Some films are ahead of their time. Then there are films like Blade Runner. This is, in addition to being one of the most often imitated and prescient films, a film that successfully blends futuristic science-fiction elements while marrying them with old Hollywood film noir elements (dark settings, moody atmosphere, constant rain, smoke) of the 1940s and 1950s.
It is also one of the ten most influential films of my life. I have been obsessed with the film ever since watching it at five years old and have become immersed in everything involving the film.
Part Fritz Lang’s 1927 Metropolis, part Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep, Blade Runner enjoys the status of being one of the all-time cult films, one that was able to sustain a lasting life, despite a disappointing theatrical run and critical reception, through the new medium of videotape, cable TV and incredible word of mouth.
Next to Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner remains the best film ever to involve space/futuristic elements with NO CGI. The fact that the inherent themes and metaphors behind the film are inherently NOW and HUMAN is another testament to the film’s greatness.
Blade Runner poses the most profound and significant questions: Who am I? Where am I going?, Why am I here?, and How long do I have to live?
Some of the other factors combining to seal its poor theatrical fate were the fact that when it was released on June 25, 1982; Blade Runner was up against diametrically opposite sci-fi films like Tron, E.T. (released 2 weeks before) and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Critical reception was harsh and no one was ready or wanted to see a film about a dystopic future that was dark, depressing, and ambiguous.
The screenplay by Hampton Fancher and later rewritten by David Peoples was based on sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick’s 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? The title Blade Runner came from William Burroughs and Alan E. Nourse.
Ridley Scott, fresh off of the triumph of Alien in 1979, used his prescient vision as well as those around him like design artist Syd Mead, art director David L. Snyder and special photographic effects supervisors Douglas Trumball (who not surprisingly ALSO held the same job title for 2001), Richard Yuricich and David Dryer, to design a futuristic Los Angeles of 2019.
The film would inspire dozens of sci-fi films including all three Terminators, Dark City, Total Recall (another Philip K. Dick adaptation), Brazil, 12 Monkeys, Robocop, Batman, Batman Begins, The Matrix and The Fifth Element
For those who haven’t seen the film, you should be warned that it is impossible to review this film without giving away certain plot points. I advise you to watch the Final Cut first then read the review.
The Final Cut presented here, touches up the glitches, continuity errors and stunt double embarrassments that the other previous four versions (Theatrical, International, Director’s and Workprint) left in.
Scott also makes some subtle changes and adds in a tiny bit of new footage. He leaves in the graphic violence of the international version, fixes the important unicorn dream sequence, adds a few shots from the workprint but keeps the awful Harrison Ford voice over and the tacked on happy ending from the theatrical version out that frightened studio execs forced him to put in so that it would appeal more to 1982 audiences.
Even growing up on the theatrical cut for 10 years it was painfully clear that the voice over was flat and unnecessary and the happy ending came out of nowhere and didn’t match the previous 114 minutes.
The Final Cut is easily the best version of the film ever as it is clearer, sharper and more potent than any other version. The transfer here is better than gorgeous and looks like it was scrubbed and washed meticulously frame by frame. Few films are this good looking. Unlike George Lucas, Scott doesn’t CGI the film up or make unnecessary additions.
The film opens with a brief explanation as to whom and what REPLICANTS are. Essentially they are a slave class of genetically cloned beings. A product of the Tyrell Corporation, the newer Nexus replicants were superior in strength and equal in intelligence to the genetic engineers that designed them.
They were used primarily as slave labor in the Off-world colonies for hazardous exploration and colonization of other planets.
A group of Nexus 6 replicants revolts and goes on a killing rampage which causes them to be declared illegal on earth under penalty of death. This led to the creation of special police squads, Blade Runner units who were to shoot to kill any replicant they encountered. It is referred to as not execution but retirement.
The title card LOS ANGELES 2019 comes up then one is treated to sheer cinematic orgasm as the film opens with a panoramic shot (Hades Landscape as its known) of a Los Angeles in urban decay. It is one of the most extraordinary settings ever created for a film. The earth is in physical and psychological decay, without a trace of nature.
Fire belches out of oil refinery towers and factory smokestacks. Thousands of city lights and neon lights flicker in the misty, rainy night air. Futuristic vehicles, called Spinners, cruise through the dark, polluted sky where the sun is never seen.
The English language is a minority with the Japanese having a HUGE influence in the city through signage in the form of huge animated billboards that play music and feature Japanese models smoking cigarettes and pitching Coca Cola. Corporations dominate the skyline with Atari, Pan Am, Coca Cola, Johnny Walker Black, RCA and TDK. The city is filled with highly expensive synthetic, artificial animals.
The real ones are mostly extinct. Most people speak Japanese or a mix/mash language called City Speak. The city is an overpopulated urban jungle and is dominated by enormously high skyscrapers. Earth is no longer the desired place to live and is a second tier planet. As the blimps hovering over the city proclaim, it is in the Off-World colonies that one wants to get to.
“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.” Overhead blimp advertisement
A group of six Nexus 6 replicants have returned to Earth and Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), the greatest Blade Runner of them all, is forced out of retirement so he can indeed RETIRE the four remaining “skin jobs” after two are electrocuted trying to break into the Tyrell Corporation.
During the course of Deckard’s hunt, he discovers the strange obsession the replicants have with life and death due to a four-year life span fail safe device implemented by Tyrell and also falls in love with the unknowing replicant Rachael (Sean Young).
The leader of the replicants Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) is seeking answers to his questions of life and death and can only find them by confronting his maker, Tyrell (Joe Turkel). The other three replicants; Leon (Brion James), Zhora (Joanna Cassidy) and Pris (Daryl Hannah) form the remaining members of Roy’s family.
While the plot synopsis may seem cut and dried, it is anything but. Deckard is hesitant to get back into the killing business but after his former police captain Bryant (M. Emmet Walsh) threatens him, he has no choice.
“I was quit when I came in here Bryant. I’m twice as quit now.” Deckard to Bryant
“Stop right where you are. You know the score pal. If you’re not cop, you’re little people.” Bryant to Deckard
Bryant is straight out of The Big Sleep as he, like General Sternwood, “has to indulge his vices by proxy” as he pours two shots of scotch for Deckard and…for Deckard as he can’t drink because of a physical ailment. Then there is the mysterious Gaff (Edward James Olmos) who represents the force that nudges Deckard forward. Throughout the film Gaff leaves little origami animals suggesting Deckard’s fears and shortcomings as a human.
Deckard is sent to the Tyrell Corporation to VK (Voight-Kampff test) Rachael, a secretary of Tyrell’s. This is a test of empathetic responses to carefully worded questions and statements the Blade Runners use to spot replicants. How the iris and pupil of the eye react is key to spotting them. Much to Deckard’s and Rachael’s surprise, she is a replicant.
“How does it not know what it is?” Deckard to Tyrell after discovering the truth about Rachael
Much is made about the replicants’ searching for answers mostly regarding their incept dates or birthdays. The reason is simple…they know they only have four years to live before they shut down. They want to know how much more life they have.
We learn as does Deckard that, as a means of controlling them better, the cold, myopic Tyrell not only put in the four year life span but also implanted fake memories into the minds of the replicants.
“Commerce is our goal here at Tyrell. More human than human is our motto. We began to recognize in them strange obsessions. After all they are emotionally inexperienced with only a few years in which to store up the experiences which you and I take for granted. If we gift them with a past we create a cushion or pillow for their emotions and consequently we can control them better.” Tyrell’s answer to Deckard
It is no surprise that the replicants are the ones that exhibit more humanity then their human creators. Replicants are strong, healthy, loyal to each other and free with their emotions. All of the humans have ailments of some kind. Bryant can’t drink liquor because of his liver and is a racist.
Gaff walks with a cane. Tyrell has myopic vision indicated by his godly thick glasses. Deckard is a drunk. J.F. Sebastian (William Sanderson), who is used as a pawn by Roy and Pris to get to Tyrell, has Methuselah Syndrome which speeds up the aging of his glands. Hannibal Chew (James Hong) freezes with his synthetic eyes in his lab. The first Blade Runner seen at the beginning, Holden (Morgan Paull), is shot by Leon and put on a respirator.
Eyes are significant here from the opening shot on. During the opening sequence, there is a close up of an eye watching US. The Voight Kampff test depends on the response of the eyes.
Roy and Leon visit Chew in his genetic eye lab. Replicants’ eyes glow which only we can see. No humans in the film can tell. But WE know when someone is a replicant. That gives us a power no one else, not even the God-like Tyrell has.
“Chew, if only you could see what I’ve seen with your eyes.” Batty to Chew
Replicants kill humans by gouging out the eyes. Tyrell wears tri-focal glasses that magnify his eyes. Roy plays with a pair of glass eyes. Eyes are commonly referred to as the gateway to the soul.
This ties into the controversial “Is Deckard a replicant?” debate that was started when Scott released his 1992 Director’s Cut with the unicorn sequence/Deckard dream that clearly infers, especially with Gaff’s origami unicorn at the end, that he IS a replicant.
It is made clear that replicants have an obsession with photographs whether it’s Leon or Rachael with the photo of her “mother.” Deckard’s piano is covered with personal photographs.
This would be one of the greatest twists/ironies in film history. The man who had spent the entire film wiping out a race discovers that it is his own race and in fact he is not human at all. He has more in common now with those that he killed than present day humanity.
There are many other arguments for the Deck-a rep theory as it’s commonly called but the photo aspect, his eyes glowing during a crucial moment and most importantly, his unicorn vision are the strongest for his being a replicant.
Photos and TV are prevalent throughout the film as visual focuses of the narrative. Eyes are always on us as our eyes are always on the screen. Much like the monolith in 2001, eyes are always present.
The questions posed to the replicants in the Voight Kampff tests are posed to us. When Leon and Rachael are being questioned, we are being questioned. When Rachael asks Deckard is he ever took the test himself, we are wondering the same thing and how we would come through it.
The Esper machine that Deckard uses to dissect Leon’s photos and find clues is the same as us using our DVDs to stop, pause and analyze the film for clues.
The answers are of course subjective to each person which is why the VK test is an impossible test to begin with. Why does anyone collect photos? Some do it for a physical record; some do it for emotional recall.
The point is that everyone does it in some form or fashion and the memory recall for memories is different for each person. In a way, you could say that the film is saying “We might all be replicants.”
We are, in a sense, watching ourselves being revealed on screen to us. That makes Blade Runner more of a metaphysical and spiritual experience than just about any film other than 2001.
Roy is the one that most will be able to sympathize with even more than Deckard. All he wants is time to make sense of his feelings and perhaps to get an extension on his life. Deckard is the human realization of time running out for the replicants as he personifies death coming.
“It’s not an easy thing to meet your maker.” Roy to Tyrell
Roy is both Lucifer (fallen angel) and Christ (crucifies himself at the end and saves Deckard’s life). When he confronts Tyrell looking for “more life” he is called The Prodigal Son. Roy is associated as are just about every character in the film with some kind of animal.
Roy howls like a wolf as he chases Deckard through Sebastian’s apartment. The wolf represents evil and devouring spirits. Before Roy leaps a building to save Deckard, he clutches a white dove which represents love, peace, light and life spirit. When he saves his life and sits before Deckard, he becomes omnipotent as he releases the dove.
“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 Tannhauser Gate.
All those moments will be lost in time. Like tears in rain.
Time to die.” Roy to Deckard
It’s no surprise that Roy’s first (Time…enough) and last words (Time to die) involve the word time so that it is painfully clear what he has been seeking throughout. The irony is that in tracking down time he finds that it is impossible to get. As Deckard watches Roy die, we are watching them watch death. We are, in a sense, watching ourselves die.
The only certainty for Deckard, replicant or not, and us is that there is no certainty. The ending of the film, the true ending, is ambiguous because LIFE is ambiguous. The only certainty in life IS death.
The cast is superb from top to bottom. The animal attributes for the main characters represented in the film are in parenthesis. Harrison Ford (unicorn), although miserable throughout the shooting of the film, comes up with one of his best performances as the burnt out, boozy Deckard.
It’s not one of his more likeable parts which is precisely why he’s so good against type here. No doubt his weariness and anger with the shoot helped his personification of Deckard. He may not agree with Deckard being a replicant, probably because of Scott not telling him implicitly and it not being part of the original script, but that makes it all the more real because even the actor doesn’t know.
Rutger Hauer (wolf and dove) steals the show as Batty with his athleticism, humor but more importantly his humanity. Sean Young (spider) is drop dead gorgeous here and could’ve been a 1940s femme fatale with her wardrobe and blood red lips that recall Faye Dunaway in Chinatown. Her Rachael is appropriately naďve and heartbroken, especially in the memorable scene where Deckard coldly tells her that her memories are not her own.
Edward James Olmos paints a hypnotic portrait as Gaff. He doesn’t have much dialogue or screen time for that matter which makes his every moment all the more significant especially when one discovers his true knowledge and Deckard’s true meaning at the end of the film.
He is the secret aggressor in the film and it is no surprise that Gaff means false story, hoax, or trick. Think about his two crucial lines at the very end that can basically be read as the final word on Deckard.
“You’ve done a man’s job sir.” and “It’s too bad she won’t live, but then again who does?” Gaff to Deckard
It is made clear that Deckard HAS to be a replicant because otherwise HOW would Gaff know about the unicorn unless it was an implant as well. Olmos gets the credit for creating the legendary City Speak spoken throughout the film on the street which he created out of Hungarian mixed with German and French.
Joanna Cassidy (snake) is remarkable in the brief role of Zhora as her physical gifts, in every sense, are on display. Brion James as Leon portrays a dim minded (tortoise) but incredibly strong and loyal being. Daryl Hannah (cat) was probably never as good as she was here as Pris unless you consider Elle Driver in the Kill Bill films.
Joe Turkel (owl, eagle) is a chilling portrait of corporate greed and indifference as Tyrell. William Sanderson (bear cub and rodents) gives Sebastian a child like quality that makes his ultimate fate all the more heartbreaking.
Vangelis’ rich score that is a character onto itself is one of the ten greatest film scores ever and literally sweeps you away at times.
The film isn’t without its flaws, however. The most severe is the Deckard/Rachael love angle. It seems to be there more for its own sake and due to the fact that there was zero chemistry or respect off screen between Ford and Young, there is even less chemistry on screen between the two actors. Many have labeled Scott a misogynist because of the way Deckard manhandles Rachael during the love scene. I look at it as just one of the more UNSEXY love scenes ever.
This would be Ridley Scott’s crowning achievement as a director and The Final Cut only reaffirms it. Scott and his collaborators created such a rich, visual world that was impossible to fathom in 1982 but in 2007 looks more like an upcoming reality. Even modern day architecture has been influenced by the film with many architects adopting the “guts out” mentality on many of the buildings in the film.
Replicants could very well be a reality by 2019. Science and technology has come farther than anyone could have ever imagined. Computers will no doubt (think 2001) have the equivalence of human intelligence by that time. Genetic engineers have already cloned sheep and are well on the way to cloning humans.
We have our own Espers now with Photoshop and camera phones that can dissect memories and recreate them. Transnational corporations have been destroyers of communities for years now with their Tyrellian mindset of “COMMERCE IS OUR GOAL.”
They push unnecessary goods and unnatural technological and scientific processes. Tyrell believes that everything is technologically replaceable and many in power have followed with his mentality.
There are always other worlds to be conquered (Off-World colonies) at the expense of our own. Blade Runner is more than a film; it’s an ecological/humanitarian/corporate cautionary tale.
The extras on the first disc include an introduction to the film by Ridley Scott as well as three commentaries. One is Ridley Scott on his own, one is with Executive Producer/ Co-Screenwriter Hampton Fancher and Co-Screenwriter David Peoples; Producer Michael Deeley and production executive Katherine Haber, and the other is with visual futurist Syd Mead; production designer Lawrence G. Paull, art director David L. Snyder and special photographic effects supervisors Douglas Trumball, Richard Yuricich and David Dryer.
The last two are a bit scattered as only the people named with “and” between their names are actually in the same room talking together. All three offer a different insight into the film’s past and present with Scott’s, of course being the standout.
Fancher and Peoples actually get along well while bickering here and there over who brought what to the script. Listening to masters of their field like Mead and Trumball are real treats as they go over each special effects shot and how certain scenes were created.
The second disc contains, in addition to four trailers for WB films but NO BLADE RUNNER trailer, the long awaited documentary Dangerous Days. For anyone who’s read the Blade Runner bible, Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner by Paul M. Sammon, they will quickly realize that Dangerous Days is the documentary version of it.
Nearly everyone who’s still alive from the shoot contributes here, including Ford who was prickly whenever asked about it in the past, and the entire film’s history is delved into. All the while, the gorgeous Vangelis music plays in the background and cut scenes are shown sporadically.
At three and a half hours, it is a time commitment but one that fans of the film will easily make. With the exception of Hearts of Darkness, this is what every film documentary should be like. The only blip in this 2 disc set is the lack of ANY Blade Runner trailers.
Having waited so many years for a definitive DVD release of the visionary masterpiece has been trying at times but thankfully it fell to Warner Brothers to produce the ultimate box set for the film. I don’t know what the five disc set will look like but that will likely be the perfect complement to the film.
As for the film, it remains as mind blowing and important as it did 25 years ago. These days in the age of CGI, it is too often that the special effects become the star. With Blade Runner, the effects are significant but they never overwhelm the human element of the film; the simple, universal element that makes it so special and so endearing to so many after all this time. Who am I? Where am I going? How long do I have?
Blade Runner - The Final Cut (Two-Disc Special Edition) is now available at Amazon and AmazonUK . Visit the DVD database for more information.
Your Talkback on this Story