Bragging Rights of Blade Runner

When Blade Runner came out way back in 1982 it didn’t make as much as people hoped. It being too far ahead of its time, especially with a dystopian setting, just didn’t fit in with the feel-good 80s. In addition to this, the pace of the movie was quite slow and it involved quite a bit of dialogue that required more than the mindless attention set aside for movies.

Just like Excalibur, Blade Runner was one of those movies I didn’t like when it first came out. Perhaps I was too young, maybe I was just enjoying myself in the 1980s, or maybe it felt like it dragged on a little more than for fast young mind at the time.

Fast forward thirty two years and the movie has developed bragging rights composed of a good-sized following and cult status. And while the various copies still do drag on, the pace of the movie allows today’s revisiting viewers to marvel at the special effects.

The Story

The Final Cut of Blade Runner drops the viewer in the heart of the Los Angeles in 2019. But instead of a bright and dry dessert, the Los Angeles of this time is bleak and wet.

In the year 2019, androids are now used for off-world labor and entertainment. Created by the Tyrell Corporation and known as Replicants, they are designed for jobs previously assigned to humans, such as being soldiers and miners. In addition to these tasks, some are designed to provide entertainment and physical pleasure to humans.

Though they appear nearly identical to humans at first glance, Replicants tend to be inherently unstable. Telling them apart is usually done through a Voight-Kampff test, which draws out their emotional instability after a series of questions.

Since they are banned on Earth, a group of six Replicants hijacking a ship and making a break for the planet fell under the Los Angeles Police Department’s Blade Runner unit. As Blade Runners, the job of these humans is to detect androids on Earth and retire, or terminate, them.

In order to tackle jobs that humans are unable to do, Dr. Eldon Tyrell, who was played by Joe Turkel, designed Replicants to be extremely strong, resilient, smart, and immune to pain. It is these traits that make it difficult to retire them.

Of the six, only four of the advanced Nexus-6 Replicants arrive on Earth. And the task of finding them initially fell on a Blade Runner named Holden, who was played by Morgan Paull. He is shot by an android named Leon Kowalski, who is played by Brion James, after being detected during a Voight-Kampff test. After being sent to the hospital, the assignment then went to Rick Deckard, who is played by Harrison Ford.

The Replants are led by the smartest member Roy Batty, who is played by Rutger Hauer. The other members who made it to earth include Zhora and Pris, who were played by Joanna Cassidy and Daryl Hannah respectively.

There are probably two known limitations that these androids have. The first is that they are unstable and the second is that they have a four-year shelf life. And it is this second limitation that brings these Nexus-6 Replicants to Earth – they want to extend their lives.

Character Development

Deckard and Batty are probably the most developed characters in the movie, because by the end, viewers may begin to understand why they acted and reacted the way they did.

Even Tyrell and Rachel seemed to connect with the audience and their outcomes by the end of the film may have surprised and affected some.

Special Effects

Of all the movies from the 1980s, Blade Runner may be the only one with effects than can still pass muster in today’s world of Computer-generated Imagery, or CGI.

The only telltale sign that the movies special effects were in motion were the slightly off colored areas around things like fire blowing out of smokestacks.

Everything else, including most of the flying car scenes looked amazing. Then there were the buildings, which looked so real, even when zoomed in on, it helped to immerse viewers in the movie.

Another nice touch was the voice-controlled Esper machine used to zoom in, enhance, and print pictures found at one Replicant’s hotel. While it may seem too mechanical today, the concept and the way it worked was interesting when the movie first came out in 1982.

[I did notice that his commands seemed a little bit off, though.]

The costumes used may have been a bit eccentric and somewhat bulky, but they were a big help to fuel the dark mood of the film.

The heavy use of lighting to cast moving shadows also enhanced the mood of the movie. Shadows from vehicles, fans, and other items made even the darkest still scenes look alive. And if you peered closely at the sets, there was hardly any flat board or cabinet around. Almost everything had some form of design or texture to catch the light and cast even more shadows.

One of the most taken for granted items in science fiction is the video phone. And while they have been around long before this film was created, it was nicely done within the confines of a seedy bar in this movie. While the communications screen of the Space: 1999 series was clean and while, the one here was so beat up and full of writing, it mimicked the few remaining public phones today.

Favorite Character

There were quite a few characters to choose, some of which included Deckard, Batty, Tyrell, and even, Rachel, who was played by 80s it girl Sean Young. But as I watched movie, my choice for favorite character began to swing from the Blade Runner Deckard to the Replicant Batty.

As an android, he had no morals. And if he were human, he would probably be branded insane. In the end, it was Batty that won my vote. And when I say the end, I mean just that; his short speech at the end of the film brought some form of understanding and closure to his character.

[It turns out that pivotal point at the end was adlibbed.]

Favorite Scene

Before I got to the ending of the movie, there was another candidate for my favorite scene. The fight between Kowalski and Deckard was fast paced, at least for the movie, and had a dark, dry humor attached to it.

And since I already mentioned the reason why the Replicant Roy Batty was my favorite character, we might as well get it on record that my favorite scene was his speech at the ending. The words may have been very simple, but the impact was something I carried for quite a while because it looks at mortality and regret.

Final Thoughts

Like I mentioned in my recent article entitled Examining Excalibur, Blade Runner is one of a handful of movies that I never liked when first released. And just like that movie about the Knights of the Round Table, this movie didn’t endear itself to me until I watched it a couple of years ago.

This time around, I appreciated the movie so much that I actually bought the sequel book, Blade Runner 2: The Edge of Human, which takes place a few years after the movie ended. And while the film provided a dark and brooding mood, the second one seemed a bit lighter, as well as providing some closure instead of being groundbreaking.

Nonetheless, it would be nice if Harrison Ford Sean Young can be persuaded to do the sequel. Although, I am not sure how it will turn out in today’s movie environment.

Sure, the pace was slow and even my being older does not mean I cannot feel it drag every now and then. Being older also means that I now have a newfound appreciation for it. Thirty two years later, the film’s chilling scenario of androids running amok on Earth may be closer than ever. And this puts it in a very small group of movies with the bragging rights to say that it is more relevant today than it was yesterday.

Finally, the version I reviewed this time around was the Final Cut. The thing to note here is that unlike movies like Star Wars, the work done here was more in the form of correcting things like removing suspension wires and not the addition more scenes. It is essentially just a cleaned up version of what it was.

“Commerce is our goal here at Tyrell. More human than human is our motto”
– Dr. Eldon Tyrell