A Scanner Darkly (2006) | Sci-Fi Saturdays

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This is the best part of the trip, this is the trip, the best part.

A Scanner Darkly is a more subdued adaptation of a Philip K. Dick novel. Rather than examining some of the more popular sci-fi tropes, it looks inward at perception, paranoia, and addiction. Oh, and it’s animated too!

First Impressions

The trailer for this film creates an entirely new look for the genre. Using rotoscoped imagery, the film takes recognizable actors and makes them animated. It’s seven years in the future and the world is being monitored 24/7. It contains several paranoid young men, one of them played by Keanu Reeves who also provides narration to this trailer. The trailer also lets audiences know that this film is based on a Philip K. Dick novel, which provides a whole host of information on its own. The trailer also has a line of dialogue that includes the odd title, where Reeves wonders if the scanner sees him clearly or darkly. Just what that means is anybody’s guess and we will have to wait for the full film, scanning now.

Presented below is the trailer for the film.

The Fiction of The Film

Seven years in the future, the country is suffering a massive drug epidemic. Substance D, also called Death), affects nearly 20% of the population, creating a large number of addicts. This has fostered a huge surveillance state, where people can be monitored 24 hours a day without probable cause. Bob Arctor (Keanu Reeves) is an undercover officer working to infiltrate the Substance D supply chain. When he reports to the Orange County Sheriff precinct he goes by the code name of “Fred” and wears a “scramble suit,” which projects random imagery of people on the surface, giving him anonymity. Not even his supervisor, “Hank,” knows who he is.

Bob lives with two drug addicts, James Barris (Robert Downey Jr.) and Ernie Luckman (Woody Harrelson). Their mutual friend, Charles Freck (Rory Cochrane), suffers from hallucinations where he believes bugs are crawling out of his skin. Bob’s girl, Donna (Wynona Ryder), sells him Substance D and his goal is to determine her supplier. “Fred” is given an assignment by “Hank” to watch over Arctor–who is unaware that they are the same person.

“Fred” reports to two doctors who give him some cognitive tests to see if he is addicted to Substance D and seeing or hearing things due to damage to the linguistic and visual areas of his brain. He has a small issue seeing an image on a card, but the doctors think he’s well enough. “Hank” and “Fred” take a report at the Sheriff’s offices one day from Barris, who claims that Bob is addicted to D and part of a terrorist organization. The officers request some proof and send Barris on his way.

Bob, Barris, and Luckman become paranoid the next day when the accelerator cable on the car breaks. Barris believes that people are out to get them and that they are surveilling their house presently. “Fred” watches surveillance footage of Bob, Barris, Luckman, and Donna in his home. He begins to disassociate, not believing that he is the same person in the footage. Bob continues to take D, even when not with the others. He shares some with Donna, but when he attempts to get physical with her she freaks out and he leaves.

Bob picks up Connie (Lisa Marie Newmyer) and the two have sex. In the morning she looks like Donna to him for a moment. Later, as “Fred,” he also sees Donna on the surveillance tapes. Barris returns to the Sheriff’s offices with proof and is detained, for “his own protection.” “Fred’ meets with two new doctors, but this time has a much harder time with the tests. In fact, they are the same doctors he originally saw, but the visual cross-chatter between his brain hemispheres makes them appear different. “Hank” fines “Fred” for his drug use, and offers to call Donna to pick him up.

“Hank” changes out of his “scramble suit” and is revealed to be Donna, whose real name is Audrey. Donna admits Bob to New Path, a drug treatment facility that is the only place where surveillance is not permitted. Bob is soon transferred to one of New Path’s farms. Audrey meets with Mike (Dameon Clarke), another undercover officer working for New Path. They believe that the flower Substance D is derived from is being grown in the New Path farms. Audrey is upset that they used Bob–coercing him into becoming a drug addict–so that he could infiltrate a farm and confirm their suspicions. A feeble Bob sees some blue flowers, the basis of D, and hides one in his boot to show his “friends” when he returns home during the holiday.

“What does a scanner see? Into the head? Down into the heart? Does it see into me? Into us? Clearly or darkly?” – Bob Arctor

History in the Making

A Scanner Darkly is the 8th adaptation of a story by Philip K. Dick, and the most faithful. Sci-Fi Saturdays has covered five of his previous films, including Blade Runner, Total Recall, Screamers, Minority Report, and Paycheck. There’s also been a French film adaptation of Barjo, and the 2001 film Imposter. By this time, the people watching out for the Dick estate were a little wary of films wanting to adapt any of the stories, due to the poor quality and reception of the last two films. Enter director Richard Linklater. He was a writer/director who came out of the independent film community in Austin, TX in the early 90s. He made a splash with his suburban comedies like Slacker, Dazed and Confused, and SubUrbia, but was also known for his romantic trilogy–of which he had made the first two parts–Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. His name had achieved much wider recognition in the previous two years with the release of School of Rock and a remake of Bad News Bears. But for his next project, he really wanted to adapt A Scanner Darkly and make it using the rotoscope animation technique he used on Waking Life.

The majority of the previous adaptations of Dick’s work are either partial adaptations or altered the content for a more action-oriented film. Blade Runner is famous for only utilizing elements of the Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, the story it’s based on. Both Minority Report and Paycheck push the narrative into a “running from the bad guys” thriller rather than the more thoughtful, introspective stories. A Scanner Darkly was one of Dick’s most personal stories, and as such was more closely guarded by his estate, which included his two daughters. They were unsure of the film being faithfully adapted and were certainly unsure of it being animated. Reportedly after meeting with Dick’s daughters and showing them his concepts for the film, they gave their blessing to have this film made.

Linklater was uncertain if Keanu Reeves would be interested in the role of Bob Arctor, having just completed his Matrix Trilogy. In fact, he was very much into the idea. This was Robert Downey Jr’s first sci-fi film (if you’re not counting Weird Science) and part of his recovery comeback which included Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Good Night and Good Luck. He would elevate himself even further into megastardom with the role of Tony Stark in the sci-fi/superhero film that launched the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Iron Man. Winona Ryder has a couple of previous sci-fi films under her belt. She had a small role in S1m0ne, as the difficult-to-work-with actress, and co-starred in Alien Resurrection with Sigourney Weaver. Rory Cochrane had worked with Linklater previously and was best known for his role as Ron Slater in Dazed and Confused. But the weirdest role by far is a small cameo from Alex Jones (yes, that Alex Jones) as a street preacher who gets tased and carried off by police. He also had a small role in Linklater’s previous animated film, Waking Life.

Genre-fication

With the exception of films made for children, American animated science-fiction films are rare. At the time of this release, the only other film was Ralph Bakshi’s Wizards–which also used rotoscoping techniques with its animation. Of course, there were still a number of international animated films that were targeted towards adults including Heavy Metal (Canadian), Fantastic Planet (French), and any number of Japanese films–including Akira and Ghost in the Shell. Linklater’s choice of animation in the production of this film was not just an artistic choice. Given the nature of the story and the drug-addicted psychosis present in the characters, animation allowed for a number of scenes showing the character’s altered perceptions of reality. Something that would have been more difficult to do with live-action and current special effect techniques. The style of the animation is also unique. The process is known as rotoscoping and involves filming actors on traditional film, sometimes in limited sets, but also it could be on an empty soundstage. The film is assembled and then turned over to animators who use the footage to trace the characters and settings into a 2-D animated film. This creates the distinctive look of the film, where actors and settings may be recognizable, but also contain that animated look.

Societal Commentary

Like many of Philip K. Dick’s works, A Scanner Darkly deals with the theme of duality. Audiences are introduced to “Fred” before learning that he is also known as Bob Arctor, an undercover narcotics officer. In fact, several characters exhibit multiple personas, such as the reveal that Donna is actually “Hank,” Bob’s supervisor. “Donna” also is revealed to be Audrey at the end of the film. But there’s even another layer with this character, as Bob sees her in his bed after sleeping with Connie. The momentary glitch in his brain that sees this appears to be caused by his drug-addled brain. But later when he reviews the security footage of the incident the same thing happens. The filmmakers are really messing with audiences’ minds by this point. With the technology of the scramble suit, it means that there could be anyone inside the device at any time, creating a whole host of unknown personas. This duality feeds into the paranoia that the characters experience as part of their drug usage. They are never sure that what is happening is real, and as such, the audience can never be sure as well. The animation style lends itself to this confusion as characters sometimes morph and shift organically based on the perceptions of others.

The title of the film is derived from the quote above. Bob’s narration wonders aloud about what the scanners see of him. By this point in the film, he is confused about who he actually is, having lived multiple lives as a narcotics officer, and a junkie, and even his previous life as a husband and family man. His percolating doubts about the nature of reality wonder if the camera’s eye can see beyond the facade of his life, into his soul. He hopes the scanners see clearly because he can no longer see anything but darkness in himself, being at the height of his addiction and confused about so many things in his life. This ties into the biggest theme of the film, addiction and sense of self.

A Scanner Darkly was written during and shortly after Dick’s experimentation with the Southern California drug culture. It is based on his experiences with drug use, notably the paranoia and addiction aspects. It is one of the better films about the subject thanks to Keanu Reeves’s subtle performance. Throughout most of the film, Arctor is unaware of the level of addiction he suffers from. His visit with the second set of doctors is the most eye-opening moment for the audience and the one that shifts the tone of the film. To the audience and Arctor, it appears as if he is meeting two new doctors who are testing him. Only towards the end of the meeting is it revealed that they are the original two doctors Bob met, and he is unable to recognize them due to the effects of D on his brain. At this point, Bob becomes an unreliable narrator, which throws much of the rest of the film into question.

The Science in The Fiction

A Scanner Darkly also doesn’t feel like a lot of other science-fiction films, even other Philip K. Dick adaptations. There are no robots, spaceships, or time travel. It’s the near future of 2013, and technology has not advanced so much that the world is unrecognizable. The most futuristic element of the film is the “scramble suit,” which appears to be a coverall with micro projectors on the outside that broadcast imagery of hundreds of different people, making identifying the person within impossible. This element of privacy appears only available to the police, and not a part of the black market, which does seem odd given the highly authoritarian surveillance state that the characters live in. Every aspect of their lives is recorded by micro cameras and audio bugs. Police monitor 24 hours a day using the ability to tap into phone conversations to proactively look for illegal activity. It’s a grim reminder of what the world would have been like in a post-9/11 world in which the government was able to circumvent individual privacy. Aspects of the loss of privacy shown in A Scanner Darkly align with certain elements of modern 21st-century life, where certain urban centers are monitored by ubiquitous closed-circuit cameras utilizing facial recognition.

The film also takes a dark look at the war on drugs. It begins by stating that 20% of the population is addicted to Substance D. This unprecedented level of addiction is what drives a portion of the surveillance state the characters live within. It is also mentioned that there is only one company that is trying to help these addicts, and that is New Plan. Coincidentally, it’s also the only place free from surveillance by the police–presumably due to it being a recovery center. But the end of the film confirms suspicions that New Path is playing both sides of the war on drugs. Sure, they are helping people kick the habit, but they are also the main contributor to the epidemic, growing the small flower that is the main component of D. This duality–another example of something that is also not what it appears–plays into the hypocritical games played by politicians and corporations, claiming they hate the things that they support privately. There’s money to be made in any war, and New Path has discovered the profit in playing both sides.

The Final Frontier

The one downside to A Scanner Darkly is the quick wrap-up of the plot. After Bob is fined for his drug use and admitted to the New Path facility, much of what plays out is in exposition by Donna, who is revealed to be Audrey. She regrets the position that she was put in, using Bob as a plant to get into the facility believed to be a front for the production of Substance D. The audience loses their immediate connection with Bob, seeing him from more of an outside perspective where he appears more damaged by his addiction. It’s revealed that he’s there to find a connection between the blue plants used to produce D and the New Path facility. There’s some basis for this setup throughout the film. The first time Bob meets with the doctors he asks how a guy like him can “make it” with a girl like Donna. The female doctor suggests “little blue flowers at any nursery.” Donna later mentions “little spring flowers with blue in them” when she and Bob are alone in her apartment. Very subtle indications that Bob was being groomed for this job.

The uniqueness of the film and its subject matter might be enough to put some viewers off. It’s not necessarily a “good feeling” film. It delves into the darker parts of the human psyche and touches on subject matter that many might find appalling. But like The Naked Lunch or Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, A Scanner Darkly takes audiences on an excursion to a world that they might never otherwise visit. The style and performances lend themselves to thematic elements creating a sum greater than their parts.

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