Blade Runner
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| This article was copied (instead of imported) from the now-deleted Miraheze wikis. |
| ♥ | This article is dedicated to sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick (December 16, 1928 - March 2, 1982) who died from a stroke before he could see the film |
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The following work contains material and themes that may include coarse language, sexual references, and/or graphic violent images that may be disturbing to some viewers. Mature articles are recommended for those who are 18 years of age or above. If you are 18 years old or above, or are comfortable with mature content, you are free to view this page; otherwise, you should close this page and view another one. Reader discretion is advised. |
Blade Runner
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This film has been preserved in the National Film Registry in 1993.
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 "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." - Roy Batty
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Blade Runner is a 1982 science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott, and written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples. Starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, and Sean Young, it is loosely based on Philip K. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968).
Plot
In Los Angeles in the year 2019, Rick Deckard, an ex-policeman, becomes a special agent with a mission to exterminate a group of violent androids. As he starts getting deeper into his mission, he questions his own identity.
Why It Rocks
- As one of the most imitated sci-fi films of the past few decades, the film helped legitimize the genre, paradoxically by ignoring many of its signature elements.
- While the film's based on Philip K. Dick's 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? -- being the first of his work to be adapted to film-- it manages to stay extremely faithful to the book while having the overall storyline be nearly unrecognizable. It borrows the bare outline of the book's plot — a guy has to track down and kill rogue biological androids — but it veers in a decidedly different direction. While the novel was more centered on unusually specific details of its future world, such as the mass extinction of animals, this film is essentially a vision of humanity dehumanized by technology and a meditation on how glimmers of human goodness and empathy can persist through that degradation. The "replicants" hunted by Rick Deckard aren't human … and yet they are. Perhaps even more human than some of the actual humans in the film.
- Ridley Scott consulted architects and industrial designers for how a futuristic world would look. Each set with futuristic stuff, like flying cars, and Chinese stuff, and with some real-life companies like Atari, Coca-Cola, Pan-Am, and the retrofitted future in the 2019 city of Los Angeles is great looking, The set designs are an absolute stand out in the film, looking like a real place rather than just a set for the characters.
- Some of the stylistic choices -- the frequent rain and some scenes set at night -- were needed to hide the wires and cables needed for special effects, but they also connected the story to film noir.
- A lot of great action scenes, such as chasing Zhora, and the final battle with Roy Batty, which it's pretty creepy at that point.
- For an R-rated film, it did get some of the violence and gore to satisfy R-rated action film fans.
- The film contains a rather interesting concept in which a cop known as a "blade runner" tries to hunt down a group of advanced androids called replicants. But the replicants are so human-like and advanced, that it's difficult to tell who's human and who's a replicant.
- On that subject, the film could be viewed by some as a study of what it truly means to be human, or just how valuable life can be. It also raises some questions about free will and individuality that may be difficult to answer and asks you to think about how technology can change humanity. Whether you're a human or a replicant, the question of how technology can change you is something that gets more important as time passes.
- Amazing acting, especially for Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, and Edward James Olmos.
- Great direction by Ridley Scott.
- Rick Deckard is a pretty well-done-looking, and likable character, and he's quite memorable for a while. There's also the gripping question of whether or not Rick was human or a replicant due to there being reasonable evidence supporting both theories. (Although in Scott's original version, Deckard's a replicant)
- Breathtaking cinematography.
- Astonishingly breathtaking, relaxing, visually vista, and even softer with some serious tone-looking soundtrack that was performed by Vangelis, making the soundtrack feel like it was made from the next decades or so.
- On the topic, it even has a nice song called One More Kiss, Dear song.
- There are some very horrifying death scenes, where Rick kills Pris and goes crazy like a temper tantrum and kills her again.
- Roy Batty is a very complex and sympathetic villain, as he was one of many replicants created by humanity for slave labor in distant colonies in outer space, and he mostly just wanted to gain an extended lifespan from Dr. Tyrell -- replicants have a 4-year lifespan to avoid gaining a lot of human emotions -- and makes the most of what little time his has left in the universe by picking up interests in poetry. He also cares for his team, as shown when he tries to avenge his fallen comrades and tries to kill Rick Deckard. The only reason he's a villain at all is because he went violent and he and his team killed several innocents, and even then, a handful of his victims deserved to die.
- And then there's the famous "Tears In the Rain" scene, which is considered to be one of the best scenes in all of movie history. For some context, after the anti-villainous Roy Batty saves Rick from falling to death, gives a sublime monologue, which gives a message about valuing your life, because, after all, all of those moments will be lost after your death. Then Roy drives a nail into his hand and releases a dove, apparently symbolizing his soul, which soars upward as he dies.
- The visual effects for the flying cars look astonishing, even by 1982 standards, making it look as if those effects for the flying cars were made in the late 90s.
- Not only that, even the effects for the commercials and logos are looking good for that time.
- It spawned a great point-and-click adventure game of the same name in 1997.
- It even spawned a sequel in 2017 titled Blade Runner 2049 which greatly improved from the first film.
- Its recuts are well-made and they add and remove various content from the theatrical version
- The Director's Cut contained significant changes from the theatrical workprint version. In addition to fleshing out several scenes, major changes made include removing Deckard's explanatory voice-overs, inserting a dream sequence of a unicorn running through a forest around the 42-minute mark, and getting rid of the studio-imposed "happy ending", including some associated visuals originally run under the film's end-credits. In this version, the film ends when the elevator doors close as Deckard and Rachael leave.
- The Final Cut is considered by many to be the definitive version of the film. It contains the original full-length version of the unicorn dream, which was never in any prior version. Plus, all of the additional violence and alternative edits from the international cut were inserted.
The Only Bad Quality
- It can be pretty slow-paced at times.
Reception
Critical response
Upon its release, it was polarized by critics, but later the film received mix-to-acclaim reviews from critics and critical acclaim from the audience. It currently has an 89% "Certified Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 91% audience rating. On Metacritic, the film holds an 89/100 rating, indicating "Universal Acclaim" and an 8.7/10 user score rating, also indicating "Universal Acclaim". On IMDb, the film holds a rating of 8.1/10.
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