OK, a product of its time. A political assassination involving shady people and witnesses that just keep dying. In one sequence Warren Beatty is subjected to, I dunno, brainwashing? He’s forced to watch a several minute montage of fleeting images. Two of them caught my eye shown here. Most of us will recognize the first one, but how about the second (without cheating). I sure as heck didn’t. I thought it had a passing resemblance to Mangog, but some Googling showed it was the High Evolutionary’s Man-Beast from 1966. He looked a little different by the time I saw him in the early 1970s.
Trivia note: The Scott “Property Brothers” father was a stuntman on the film.
Without cheating, I recognized it as probably from Thor in the 1960s, but I couldn’t place it beyond that. I missed quite a few Thors from back then. Your spoilered answer seems to confirm that. It’s Kirby, but pretty cleaned-up.
The love child of Logan and Grimm.
I just happened to watch this movie a few days ago. I got the impression that it wasn’t so much brainwashing as an evaluation. By showing Beatty the images and measuring his responses (his hands are on some kind of sensors), Parallax is trying to determine if he’s the sort of sociopath that they can manipulate into being a hitman.
Or not. Some stuff isn’t completely clear; I may have to see it again, someday.
I think those are for measuring perspiration from his fingertips, as a gauge of his emotional response to the images.
I was thinking Galvanic Skin Response. Either way, it’s more a test of pre-existing personality, rather than an attempt to influence or brainwash him.