Editing Videodrome (section)

==Plot==
Max Renn is the president of CIVIC-TV, a [[Toronto]] [[Ultra high frequency|UHF]] television station specializing in sensationalist programming. Harlan, the operator of CIVIC-TV's unauthorized [[satellite dish]], shows Max ''Videodrome''. Purportedly broadcast from [[Malaysia]], it is a plotless show depicting victims being violently tortured and eventually murdered. Believing this to be the future of television, Max orders Harlan to begin unlicensed use of the show.

Nicki Brand, a [[Sadomasochism|sadomasochistic]] [[Radio personality|radio host]]<ref>{{Cite book |last=Yvonne Tasker |author-link=Yvonne Tasker |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v0SITBLPJEAC&q=videodrome+nicki+brand |title=Fifty Contemporary Filmmakers |date=2002 |publisher=[[Psychology Press]] |isbn=978-0-415-18974-3 |pages=133 |language=en |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240715232011/https://books.google.com/books?id=v0SITBLPJEAC&pg=PA132%23v=onepage&q&f=false |archive-date=July 15, 2024 |url-status=live}}</ref> who becomes sexually involved with Max, is aroused by an episode of ''Videodrome''.<ref name=":0" /> Upon learning it is actually broadcast out of [[Pittsburgh]], she goes to audition for the show but never returns. Max contacts Masha, a [[Softcore pornography|softcore pornographer]], and asks her to help him investigate ''Videodrome''. Through Masha, Max learns that the footage is real and is the public "face" of a political movement. Masha further informs him that the enigmatic [[Media studies|media theorist]] Brian O'Blivion knows about ''Videodrome''.

Max tracks down O'Blivion to a [[homeless shelter]] where vagrants engage in [[Marathon (media)|marathon sessions]] of television viewing. He discovers that O'Blivion's daughter Bianca runs the mission, aiding her father's vision of a world where television replaces everyday life. Later, Max views a videotape of O'Blivion explaining that ''Videodrome'' is a socio-political battleground in which a war is being fought to control the minds of the people of North America. Max then hallucinates that Nicki speaks directly to him and causes his television to undulate as he kisses the screen. Disturbed, Max returns to O'Blivion's homeless shelter. Bianca tells him that ''Videodrome'' carries a broadcast signal that gives malignant [[brain tumor]]s. O'Blivion considers it as part of his vision, and hallucinations are a higher form of reality. When O'Blivion found out it was to be used for malevolent purposes, he attempted to stop his partners only to be killed by his own invention. In the year before his death, O'Blivion recorded thousands of videos, which now form the basis of his television appearances.

Later that night, Max hallucinates placing his handgun in a slit in his abdomen. He is contacted by ''Videodrome''{{-'}}s producer, Barry Convex of the Spectacular Optical Corporation, an eyeglasses company that acts as a front for an [[Arms industry|arms company]], who uses a device to record Max's fantasies. Max then wakes up to find Masha's corpse in his bed. He frantically calls Harlan to photograph the body as evidence, but, shortly after he arrives, her body is gone.

Wanting to see the latest Videodrome broadcast, Max meets Harlan at his studio. Harlan reveals that he has been working with Convex to recruit Max to their cause. They aim to end North America's [[Decadence|cultural decay]] by using ''Videodrome'' to kill anyone too obsessed with sex and violence. Convex then inserts a brainwashing [[Betamax]] tape into Max's torso. Under Convex's influence, Max kills his colleagues at CIVIC-TV. He attempts to kill Bianca, who stops him by showing him a videotape of Nicki's murder on the Videodrome set. Bianca then "reprograms" Max to her father's cause: "Death to ''Videodrome''. Long live the new flesh." On her orders, he kills Harlan, whose hand transforms into a [[stielhandgranate]] after he inserts it into Max's torso slit and explodes, and Convex, whose body erupts into massive tumors and tears itself apart after Max shoots him with a gun fused to his hand.

Now wanted for murder, Max takes refuge on a derelict boat in the [[Port Lands]]. Appearing to him on television, Nicki tells him he has weakened ''Videodrome'', but to defeat it, he must "leave the old flesh" and ascend to the next level. The television shows an image of Max shooting himself in the head, which causes the set to explode. Reenacting what he has just seen, Max utters the words "Long live the new flesh" and shoots himself.