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This FAQ contains spoilers.
Blade Runner was directed by Ridley Scott, and features music by Vangelis.
Plot Synopsis
Preamble from movie:
Early in the 21st Century, THE TYRELL
CORPORATION advanced Robot evolution
into the NEXUS phase -- a being virtually
identical to a human -- known as replicants.
The NEXUS 6 Replicants were superior
in strength and agility, and at least equal
in intelligence, to the genetic engineers
who created them.
Replicants were used Off-world as
slave labor, in the hazardous exploration and
colonization of other planets.
After a bloody mutiny by a NEXUS 6
combat team in an Off-world colony,
Replicants were declared illegal
on earth -- under penalty of death.
Special police squads -- BLADE RUNNER
UNITS -- had orders to shoot to kill, upon
detection, any trespassing Replicants.
This was not called execution.
It was called retirement.
LOS ANGELES
NOVEMBER, 2019
A number of replicants have made it to Earth, and ex-Blade Runner Deckard
(Harrison Ford) is convinced to track them down.
At the most, one can say that the movie borrowed a concept and some characters from the book.
You are most likely to find DADoES in a second-hand bookstore. It has been re-released as: Blade Runner (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?).
The title comes from Alan E. Nourse, who wrote a story called The Bladerunner. William S. Burroughs took the book and wrote Bladerunner (A Movie) in 1979. Rights to the title only ("in perpetuity throughout the universe") were sold to Ridley Scott. Similarities between Nourse's The Bladerunner and Scott's BR are in name only. Nourse's title refers to people who deliver medical instruments to outlaw doctors who can't obtain them legally. [Source: Locus, September 1992 (p. 76)]
A great deal of the "visuals" were inspired from one of the issues in the "Wonders of the Universe" comic book series, drawn by Moebius (Jean Giraud). The original comic book title is L'homme est-il bon? (Is man good?). One story in this book (written by Dan O'Bannon, who co-wrote Aliens), is called "The Long Tomorrow". The back of the comic book says (translated from French):
This comic-book also contains other famous stories,
like "The Long Tomorrow", which originally was thought
to be a parody, but ended up being more real, than what
is was meant to be a parody of: the classic american
detective-story. This story was later used as a visual
reference for the movie "Blade Runner".
Jean Giraud did the costume design for the Walt Disney movie _Tron_, and Syd
Mead did the mechanical design.
There is an album called the "Blade Runner Soundtrack" (WEA 1982), but it is NOT the music from the movie, rather it is an orchestral arrangement. It contains the following tracks:
Vangelis released an album called "Themes", which contains:
"Memories of Green" was originally released on Vangelis' album "See You Later".
Vangelis' 1979 album "VANGELIS: Opera Sauvage" contains some tracks similar to those used in Blade Runner.
Vangelis also wrote the score for Antarctica, which includes tracks remarkably similar to those used in The Director's Cut (see below) of Blade Runner.
There are recurring but unsubstatiated rumors that a few albums of the real soundtrack were sold in Europe. (Cassette only, France only)
There is at least one "bootleg" copy of the soundtrack in circulation. Made by a sound engineer working in post-production, it not CD quality. [Don't bother asking me, I don't have it.]
Scott used the orchestrated version of "Memories of Green" in his film Someone to Watch Over Me.
The Japanese vocals associated with the Blimp are from:
The lyrics are part of a Japanese epic about the tragic and utter destruction of one clan by another.
Gail Laughton's "Harps of the Ancient Temples" is used as the bicyclists pass by Leon and Batty on their way to Chew's Eye World. This album is listed in old CD catalogs on the Laurel label, cat #111.
android (an'droid) adj. Possessing human features -n.
A synthetic man created from biological materials.
Also called humanoid. (Late Greek androeides,
manlike: ANDR(O) - OID.)
THE AMERICAN HERITAGE
DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH
LANGUAGE (1976)
android (an'droid) n, Gk. humanoid automation. more at
robot./ 1. early version utilized for work too
boring, dangerous or unpleasant for humans.
2. second generation bio-engineered. Electronic
relay units and positronic brains. Used in space
to explore inhospitable environments. 3. third
generation synthogenetic. REPLICANT, constructed
of skin/flesh culture. Selected enogenic transfer
conversion. Capable of self perpetuating thought.
Paraphysical abilities. Developed for emigration
program.
WEBSTER'S DICTIONARY
New International (2012)
Replicants are manufactured organisms designed to carry out work too boring, dangerous, or distasteful for humans.
The new "NEXUS 6" replicants are nearly indistinguishable from humans. (An early draft of the script contained an autopsy scene, in which the surgeons were unaware that the body they were examining was a replicant, until two hours into the procedure.)
Replicants differ from humans in one important factor: they are lacking in empathy. In BR, replicants' eyes glow, however Ridley Scott has stressed that this is merely a cinematic technique, and the glow can't be seen by the characters in the story, only by the audience.
A test, called the "Voight-Kampff Test" (VK) is administered to determine if the subject is a human by trying to elicit an empathetic response.
NEXUS 6 (and possibly all other) replicants are manufactured by the Tyrell Corporation, although there is evidence that third party manufacturers are utilized. (Chew's Eye World). Replicants can endure greater pain than humans, and are generally physically superior. NEXUS 6 replicants have a in-built fail-safe mechanism, namely a four year lifespan.
It was noticed that replicants had eccentricities because they were emotionally immature. Rachael was an prototype replicant with experimental memory implants, designed to provide a cushion for her emotions. Consequently, she was unaware that she was a replicant.
REPLICANT -- A genetically engineered creature composed entirely of organic substance. Animal replicants (animoids) were developed first for use as pets and beasts of burden after most real animals became extinct. Later, humanoid replicants were created for military purposes and for the exploration and colonization of space. The Tyrell Corp. recently introduced the Nexus 6, the supreme replicant - - much stronger and faster than, and virtually indistinguishable from, real human beings. Earth law forbids replicants on the planet, except in the huge industrial complex where they are created. The law does not consider replicants human and therefore accords them no rights nor protection.
ESPER -- A high-density computer with a very powerful three- dimensional resolution capacity and a cryogenic cooling system. The police cars and Deckard's apartment contain small models which can be channeled into the large one at police headquarters. This big apparatus is a well-worn, retro-fitted part of the furniture. Among many functions, the Esper can analyze and enlarge photos, enabling investigators to search a room without being there.
VOIGHT-KAMPFF MACHINE -- A very advanced form of lie detector that measures contractions of the iris muscle and the presence of invisible airborne particles emitted from the body. The bellows were designed for the latter function and give the machine the menacing air of a sinister insect. The V-K is used primarily by blade runners to determine if a suspect is truly human by measuring the degree of his empathic response through carefully worded questions and statements.
SPINNER -- The generic term for all flying cars in use around the year 2020. Only specially authorized people and police are licensed to operate these remarkable vehicles, which are capable of street driving, vertical lift-off, hovering and high-speed cruising. The Spinner is powered by three engines -- conventional internal combustion, jet and anti-gravity.
Behind the Scenes
RIDLEY SCOTT: Director. A veteran television commercial maker, Scott consistently makes quality movies. His feature-film credits include: The Duellists, Alien, Blade Runner, Someone to Watch Over Me, Legend, Black Rain, Thelma and Louise, 1492. Ridley Scott also directed the first ever Macintosh television advertisment (the "hammer thrower"), which aired once only, during the Superbowl in January 1984. Ridley's brother Tony is also a director, and his film credits include Top Gun, Days of Thunder, and The Last Boy Scout.
MICHAEL DEELEY: Producer. Acadamy Award winner for producing "The Deer Hunter"
SYD MEAD: Visual Futurist: Syd Mead suggested using the term "visual futurist" for his credit in the Blade Runner movie. (As he is not a union/guild member, he could not use credits such as "creative designer".)
He has been co-sponsoring an International Student Design Competition with Sony since 1989.
Some of his works are:
LAWRENCE G. PAULL: Production Designer. Holds degrees in Architecture and City Planning, his feature-film credits include: Blue Collar, Which Was Is Up?, and The Star Spangled Girl.
DAVID SNYDER: Art director.
VANGELIS (Evangelos Papathanassiou): Greek Composer. He has written numerous movie scores, perhaps the most famous being for "Chariots of Fire". Also wrote some of the music for the TV series "Cosmos". Prior to writing movie scores, Vangelis was the keyboard player of the band "Aphrodite's Child".
Vangelis wrote the score for Scott's 1992 film: 1492.
HAMPTON FANCHER, DAVID PEOPLES: Screenplay writers. Peoples wrote Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven, and Stephen Frear's Hero.
JORDAN CRONENWETH: Cinematographer. (Altered States, Stop Making Sense)
DOUGLAS TRUMBULL: Special Effects (2001: A Space Odyssey, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Brainstorm (also directed))
On Screen
DECKARD (Harrison Ford): (Ex) Blade Runner.
DR ELDON TYRELL (Joe Turkel): Owner/Chairman of the Tyrell Corp, manufacturers of replicants. Extremely intelligent, designed the NEXUS 6 brain
RACHAEL (Sean Young): Prototype post-NEXUS 6 replicant. Works for Tyrell.
ROY BATTY (Rutger Hauer): Leader of the renegade replicants.
INCEPT DATE: 8 Jan, 2016
FUNCTION: Combat, Colonization Defense Prog
PHYS: A MENT: A
PRIS (Daryl Hannah): Replicant, (Bryant: "Yer standard pleasure model")
ZHORA (Joanna Cassidy): Replicant.
LEON KOWALSKI (Brion James): Replicant.
J F SEBASTIAN (William Sanderson): Genetic designer for the Tyrell Corporation.
Still on Earth because of a premature geriatricism (Methuselah's Syndrome).
Has defeated Tyrell once in chess.
H BRYANT (M Emmett Walsh): Inspector of the Police force, Deckard's former boss.
GAFF (Edward James Olmos): A member of the Police Force. Makes origami.
HOLDEN (Morgan Paull): Blade Runner, shot by Leon
Having said that, it is interesting to note that Ridley Scott originally
made BR without the voice-overs, but due to it's poor reception when
sneak previewed, the studio insisted that the voice-overs be added. Ridley
Scott has said in an interview on American television that in film noir,
voice-overs sometimes work, and sometimes don't, and they didn't work in BR.
"(A)n extensive voice-over was added to help people relate to Harrison Ford's
character and make following the plot easier. (A)fter a draft by novelist-
screenwriter Darryl Ponicsan was discarded, a TV veteran named Roland Kibbee
got the job. As finally written, the voice-over met with universal scorn from
the filmmakers, mostly for what Scott characterized as its 'Irving the
Explainer' quality.... It sounded so tinny and ersatz that, in a curious bit
of film folklore, many members of the team believe to this day that Harrison
Ford, consciously or not, did an uninspired reading of it in the hopes it
wouldn't be used. And when co-writers Fancher and Peoples, now friends, saw it
together, they were so afraid the other had written it that they refrained from
any negative comments until months later."
The ending of the film was also changed by the studio. Scott wanted to end
the film with Deckard and Rachael getting into the elevator, but the studio
decided that the film needed a happier, less ambiguous ending. The aerial
landscape photography used in the theatrical release was outtakes from Stanley
Kubrik's The Shining (which, coincidentally, starred Joe Turkel).
In 1992, Ridley Scott released a "Director's Cut" of Blade Runner (BRDC), which
eliminates the voice-overs and the happy ending. This version is discussed
in more detail below.
Ridley Scott re-released the sneak preview at select movie festivals in
1991. There were rumours that THIS version was the director's cut, but that
did not appear until 1992.
Hampton Fancher did eight drafts of the screenplay. These drafts concluded
with Deckard taking Rachael out of the city, letting her see nature for the
first time, and then, because she has only a few days to live, shooting her in
the snow. David Peoples was brought in to polish the script, and Ridley Scott
asked him to make the plot include more clues. Peoples worked on the humanity
of Deckard's adversaries, and in fact his daughter mentioned the biological
term "replicate", which led to "replicant". Peoples also told Scott that the
screenplay was virtually perfect before he worked on it.
Theatrical vs Sneak preview:
BRDC vs Theatrical:
Cable TV
VIDEOTAPES:
Warner has subsequently released BRDC on tape:
WideScreen VHS HiFi: Suggested Retail Price $US39.98, Released: May 19, 1993.
US residents contact Ted Swanson (tswanson@bpa.arizona.edu) for mail-order
information.
LASERDISCS:
1992 Director's Cut:
PUBLICATIONS:
SCRIPTS:
Retrofitting Blade Runner:
Issues in Ridley Scott's Blade Runner and Philip
K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
The Blade Runner Sketchbook
The Blade Runner Portfolio
The Illustrated Blade Runner
"The Blade Cuts", Starburst (UK) no. 51, November 1982. Phil Edwards.
"Back To The Future", Empire (UK) issue 42 (December 1992).
"L'homme est-il bon?", from the "Wonders of the Universe" comic book
series. Illustrated by Moebius (Jean Giraud). France.
Oblagon
American Cinematographer, July 1982. "Blade Special".
Marshall Deutelbaum, "Memory/Visual Design: The Remembered Sights of
BR", Literature/Film Quarterly, 17 (1989), no.1, p.66.
J.P. Telotte, "Human Artifice and the Science Fiction Film", Film
Quarterly, 13.3 (1983), p.44.
David Desser, "BR: Science Fiction and Transcendence", Literature/Film
Quarterly, 13 (1985), p.171.
Giuliana Bruno, "Ramble City: Postmodernism and BR", October, no.41
(1987), p.61.
Fischer, Norman. "BLADE RUNNER and _Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?_:
An Ecological Critique of Human-Centered Value Systems." _Canadian
Journal of Social and Political Theory_, vol. 13, no. 3 (1989), pp.
102-113.
Don Shay, "Cinefex," No. 9 (July 1982), pp. 6-7
Scharf, David. "Magnifications : photography with the scanning electron
microscope" Schocken Books, 1977. ISBN 080523670-8
The voiceover speculates that the unicorn was simply a message to Deckard to
say "I know you've got Rachael, but I'll let her live."
The unicorn is the last of a series of origami figures that Gaff uses to taunt
Deckard. In Bryant's office when Deckard insists he's retired, Gaff folds a
chicken: "You're afraid to do it". Later he makes a man with an erection:
"You've got the hots for her". And finally, the unicorn: "You're dreaming, you
can run away with her, but she won't live" (he says basically the same thing to
Deckard on the rooftop).
A unicorn has long been the symbol of virginity and purity (being white), which
ties in with Rachel's status. Legend states that only a virgin could capture a
unicorn. Unicorns are extinct, and Gaff may think the same of Rachael, as she
definitely has a limited lifespan.
A unicorn was used in Tennessee Williams' "The Glass Menagerie" to symbolize
that the girl was "different to other horses". The horn on this unicorn
represented her physical handicap, which prevented her from meeting people.
When she finally did meet a man, they danced and knocked over the unicorn,
breaking its horn off. "It's just like all the other horses now.", she said,
which symbolizes that she has overcome her shyness/lost her virginity.
The unicorn may symbolize one of the following:
BRDC includes a scene not in the original release. It is a dream sequence,
showing Deckard's dream of a white unicorn. Given this, one can argue that
Gaff left the unicorn outside Deckard's apartment because he knew that Deckard
dreamt of a unicorn. If Gaff knew what Deckard was dreaming, then we can
assume that Deckard was a replicant himself, and Gaff knew he would be dreaming
of a unicorn.
Quoted without permission from "The Blade Cuts", Starburst (UK) no. 51, Nov 82.
Scott: ...did you see the version [of the script] with the unicorn?
McKenzie: No...
S: I think the idea of the unicorn was a terrific idea...
M: The obvious inference is that Deckard is a replicant himself.
S: Sure. To me it's entirely logical, particularly when you are doing a
film noire, you may as well go right through with that theme, and the
central character could in fact be what he is chasing...
M: Did you actually shoot the sequence in the glade with the unicorn?
S: Absolutely. It was cut into the picture, and I think it worked
wonderfully. Deckard was sitting, playing the piano rather badly
because he was drunk, and there's a moment where he gets absorbed
and goes off a little at a tangent and we went into the shot of the
unicorn plunging out of the forest. It's not subliminal, but it's a
brief shot. Cut back to Deckard and there's absolutely no reaction
to that, and he just carries on with the scene. That's where the
whole idea of the character of Gaff with his origami figures -- the
chicken and the little stick-figure man, so the origami figure of the
unicorn tells you that Gaff has been there. One of the layers of the
film has been talking about private thoughts and memories, so how
would Gaff have known that a private thought of Deckard was of a
unicorn? That's why Deckard shook his head like that [referring to
Deckard nodding his head after picking up the paper unicorn]."
Scott goes on to talk about how he decided to make the photograph of the little
girl with her mother come alive for a second, then later in the interview we
have:
M: Are you disappointed that the references to Deckard being a replicant
are no longer there?
S: The innuendo is still there. The French get it immediately! I
think it's interesting that he could be.
The unicorn scene itself was lifted from footage from Scott's 1985 film
Legend. Scott intended the unicorn scene to be in the 1982 theatrical
release, but the producers vetoed the idea as "too arty".
The chess game between Tyrell and Sebastian uses the conclusion of a game
played between Anderssen and Kieseritzky, in London in 1851. This is one of the
most famous and brilliant games ever played, and is universally known as
"The Immortal Game".
The concept of immortality has obvious associations in the ensuing
confrontation between Tyrell and Batty.
The Immortal Game, in algebraic notation, is as follows:
Anderssen - Kieseritzky
Note that the chess boards in the film are not arranged as they would be if
they were following the Immortal Game, and that Sebastian's board does not
match Tyrell's.
Why did Holden need to VK Leon, if the police already knew what he looked like?
Bryant first tells Deckard that there were six replicants, three male, three
female. Obviously, Roy and Leon are two of the males, and Pris and Zhora are
two of the females. Bryant also says that "one of them got fried trying to
get into the Tyrell building", but doesn't specify the sex. That leaves one
replicant, either male or female.
It has been hypothesized that Deckard was the sixth replicant, but there is
ample evidence that this is not the case:
Some versions of the script include "Mary" as the sixth replicant, which means
that the one that got fried was male, and Deckard can't be the sixth replicant.
Why is it so difficult to tell a replicant from a human, when replicants can
put their hands in boiling/freezing liquids without damage? Surely a tissue
sample would suffice?
How did word of Rachael's escape get out so quickly, and how could Tyrell tell
that she had gone for good? Remember that Deckard called Rachael at
home while he was still at the nightclub. It could not have been more than a
couple hours before he gave chase to Zhora. (How long could she "take the
pleasure from the serpent"?) Was that enough time for Rachael to run away, be
gone long enough for Tyrell to call the police about a missing replicant, and
have them tell Bryant to put Deckard onto it?
How did Roy get into Tyrell's office so easily? Did Tyrell trust Sebastian
enough to give him the option of bringing anyone/anything up in the lift?
Supposedly an earlier version of the script had the Tyrell we see as a
replicant, and Roy picking up on this because of the lift letting him in.
(Supposedly the lift was programmed to accept only people that it knew...
meaning that it couldn't detect Roy. This, however leads to a problem in that
the lift would be a better replicant identifier than the VK test.)
In that version, the real Tyrell was dead in a "cryocrypt", for sketches of
which see "The Blade Runner Sketchbook". Supposedly (after Roy kills Sebastian)
he finds the crypt and kills Tyrell; this would also allude to "UBIK".
Technical
Norwegian subtitles translate "Sushi... my ex-wife used to call me that... cold
fish" into "Sushi, my wife, used to call me a cold fish."
Swedish subtitles spell Roy's name "Beatty", translate Deckard's license
number from 260354 to 26354, "C-beams" to "seabeams".
The theatrical version dubbed into German translates "hardcopy" (from the
Esper machine) into "solid copy", but in BRDC, it is "printout".
Italian-dubbed versions translate "C-Beams" to "B-Beams". The translation of
Batty's line "I thought you were supposed to be the good man" uses "bravo" for
"good". This word means "adept" more than "good", which hints more at Deckard
being a replicant. "Skin-jobs" translates to "leatherworks".
In the very first shot of Batty, we see his hand clenching up. If you look
carefully as he turns his hand just before the shot changes, you can see
the nail sticking through the back of his hand. He doesn't actually insert
that nail until later in the film (The nail is easily spotted on the Criterion
CAV laserdisc: frames C-07 37124 and 37125).
Also, in the same scene, though Roy is supposedly alone (in a phone booth)
you see someone's hand on his shoulder. This is actually a later scene with
Tyrell, shown in mirror image.
During the VK test, Leon says "My mother... let me tell you about my mother",
but when Deckard runs over this on his way to his apartment, Leon's voice
says "I'll tell you about my mother!". This may just be Scott trifling with
the audience's memory, they way that Tyrell may be trifling with Deckard's.
The snake tattoo on Zhora only appears after the Esper machine has stopped
zooming, and when it produces a hard copy, Zhora's face is at a different angle
to that on the screen. This scene was filmed twice. [Source: "Cinefex" No 9,
1982]
When the Cambodian woman puts the snake scale into the electron microscope, she
doesn't take it out of the plastic bag. We should be looking at a picture
of a plastic bag. The serial number that she gives Deckard is not the same as
the one in the image. Additionally, the image is not a snake scale, but a
female marijuana leaf.
When Deckard goes to Ben Hassan's (the snake dealer), their lip movements do
not match the dialog. This scene remains the same in BRDC, which means that
Scott intended it to be there, or it was one of the sacrifices he was forced to
make in meeting the BRDC deadline.
When Zhora goes crashing through those plate-glass windows, the stunt double
looks nothing like the actress, her wounds disappear and appear several times,
and she is wearing flat-heeled boots rather than the high-heeled ones she put
on in her dressing room. The sounds of the bullets hitting her body doesn't
correspond to when she is visibly hit. Also, you can see her holding the
trigger-ball and tube for the bloodbags she is carrying.
When Leon throws Deckard into the car window, the window was already broken.
Not necessarily a goof, but could be.
In all versions of the film, events occur in this sequence: Deckard kills
Zhora, and then buys a bottle of Tsing Tao. Gaff grabs him, and takes him
to Bryant. Deckard then chases Rachael, but gets beaten up by Leon.
When the film included Mary, the story ran as follows: Deckard killed Zhora,
and then saw Rachael. He chased Rachael, only to be beaten up by Leon. After
Rachael killed Leon, Deckard THEN bought his bottle of Tsing Tao, and met with
Bryant, who told him that there were "four to go" (Roy, Pris, Mary, and
Rachael).
When they cut Mary from the film, they had a problem: Bryant should say that
there were "three to go" (Roy, Pris, and Rachael). Instead of reshooting this
scene, they moved it (and the scene of Deckard buying Tsing Tao, because Gaff
walks up to him and says "Bryant") to before Leon's death, so that the "four to
go" would be Roy, Pris, LEON (not Mary), and Rachael. They nearly got away
with this, but are now a few problems:
This error is also evident when Bryant tells Deckard at the beginning:
"I've got four skin jobs walking the streets", and then proceeds to tell him
that SIX replicants came to earth, and ONE had been fried (leaving five, not
four).
The song Rachael plays on the piano does not match the music she is looking at.
When Pris steps out of Sebastian's elevator, her hair is dry, but when she
is in the apartment proper, it's wet again.
Support cables are visible whenever you see a closeup of a spinner floating
above a city street. The cable is really visible when Gaff takes-off with
Deckard in the beginning of the movie. There is a close-up left profile shot
(front of spinner on left side of the screen) of a spinner rising through the
rain, and the line is very visible. Later when a cop floats down to Deckard
sitting in his car and asks his business, you can see the cable if you look
closely.
Sebastian's and Tyrell's chess boards don't match.
Pris' raccoon makeup changes slightly three times.
Pris' gunshot wounds are visible before she is shot.
In the Deckard/Batty confrontation, after Deckard has been given his gun back
and stalks off, you can see (in letterboxed/widescreen versions) the shadows of
the cameraman, gaffer, and the camera on the wall.
When Batty is holding onto Deckard's arm, Deckard's shirt is untucked. When
he is thrown down, the shirt is tucked in.
The following characters smoke cigarettes:
Deckard kills only women.
Pris' incept date is Valentine's Day.
"Deckard" is similar in pronunciation and spelling to "(Rene) Descartes",
a famous 17th century French philosopher. Descartes (like Deckard) was
fascinated by the question "What does it mean to be human". Descartes was the
man who said "cogito ergo sum" (I think, therefore I am): exactly what Pris
tells Sebastian when he asks what she can do.
Some people claim that Holden's eyes glow after explaining to Leon that the
questions were written down for him. We never see Leon's eyes glow. All
major characters have either green or blue eyes.
Gaff's origami taunts Deckard: when Deckard tries to leave Bryant's office
without taking the job, Gaff makes a chicken. Gaff makes a man with a huge
erection to tease Deckard about either being attracted to Rachael, or getting
so involved/excited by the job (when he didn't want it in the first place).
Gaff might have felt that Deckard searching Leon's room was just "jacking off".
The origami evolves: Chicken --> Man --> Unicorn (replicant?)
Eye symbolism is rampant:
The Japanese woman taking pills on the giant screen might be a homage to
Philip K Dick's book "UBIK".
Rachael's picture comes to life momentarily, and the soundtrack has the sound
of children playing.
Rachael's hairstyle: as a replicant, it is perfect, rigid, machine like, and
cold. As a human, it's soft, curly, and messed up.
Multiples of four:
The term "Blade Runner" suggests running along a thin edge (blade) one side
being human, the other replicant; it's a fine line between being human and a
replicant.
Roy Batty's soliloquy was ad-libbed by Rutger Hauer.
Blade Runner won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation in 1983
(beating out E.T.). In a poll of members of the 1992 World Science Fiction
Convention, Blade Runner was named as the third most favorite SF film of all
time (behind Star Wars and 2001: A Space Odyssey).
Blade Runner was released the same month as _ET: The Extra Terrestrial_, which
might account for it's poor reception.
From BLADE RUNNER Production Notes (from the 1982 Presskit)
Actors Rutger Hauer, Brion James and James Hong worked for two days
amid icicles at U.S. Growers Cold Storage, Inc.
The "Blade Runner" company also filmed at two of L.A.'s most
beautiful architectural landmarks. The front of the Ennis Brown
house in the Los Feliz area was designed in 1924 by Frank Lloyd
Wright in a Mayan block motif. The building, the most monumental of
Wright's western experimental work, is seen in the film as the
entrance to Harrison Ford's apartment building, a huge condominium
complex, hundreds of stories high.
The Bradbury Building, built in 1893 and recently threatened with
architectural corruption by municipal safety modifications, was
preserved on film by "Blade Runner." In one scene, Ford traces Hauer
to the ornate edifice for the final showdown. In another, industrial
designer J. F. Sebastian (William J. Sanderson) discovers street waif
Pris (Daryl Hannah) and takes her into his apartment.
Other locations included the downtown Pan Am Building, where Deckard
and Gaff search Leon's hotel room for clues.
Deckard drives through a tunnel, which is the [?] tunnel in Los Angeles.
Sebastian's apartment is full of bastardised creatures, part man, part machine,
and part animal.
There is a stuffed unicorn on Sebastian's work table (screen right, as the mice
scurry over scattered paraphernalia while Sebastian sleeps).
Each character is associated with an animal:
"Ethyl methanesulfonate as an alkylating agent" is a mutagen, and the
subsequent debate between Batty and Tyrell correctly explores the problems
associated with changing a cell's DNA.
When Gaff picks up Deckard, the launch sequence on the computer is exactly
the same as in Scott's _Alien_, when the escape pod seperates from the Mother
ship. When Deckard enters his apartment at the end, the background hum is the
same distinctive hum as in parts of _Alien_.
Notice that both _Alien_ and BR have "artificial persons", and there
is ambiguity as to who is/was a real human. _Alien_ and BR are perfectly
compatible, the only problem being that Ash should have been a replicant, as
opposed to a robot.
E. T. A. Hoffman, a 19th century German writer, wrote _The Automata_, which
featured a man who fell in love with a female piano-playing automaton. When
he discovers that she is an automaton, he commits suicide by jumping from the
top of a building. Before he jumps, he shouts "nice eyes", as it was the
automaton's eyes that conviced him that she must be an automaton.
RELIGIOUS/PHILOSOPHICAL PARALLELS:
The replicants are fallen angels (fell from the heavens/outer space), with Roy
as Lucifer.
Tyrell lives in a giant pyramid (like a Pharaoh), which looks like a cathedral
inside, whereas Sebastian lives in an abandoned apartment with a "toilet bowl
plunger" on his head.
Tyrell creates. He builds his creations imperfect. Once of his creations
resents the inbuilt imperfection (since the creator had no reason apart from
fear to inhibit his creations), and returns to the creator to undo him. This
is an interesting parallel to the spider memory that Tyrell gave Rachael, in
which baby spiders killed their mother.
Batty is the creator's son. He returns to earth, and is persecuted by the
agents of society. Deckard takes the role of Pilate, asking "What is reality?"
(on the roof of the Bradbury Building). In John 18:38, Pilate asks "What is
truth?", which echoes the same sentiment (In German, both of these questions
could be phrased "Was ist Wahreit?"). Pilate/Deckard subsequently realize
that they have done wrong in the course of upholding the law. By rescuing
Deckard, Batty shows a last act of forgiveness against those who would have
killed him, as did Christ during his crucifixion.
Tyrell's huge bed, pedestaled and canopied, is modeled after the bed of Pope
John Paul II.
Roy:
This is a paraphrase of William Blake's _America: A Prophesy_:
When Roy finally confronts Tyrell, he calls him his "maker," and "the god of
biomechanics." In the light of the parallels this film draws between the
plight of the replicants and that of all human being -- four years against
fourscore -- this scene has strange reverberations. If Roy can condemn his
creator for determining his life span at four years, why can we not condemn
our Creator (if we choose to believe in one) for placing us under a death
sentence at birth. Can we sit in judgment of God?
Insofar as he creates artificial life and is killed by it, Tyrell is another
Dr. Frankenstein. Tyrell and Frankenstein both are cruel towards their own
creations, and yet it is these creations, not the creators, who are persecuted.
We are sympathetic towards both Roy and Frankenstein's creature, as they are
inherently benign creatures who become violent only when spurned by a paranoid
society. Our creations tell us more about the ugliness of ourselves than they
do about the creations themselves. The "Frankenstein" parallel is not
perfect, however, as Dr Frankenstien is not directly killed by his creation.
Roy puts a nail through his palm, a symbol of Christian crucifixion.
In Milton's "Paradise Lost", Satan is, despite himself, the most attractive and
interesting character. Roy is, of course, both Christ and Lucifer, but the
important thing is that, almost despite ourselves, we are obliged to locate our
sympathy where we do not want it to go. On a theological level, the "felix
culpa", our "fortunate fall" through which we are redeemed, is occasioned by
Satan, just as Deckard's "fortunate fall" is through Roy - Roy not only saves
him from plummeting, but in fact elevates him to the heavens - a redeemed world.
The use of the number 4 throughout could be an extension of the Holy Trinity.
When Batty dies, he is released from torment as he releases the dove: the only
shot of blue sky. (The laserdisc notes say that they couldn't get the dove to
fly off into the rain.)
Deckard's voiceover after Roy's death muses "He wanted the answers that all of
us wanted. Where did we come from? Where are we going? How long do I have?".
According to an essay in _Retrofitting Blade Runner_, these three questions are
very similar, if not almost exactly like those scribbled by the painter Gauguin
on the back of one of his paintings during one of his more suicidal phases.
Q: Whose eye is it at the start of the movie?
Q: Why would the Tyrell building have ceiling fans in it?
When BR was shown as part of the "Los Angeles at the Los Angeles"
film series in 1990 at the Los Angeles Theater, Ridley Scott was
asked after the screening about the prevalence of fans in his work
and their possible meaning. Without missing a beat, Scott replied:
"Well, they keep you cool."
Q: How did Leon smuggle his gun into room where Holden VK'd him? And how did
he escape from the building, given that the whole incident was on videotape,
and occurred high up in the Tyrell building?
Q: What does the voice from the blimp say?
Q: Why can't Tyrell afford a real owl?
Q: How did Rachael get away with killing Leon in public, when she was wanted
dead by the police? The police arrived pretty soon after Deckard killed
Zhora, so why didn't they swoop when Rachael killed Leon?
Q: How can Tyrell tell Roy that "We made you to the best of our abilities",
when he deliberately gave him a four year lifespan?
Q: Why are real animals so expensive if there are lots of birds living in
Sebastian's building?
Q: Batty calls Deckard by name during the chase at the end. How did he know
Deckard's name?
Q: How did Deckard manage to haul himself onto the ceiling with two fingers,
with two other broken fingers on the same hand?
Q: Batty's incept date of January 2016 means that he should have lived to
January 2020. Why did he die in November 2019?
Q: How did Gaff get Deckard's gun? Was he following them?
Q: Why does Batty's nail disappear when he catches Deckard?
Q: Which companies/products have their logos appearing in BR?
Q: What is this "Blade Runner Curse"?
Q: Is there going to be a sequel to Blade Runner?
Q: Is there a Blade Runner computer game?
There is no definitive answer: Ridley Scott himself has stated that, although
he deliberately made the ending ambiguous, he also intentionally introduced
enough evidence to support the notion, and (as far as he is concerned), Deckard
is a replicant.
[See section 9]
The "for" case
The "against" case
This file has been primarily compiled from my own viewings of Blade Runner,
debates on the Internet, and private email messages. The contributors are too
numerous to mention, and this task would never have been completed had I
replied to everyone that sent me mail.
Special thanks to:
I regularly read the movie newsgroups, but I am more likely to get your message
if you email it directly to me.
At present, I have no plans to form a mailing list, however this may change,
depending on how many people are interested. My policy stands like this at the
moment: If you don't have access to net news, I'll mail it to you. If you
still don't get it, that means the mail has bounced, and you should try again,
possibly with a different return address.
FUNCTION: Military/leisure
PHYS: A MENT: B
INCEPT DATE: 12 June, 2016
FUNCTION: Retrained (9 Feb, 2018) Polit. Homicide
PHYS: A MENT: B
INCEPT DATE: 10 April, 2017
FUNC: Combat/loader (Nuc. Fiss.)
PHYS: A MENT: C
I don't like the voice-overs/endings.
Ridley Scott made BR in a style called "film noir". Film noir is the
"hardboiled detective" style of story-telling, perhaps the most famous example
is the Humphrey Bogart movie "The Maltese Falcon" (directed by John Huston). A
characteristic of film noir is the voice-overs by the detective, explaining
what he is thinking/doing at the time.
[Source: Los Angeles Times Magazine, September 13, 1992]
What different versions of Blade Runner are there?
[Source: Los Angeles Times Magazine, September 13, 1992 (p. 20).]
LD vs Theatrical:
added footage:
The 10th Anniversary Video edition is identical to the LD release.
No happy ending, movie ends with closing elevator door
Soundtrack completely redone digitally for BRDC and is more prominent.
When BR first appeared on American cable TV, there was an additional line of
dialog when Bryant gives Deckard the description, names, and addresses of
Tyrell and Sebastian over the radio. In the cable TV version, Bryant adds
"...and check 'em out" after he says "I want you to go down there."
[ANYBODY WHO'S SEEN THIS, PLEASE PLEASE CONTACT ME!]
All video tapes up to 19th May 1993 are the "Not Rated" version with the
extra violence that was removed from the 117 minute American theatrical
release.
In the NTSC markets (M/NTSC 3.58 525/60: US and Japan), there have been up
to seven versions of Blade Runner continuously available on laserdisc for
the last several years.
1982 European (U.S. home video) Cut:
The Embassy LD is also available as an identical NTSC VHS release, and
both are inferior to the Criterion discs. There are no NTSC LDs of either
the 1982 U.S. theatrical release or the 1982 workprint/sneak preview.
Script City
8033 Sunset Blvd.
PO Box 1500
Hollywood, CA 90046
U.S.A.
US Phone: 213-871-0707 (inquiries)
1-800-676-2522 (orders only)
If you order three or all four items, the total postage is $10.50.
Cinema City
P.O. Box 1012
Muskegon, MI 49443
US Phone: 616-722-7760
Blade Runner script ($55.00 + postage)
Matt Walsh (mtm@walsh.dme.battelle.org) has the complete Script City set,
and is willing to sell copies for $US35 + shipping.
Judith B. Kerman, editor, 1991, 291 pages
Bowling Green State University Press, Bowling Green, Ohio 43403
Blue Dolphin Enterprises, Inc., 1982, ISBN #0-943128-01-3.
Blue Dolphin Enterprises, Inc., 1982.
Blue Dolphin Enterprises, Inc., 1982.
Prepared late in post-production, "shooting version" of the script.
Showcase of Syd Mead's work. Includes pre-production artwork for Blade
Runner.
Memorable quotes.
[I WAS SENT A TRANSLATION OF GAFF'S CITY-SPEAK, BUT I HAVE LOST THE ADDRESS
OF THE PERSON WHO SENT IT. COULD YOU PLEASE CONTACT ME AGAIN? THANKS!
ANYONE ELSE WHO CAN TRANSLATE GAFF'S CITYSPEAK, PLEASE CONTACT ME!]
"Shakes? Me too. I get them bad, it goes with the business."
"It's not an easy thing to meet your maker."
"I want more life, father!"
(some versions sound like: "I want more life, fucker!")
"I've done . . . questionable things . . . but nothing that the
God of biomechanics wouldn't let you into heaven for."
"You'd better get it up, or I'm gonna have to kill you!"
"Six, seven! Go to hell or go to heaven!"
"That was irrational of you. Not to mention unsportsmanlike."
"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe.
Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion.
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.
Time to die."
"The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long...
...and you have burned so very, very brightly, Roy."
"Nothing's worse than having an itch you can never scratch!"
"Wake up! Time to die!"
"I think, Sebastian, therefore I am."
"Then we're stupid, and we'll die!"
"It's too bad she won't live! But then again, who does?"
What is the significance of the unicorn?
When Deckard leaves his apartment with Rachael at the end of the film, she
knocks over an origami unicorn, probably left there by Gaff.
Return to contents...
What is the significance of the chess game?
Sebastian's chess pieces are birds (he makes animals), Tyrell's are people
(he makes "people").
London 1851
1 e4 e5 2 f4 exf4 3 Bc4 Qh4+ 4 Kf1 b5 5 Bxb5 Nf6 6 Nf3 Qh6 7 d3 Nh5 8 Nh4 Qg5
9 Nf5 c6 10 Rg1 cxb5 11 g4 Nf6 12 h4 Qg6 13 h5 Qg5 14 Qf3 Ng8 15 Bxf4 Qf6
16 Nc3 Bc5 17 Nd5 Qxb2 18 Bd6 Qxa1+ 19 Ke2 Bxg1 20 e5 Na6 21 Nxg7+ Kd8
22 Qf6+ Nxf6 23 Be7 Checkmate.
Problems in Blade Runner
Plot
Trivia / What makes Blade Runner popular/special?
Trivia
Holden, Bryant, Rachael, Pris, lady on video screen.
"Fiery the angels fell,
Deep thunder roll'd around their shores,
Burning with the fires of Orc."
"Fiery the angels rose, and as they rose deep thunder roll'd
Around their shores: indignant burning with the fires of Orc."
More questions/answers
This section contains some questions which cannot be answered by considering
solely the film. In these cases, either auxilliary material is quoted, or a
rational explanation is offered.
A: The storyboard says that it is Holden's
A: Ceiling fans are very efficient, even in 2019.
A: According to news reports, the World Trade Center in New York that was
bombed in February 1993 had about 100,000 people in the 110-story building
(presumably both buildings). The Tyrell Corp. also has two buildings and,
according to various descriptions, is 700-stories tall. Since the top story
is several times the area of the WTC, the base must be enormously larger.
Also, it is surrounded by four buttresses that are probably equal in area to
the WTC. All of this suggests that the pyramid must be larger by as much
as a factor of 100. That suggests the pyramid might house up to 10 million
people.
It should be easy to get lost in a crowd that size. Add in the fact there
may be other replicants that look like Leon and you've got an impossible
job. We also know that Tyrell Corp. security is not perfect because, 1)
Bryant tells Deckard one was fried trying to break in and the others got
away, and 2) Batty gets in and kills Tyrell.
A: "A new life awaits you in the Off-World colonies. The chance to begin again
in a golden land of opportunity and adventure. New climate, recreational
facilities.....absolutely free. Use your new friend as a personal body
servant or a tireless field hand--the custom tailored genetically engineered
humanoid replicant designed especially for your needs. So come on America,
let's put our team up there...."
A: The February 1981 screenplay was written as:
Deckard: "It's artificial?"
Rachael: "Of course not."
I believe this is how it was shot. If you watch Rachael's lips when she is
saying this, it looks like an overdub. Hard to see except in a theater.
Tyrell may want to keep a replicant owl in his penthouse, the same as
most companies have showpiece models in their offices.
Note further that in DADoES, the "Tyrell corporation" lied to Deckard
(that is, told him it was real) as an attempted bribe.
Q: Who is the guy lying down in the photo Deckard uses in his image processor?
A: Roy?
A: Deckard kills Zhora in the midst of a crowded street. Leon picked a
deserted alley to maul Deckard.
A: What Tyrell means is: You were made as well as we dared make you because we
can only control you for so long. This explanation assumes Bryant is
correct in saying the 4-year lifespan is built-in. It's possible Tyrell
simply turned a problem into a benefit by claiming advantages for a 4-year
lifespan rather than limitations. When Sebastian says, "There's some of me
in you," he might well be referring to the Methuselah Syndrome.
A: DADoES offers an explanation: some animals are rarer than others. Pigeons
will always be cheap.
A: This is either a technical error in the film, or an indication that Batty
knew Deckard, and Deckard doesn't remember Batty. One theory is that
Deckard (and possibly Rachael) were replicants, and part of the rebellion.
They were caught alive entering the Tyrell building, and as an experiment
they were retrained as an ex-Blade Runner, and a replicant who think's
she's a human. The experiment was to see if a replicant could turn on other
replicants that he/she used to know. This explanation is a bit weak and
far fetched, as it relies on the Tyrell corporation retraining Deckard but
not changing his name. (Imagine if Roy had called him "Mr Smith"!)
This makes the Deckard/Zhora confrontation more interesting: she would have
recognized him, and would be wondering if he was having a joke or not. When
she realized that he was for real, she clobbered him. This could also give
Bryant an excuse for getting the number of escaped replicants wrong.
Different versions of the script have Deckard as a well-known Blade Runner,
so in that case it would be reasonable for Batty to know him.
A: Experienced rock climbers can achieve single-finger chin-ups. Whether or
not they can do this in the rain while wearing a sodden trenchcoat, with two
broken fingers, a history of alcoholism, and being chased by a homicidal
replicant is another matter. Postings from rec.climbing suggest that this
kind of action is as much a matter of technique as strength.
A: Easily. He's a replicant. :-) See section 14.
A: The margin of error on a replicant's lifetime is probably the same as that
of any human with a fatal disease.
A: Deckard sits on the roof for a long time. Gaff probably followed Deckard's
groundcar, or checked out the radio reports of Sebastian's death, walked
around to piece together what happened, then found Deckard's gun.
A: The bottom of the frame is slightly cropped (even on the Criterion disc),
which prevents us from seeing the nail. It is nevertheless there and can be
seen for a single frame at C-19 24493.
A: ANACO, Atari, Atriton, Bell, Budweiser, Bulova, Citizen, Coca-Cola, Cuisine
Art, Dentyne, Hilton, Jovan, JVC, Koss, Lark, Marlboro, Million Dollar
Discount, Mon Hart, Pan Am, Polaroid, RCA, Remy, Schiltz, Shakey's,
Toshiba, Star Jewelers, TDK, The Million Dollar Movie, TWA, Wakamoto.
A: Someone once noticed that a number of the companies whose logos
appeared in BR had financial difficulties after the film was released.
Atari had 70% of the home console market in 1982, but faced losses of
over $2 million in the first quarter of 1991. Bell lost it's monopoly in
1982. Pan-Am filed for bankruptcy protection in 1991. Soon after Blade
Runner was released, Coca-Cola released their "new formula", resulting in
losses of millions of dollars. It is interesting to note that since then,
the Coca-Cola company has seen the biggest growth of any American company
in history. Cusinart filed for bankruptcy protection in July 1989.
A: Ridley Scott has said that he is interested in doing a sequel. It is
rumoured that he is considering Gerard Depardieu (whom he directed in
_1492_) as one of the actors.
A: Yes. The official BR computer game was released for the Commodore 64 around
1982-1983. It featured the player as Deckard, tracking down the replicants
on an electronic map. Upon locating one, you had to chase them down a
crowded street and shoot them. The music in the game is reminscent of
Vangelis' score.
Is Deckard a replicant?
This question causes the most debate among BR fans. The different versions
of BR support this notion to differing degrees. One might argue that in the
theatrical release (1982), Deckard is not a replicant, but in BRDC, he is.
Noise-free post from October 1992 "Details" (Discussions on Blade Runner);
reprinted without permission:
FORD: "Blade Runner was not one of my favorite films. I tangled
with Ridley. The biggest problem was that at the end, he wanted the
audience to find out that Deckard was a replicant. I fought that
because I felt the audience needed somebody to cheer for."
Return to contents...
Notes
[I WAS SENT A TRANSLATION OF GAFF'S CITY-SPEAK, BUT I HAVE LOST THE ADDRESS
OF THE PERSON WHO SENT IT. COULD YOU PLEASE CONTACT ME AGAIN? THANKS!
ANYONE ELSE WHO CAN TRANSLATE GAFF'S CITYSPEAK, PLEASE CONTACT ME!]
-- Murray Chapman Zheenl Punczna --
-- muzzle@cs.uq.oz.au zhmmyr@pf.hd.bm.nh --
-- University of Queensland Havirefvgl bs Dhrrafynaq --
-- Brisbane, Australia Oevfonar, Nhfgenyvn --