The thought of being able to move objects with the mind is an exciting prospect. This may be why we love movies that feature characters who have superhuman abilities. Telekinesis is rare among humans, but it has been shown to exist. Researchers have performed scientific experiments to test the legitimacy of claims made by people with telekinetic abilities. Although a study conducted at Princeton University has shown that roughly one percent of the participants could actually achieve this, the rare talent does exist in a small percent of the population. Hollywood has capitalized on this phenomenon and have brought us films about characters who use telekinesis, otherwise known as psychokinesis, to move objects at their will. Here is our list of the top 20 movies about telekinesis.
1. “The Fury” (1978)
“The Fury” is a late 1970s film about an unscrupulous Agent named Chidres who works for a secret United States agency gathering up children who have telekinetic and other parapsychological abilities. The kids are trained to become lethal weapons that act as assassins in situations related to war. An ex-CIA agent named Peter investigates Children after his son was officially declared dead. The boy was involved in a carefully arranged accident and Peter knows that his son is still alive and being held for unsavory purposes. The late James Belushi shows up as an extra in this movie. You can see him in the shots of Amy Irving in her swimsuit. he is the guy wearing a pair of dark trunks just behind her. Kirk Douglas was chosen by director Brian DePalma to star in the film because of his ability to draw audiences into the theaters.
2. “Scanners” (1981)
Scanners are a group of people who each possess great psychic powers. They not only possess the gift of telekinesis, they can also exert their will and by using the power of their minds, they can control the minds or others or inflict tremendous pain or damage on their chosen victims. The plot follows Doctor Paul Ruth locates one scanner that has not yet been discovered by the evil Darryl Revok, who is the most powerful of all of the scanners in the world. He also heads an undergrounds movement of scanners who are poised to take over the world. Ruth attempts to convert the undetected scanner to help him and his associates in destroying the underground revolution movement and saving the world from their tyrannical rule.
3. “Zapped” (1982)
“Zapped” tells the story of Barney Springboro and his friend Peyton Nichols. The two are high school students who are combining their efforts to make a science project that includes working with white mice. Barney is amazed as one of the mice starts to move the food without being close to it. Barney has made an accidental discovery about a new formula that produces telekinetic powers. He soon learns how to replicate the abilities within himself. What kind of hijinks do you suppose a high school teen would concoct with the power to move things with his mind?
4. “The Medusa Touch” (1981)
This movie starts out slow and picks up speed fast. John Morlar is an average guy that is catching a British news broadcast. The anchorman of the program is telling about a group of American astronauts who have become trapped in a cycle of orbiting around the moon. Out of nowhere, someone is in the room with him. The stranger takes a figurine and bashes him repeatedly in the head. We see his blood spatter against the screen of the television. When the French police inspector arrives to investigate the murder scene, he believes that Morlar is dead. he is surprised when he hears the man breathing. He is rushed to the hospital where he is hooked up to life support systems to keep him alive. His brain is being monitored carefully because of the massive damage that was done in the attack. Brunel, the inspector learns that Morlan is a unique person. he has been involved in a psychological analysis program because he has witnessed several disasters that have happened to other people. It is curious that he managed to be in the right place to see the events unfold. Morlar’s analyst explains to Brunel that he has had delusions since early childhood and it was believed that Morlar was responsible for the death of a nanny that he hated in particular. These became heightened when he would hear his parents talk about him in a negative light. His telekinetic abilities were strong and they didn’t understand what was happening to their son. He now lies in limbo and the rest of the story begins to unfold.
5. “Chronicle” (2012)
Andrew Detmer is a lonely and shy teenager who is outcast and bullied among his peers at high school. He doesn’t have any friends and his lives with his father Richard Detmar. His dad is an alcoholic who abuses he and his mother Karen, who is terminally ill. Andrew is driven to school by his cousin Matt Garetty and one night, Matt invites him to a party. Andrew is easily angered and be becomes dangerous because of the telekinetic powers that he possesses. Matt does his best to keep Andrew under control, but it’s a tragedy waiting to happen. On one occasion, his mother needs medicine, but there is not enough money to buy it. This is when Andrew loses any control that he may have had before, and allows the dark side that lies within him to take over. He becomes a menace, using his powers at will and without conscience.
6. “Carrie” (1976)
Carrie White is a social outcast at her high school Her mother, Margaret White has raised her alone and has kept her severely sequestered because of her religious fanaticism. Carrie’s upbringing has made her different than the other kids at school and she is treated like an outcast and made fun of. Her mother has a disdain for sex, and menstruation, which be believed to be sins. She hasn’t spoken to her daughter about the topic and when the time comes, Carrie doesn’t realize that menstruation is a natural process of maturity. It was Margaret’s handling of her failed marriage that has warped her mind. Miss Collins is the physical ed teacher at the school and she took it upon herself to help Carrie, however, she has been warned to be careful not to interfere because everyone in the community is aware of Margaret’s oddities and extreme fanaticism. In one instance, classmates are harassing Carrie and they are caught by the authorities and punished. This starts the grudge that causes the girls to levy undue bullying on the outcast girl. At the night of prom, they devise an elaborate hoax that leaves Carrie feeling devastated. This was the biggest mistake that they could have made, because they have just unleashed the beast inside the girl. She uses her telekinetic abilities to burn the school to the ground, with them in it.
7. “Matilda” (1996)
Matilda Wormwood, played by Mara Wilson is a bright little girl who has an unusually high intelligence level. Her parents, played by Rhea Pearlman and Danny DeVito are both shallow materialistic weasels who don’t understand their daughter, and they don’t even try. She is left to fend for herself, and to stay home to receive packages that arrive at the residence for her father’s business. At the age of seven she convinced her parents to let her start school. When she arrives, she meets her teacher, Miss Honey, played by Embeth Davitz, who is wonderfully caring and understanding. The two hit it off and Miss Honey takes Matilda under her wing. The principal of the school is Ms. Trunchbull, played by Pam Ferris and she is an abusive and frightening monster. When Matilda is pushed past reasonable limits, she learns that she has the ability to move objects with her mind.
8. “Phenomenon” (1986)
George Malley, played by John Travolta is the owner of an auto repair shop in a small town in California. After a party to celebrate his birthday, at a local bar he leaves for home. As he approaches his car, he stops to stare at an odd light that he has seen in the sky. As he stands watching it, he collapses in the street for just a few seconds. As the days and weeks pass, George notices that his consciousness along with his IQ are beginning to expand rapidly. He also develops telekinetic abilities. No one can explain what is happening to him. Because of these changes, people become afraid of him and he becomes isolated in his attempts to avoid ridicule. The isolation causes this ability to grow faster. When he accurately predicts an earthquake, authorities from outside of the local government begin to take an interest in him.
9. “Firestarter” (1984)
As youths, Andy McGee (David Keith) and his future wife, Vicky (Heather Locklear), participated in secret experiments, allowing themselves to be subjected to mysterious medical tests. Years later, the couple’s daughter, Charlie (Drew Barrymore), begins to exhibit the ability of setting fires solely with her mind. This volatile talent makes the youngster extremely dangerous and soon she becomes a target for the enigmatic agency known as “The Shop.”
10. “Push” (2009)
Federal governments have secretly attempted to harness the psychic powers that lie within some humans. They have performed experiments that involve high powered drugs to increase and gain control of the telekinetic powers that some of their subjects possess. A group of younger American expatriates who have clairvoyant and telekinetic abilities are hiding from the secret government agency that is tracking them down. They are planning to band together and use their diverse paranormal talents to allow them to escape the clutches of the agency once and for all.
11. “Modern Problems (1981)
Max Fiedler, played by Chevy Chase is dissatisfied with both his career and his second marriage. His job as an air traffic controller is maximum high stress and it’s finally getting to him. He has been unsuccessful in winning back the heart of his girlfriend, partially because of his meek nature. When he is exposed to toxic waste, he develops the power of telekinesis. With his newfound power, he starts wreaking havoc on the people who have made perturbed him. He engages in a weekend getaway at a friend’s house with his wife, a voodoo priestess and his ex and his powers go out of control. The once timid air traffic controller is now a force to be reckoned with and he’s not taking any more.
12. “Escape to Witch Mountain” (1975)
Tony and Tia are children who have been orphaned. The children have extraordinary powers of telekinesis. Lucas Deranian makes up a story about being their uncle so he can gain possession of the children, for his evil and insane employer, the millionaire Aristotle Bolt. Bolt wants to exploit the powers that children have for his own selfish purposes. Jason is a widower who is cynical about most things because of his bitterness about the death of his wife. He helps Tia and Tony make their escape to witch mountain and the children also help him to take a break from the pain of losing his beloved wife.
13. “Cameron’s Closet” (1988)
Cameron is a lonely young boy who has telekinetic powers. His father has learned about the special abilities that his son possesses and decides to experiment with them. A strange spell is cast because of the youngster’s extreme loneliness. A demonic being from the pits of hell makes his way to this dimension and attempts to take over Cameron’s soul. The only people who can help in saving the boy are a delusional police officer and the woman who has just became his new girlfriend, who is also a psychiatrist. The boy’s parents are tragically killed, leaving him alone. The demon has been living in the boy’s closet and he also dwells within a part of Cameron’s mind that you cannot reach unless you enter it yourself.
14. “The Power” (1968)
“The Power” is a 1960s movie about a man who possesses special abilities, but it takes him a long time to realize it. When he comes to understand that he has telekinetic powers, he is hit with another reality as well. There is somebody else who also has this power, and that man is out to kill him. One by one, the members of the special project team that he is involved with are being killed by someone who has telekinesis. A race ensues to figure out which member of the remaining people on the team is the killer, and the next challenge is to find out how to stop them.
15. “Patrick” (1978)
Patrick’s mother and her lover have been tragically killed in a bathtub. After the event has taken place, Patrick enters a comatose state and is cared for in a small local hospital. He registers no activity other than involuntary spitting. A beautiful young nurse begins a new job at the hospital where Patrick is a patient and works with him. The nurse is having serious issues with her husband at the time and the couple have separated. As she goes through the routines of his care, she begins to sense that Patrick is attempting to communicate with her. It seems that he is using the psychic powers that he possesses to manipulate a variety of events that are taking place in her life.
16. “Momentum” (2003)
Adam Geiger is a thief who has teamed up with two other men that possess the same telekinetic powers that he does. The three rob an armored car. Jordan Ripps and her partner Frank McIntyre are the FBI agents assigned to the case. Neither of them believe the testimony that is given from witnesses about the skills that they saw the gang members using. former FBI agent Raymond Addison, who has been chasing Geiger enters the scene. Geiger was a part of a special force of men wielding telekinetic powers and he blackmails a physics professor named Zachary Shefford so he can locate Geiger and his daughter Tristen. Addison also wants to pinpoint the location of the community of telekinetic people who are hiding out. As Geiger and Addison reunite, the consequences turn ugly.
17. “Seconds Apart” (2011)
Jonah and Seth are twins who possess dangerous telepathic abilities. After four of their high school classmates die in bizarre incidents, things begin to spiral out of control. The twins are suspected of foul play, but the two are son divided by jealousy and they find that they can no longer trust one another. Detective Lampkin bring the brothers in for an interrogation. He himself is living with the trauma of losing his wife in a fire. His attempts to save her were not successful and it left him with scars from the burns on his face and in the depths of his soul. Katie Dunn is one of the teens killed as well as Kirby, a neighborhood pedophile. When Lampkin discovers that the twins have a telepathic connection and that they can make people experience their worst nightmares, he investigates to discover that the twins were exposed to an experiment that has given them their powers. Lampkin’s superiors do not believe him when he tells his story. While all of this is going on, Jonah falls in love with a girl named Eve, but his brother is unhappy about the relationship and all hell breaks loose.
18. “The Rage: Carrie 2” (1998)
Rachel Lang feels like an outsider and after her only friend commits suicide, her sorrows multiply. Jessie Ryan is the only person who has ever reached out to her in friendship, but is also a member of the popular crowd that teases students like Rachel. There is something about Rachel that makes her different from everyone else. She has the ability to move objects with her mind. The powers that she possesses are awesome, but they are also unwanted as she just wants to be a normal teen. She seeks the assistance of Sue Snell, who was the sole survivor of the rampage of Carrie White 23 years in the past. Rachel believes that Sue holds the key to help her understand these powers more fully. As with Carrie, Rachel is slowly learning to trust others, but just as she does, a horrible trap has been set to embarrass her and this triggers the anger that will turn her into a deadly weapon against the offenders.
19. “Race to Witch Mountain” (2009)
Jack Bruno is a reformed ex-convict who is now employed as a taxi driver in Las Vegas. There is a UFO Convention in town at Planet Hollywood. Jack is a skeptic who picks up Dr. Alex Friedman who is set to give a scientific lecture at the event. he is approached by representatives from his former employer, the criminal Wolff. He wants Jack to talk to him about going back to work, but Jack is done with a life of crime. After the fight, he comes upon Seth and Sarah, who are sitting in the backseat of his cab. The teenagers are in need of a ride. They need to reach a remote location outside of town. In the meantime, the government finds a crashed spacecraft near Las Vegas and are chasing two aliens. Jack, Seth and Sarah are chased by Major Henry Burke’s team. It comes to light that the teens are the aliens that they were chasing.
20. “Scanners 2: The New Order”(1991)
There are good scanners and there are evil ones. They become embroiled in a battle of good versus evil a crooked politician attempts to take over the control of a major city. The scanners received their telekinetic powers because their mothers had taken a particular drug while they were pregnant with them. As a scanner escapes from a mental center, he is hired by the politician so he can use his telekinetic powers to take over the minds and actions of key people. Good and evil scanners combating when a crooked politician schemes to gain control of a major city. Scanners are people who, because their mothers had taken a certain drug during pregnancy, have acquired telepathic powers. One scanner escapes from a mental center and is hired by the politician to use his powers to gain control of other minds, and then, their actions
*Do we include “Powder?” It’s hard to.
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