanning, and that he is seeking other scanners in a scheme to achieve domination over non-scanners. Revok aims to kill any scanners who refuse to join him.
Following the disastrous event, ConSec head of security Braedon Keller tells Ruth that the company's scanner program should be shut down. Ruth refuses, as he believes that scanners represent the next stage of human evolution and understands that a powerful, unknown scanner murdered the operative in the demonstration. Ruth then turns to Cameron Vale. Ruth argues that the assassination shows how dangerous Revok truly is, and convinces Vale to infiltrate Revok's group so that Revok can be neutralized and his plan thwarted. Vale begins to track down known scanners.
Unbeknownst to Ruth, Keller—a non-scanner—is working for Darryl Revok. Keller informs Revok of the doctor's plan to infiltrate his group. Revok has Vale surveilled and sends assassins to murder him as Vale visits an unaffiliated scanner, an artist named Benjamin Pierce. Revok's assassins murder Pierce, but Vale survives and is able to read Pierce's dying thoughts. Vale learns of a group of scanners who oppose Revok, led by a woman named Kim Obrist. Vale tracks down Obrist and attends a meeting of the group, but Revok's assassins strike again; only Vale and Obrist survive. In the aftermath of the attack, Vale and Obrist learn of a pharmaceutical company named Biocarbon Amalgamate which has some apparent connection to the ephemerol drug.
Vale infiltrates the Biocarbon Amalgamate factory, where he discovers that it is run by Darryl Revok and that it manufactures ephemerol. Vale learns that Revok is distributing the drug with a ConSec computer program codenamed "Ripe". Vale and Obrist visit Ruth at the ConSec headquarters to update him on their discoveries. The doctor admits that he himself founded Biocarbon Amalgamate but that he no longer has a direct connection to it, and claims ignorance both of Revok's involvement and of the Ripe program. Ruth encourages Vale to investigate further by hacking into the ConSec computer network with his scanning ability. Ruth explains that a cybernetic structure is analogous to the human neural network, which should allow Vale to access the ConSec telepathically.
Vale takes leave of Ruth while Obrist is held captive by Keller but uses her powers to escape him. On Revok's orders, Keller kills Ruth and attempts to have ConSec guards murder Vale and Obrist, however the two scanners use their telepathic powers to neutralize the guards and are able to flee ConSec. From a telephone booth, Vale succeeds at scanning into the ConSec network, and he "downloads" information about ephemerol shipments into his mind.
Keller is killed when the computer explodes during his attempt to intercept Vale. Vale and Obrist visit Dr. Frane, someone who is receiving the drug. Obrist encounters a pregnant woman and realizes the woman's fetus has scanned her. Vale confronts Dr. Frane and learns that Revok's plan is to prescribe ephemerol to pregnant women, turning their children into scanners. Revok's group captures Vale and Obrist and takes them to the Biocarbon Amalgamate plant.
Revok reveals to Vale that they are both sons of Dr. Ruth, who developed ephemerol as a sedative for pregnant women. Ruth learned about the drug's side effect during his wife's pregnancies, and he made them the most powerful scanners in the world by administering a prototype dosage prior to abandoning them. Revok plans to create and lead a new generation of scanners to take over the world, but Vale refuses to join him. Vale accuses Revok of acting like his father, which enrages Revok. The brothers engage in a telepathic duel, which incinerates Vale's body. However, when Obrist encounters Revok, she discovers that Vale somehow has managed to swap minds with Revok, the latter dying in the former's body during the duel.