A Scanner Darkly

Work Title: A Scanner Darkly
Medium: Film
Episode Title:
Year: 2006
Writer(s): Philip K. Dick
"Original" Writer: Yes Writer(s): Richard Linklater
"Original" Writer: No Own work?: No
Summary:

"The film tells the story of identity and deception in a near-future dystopia constantly under intrusive high-technology police surveillance in the midst of a drug addiction epidemic. Bob Arctor is a detective assigned to immerse himself in the drugs underworld and infiltrate the supply chain. While undercover, Arctor becomes addicted to Substance D" (Wikipedia). Arctor slowly falls into a drug dependency and loses touch with reality as those close to him reveal to the audience that they, too, have been living double lives.

Era/Year of Portrayal: near_future
Distinctive characteristics of the world in portrayal:

This America looks much like the modern one, yet society has fallen apart as scores of people have become addicted to Substance D as an attempt to disengage from the monotony of reality.

Technology

  • Name of portrayed presence-evoking technology: Substance D
  • Description of the technology: Substance D is a highly addictive drug that first soothes users' anxiety and causes enjoyment, yet through prolonged use, causes more intense anxiety and hallucinations so that users, like the main character, are not sure what is real and what is only in their minds. The drug is extremely powerful; hallucinations are vivid and make the user feel that they have been transported to a new plane of consciousness, without them realizing it at the time. Eventually, the main character loses track of his own identity and must be sent to a rehabilitation center.
  • Nature of task or activity: The drug is taken orally and can be taken in any situation with little notice to others.
  • Performance of the Technology: Substance D does what it was designed to do too well; when abused, it begins to subtly control the user.
  • Description of creator(s): SPOILER ALERT It is revealed at the end of the movie that the corporation that created Substance D is also the one that maintains the rehabilitation center for its abusers, New Path.
  • Major goal(s) of creator(s): It is not explained why the corporation created the drug in the first place. However, New Path forces those taken to the rehab center to care for the plants that are the source of Substance D.
  • Description of users of technology: It seems that anyone can use Substance D, though only adults are shown using it. The main character, Arctor, explains how he came to start taking the drug in a flashback: he was bored with his typical suburban life and family and sought more freedom, less responsibility.
  • Type(s) of presence experience in the portrayal: both
  • Description of presence experience: Users of Substance D feel that they are interacting with people and things that are not physically there. For instance, one character is show looking at his friend and seeing the man as a giant animate cockroach instead of a human. One imagines a narrator speaking over him as he prepares to kill himself.
  • User awareness of technology during experience: The characters willingly take the drug. However, during the experience the users make lose touch with reality and therefore not perceive their experience as something of their own doing (in taking the drug).
  • Valence of experience: At the beginning, when the drug's effects are small, the experience is pleasant. As the characters take it more regularly and in heavier doses, the effect turns extremely unpleasant, in one case driving a character to suicide.
  • Specific responses: Users of Substance D experience physiological arousal, some enjoyment and then no enjoyment, psychological altering, distorted memory and perception of their own identity, hallucinations, and desensitization to reality.
Long-term consequences:

Substance D is highly addictive and damaging. Users lose touch with reality and experience psychological and physical pain. The main character no longer remembers who he is. The message overall seems to warn against the insidious nature of drug abuse. At the end of the film, there is a scroll of names of those who the author and director have known personally who experienced death or other damage as a result of drug use.

Other:

Coder name: Julie Zeglen
Coder email: julie.zeglen@temple.edu
Coder affiliation: Temple University