Blade Runner

Released in (1982), Blade Runner is a very dark science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott. Based loosely on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick, it presents a bleak dystopic vision of Los Angeles in the not too distant future.

Harrison Ford stars as "Blade Runner" Rick Deckard.

In the future world of the movie artificially manufactured androids or "Replicants" are used for dangerous and degrading work in Earth's "offworld colonies". Replicants are considered dangerous and are illegal on Earth, and Blade Runners are bounty hunters who track down and "retire" (kill) any trespassers. Deckard is called out of retirement to "retire" several advanced "Nexus-6" replicants who are illegally present in Los Angeles.

Rutger Hauer and Darryl Hannah play two of the fugitive replicants, and Sean Young plays Rachael, Deckard's love interest whose own humanity is in question.

The screenplay is by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples; the soundtrack was composed by Vangelis.

The movie's dark cyberpunk style and futuristic design have inspired many subsequent science fiction movies. Examples include The Fifth Element and The Matrix.

The film has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

Wikipedia contains spoilers--the following will discuss plot in detail.

Six versions of the film exist but only two are widely known and seen; the original theatrical release (1982, also called domestic cut), and the Director's Cut (1992) (A workprint distributed in 1991 was billed as a Directors Cut, but was not approved by Ridley Scott. This prompted the work and release on the Ridley Scott approved Director's Cut in 1992.) The latter does not include Deckard's explanatory voice-over and a scene was both added and removed. The added scene is a dream Deckard has when he's dozing off at home drunk playing the piano. It shows a unicorn running through a forest. The removed scene is the ending, where Deckard and Rachael are driving off into the wilderness.

As of early 2002, Ridley Scott has stated an intention to create a new cut of the film - digitally restore the film, compose the special effects, and remix the score into 5.1 surround. Unlike the 1992 "Director's Cut", Ridley will personally oversee the new cut. It is expected that some newly refound scenes will be included, and that there will be some tightening of the movie's flow (some scenes in the Director's Cut were unnecessarily long after the removal of the Deckard voice-over). It is speculated that this 2002 edit will be labelled as the "Special Edition"

Ridley Scott decided both the voice-over and the happy ending were not suited to the movie. The ending in the Director's Cut has to do with the included scene: Deckard picks up a small origami unicorn he noticed on the ground when it was knocked over by Rachael when she was walking towards the elevator. This suggests Gaff knew about his dreams, insinuating Deckard too has fabricated or copied memories, making him a replicant as well. In 2002, Ridley Scott ended much speculation on the issue stated in an interview that Deckard is indeed a replicant.

The other four versions include two workprint versions shown only as previews to test audiences' response, these have occasionally popped up at film festivals in later years. The remaining two are the international cut and the broadcast version. Both basically the same as the original theatrical release, but the former contains more graphic violence and the latter has some cursing removed.

Three Blade Runner novels, sequels to the movie, have been written by K. W. Jeter:

• Blade Runner 2: The Edge of Human (1988)
• Blade Runner 3: Replicant Night (1996)
• Blade Runner 4: Eye and Talon (2000)

There is also a two computer games based on the movie. One for Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum by CRL Group PLC year 1985 and one PC game (Westwood Studios, 1997), based on the world described by the film.

A good account of the film's history is available in the book Future Noir: the Making of Blade Runner by Paul Sammon.