EP49 - Brainscan (1994)

2025-10-09

Welcome to Cyberpunk Cinema – the Definitive Dive into the Dark Future of Science Fiction. I am your host, Anthony La Pira, and I will be taking you on a cinematic journey through the sprawling cityscapes, the crippling datastorms, and the cybernetic implants that encompass all things Cyberpunk.In this week’s episode, I will be breaking-down the 1994 cyber-horror film BRAINSCAN – directed by John Flynn; written by Brian Owens & Andrew Kevin Walker; starring Edward Furlong, Frank Langella, and T. Ryder Smith...

In this week’s episode, I will be breaking-down the 1994 cyber-horror film BRAINSCAN – directed by John Flynn; written by Brian Owens & Andrew Kevin Walker; starring Edward Furlong, Frank Langella, and T. Ryder Smith.

A teenager is a part of an interactive video game where he kills innocent victims. Later, the murders become real.

Brainscan was a cyber-thriller movie that captured the zeitgeist of the 1990s, right before the critical Cyberpunk Mainstream year of 1995. Just think about it for a second – it had Edward Furlong as the high-school protagonist, it had horror vibes, it was cyberpunk, it had CD-ROMs, it was about interactive video games (which were all the rage back then), and it had a Freddy Krueger-esque villain in The Trickster. On paper, home-run! In reality, not so much, but it definitely has its audience and it became a minor cult hit.

So, do me a favor – it’s time to access your cranial jacks, boot up your Ono-Sendai Cyberspace 7, and slap on your damn mirror-shades. You know what time it is! Cyberpunk Cinema starts…now!