``Scanners'' A turning point for Cronenberg, who combined authorship and popular appeal.

The amazing “head exploding” scene

Short gif videos of famous movie scenes and actors' unique facial expressions. One of the so-called Internet memes is a video of a person sitting at a desk whose head suddenly explodes. This is a scene from the beginning of ``Scanners''. This scene has been shown repeatedly on TV, so even if you haven't seen the movie, many people may have seen the ``head exploding'' scene.

Dick Smith, who is extremely influential in the special effects makeup world, is credited in this famous scene, but in reality, Dick was in a position of "consultant" and was in charge of modeling and operation on set. Like Chris Wailas and Stéphane Dupuis, who would later win the Academy Award for Best Makeup for Cronenberg's The Fly (1986).

“Scanners” (C) 1980 Filmplan International Inc. All rights reserved

Apparently, this scene involved repeated prototyping and testing. First, I tried blowing up a head made of plaster, but it literally looked like a plaster statue exploding, so I was rejected. Next, when I tried to blow up the wax-shaped head, the blood and contents were good, but this time I was disappointed because it looked like the wax figure had exploded. In the end, he made a "skull" vessel out of plaster, covered it with gelatin, filled it with bits of latex, and colored it red with syrup. A bag with half-eaten hamburgers and other items sealed in wax was used in the photo shoot.

Additionally, the method of explosion was rejected because if it was loaded with gunpowder and detonated, sparks would fly from inside, making it look like the explosion was caused by ``superpowers''. Other ideas were tried, such as inflating it like a balloon and exploding it, but in the end, the more treacherous method of shooting it out from under the table with a shotgun was adopted.

Cronenberg was very satisfied with the scene that was completed after much trial and error, but the producer was horrified by the finished scene and asked for reshoots, saying, ``Couldn't the explosion be a little softer?'' In fact, several reshoots were made. It seems that it was done. Cronenberg said, ``I've already gotten the shots I want,'' and left the scene without a second thought.

The world of Cronenberg is merging