Cinema: This Is the Way the World Ends

SCANNERS Directed and Written by David Cronenberg

We are at the headquarters of CONSEC—one of those multinational, virtually preternatural corporations that specialize in almost everything—where an unusual lecture-demonstration is about to take place. The subject: "scanners," people whose telepathic power enables them not only to read but to control another's mind, and destroy the body attached to it. The lecturer, a mousy older man whose head is the size, shape and texture of a bowling ball, has called for a volunteer to demonstrate the power. After a moment, a rugged fellow in his 30s...