Help identify the titles of two cool sci-fi movies involving psychic abilities

June 25, 2009 5:21 PM

Help identify the titles of two cool sci-fi movies involving psychic abilities. The first is about a man with the psychic ability to order others. He'd get a nosebleed when he overdid it (I think... I hope I'm not mistaken with Firestarter here). At some point he was kidnapped by a government agency. The film ended with a psychic duel between the protagonist and another psychic.

The second film involved a technology of recording experiences directly from the brain and started with someone watching a recording of some teenagers jumping over a roof and the recorded one falling to his death. Involved a serial killer who would hook up a device and get live feedback from his victims.

The style of the first one was close to Firestarter but it was a different movie.

Thank you!

posted by andreinla to media & arts (23 comments total)

Second movie is Strange Days.
posted by MsMolly at 5:24 PM on June 25 [1 favorite]

Is the second one Brainstorm?
posted by Toekneesan at 5:26 PM on June 25

First is Firestarter.
posted by MrMoonPie at 5:32 PM on June 25

The first one sounds like a movie from the 1970s called the Fury with Andrew Stevens. I remember seeing this in the movie theater and it scaring the heck out of me.
posted by HeyAllie at 5:33 PM on June 25

I think the first one is Scanners
posted by apetpsychic at 5:36 PM on June 25

Though it's probably The Fury.
posted by apetpsychic at 5:41 PM on June 25

I don't think the second one is Brainstorm, I think it is Strange Days. There wasn't a killer doing the feedback thing in Brainstorm.
posted by Justinian at 5:47 PM on June 25

Thank you, Strange Days and The Fury are what I was looking for...
posted by andreinla at 5:54 PM on June 25

Wow...I'd never heard of Strange Days but it's heading straight to the queue...it sounds like a hell of a movie.
posted by vito90 at 6:25 PM on June 25

It is, but it's both very fin de siècle and Angeleno in nature.
posted by Justinian at 6:29 PM on June 25

Strange Days is awesome. It also features Skunk Anansie, whose music I'm still fond of.
posted by Decimask at 7:10 PM on June 25

I loved Strange Days too -- it was wrongly denigrated upon its release, in my humble opinion.
posted by OolooKitty at 7:11 PM on June 25

Oh, and that link is not recommended for epileptics. Significant strobage going on.
posted by Decimask at 7:11 PM on June 25

(Though written by James Cameron and directed by Katherine Bigelow, 'Strange Days' is better in its concept than it's execution.)
posted by vhsiv at 7:18 PM on June 25

Drafted by government? Ending in a psychic duel? I'd say Dreamscape, (1984). Link with video clip.
posted by Phred182 at 10:26 PM on June 25

The Strange Days director is about to release another movie called the Hurt Locker, this one about bomb disposal people. I think it's out in a week or so.
posted by Sully at 11:02 PM on June 25

1st is definitely Scanners. The protagonist and antagonist are brother scanners who have a scanner duel and one incorporates the other into his own body.
posted by Gungho at 7:20 AM on June 26

Sounds a lot more like Scanners to me as well.
posted by Artw at 2:56 PM on June 26

If any of you guys are still reading this, STRANGE DAYS is being shown tonight in HD on HBO. Well, not HBO but HBOZ. At 11:00pm. Can't beat HD.
posted by Justinian at 6:07 PM on June 26

1st is definitely Scanners - watched it last month - and THANK YOU everyone who identified Brainstorm, as soon as andreinla described I remembered seeing it and wanted to see it again but couldn't for the life of me remember the name. I just remember that flat golden ribbon the experiences were recorded on... have to get Dreamscape too now, seems a nostalgia mindfuck movie is in order!
posted by Billegible at 7:05 PM on June 26

*nostalgia mindfuck movie WEEKEND.
posted by Billegible at 7:06 PM on June 26

OK, I checked out both. Strange Days IS indeed the second movie I was looking for. The Fury,however, is not the other one. In the first one I think I remember a scene where one of the characters made a hole in his forehead, where his 3rd eye would be... using a drill or maybe burning his skin with a cigarette...

Any suggestions?

Meanwhile, I'll check out Scanners.
posted by andreinla at 5:26 PM on June 29

The roof and the fall part in the second one sounds exactly like "The Final Cut", starring Robin Williams, but no duel. The thing with the nose bleed from "pushing" someone is an element in Firestarter, as you seem to realize.
posted by Goofyy at 2:42 AM on June 30