# Movie "A Scanner Darkly" (animated, with Keanu Reeves) \*Spoilers\* **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 6, 2010, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-a-scanner-darkly-animated-with-keanu-reeves-spoilers/523849 "2010-01-06T03:06:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-a-scanner-darkly-animated-with-keanu-reeves-spoilers/523849/1 "2010-01-06T03:06:13Z")
I just finished watching this, and am uncertain what I think about it. I’m not sure why they used the animation they used (it was live-action turning into animation, right?), and I’m not sure if it was particularly good or not. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it either (I can see critics going crazy for it, though; it seems like their kind of thing). I thought Keanu was quite good in it - maybe that style of animation suits his style of acting. 🙂 What did other people think? Did anyone love this like the best movie they’ve ever seen? Anyone hate it bitterly? ---
**Author:** ![Stuffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f17d59/32.png) [@Stuffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stuffy)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-a-scanner-darkly-animated-with-keanu-reeves-spoilers/523849/2 "2010-01-06T03:16:48Z")
Robert Downey Jr does the best druggie performance I can remember in this film, not one scene, his every moment. I think the choice of rotoscope (the type of animation used) was used to give it an off kilter feel for affect. This is one the few instances where I’ve appreciated the film more than the novel (Phillip K Dick) if you ineterested. That said it felt like they cut too much of Dick’s moralizing though I’m having trouble articulating how. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-a-scanner-darkly-animated-with-keanu-reeves-spoilers/523849/3 "2010-01-06T03:20:58Z")
I only saw it the once, found it really depressing, but also very rewarding. It’s one I would like to see again. I loved that aesthetic. It eliminates any potentially corny sci-finess from the film. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-a-scanner-darkly-animated-with-keanu-reeves-spoilers/523849/4 "2010-01-06T04:31:51Z")
Isn’t it just called _A Scanner Darkly?_ I remember seeing this in the theatre. I thought the animation in it was very interesting, although it annoyed me that people at the time were acting like this was the first film ever to use rotoscoping, unaware of Ralph Bakshi’s flawed but nevertheless beautiful movie _American Pop_ which was made decades earlier. The movie was aesthetically interesting but I remember being bored by the plot, because DRUGS are sort of a played out topic and I have always felt this way. There really are too many movies about drugs. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-a-scanner-darkly-animated-with-keanu-reeves-spoilers/523849/5 "2010-01-06T04:42:32Z")
Oops, yes, it is called “A Scanner Darkly” - I must have taken poetic license there. 🙂 If a mod wanted to fix that, I wouldn’t mind. The plot did seem thin - I liked the twist, that they used an agent to try to get to the drug manufacturers without his knowledge (used him up, actually) - the morality of that (doing something very wrong for a good reason) is interesting. As the Wynona Rider character said in the movie, does that make them as bad as the bad people they’re trying to catch? I have a feeling I might have to watch this movie again to get more out of it (and with sub-titles on, so I can catch what Robert Downey Jr. is saying). ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-a-scanner-darkly-animated-with-keanu-reeves-spoilers/523849/6 "2010-01-06T04:48:59Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > I thought the animation in it was very interesting, although it annoyed me that people at the time were acting like this was the first film ever to use rotoscoping, unaware of Ralph Bakshi’s flawed but nevertheless beautiful movie _American Pop_ which was made decades earlier. The movie was aesthetically interesting but I remember being bored by the plot, because DRUGS are sort of a played out topic and I have always felt this way. There really are too many movies about drugs. Rotoscoping goes back before Bakshi, but _A Scanner Darkly_ wasn’t even Linklater’s first rotoscoped film, _Waking Life_ came a few years before that. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Fight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-a-scanner-darkly-animated-with-keanu-reeves-spoilers/523849/7 "2010-01-06T04:57:32Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#): > > Rotoscoping goes back before Bakshi, but _A Scanner Darkly_ wasn’t even Linklater’s first rotoscoped film, _Waking Life_ came a few years before that. I thought the style suited _Waking Life_ much better (and it remains one of my favorite movies ever). In _ASD_, it sort of left me on edge, which I guess was the intent at least in part, but overall the story and structure just didn’t work for me. I didn’t really care. ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Hen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ad7895/32.png) [@Small\_Hen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Hen)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-a-scanner-darkly-animated-with-keanu-reeves-spoilers/523849/8 "2010-01-06T05:10:34Z")
I enjoyed the hell out of this movie, much moreso than Waking Life, which I found deeply boring. Basically everyone I know hates it, though, thinks it’s slow and pointless. I’m not sure why - the scenes alternate from strange to hilarious to thoughtful and back again. The animation lends an interesting, trippy vibe. Even Keanu holds his own. I’ll admit, it hardly moves at a breakneck pace, but I didn’t find myself checking my watch. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-a-scanner-darkly-animated-with-keanu-reeves-spoilers/523849/9 "2010-01-06T06:03:55Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > Anyone hate it bitterly? Yes. But, no. But… yes. I’m joking. But I’m not. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-a-scanner-darkly-animated-with-keanu-reeves-spoilers/523849/10 "2010-01-06T12:52:17Z")
I found it boring - dull, dull, dull. And the rotoscoping added nothing - I don’t know why they bothered. Either animate or do the live-action. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-a-scanner-darkly-animated-with-keanu-reeves-spoilers/523849/11 "2010-01-06T13:33:52Z")
I enjoyed it in the cinema but was amused that, possibly because it was _Hollywood!_ the stolen bicycle had more gears than it had in the book! That hardly seems worth spoilering, right? ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-a-scanner-darkly-animated-with-keanu-reeves-spoilers/523849/12 "2010-01-06T15:08:06Z")
Read the book, thought the book was OK. Then I saw the movie, and wasn’t impressed. Then I read the book again, and really liked the book. I’m not sure what I disliked about the movie, other than that I found the rotoscope to be more annoying than interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-a-scanner-darkly-animated-with-keanu-reeves-spoilers/523849/13 "2010-01-06T18:25:16Z")
> [@Meurglys](#): > > I enjoyed it in the cinema but was amused that, possibly because it was _Hollywood!_ the stolen bicycle had more gears than it had in the book! > > That hardly seems worth spoilering, right? I’m not entirely sure how many gears the bike had - I’m not sure if all the druggies were hallucinating, or if they were just messing with the other druggie (Barius? the Robert Downey Jr. character). I found the rotoscope annoying, too, especially when people were wearing their masking suits. That really looked cheesy, and got on my nerves. ---
**Author:** ![Illuminatiprimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/illuminatiprimus/32/11520_2.png) [@Illuminatiprimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Illuminatiprimus)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-a-scanner-darkly-animated-with-keanu-reeves-spoilers/523849/14 "2010-01-06T18:33:57Z")
Saw it in the cinema and enjoyed it, although I’ve not watched it since or felt the need to get anyone else to try and see it so I guess it hasn’t left that much of a lasting impression on me. I was genuinely confused about the whole idea of a drugs enforcement agency that didn’t know who its own agents were - when they were looking at the CCTV footage of the house there was some comment like “so you must either be him or him”. Surely that goes beyond tortuously complex? That said I did like how that worked for the twist with Ryder being Reeves’ superior, and explains why the tape of them planning a terrorist attack was dismissed so categorically by the superior character/Ryder (after all she was one of the voices on it). ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Hen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ad7895/32.png) [@Small\_Hen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Hen)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-a-scanner-darkly-animated-with-keanu-reeves-spoilers/523849/15 "2010-01-06T19:54:21Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > I’m not entirely sure how many gears the bike had - I’m not sure if all the druggies were hallucinating, or if they were just messing with the other druggie (Barius? the Robert Downey Jr. character). Berris. The drug (substance D) screws with a person’s perception and reasoning skills. The druggies were, by this point, all too burned out to either accurately count the gears, or understand that two gears on the front and nine on the back is 18 gears, not 11. This is explained a little more in the book (I think. It’s been a year or two since I’ve read it.) ---
**Author:** ![Gam\_Zeh\_Yaavor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3e96dc/32.png) [@Gam\_Zeh\_Yaavor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gam_Zeh_Yaavor)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-a-scanner-darkly-animated-with-keanu-reeves-spoilers/523849/16 "2010-01-06T21:47:45Z")
This film is better than it has any right to be, given the history of Philip K Dick adaptations and the presence of Keanu. A surprisingly excellent adaptation of the novel. I\* highly\* recommend the Paul Giamatti-narrated audiobook, if anyone’s interested. And yes, Downey (and the rest of the actors) were pretty superbly chosen. > [@Illuminatiprimus](#): > > I was genuinely confused about the whole idea of a drugs enforcement agency that didn’t know who its own agents were - when they were looking at the CCTV footage of the house there was some comment like “so you must either be him or him”. Surely that goes beyond tortuously complex? In the context of a Dick novel, the tortuous and baffling complexity is pretty much expected. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-a-scanner-darkly-animated-with-keanu-reeves-spoilers/523849/17 "2010-01-06T21:47:48Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#): > > Rotoscoping goes back before Bakshi, but _A Scanner Darkly_ wasn’t even Linklater’s first rotoscoped film, _Waking Life_ came a few years before that. Rotoscoping was invented in 1915. The technique used by Linklater is usually referred to as digital rotoscoping. I’ve heard it referred to as Rotoshopping, after the software used. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2010, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-a-scanner-darkly-animated-with-keanu-reeves-spoilers/523849/18 "2010-01-07T00:59:12Z")
> [@Gam\_Zeh\_Yaavor](#): > > This film is better than it has any right to be, given the history of Philip K Dick adaptations and the presence of Keanu. \ I’ve said it before, and I’ll probably say it again - one of Keanu’s strengths is choosing roles that he can handle with his acting abilities. His other strength, of course, is being oh-so-pretty. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2010, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-a-scanner-darkly-animated-with-keanu-reeves-spoilers/523849/19 "2010-01-07T03:40:26Z")
_A Scanner Darkly_ is the most faithful and respectful adaptation of a Philip K. Dick novel to date. (The only other movie that comes close is _Confessions d’un Barjo_, and that’s a french-language film - go figure.) It’s my favourite Dick novel, and a great adaptation. I anticipated it through 9 years of development hell, three directors, and three scriptwriters. I had major misgivings when Charlie Kaufman’s script was discarded, and even more but I have a totally Panglossian attitude about the eventual result. Wouldn’t change a thing, seriously. I’m glad that Linklater included PKD’s afterword. This is the real suckerpunch of the novel. ---
**Author:** ![HorseloverFat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8e8cbc/32.png) [@HorseloverFat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HorseloverFat)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2010, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-a-scanner-darkly-animated-with-keanu-reeves-spoilers/523849/20 "2010-01-07T05:32:21Z")
Its based on a book and the book is much better than the movie. Perhaps its because I knew so many druggies while growing up, but the book really rings true for me on how the world of drop outs and addicts is. Of course with a liberal dash of weirdo science fiction > [@](#): > > I was genuinely confused about the whole idea of a drugs enforcement agency that didn’t know who its own agents were - when they were looking at the CCTV footage of the house there was some comment like “so you must either be him or him”. Surely that goes beyond tortuously complex? IIRC its because those who review the tapes dont have the clearance to know who the undercover agent is. It doesnt make sense to tell every LEO who the undercover guy is. It could jeopardize that person. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-a-scanner-darkly-animated-with-keanu-reeves-spoilers/523849.md?page=2)