19. Slap-Happy Hallucinations - Videodrome (1983)
I have to acknowledge right off the bat that its debatable whether or not David Cronenbergs Videodrome would be considered a science fiction movie. Some would say its more of a straight horror film. But, for purposes of this article, I will say that it is science fiction. Its a movie that deals with technology and its effects on humanity, which is a common theme in science fiction. Plus, IMDB lists one of its genres as sci-fi, so it counts. Now that I have that out of my system, on to the moment The mind-bending moment in this film comes when James Woods character Max Renn, president of a small television network, is starting to suffer from hallucinations caused by Videodrome, a show about nothing but torture, rape and killing. His secretary comes to his house to drop something off. When the secretary picks up the Videodrome tape, Max gets angry and screams at her not to touch it. Right after he yells at her, Max has a vision where shes not the secretary but Debbie Harrys character Nicki. He beats on her a couple times, then comes back to reality. The secretary changes back and asks if Max is okay. This is mind-bending because we, the audience, dont yet have a reason to know that the video caused hallucinations. Its so jarring and sudden, and gone so quickly, that it catches us off guard. Crazy stuff.