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"Blade Runner" 1982 Movie

crowded city chase scane from "Blade Runner" [1982]           

synopsis & history

the book & sequels

the movie

principals

links



Synopsis

           In the year 2019, 'replicants' are artificially-manufactured humanoids, and because of an off-Earth revolt, they have been declared illegal. When a fellow government agent ('blade runner') is killed in Los Angeles, agent Deckard is called out of retirement and under vague threats is told to find four escaped Nexus-6 replicants – a combat model (Roy), a nuclear fuel loader (Leon), a female trained assassin (Zhora), and a female 'basic pleasure model' (Pris). The Nexus-6 model has a four-year lifespan to ensure they do not develop emotions and a desire for independence. Deckard and agent Gaff visit the Tyrell Corporation and are assured that the Voight-Kampff test (which proves someone is/is not a replicant) works on the new models; while there, they meet Tyrell's sexy secretary (Rachael), an experimental replicant who believes herself to be human.
           Deckard and Gaff search the dead agent's apartment. Roy and Leon meet with Sebastian, who deals in replicant animals, as they track their way to 'meeting their maker' (Tyrell), made extra urgent by onset of symptoms of Roy's impending death; Pris also finds Sebastian. Rachael visits Deckard at his apartment to prove to him her human-ness, but Deckard coldly rejects her and she leaves in tears. Deckard then follows a clue and locates Zhora at a strip club; they fight, she flees, and Deckard chases her thru the teeming, rain-drenched streets of a future Los Angeles until he corners and 'retires' (kills) her. Deckard is ordered to add Rachael to his list of retirements, because she has disappeared from Tyrell Corp. headquarters. Deckard spots Rachael in a crowd and follows her, and is attacked and beaten by Leon; Rachael saves Deckard by shooting Leon, and she helps Deckard to his apartment, where they have sex (or is it 'make love?').
           Roy arrives at Sebastian's apartment, tells Prin that Leon and Zhora are dead, and pressures Sebastian into taking him to Tyrell. Tyrell refuses to extend Roy's life, saying that he has no such power; Roy grabs Tyrell's head, kisses him, and then crushes his skull; Sebastian runs toward the elevator, but Roy exits the building alone. Deckard arrives at Sebastian's apartment and is ambushed by Pris, but manages to shoot her, just as Roy returns. Roy is horrified, breaks thru a wall and breaks two of Deckard's fingers, then turns Deckard loose for a cat-and-mouse game within the Bradbury Building. But Roy's end-of-lifespan symptoms escalate as he chases Deckard to the roof; Deckard tries to leap acroos to another building, but doesntt quite make it, and hangs from a wet iron beam in the pouring rain. Roy easily leaps over and saves Deckard, but then crumples and delivers a short soliloquy and dies. Gaff shows up and makes a cryptic remark about Racheal; upon returning to his apartment, Deckard is relieved to find Rachael there alive; the various versions end with either Deckard & Rachael leaving the apartment building together or driving together across a pastoral landscape.

History of The Film
           Philip K. Dick [1928-82] wrote "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?", a 1968 novel about Rick Deckard, a bounty hunter who chases down rogue androids, and John Isidore, a below-average human who befriends renegade androids. Alan E. Nourse [1928-92] wrote "The Bladerunner", a 1974 novel about a teenager who delivers black market medical supplies to underground physicians and surgeons. Beat poet Wm. S. Burroughs was paid to write a treatment (not screenplay) adaptation of Nourse's book; that work was published in 1979; a film has not yet been made.
           The makers of "Blade Runner" paid Burroughs & Nourse for use of the term as the title of their adaptation of Dick's "Androids" novel. Location filming included Frank Lloyd Wright's Ennis Brown House in Hollywood, California, and the 1893 iron-and-glass Bradbury Building and the 1918 Million Dollar Theater in Downtown Los Angerles.
           The movie was released in a 117-minute version in June 1982, to much critical debate, and lousy box office sales. But the film developed a 'cult' following on the art house and midnight movies circuits, and finally gained stature as an important film, such as early inclusion (1993) in the United States National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.
           "Blade Runner" was one of the first films released on DVD, unfortunately with mediocre video & audio quality. Seven versions of the film have been released, for various markets, including a rushed 112-minute Director's Cut in 1992. Warner Bros. released a 'digitally remastered definitive Final Cut' 25th Anniversary Edition in 2007 in select theaters and on DVD & Blu-ray.


Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?  Signet paperback of' Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?'  "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" [Signet 1968]
by Philip K. Dick [1928-82]

Ballantine movie tie-in pb [4/90] for $6.99
Del Rey 8x5½ pb [6/96] for $10.40
TimeWarner ABR audio [8/94] for $11.90
"Blade Runner: Suenan los Androides con Ovejas Electricas?" [1997]
Translated by Cesar Terron
Edhasa Spanish-language edition mass pb [1/2005] out of print/used

book entry at Wikipedia
author's official website
Philip K. Dick movie credits [1962-2012+] at Internet Movie Database

Philip K. Dick [1928-82] Page at Spirit of America Bookstore

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? comics & graphic novel   "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" [2009]  
comics & graphic novel drawn by Tony Parker

Publisher BOOM! Studios produced a graphic novel version of "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?", first as 24 comic book issues beginning in Summer 2009, and later as a book, in six volumes
Volume 1 (#1-4): BOOM! Studios 10½x7 hardcover [12/2009] for $16.49
Volume 2 (#5-8): BOOM! Studios 10½x7 hardcover [DUE April 2010] for $16.49

Blade Runner 2 Edge of Human novel by K.W. Jeter  "Blade Runner 2: The Edge of Human" [1995] by K.W. Jeter
Bounty hunter Deckard learns that Pris, who he executed in the 'Blade Runner' movie, was a human and not a Nexus-6 replicant, thus making Deckard a murderer and a fugitive. Replicant Rachael's lifespan is soon to end, and a grieving Deckard meets her templant (original model), the neice of dead tycoon Tyrell, who offers herself as replacement.
Bantam Spectra 8¼x5¾ pb [10/2000] for $19.00
Bantam Spectra mass pb [8/96] out of print/many used
Victor Gollancz, Ltd. mass pb [7/96] out of print/many used
Bantam Spectra 9¼x6½ hardcover [10/95] out of print/many, many used
book 2 entry at Wikipedia
Blade Runner 3 Replicant Night novel by K.W. Jeter   "Blade Runner 3: Replicant Night" [1996] by K.W. Jeter
While acting as consultant on a movie about his own life, retired bounty hunter Deckard loses his former partner to murder and quickly heads for home on Mars, where his lover Sarah, heir to the defunct Tyrell Corp., is plotting Deckard's death (out of bitterness and boredom). Agents of martyr and mad genius Tyrell's 'shadow corporation' kidnap Sarah and take her to her birth- place, a derelict starship, in search of industrial secrets. While trying to rescue Sarah, Deckard finds that a ten-year-old girl is the key to Tyrell's lost science.
Bantam Spectra mass pb [10/97] out of print/used
Bantam Spectra hardcover [10/96] out of print/many used
book 3 entry at Wikipedia
Blade Runner 4 Eye & Talon novel by K.W. Jeter   "Blade Runner 4: Eye and Talon" [2000] by K.W. Jeter
A female blade runner is asked to find Tyrell's owl, unaware that she is being filmed and events are being nudged toward a specific conclusion. She begins to wise up when she realizes that she is a dead ringer for Tyrell's niece and the 'retired' Nexus 6 replicant named Rachael.
Victor Gollancz, Ltd. mass pb [12/2001] out of print/used
Victor Gollancz, Ltd. 9½x6½ hardcover [2000] out of print/used
book 4 entry at Wikipedia



"Blade  Runner"
[Ladd Company June 1982]

'Blade Runner' official movie site {requires Flash; hangs at 99%}
film credits at Internet Movie Database
movie entry at Wikipedia

Blade Runner   Directed by Ridley Scott, from a novel by Philip K. Dick; starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, Edward James Olmos, M. Emmet Walsh & Daryl Hannah; music by Vangelis; won Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, listed on National Film Registry in 1993; listed on Time Magazine's All-TIME 100 Movies (10/2005); listed among A.F.I. Top Ten Scifi Films
11"x17" poster from Amazon for $9.99
27"x40" poster from Amazon for $19.99

Warner Collector's Edition widescreen color on Blu-ray [12/2007] 5 disks for $24.99

Warner Final Cut Special Edition widescreen color DVD [12/2007] 2 disks for $10.99
Warner Ultimate Collector's Edition widescreen color DVD [12/2007] 5 disks - out of prodn/used
Warner Director's Cut Remastered Limited Edition color DVD [9/2006] out of prodn/used
Warner Director's Cut DVD [3/97] for $11.99

Warner Director's Cut VHS [11/99] out of prodn/many used

"Dangerous Days: Making Blade Runner" documentary [Warner Home Video Dec 2007]
Co-produced & directed by Charles de Lauzirika; available on 2007 DVD & Blu-ray releases above; full credits from IMDb

Illustrated Blade Runner screenplay by Hampton Fancher & David Peoples  
"The Illustrated Blade Runner" [1982]
contains the complete screenplay by Hampton Fancher & David Peoples,
based on a novel by Philip K. Dick, Foreword by Ridley Scott
Blue Dolphin Enterprises pb [1982] out of print/scarce
British Film Institute Blade Runner screenplay & critical text by Scott Bukatman   "Blade Runner" screenplay & critical text [2008]
by Scott Bukatman

British Film Institute 7¼x5¼ pb [1/2008] for $11.66

Director Ridley Scott has repeatedly said that he is considering a sequel to "Blade Runner". During 2008, Travis Wright and John Glenn wrote a screenplay exploring the nature of the Off-World colonies and what happens to the Tyrell Corporation in the wake of its founder's death, but that project is on hold. As of June 2009, Ridley Scott and brother Tony and son Luke are said to be making 5-10-minute episodes of a webcast called "Purefold", that is set in the year 2019 and 'inspired' by the world of "Blade Runner".

·            ·

songs from the movie:
theme song [3:42] play Blade Runner theme song[3min:42sec MIDI file]      love theme [3:44} play Blade Runner love theme[3min:44sec MIDI file]      'Memory of Green' [4:34] play Blade Runner 'Memory of Green' song [4min:34sec MIDI file]

Blade Runner 1982 movie soundtrack albums  "Blade Runner" soundtrack album [1994]
Atlantic soundtrack CD [6/94] for $13.96

"Blade Runner" orchestral soundtrack [1990] by New American Orchestra
Warner orchestral version CD [10/90] for $19.98

Blade Runner 1982 movie 25th Anniversary 3-disk soundtrack album   "Blade Runner Trilogy: 25th Anniversary Soundtrack Albums" [2006]
by Vangelis

includes remastered original 1994 album; disk of all music not on original album; and a disk of music newly written for the 25th Anniversary
Polydor soundtrack CD set [12/2007] 37 tracks on 3 disks for $29.98
·            ·

"Blade Runner Sketchbook" [1982] by David Scroggy
Blue Dolphin Enterprises pb [6/82] out of print/used

Blade Runner Portfolio book edited by David Scroggy   "Blade Runner, The Motion Picture: Portfolio" [1982]
Edited by David Scroggy

"Twelve Dazzling Full-Color Moments"
Blue Dolphin Enterprises 13x12 pb [1982] out of print/rare
Retrofitting Blade Runner book edited by Judith B. Kerman   "Retrofitting Blade Runner: Issues in Ridley Scott's Blade Runner and Phillip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" [1991]
Edited by Judith B. Kerman

Bowling Green Univ Popular Press 9x6 pb [4/93] for $20.40
Bowling Green Univ Popular Press 9½x6½ hardcover [4/91] out of print/used
Future Noir / Making of Blade Runner  

"Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner" [1996]
by Paul M. Sammon

HarperCollins 9x6 pb [5/96] for $13.22
Orion 9x6 pb [9/97] out of print/used
Spanish edition: Pujol & Amado 11½x8¼ pb [3/2005] for $10.16

Blade Runner critical study in Spanish by Jorge Gorostiza & Ana Perez   "Blade Runner: Estudio Critico" [2002]
by Jorge Gorostiza & Ana Perez

Ediciones Paidos Iberica Spanish-language 7½x4¾ pb [3/2002] out of print/used
Blade Runner Spanish Edition   "Blade Runner" Spanish Edition [2002]
Tusquets Editores Spanish-language pb [6/2002] for $9.55
Blade Runner Inside Story book by Don Shay   "Blade Runner: The Inside Story" [2003] by Don Shay
Cinefex Magazine devoted an entire, extended issue in 1982 to the release of sci-fi masterpiece "Blade Runner", including in-depth, exclusive interviews with director Ridley Scott and legendary designer Syd Mead. Copies of that issue were in con- stant demand by collectors, and in 2003 Titan Books brought it back into print.
Titan Books 'remastered hardcover edition' [6/2003] out of print/used
Studying Blade Runner book by Sean Redmond  
"Studying Blade Runner" [orig 2003, rev 2008] by Sean Redmond
Student Edition: Auteur pb [5/2008] for $13.50
Instructor's Edition: Auteur 11½x8 pb [3/2008] for $20.00
Blade Runner Experience book by Will Brooker   "The Blade Runner Experience: The Legacy of A Science Fiction Classic" [2006]
by Will Brooker

Wallflower Press 9x6 pb [2/2006] for $22.50
Wallflower Press 9¼x5¾ hardcover [2/2006] for $80.00
Blade Runner & The Films of Philip K. Dick book by Jeremy Mark Robinson   "Blade Runner and The Films of Philip K. Dick" [2008]
by Jeremy Mark Robinson

Academic study that concentrates on "Blade Runner" but also looks at "Minority Report" [2002], "Total Recall" [1990 & 1999], "A Scanner Darkly" [2006], and other movies based on works of Philip K. Dick [1928-82].
Crescent Moon Publng 9x6 pb [6/2008] for $25.00
Blade Runner Cultographies book by Matt Hills   "Blade Runner (Cultographies Series)" [2009]  
by Matt Hills
, Media & Cultural Studies Dept., Cardiff University, Wales
At first a box office & critical flop, the movie "Blade Runner" resurrected itself and went beyond mere 'cult' status, and exists today within 'classroom cult', 'meta cult', and 'design cult' conversations
Wallflower Press pb [11/2009] for $15.00
author's faculty homepage

·            ·

"Blade Runner" Video Games

Blade Runner video game   "Blade Runner" Video Game [1995?] from Westwood Studios
game based on the book & movie
Westwood Studios game for Windows on four CD-ROMs [1995?] out of prodn/used
"Blade Runner Official Strategy Guide" [1997]
Brady Games pb [12/97] out of print/used
"Prima's Unauthorized Guide To Blade Runner" [1998]
Prima Games 9¼x7½ pb [1/98] out of print/used

Blade Runner video game   "Blade Runner: Ray McCoy" [1998] from Electronic Arts
Blade Runner Ray McCoy searches Los Angeles in 2019 for clues to several interwoven cases
Electronic Arts game for Windows on CD-ROM [1998] for $63.94
"Ultimate Sci-Fi Series" Box Set [2000] from Electronic Arts
includes "Blade Runner: Ray McCoy", "Dune 2000", and "Wing Commander: Prophecy"
Electronic Arts games for Windows [6/2000] for $83.99



Principals

author  Phillip K. Dick [1928-82] Page
at Spirit of America Bookstore

director  Ridley Scott
browse Ridley Scott on DVD • IMDb listing • Wikipedia

Harrison Ford
browse Harrison Ford on DVD • IMDb listing • Wikipedia

Rutger Hauer
browse Rutger Hauer on DVD • IMDb listing • official website • Wikipedia

All Those Moments autobiography by Rutger Hauer & Patrick Quinlan  
"All Those Moments: Stories of Heroes, Villains, Replicants,
and Blade Runners" [2007]
by Rutger Hauer, with Patrick Quinlan

HarperCollins 7¾x5¼ pb [5/2008] for $12.55
HarperEntertainment hardcover [4/2007] for $24.95
Sean Young
browse Sean Young on DVD • IMDb listing • Wikipedia

Edward James Olmos Page



'Blade Runner' Links

'Blade Runner' official movie site {requires Flash}
movie fansite
ST's 'Blade Runner' fansite {with music}
'Los Angeles 2019' fansite

WebRing fragment here


See also Magic Lantern Video & Book Store's
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"Apocalypse Now" 1979 Movie Page
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"Blade Runner" 1982 Movie Page << you are here
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von Stroheim's "Greed" 1924 Movie Page
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and also BlackHat Mystery Bookstore's 'The Thin Man' Movies Page
and BlackHat Mystery Bookstore's "The Maltese Falcon" 1941 Movie Page
and Spirit of America Bookstore's 'Tarzan' Movies Page


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