Tag: Blade Runner

Perhaps the most interesting thing about Blade Runner is the world building. Ridley Scott avoiding being too explicit in designing this world and avoided extensive exposition about it. Outside of the visual aesthetics were are given very few hints about the world and yet the verisimilitude is off the charts. This feels like a genuine, lived in world. To break down the world of Blade Runner our first stop must be with the source material. Philip K Dick’s “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep”.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Philip K Dick’s novel is at heart a philosophical work. The author viewed androids as symbolic of the part of humans which he refers to as the “Automotive reflex machine”, where humans shut down everything about them that makes them human and in it’s extreme form allows them to become self centred and remorseless killers. While this is the replicants natural state, the bounty hunters who are tasked with retiring rogue ones find themselves walking a fine line between cold professionalism and empathy for those they hunt. The more they cut themselves off from feeling anything the more like their own prey they become, but if they allow empathy for these things they won’t survive long in the field. The novel’s protagonist Rick Deckard constantly finds himself struggling to find this balance, and it’s interesting to note that by the end of the novel Rick’s state of mind (outside of a strange religious experience) is reflective of where Deckard starts out in the movie, done with it all and ready to retire.

As the films story evolved and with Ridley Scott in the directors seat the view of the androids/replicants gets largely flipped on it’s head but many of those original beats remain and it certainly laid the scene for what has become the big question of the film over the years: is Rick Deckard a replicant? Interestingly this idea is toyed with in the novel, but mostly with Phil Resch, another Bounty Hunter who for a portion of the book is suspected by both Deckard and Resch himself of being an android. However it turns out he’s basically just a sociopath that enjoys his job a bit too much. Deckard’s involvement with Resch leads him to question his own stance in regards to the androids. Despite all this though the androids themselves remain for the entire story incapable of empathy and highly dangerous because of it. Sometimes they are envious of human empathy but more often they despise humans for it (Something especially notable with Roy Batty).

One of the major changes from book to film is we have gone from an underpopulated world devastated by nuclear fallout to an overpopulated one devastated by over industrialisation and resource shortages. It’s worth noting some articles ignore this (probably because that’s been retconned, but Scott was pretty clear in interviews at the time that the world was as it was because of over population and industrialisation. He said it was a natural progression from where we are now (Though he hoped it wouldn’t be the future). He made no mention of Nuclear War and that wouldn’t really fit in with the way he painted his world. In the novel however the entire set up is due to “World War Terminus”.

Blade Runner 2049 shifted things back more in line with the novel by including more post apocalyptic elements, including Las Vegas in the aftermath of a dirty bomb. The original movie had nothing like that and of course in the theatrical release they actually leave the city you see a world that really doesn’t look post apocalyptic. Despite this change, both versions end up with a major drive for humanity to head to off world colonies, which of course is the entire reason for the Replicants/Andy’s existence.

One element from the book that is very subtly kept in the movie is that of the rejection of genetically inferior humans. In the novel the character “John Isidore” has mutated due to radiation and is now what is referred to as a “Chicken Head”. In the film Sebastian is partially based off of him, though his issue causes premature aging (and it’s not mentioned that it is caused by radiation). Both characters live in a nearly abandoned apartment block that becomes the setting for the final show down and both characters are associated with Pris.

It is suggested both characters are unable to travel off world because of their condition. Unlike John though Sebastian is a genius, just a nervous, socially awkward one. Intelligence is mentioned briefly though by Leon when he suggested workers (even menial ones as Leon would have been) at Tyrell are subjected to regular IQ tests. In the novel those that fall short of the acceptable IQ score are deemed less than human, like poor John Isidore. It’s not directly mentioned if this is the case in the film, but it seems likely.

The movie also drops the global religion of Mercerism, an empathy based religion involving a kind of shared consciousness and puts less emphasis on the rarity of living animals. True every animal we come across in the movie turns out to be synthetic and it’s clear having a live owl or snake is incredibly rare, but we are never told why or how bad it is. In the novel animals are almost completely extinct and as such preserving the remaining ones are considered of the highest moral duty (Including something as simple as a spider). Owning a real animal gives one a high social status and those with fakes pretend they are real (Unlike in the movie where the response to “Is it real” is usually “Of course note”).

In the novel Deckard actually owns an electric sheep that he keeps on his roof (Yes, the sheep from the title is actually physically present) and later buys a genuine goat with his bonuses and near the end of the book he finds a toad in the wasteland. It’s interesting how much more context this gives to the questions in the Voight-Kampff test and their regular references to animals. The scene in the movie where Rachael is tested is perhaps the only scene from the book almost directly replicated, including the questions asked (Up to a point). So when Rachael is being asked about a painting of a naked woman, the important thing in the book was that the woman is on a bear skin rug. In the movie they didn’t mention the rug.

According to Dick, in contrast to how he saw his androids, Scott saw replicants as “Supermen that cannot fly”, certainly he viewed them with more wonder than Dick and that perhaps assisted in bringing them to life on screen. While Scott’s “Replicants” certainly share their core being with Dick’s “Andys” the thing that defined them as dangerous and inhuman for Dick is used by Scott to demonstrate how they have evolved to be just like humans. Empathy is still key to the story, the characters and the world, but in a different way. The humans of Blade Runner are not the religious, empathy obsessed survivors of an apocalypse that they are in the novel. They are not trying to rise from the ashes of the old world, they are instead still sinking into the decay of the past. Instead of the few being brought together by a device that allows a shared empathic experience, the many are instead driven apart by a world where the little people are walked on and everything is fake. Philip K Dick’s Androids would fit right in to that world, so instead it is the Replicants themselves that are reminding us what it means to be human.

Roy Batty and Rachael are most notably different. Though Deckard does fall for both versions of Rachael, in the book this is mostly done as a manipulation by Rachael and he is not the first Bounty Hunter to fall for it. However her seduction doesn’t stop him doing his job, nor does it lead to him becoming colder as it did with Phil Resch. This confuses and infuriates Rachael to the point where she murders Deckards recently acquired goat. That Rachael is emotional, but not empathetic. The version Harrison Ford’s Deckard falls in love with however is not an emotional manipulator, but instead a victim that has woken up from a lie. She feels enough empathy for Deckard that she saves his life by taking that of another Replicants and then puts her fate entirely in his hands. Ultimately her character couldn’t be more different. It’s also worth noting in the novel that Pris is the same model of replicant as Rachael. Something totally skipped in the movie, that could have been interesting. It’s interesting to note the kind of manipulation Rachael does in the book is somewhat transferred onto Pris in the movie.

Roy Batty’s empathy meanwhile becomes key to the entire movie’s climax. The breakthrough in saving Deckard’s life totally breaks Philip K Dick’s view of an android and that is of course the point. In the novel Batty is the most militant of the androids in his hatred of human empathy. But because of this he is also not the greatest threat to Deckard (Instead that is Pris, who appears exactly like Rachael). When Deckard confronts Batty in the novel there is a brief shoot out that Deckard wins relatively easily. In the movie however Deckard is so outclassed by Batty that the hunter becomes the hunted and ultimately Rick is at Roy’s mercy. This contrast really summarises the difference between the two approaches. But it’s worth noting that in both empathy is key. To understand the differences between the two versions of the story all you really need is to understand the changes to these pivotal characters. In both they define what it is to be an android/replicant, but what that is fundamentally changes between versions.

When it comes to the visual aesthetics though, despite Dick’s world being far more desolate and post-apocalyptic the author felt that Scott had truly managed to put on the screen exactly what he was seeing in his head. One of the things that Dick mentioned a lot was “Kipple”, the detritus of societal decay that the residents were constantly trying to hold back the flow of, this is certainly present in the film though in a different from. The world on screen seems to have decayed far slower over a long period of time instead of through a key cataclysmic event. It’s worth noting that Dick wasn’t especially descriptive of these things so the novel wasn’t the main source of inspiration for those aesthetics. Strangely that was Heavy Metal Magazine and three of it’s artists.

Heavy Metal

Unknown to many fans of his films, Ridley Scott’s secret weapon has always been the science fiction and fantasy comic magazine “Heavy Metal”. First published in English in April 1977, as the American wing of French magazine “Metal Hurlant”. The magazine would go on to influence the minds of some of the greatest science fiction visionaries in the movie industry, but none more so than Ridley Scott. Of specific note to Scott was the work of Jean ‘Moebius’ Giraud. In the late 70’s Scott was looking to get into science fiction, having just watched George Lucas’ Star Wars. His plan at the time was to create a science fiction version of medieval chivalric romance story “Tristan and Isolde” and to base the visuals on Giraud’s work.

While Scott was busy working on Tristan and Isolde, Giraud was working on another ill fated project, Alejandro Jodorowsky’s “Dune”. Through that he was introduced to Chris Foss, HR Giger, and Dan O’Bannon. After the collapse of both projects that team would end up working with Scott directly on what would become Alien. While Giger obviously designed the Alien itself, Giraud designed the space suits and a few other bits and pieces. His time on the movie was short, but it wasn’t the only collaboration to come out of the failed “Dune” project. While production was slowed to halt on Dune, Dan O’Bannon and Giraud teamed up directly with Dan O’Bannon to produce the story “The Long Tomorrow” for Metal Hurlant.

Moebius and The Long Tomorrow

The Long Tomorrow is a short, two part Noir Detective story within a sci-fi setting and while not directly inspired by Philip K Dick, it seems like something that could be straight out of his mind. It’s art style may have defined both “Tech Noir” and “Cyberpunk”, with the grandfather of Cyberpunk William Gibson giving it credit for how the world of his novels look. It’s influence is also apparent in everything from “Escape from New York” to “The Fifth Element” and yet the story really couldn’t be simpler. Private Detective Pete Club is given a job by a glamorous Femme Fatale to collect a package from a lock up in a rough part of town. The short story goes on to involve a couple of fights, a brief chase and a shape shifting alien that Club inadvertently has sex with.

The story itself has little baring on Blade Runner outside of perhaps the styling of Pete Club as a 40’s hard boiled detective in a futuristic world. But the interesting thing is how the world is depicted. While it’s clear things are happening in outer space most of humanity seems to be buried deep in a multi-layered subterranean labyrinth of a city, with the surface world apparently desolate and seemingly only accessible for the space port (It isn’t made clear, but the setting is likely not on Earth). The higher levels of the city seem to be for the well to do, while the lower ones are over populated and run down. Travelling between the layers seems to be done in some form of hover car.

Enki Bilal and Philippe Druillet

Moebius wasn’t the only artist contributing to Heavy Metal Magazine that had a big influence on the design of Blade Runner. According to Rutger Hauer when he asked Scott what Blade Runner would look like he pointed him in the direction not of Moebius but another French artist, Enki Bilal, whose works (at the time they were filming) included “Exterminator 17” and “Légendes d’Aujourd’hui“. Bilal would later go on to become a movie director in his own right, making films such as 2004’s “Immortal”, which featured a mixture of live action and animation and was certainly one of the more stylish and original films I’ve seen in recent years (though clearly far more ambitious than the budget warranted, so a 6/10). Much like Ridley Scott, it is clear Bilal has a real gift for stunning visuals.

While Scott was looking at Moebius And Bilal the movies producers had already earmarked Druillet’s “Lone Sloane” story “Delirius” from 1973 as a template for the films cityscape. The title refers to the planet Delirius which is a planet-wide city. It’s worth noting that while Isaac Asimov’s “Trantor” predates Delirius both pre-date George Lucas’ Coruscant (and both were possibly an influence). However, unlike the administrative cities of Coruscant and Trantor, Delirius is a planet wide pleasure city. Think of a planet made entirely of Las Vegas. Druillet was famous for his futuristic cityscapes so his work seems a good place to draw influence when creating one of your own. Incidentally, all the AI generated art I used in the section about the novel was done specifically in the style of Moebius, Bilal and Druillet. It seemed the appropriate way to bring the scenes to life.

Edward Hopper and Nighthawks

The last art based inspiration for Blade Runner is Edward Hopper’s painting, “Nighthawks”. Often seen as an exploration of the loneliness of a large city the paintings theme is entirely appropriate for the vibe of Blade Runners dystopian cityscape. One of the techniques used by Hopper, especially in “Nighthawks” is distance. By placing the viewer far enough away that everything is still clear, yet the viewer feels isolated from the people in the picture. The theme of loneliness is common in Hopper’s work so if looking to make your characters feel isolated it’s not bad inspiration. In the movie, wide angles and distance is regularly used to invoke precisely those feelings.

The use of light and contrast is also of note in the paining. There the light from the fluorescent bulbs of the diner seem to leak out into the darkness of the street outside. Light and darkness plays a vital part in the feel of Blade Runner too (Indeed whole video essays have been produced on that topic alone). Of course there is one other influence that likely impacted the lighting styles more than Hopper and that is Film Noir.

Film Noir Influences

Film Noir is a genre whose visual aesthetic is almost entirely built around light and shadow. Rain and fog plays a part sometimes too, along with creative camera angles, but the use of shadows is consistent. It’s clear that while Scott was determined not to let the 1940’s style dominate the aesthetics, there is a deep level of influence both from the genre’s production values and from the hard boiled detective novels that occasionally provided the source material for the movies. When you see a worn down Deckard pour himself a glass of Johnny Walker, you could quite easily imagine him as Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe pouring himself some Rye. Indeed the elements of Noir are so prevalent in the film, it is regarded as the first “Tech Noir” film.

Another aspect of Blade Runner that resembles Film Noir is behind the scenes and a great example of how limitations can inspire creativity. Like many Noir’s, Blade Runner was pressed hard with it’s budget and schedule, which lead to often having to find creative ways to get around the limitations. Things like the heavy use of fog, re-use of neon signs and even things like the recycled Millenium Falcon that is used to form part of the city. The directors of Film Noir discovered early on that the creative use of lighting along with some creative camera angles could help hide set limitations while at the same time manipulate the viewers emotionally and put them on the edge of their seat.

Setting the mood – The Music of Blade Runner

When talking about Blade Runner, you simply cannot ignore the importance of the score. The haunting, synthetic melancholy manages to encapsulate the entire story and translate it into music. It is built into the very DNA of the film and without it, the movie simply wouldn’t be Blade Runner. It’s hard not to notice the impact of the change in music for Blade Runner 2049, even though they attempt to maintain the mood and the complete change of genre for Blade Runner: Black Lotus can only be described as a disaster. Many consider the soundtrack to the original film to be Vangelis’ best work and a masterpiece of cinema and it is hard to argue with that.

Perhaps one of the reasons for the music being such an important part is down to how Ridley Scott utilised it (At least what had already been composed at the time of filming). Possibly taking a page from Serio Leone’s book he would actually play the soundtrack from speakers while the actors were preparing for scenes. So as the actors performed they would have had the soundtrack in their mind, so no wonder it fits so perfectly for the atmosphere on screen. It’s hard to know just how much of Vangelis’ work was available during filming (Certainly by the time they put together the work print the majority of it was complete) but even if temporary music was used it certainly assisted the actors in setting the scene.

Amongst the individual tracks the highlight and perhaps most synonymous track with the franchise outside of the opening and closing themes is “Blade Runner Blues”. A fascinating piece in it’s own right, the melody, such that it is falls into a very organic pattern. Some may describe it as random, but it is only as random as life itself, indeed it reminds me of some of the best performances of my favourite classical piece Chopin’s “Raindrop” (Prelude, Op. 28, No. 15). It reminds me of that even more so than “Tears in the Rain” which had a more delicate feel to it (perhaps because it is more about the tears than the rain or maybe just because it was a bit tighter in the rhythm). The thing I find so interesting with Blade Runner Blues in particular is that this organic feeling track is of course heavily synth based, it tells the listener (whether they realise it or not) “I am alive and yet I am synthetic” which makes it perhaps the beating heart of the entire soundtrack.

Of course the two most important pieces in any score are the opener that sets the mood for the entire film and the closing theme the audience takes home in their head as they leave the theatre. In this case the pair couldn’t be more perfect and they provide an interesting contrast. The opener is dramatic and epic, that gives few clues to the characters but immediately sets the scene for the world in which they live. The closing theme however is fast moving and insistent, implying action, perhaps because the story closes with Deckard and Rachael on the run, making it a lot more personal but also leaving the viewer wanting more and questioning what happens next. It also doesn’t hurt it’s the catchiest most memorable piece in the entire score.

End of Part Two

That’s it for my look at the movies production. There actually could be a whole lot more to discuss in regards to the tensions on set, the “T-Shirt Wars” between Scott’s “Xenophobia Sucks” and some crew members “Yes Guv’nor My Ass”, the pressure of the budget and deadlines and of course the disagreements between Scott and the movies producers. However that has all been very well covered in documentaries and really doesn’t help us that much in understanding what makes Blade Runner so great. Suffice to say some creative people thrive under pressure and with conflict and Ridley Scott usually delivers under such circumstances. Probably the biggest impact of all this conflict is the multiple versions of the movie and that I will get into with the final part of this deep dive.

So we recently hit the 40th anniversary of Blade Runner (1982). I took the opportunity to finally watch my 5 disc ultimate collectors edition box set that I bought around the 25th anniversary. This is the version used for the disastrous test screenings that ultimately lead to the theatrical version with it’s voice overs and happy ending. Many years later in the early 90’s it was given a theatrical run and was so well received it prompted the creation of the so called “Directors Cut” in 1992.

It made for interesting viewing and I thought it was a good time to start talking about the movies I truly love, starting with this science fiction classic. This is going to be a hefty read as I am covering everything I can think of here outside of a scene by scene break down (Which I’m seriously considering doing at some point). As such I’ve decided to split this into three sections. The second part looks at world of Blade Runner (both thematic and production), including a comparison to the source novel and the various visual influences, the third and final part breaks down the different releases and spin offs (Including my review of the sequel).

This first part breaks down the basics of story and characters and while you will see many of my own takes on these things here, if you are a big fan of the movie and don’t want to go over all that you may want to just skip straight to part two where I’m pretty sure you’ll find some interesting things you probably didn’t know before. If you are a more casual fan or just want to read my takes (thank you for that), let’s get started!

Brief Plot Summary (Spoilers)

Set in a 2019 (Joining the likes of Back to the Future 2, Escape from New York and 2001 a Space Odyssey in now being set in the past) in a dystopian Los Angeles, the film tells the story a former “Blade Runner”, a police officer that specialises in hunting down and “retiring” rogue replicants (Androids manufactured by the Tyrell Corporation for off world use).

Retiring feels very much like killing a human being, but is seen in a legal sense as decommissioning a faulty piece of equipment. In the theatrical versions Deckard’s voice over makes it clear that he has had enough of the killing, the implication being that to him at least, it felt too much like killing. Perhaps he has developed some sympathy for the replicants over the years. The other versions of the film leave leave this more open to interpretation, but certainly he is a man with his own demons, tired of his role in the world and perhaps tired of the world he finds himself living in.

Deckard is effectively given no choice but to return to the force as they need him to hunt down four rogue replicants. These are particularly dangerous models of the latest design (The “Nexus 6”), from a military detachment. Their leader “Roy Batty” is a particularly dangerous military model. This seems the set up for a solid science fiction action movie, but that’s not quite that straight forward. One of the questions that Blade Runners never seem to figure out until it is too late is what these rogue Replicants want? Why have they come to Los Angeles? They figure it has something to do with the Tyrell Corporation, but they don’t know what.

It’s an interesting question because had they thought about the replicants as acting on human emotion the answer would be obvious. The Nexus 6 model only has a 4 year lifespan, which was built in due to that model being so human like that around that point they start to develop their own emotional reactions, notably empathy which in turn would make them immune to the “Voight-Kampff test” which is the primary means by which Blade Runners can identify replicants. So really it’s obvious what these Replicants want, they want what we all would want: More time.

The only lead Deckard has is from a killing at the Tyrell Corporation of the previous Blade Runner on the case by a replicant that had infiltrated the staff. The replicant escaped and was identified as one of these four Nexus 6 replicants. Deckard picks up some leads from the Replicants apartment and is able to pursue them to another Replicant called Zhora who posing as an exotic dancer. Deckard confronts her to determine if she is indeed a replicant, but sensing something is up Zhora attacks him and then flees. Deckard pursues and dispatches the first of his targets.

Things are complicated further for Deckard through an additional replicant being thrown into the mix. While visiting the Tyrell Corporation he is introduced to Tyrell’s assistant Rachael, who he is encouraged to test with the Voight-Kampff test under the pretence of “Wanting to see a negative”. Though it takes far longer than usual, the test does expose her as a replicant. Rachael is a new experimental model that is totally unaware she is an artificial construct having been implanted with false memories from Tyrell’s niece. After visiting Rick’s apartment, she learns the truth about her life and goes on the run herself, eventually saving Deckard’s life from a vengeful Leon (Confronting Deckard shortly after he has “Retired” Zhora) and becoming entangled romantically with him. Deckard has now ticked two names off the list, but Gaff informs him one more has been added: Rachael.

The remaining two replicants meanwhile, are pursuing their own leads in their quest to extend their lifespans. Their journey leads them to chase engineers that work for Tyrell until they find a man that can give them access to their creator directly. It can be argued their story is actually more interesting than Deckard’s, it is certainly more visually entertaining taking them to a kind of cry-lab, to an eccentric genius that lives in an abandoned building and builds himself robot friends that resemble toys and finally brings them to meet “god” on the top floor of the Tyrell building high above the city. If not for all the killing they could be the protagonists of a Tim Burton movie. Interestingly it is their actions that eventually lead to final stand off with the Blade Runner and the famous “Tears in Rain” scene..

The epic conclusion of our story sees Deckard pursue the two Replicants to Sebastian apartment after they have met and killed Tyrell. Pris manages to get the jump on Deckard (quite literally) but is taken out in the ensuing fight (Luckily for Deckard she is not a combat model). Roy Batty however is a much more capable opponent and soon the hunter becomes the hunted. Batty ends up pursuing Deckard to a roof top where a badly planned leap almost sees Deckard to his death, only be shockingly rescued by his enemy. Having reached the point with his emotional growth he can actually feel empathy and accepting that his own death in imminent and unavoidable Roy gives what wold become one of the most famous speeches in movie history:

“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 Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain… Time to die”

After a while Gaff appears and tells Deckard he has “Done a man’s job”. Deckard says he is done and leaves. As he departs Gaff says “It’s a shame she won’t live… but then again, who does”. Rick returns to his apartment to find Rachael and the two leave to go on the run together. On his way out he finds an origami Unicorn, left by Gaff. Depending on the version you are watching there may be more to this scene but for the sake of this summary I’ll leave it here. Let’s have a look at the characters because ultimately the characters are the heart of this story.

Rick Deckard

Deckard is played by Harrison Ford and it is a very different role for him from his two most famous ones: Indiana Jones and Han Solo. All three characters are a little moody at times and somewhat cynical, but Indie and Han are fun, sarcastic action heroes with buckets of charisma, while Rick Deckard is far drier in his personality and deeply melancholy. He has an inner strength and a strong sense of professionalism, but is largely warn down by the world in which he lives. Indie by contrast managed to remain generally upbeat despite having to deal directly with Nazi’s and Han Solo likewise despite dealing with both the Empire and the galactic underworld. One of my biggest disappointments about “Blade Runner 2049” (2017) was that this seems to have largely been forgotten by Dennis Villenueve who seemed to turn Deckard into something closer to those other two characters.

Deckard is something of a throwback to the Hard Boiled Detective novels of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett and his personality could probably be found somewhere between the gritty pragmatism of Sam Spade and the more empathetic Phillip Marlowe. In a way the two detectives represent conflicting elements of Rick’s personality, which him moving closer to Marlowe and further from Spade as the movie progresses. It’s worth noting originally Deckard was going to wear a classic 1940’s detective hat, but the similarity between that and Ford’s previous role as Indiana Jones and his iconic hat lead to a change of aesthetics and that was probably for the best.

As I mentioned earlier, in the novel Deckard’s journey is that through years of hunting emotionless androids he himself finds he has become no different to them. He has lost his own humanity. This isn’t quite the journey for the character in Blade Runner. Instead perhaps that is a journey that the character has suffered prior to the start of the movie and the reason he resigned form his job as a Blade Runner. So instead his journey is actually about rediscovering his humanity and it is ironic he is only able to do this through his interaction with replicants. Obviously the big question in regards to Deckard is if he is a replicant. We will come back to this.

Roy Batty

Perhaps the most interesting character in Blade Runner is “Roy Batty” played by an often overlooked and underrated Actor of great talent: Rutger Hauer. More than any other actor in the movie Hauer really defined the Roy Batty we saw on screen. From his drive to have Batty display the full spectrum of human emotions throughout the movie, to his moment of genius in altering the overly complex and wordy final speech of Roy Batty on the fly into what became one of the most famous bits of dialogue in movie history. The “Tears in Rain” line was never on any of the scripts and is the one line that resonates with everyone watching. Roy Batty is without doubt the crowning achievement in Hauer’s career.

Roy Batty was created to be an emotionless killer. Through his role he saw action in every off world combat since his creation date. As a replicant he had no off time so his life was nothing but combat and warfare. When Batty talks about the things he’s seen, he isn’t exaggerating. If you were to imagine what a human veteran may have seen in a time of war and then set those wars on alien worlds and deep space you start to get an idea. When those emotions started to creep in on Roy it’s not a stretch to consider that Roy may have suffered a certain amount of PTSD. This gave him a shock awakening to the reality of his existence and his mortality with his expiration date just around the corner.

Not only did Roy want to live, he likely also wanted some guidance as to what it all means. For all his tactical sills a physical superiority he was ultimately a child and every time he expressed emotions they seemed over the top, like he is being overwhelmed by them. This is entirely intentional. Rutger suggested this to RIdley Scott, who loved the idea and made sure to write these moments into the script. Between the pair of them we see Roy playful, wrathful and lustful. We see him mourning the death of his friends, we see him in utter despair when he finds there is no way to extend his life and we see him moments before his demise show empathy and compassion for the very person that moments earlier was trying to kill him. Of all the characters in the movie he is the most human and that ultimately is the entire point.

Rachael

The third character of note in the movie is of course Rachael, played by Sean Young. She completes both the movie trinity of hero, villain and love interest but also a trinity of contrasting emotional journey’s of self discovery. While Deckard has lost his humanity and finds it again through the events of the movie and Batty has gained a humanity he was never supposed to have, Rachael has just had her humanity (or at least as she understands it), stolen away from her by the revelation that she is a replicant. Her memories are not her own, the image of who she is in her mind has been shattered. She is left with just the knowledge that she was an experiment, that her whole reason to exist was to serve as a vanity project for a scientist with a god complex.

The only thing in her life that is real is the man that shattered her illusions, Rick Deckard. When she saves his life by killing fellow replicant, Leon, the pairs destiny becomes tied together. She made a choice to do the right thing and protect him and he makes the same decision with her. But more than that of course because they have also fallen in love. Something set up from their first meeting where she completes the Voight-Kampff test in a scene that felt very intimate. Sean Young plays her part perfectly. She has a certain aloofness about her, but not in a way that feels like a machine, it’s more like a 1940’s Femme Fatale. It’s a character trait that breaks down as her world breaks down around her and it creates an interesting contrast, when she thought she was human she acted less emotionally than when she knew she was a replicant. Her scenes with Deckard all have a sensuality to them, that makes me believe the pair could fall in love after having known each other for a short period of time.

The Rest

There are some interesting, unique characters amongst the rest of the cast too. The other three escaped replicants for instance have their own unique personalities. Triss, played brilliantly by young Daryl Hannah is playful and manipulative, which makes sense given she is a pleasure model. Leon however was a manual labour model and seems to be on a simpler level emotionally than the rest. He is quick to anger but has a big emotional attachment to his photographs and to his friends, the other replicants, especially it seems to Zhora. Indeed it may be that the four replicants were two couples, though that is pure speculation.

It is no wonder he has such strong attachments and simple emotions having spent his entire life loading nuclear fissionable material. He has not had much contact with the outside world. Brion James plays the role well and I always had sympathy for the character. Zhora played by Joanna Cassidy gets the least screen time of the replicants but perhaps the second most memorable death after Roy’s. She seems to be street smart and cynical, seeing right through Deckard almost right away. But her fear and panic shine through when she realises her time may be at an end.

The Tyrell Corporation has a few interesting characters of it’s own. Eldon Tyrell (played by Joe Turkel), creator of the replicants seems to revel in playing god. He loves his creations, but doesn’t treat them compassionately. Indeed what he did to Rachael was really quite monstrous. Eldon it seems lives alone and his only friend appears to be Sebastian who he mostly only communicates with through their remote chess game. Yet he is surrounded by luxury in his 700th floor apartment atop the Tyrell building that looms over the city itself. A suitable place for a god to reside. It’s never made entirely clear what Tyrell’s motivations are, especially in regards to making Rachael and that question is further complicated by events of the sequel. In isolation though we can easily believe that Tyrell created Rachael simply because he could and perhaps also for the same reason that Sebastian created his “Friends”.

Sebastian (William Sanderson) meanwhile resides in an apartment in the Bradbury Building (Which appears to be mostly abandoned) and appears to have an even more lonely existence. His apartment is dusty and his friends are all mechanical creations of his own, far simpler than the replicants. He is shy, socially awkward and suffering from a physical condition that causes premature aging. Perhaps because of this he falls so easily for Pris and Roy’s manipulation, after all they just want the same thing he wants: more time. Sebastian is a tragic character, well meaning and unlike Tyrell not deserving of Roy’s vengeance. But underneath this perhaps the two geniuses are only really divided by social status and resources. As I will examine later, taken with information from the Source Novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep” there is a strong suggestion that genetically inferior people are banned from moving off world and generally treated as barely human. It’s no wonder Sebastian was so easy to manipulate.

The last character of note is the most mysterious. Gaff, played by Edward James Olmos is on the surface a vein brown nosing career cop. Wandering around in his flamboyant outfits with his cane and talking in a mixed up language known as “Cityspeak”. He is mostly Police Chief Bryant’s errand boy, but seems to have been assigned to keep an eye on Deckard, presumably to make sure the want away detective is doing his job. He seems to dislike Deckard and is critical of everything including his appearance.

Where he becomes mysterious is in his use of origami where he seems to always provide some form of symbolism perhaps to Deckard’s state of mind or just to events. Initially creating a chicken during Deckard’s briefing, a man with an erection while searching Leon’s apartment and then finally leaving the famous unicorn outside of Deckard’s apartment. An action that also suggested that he knew Rachael was waiting for him and was allowing him to run.

Most significantly the origami unicorn, paired with Deckard’s dream of a Unicorn previously was intended as a hint that Deckard is also a Replicant. That made the character of Gaff pivotal to that particular mystery. The other thing worthy of note here is Gaff’s “City Speak”. For a character with minimal screen time the effort that Olmos put into it was staggering, literally inventing the language himself for the role, utilising his own knowledge of language and even going to the  Berlitz School of Languages in Los Angeles to research and develop his ideas.

End of Part 1

There is further context to be gained through examining the source material, influences and the multiple versions of the film. But before we get to that (in part 2 and 3) I think it is clear already that a lot of blood, sweat and tears went into the creation of this movie. More than your average production. While there was no doubt a few to which it was just a job, others I think realised there was something special here. Olmos gave his all to a relatively minor role, Rutger Hauer not only came up with one of the most memorable lines in movie history but put on the performance of his entire career here.

It could also be argued this is Ridley Scott’s masterpiece too, even considering the spectacle that was “Gladiator” and that other time he turned the science fiction genre on it’s head with the ground breaking “Alien”. Jordan Cronenweth and Douglas Trumbull, really provided a masterclass on lighting and camera work and Trumbull even came up with a clever technique using a small mirror that allowed for those occasional glowing eyes that Replicants have (Somewhat replicating an effect he also provided Kubrik with for 2001). To cap it all off Vangelis made perhaps his own masterpiece with the soundtrack, something we will examine further in Part II.

This movie was always going to be something special, but it was perhaps an accident of timing as to why it failed at the box office on release. We were already slipping out of the grittier more director driven films of the late 70’s/early 80’s to the more fun action packed movies of the mid 80’s, so perhaps the movie was already a year or two past it’s optimal release time, but the summer of 1982 was ruled by the release of Spielberg’s “E.T. The Extra Terrestrial”. Alongside E.T. you had “Star Trek II – The Wrath of Khan”, so right out the game you have two of the most famous science fiction films of all time, one with family appeal and the other a built in fan base already out before Blade Runner launches. On top of that you have “Rocky III” “Poltergeist”, Clint Eastwood’s “Firefox “and the similarly ill fated “John Carpenter’s The Thing” competing for the general publics hard earned cash. Today it’s hard to imagine Blade Runner (or The Thing for that matter) not finding an audience, but 1982 was an insanely strong year for movies and ultimately the movie flopped. But the box office isn’t everything and the film more than made up for it later.