Blade Runner

Legacy

Cultural impact

A police spinner flying beside enormous skyscrapers, some with electronic billboards on them. Special effects such as these were benchmarks and have been highly influential on the esthetics of subsequent sci-fi movies.Tesla's Cybertruck was heavily inspired by Blade Runner.

While not initially a success with North American audiences, Blade Runner was popular internationally and garnered a cult following.[140] The film's dark style and futuristic designs have served as a benchmark and its influence can be seen in many subsequent science fiction films, video games, anime, and television programs.[114] For example, Ronald D. Moore and David Eick, the producers of the re-imagining of Battlestar Galactica, have both cited Blade Runner as one of the major influences for the show.[141]

The film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry in 1993 and is frequently taught in university courses.[142][143][144] In 2007, it was named the second-most visually influential film of all time by the Visual Effects Society.[145] The film has also been the subject of parody, such as the comics Blade Bummer by Crazy comics,[146] Bad Rubber by Steve Gallacci,[147] and the Red Dwarf 2009 three-part miniseries "Back to Earth".[148][149] The anime series Psycho-Pass by Production I.G was also highly influenced by the movie.[150]

Blade Runner continues to reflect modern trends and concerns, and an increasing number of critics consider it one of the greatest science fiction films of all time.[151] It was voted the best science fiction film ever made in a 2004 poll of 60 eminent world scientists.[152] Blade Runner is also cited as an important influence to both the style and story of the Ghost in the Shell franchise, which itself has been highly influential to the future-noir genre.[153][154] Blade Runner has been very influential to the cyberpunk movement.[155][156][157][158] It also influenced the cyberpunk derivative biopunk, which revolves around biotechnology and genetic engineering.[159][160] The film is also considered to be one of the early examples of the tech noir[161] subgenre.

The dialogue and music in Blade Runner has been sampled in music more than any other film of the 20th century.[162] The 2009 album I, Human by Singaporean band Deus Ex Machina makes numerous references to the genetic engineering and cloning themes from the film, and even features a track titled "Replicant".[163]

Blade Runner is cited as a major influence on Warren Spector,[164] designer of the video game Deus Ex, which displays evidence of the film's influence in both its visual rendering and plot. Indeed, the film's look – and in particular its overall darkness, preponderance of neon lights and opaque visuals – are easier to render than complicated backdrops, making it a popular reference point for video game designers.[165][166] It has influenced adventure games such as the 2012 graphical text adventure Cypher,[167] Rise of the Dragon,[168][169] Snatcher,[169][170] the Tex Murphy series,[171] Beneath a Steel Sky,[172] Flashback: The Quest for Identity,[169] Bubblegum Crisis video games (and their original anime),[173][174] the role-playing game Shadowrun,[169] the first-person shooter Perfect Dark,[175] the shooter game Skyhammer,[176][177] and the Syndicate series of video games.[178][179]

The logos of Atari, Bell, Coca-Cola, Cuisinart, Pan Am, and RCA, all market leaders at the time, were prominently displayed as product placement in the film, and all experienced setbacks after the film's release,[180][181] leading to suggestions of a Blade Runner curse.[182] Coca-Cola and Cuisinart recovered, and Tsingtao beer was also featured in the film and was more successful after the film than before.[180]

The design of Tesla's Cybertruck was inspired by the film.[183] Prior to its release Elon Musk promised that it would "look like something out of Blade Runner".[184] Besides referring to the truck as the "Blade Runner Truck", Musk chose to debut the truck in order to coincide with the film's setting of November 2019.[185] The film's art designer Syd Mead praised the truck and said he was "flattered" by the homage to Blade Runner.[184]

Media recognition

Year Presenter Title Rank Refs
2001 The Village Voice 100 Best Films of the 20th Century 94 [186]
2002 Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) Top 100 Sci-fi Films of the Past 100 Years 2 [187]
Sight & Sound Sight & Sound Top Ten Poll 2002 45 [188]
50 Klassiker, Film [189]
2003 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die [190]
Entertainment Weekly The Top 50 Cult Movies 9 [191]
2004 The Guardian, scientists Top 10 Sci-fi Films of All Time 1 [192][193][194]
2005 Total Film's editors 100 Greatest Movies of All Time 47 [195]
Time magazine's critics "All-Time 100" Movies [196][197][198]
2008 New Scientist All-time favorite science fiction film (readers and staff) 1 [199][200]
Empire The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time 20 [201]
2010 Total Film 100 Greatest Movies of All Time [202]
2012 Sight & Sound Sight & Sound 2012 critics top 250 films 69 [203]
Sight & Sound Sight & Sound 2012 directors top 100 films 67 [204]
2017 Empire The 100 Greatest Movies Of All Time 13 [205]
2022 IGN Top 25 Sci-Fi Movies of All Time 2 [206]
2022 Sight & Sound Sight & Sound 2022 critics top 100 films 54 [207]

American Film Institute recognition

  • AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills – No. 74
  • AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – No. 97
  • AFI's 10 Top 10 – No. 6 Science Fiction Film

In other media

Before filming began, Cinefantastique magazine commissioned Paul M. Sammon to write a special issue about Blade Runner's production which became the book Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner.[208] The book chronicles Blade Runner's evolution, focusing on film-set politics, especially the British director's experiences with his first American film crew; of which producer Alan Ladd, Jr. has said, "Harrison wouldn't speak to Ridley and Ridley wouldn't speak to Harrison. By the end of the shoot Ford was 'ready to kill Ridley', said one colleague. He really would have taken him on if he hadn't been talked out of it."[209] Future Noir has short cast biographies and quotations about their experiences as well as photographs of the film's production and preliminary sketches. A second edition of Future Noir was published in 2007, and additional materials not in either print edition have been published online.[210]

Philip K. Dick refused a $400,000 offer to write a Blade Runner novelization, saying: "⁠[I was] told the cheapo novelization would have to appeal to the twelve-year-old audience" and it "would have probably been disastrous to me artistically". He added, "That insistence on my part of bringing out the original novel and not doing the novelization – they were just furious. They finally recognized that there was a legitimate reason for reissuing the novel, even though it cost them money. It was a victory not just of contractual obligations but of theoretical principles."[22][211] Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? was eventually reprinted as a tie-in, with the film poster as a cover and the original title in parentheses below the Blade Runner title.[212] Additionally, a novelization of the movie entitled Blade Runner: A Story of the Future by Les Martin was released in 1982.[213] Archie Goodwin scripted the comic book adaptation, A Marvel Comics Super Special: Blade Runner, published in September 1982, which was illustrated by Al Williamson, Carlos Garzon, Dan Green, and Ralph Reese, and lettered by Ed King.[214]

Blue Dolphin Enterprises published the film's screenplay combined with selected production storyboards as The Illustrated Blade Runner (June 1982);[215] a book of original production artwork by Syd Mead, Mentor Huebner, Charles Knode, Michael Kaplan, and Ridley Scott as Blade Runner Sketchbook (1982);[216] and The Blade Runner Portfolio (1982), a collection of twelve photographic prints, similar to the artist portfolios released by their Schanes & Schanes imprint.[217]

There are two video games based on the film, both titled Blade Runner: one from 1985, a side-scrolling video game for Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, and Amstrad CPC by CRL Group PLC, which is marked as "a video game interpretation of the film score by Vangelis" rather than of the film itself (due to licensing issues); and another from 1997, a point-and-click adventure for PC by Westwood Studios. The 1997 game has a non-linear plot based in the Blade Runner world, non-player characters that each ran in their own independent AI, and an unusual pseudo-3D engine (which eschewed polygonal solids in favor of voxel elements) that did not require the use of a 3D accelerator card to play the game.[218] Eldon Tyrell, Gaff, Leon, Rachael, Chew, J. F. Sebastian and Howie Lee appear, and their voice files are recorded by the original actors, with the exception of Gaff, who is replaced by Javier Grajeda (as Victor Gardell) and Howie Lee, who is replaced by Toru Nagai.[219] The player assumes the role of McCoy, another replicant-hunter working at the same time as Deckard.[165][166]

The television film (and later series) Total Recall 2070 was initially planned as a spin-off of the film Total Recall (based on Philip K. Dick's short story "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale"), but was produced as a hybrid of Total Recall and Blade Runner.[220] Many similarities between Total Recall 2070 and Blade Runner were noted, as well as apparent influences on the show from Isaac Asimov's The Caves of Steel and the TV series Holmes & Yoyo.[221]

Documentaries

The film has been the subject of several documentaries.

Blade Runner: Convention Reel (1982, 13 minutes)
Co-directed by Muffet Kaufman and Jeffrey B. Walker, shot and screened in 16 mm, featured no narrator, was filmed in 1981 while Blade Runner was still in production and featured short "behind-the-scenes" segments showing sets being built and sequences being shot, as well as interviews with Ridley Scott, Syd Mead and Douglas Trumbull. Appears on the Blade Runner Ultimate Collector's Edition.[222]
On the Edge of Blade Runner (2000, 55 minutes)
Directed by Andrew Abbott and hosted/written by Mark Kermode. Interviews with production staff, including Scott, give details of the creative process and the turmoil during pre-production. Insights into Philip K. Dick and the origins of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? are provided by Paul M. Sammon and Hampton Fancher.[33]
Future Shocks (2003, 27 minutes)
Directed by TVOntario.[223] It includes interviews with executive producer Bud Yorkin, Syd Mead, and the cast, and commentary by science fiction author Robert J. Sawyer and from film critics.
Dangerous Days: Making Blade Runner (2007, 213 minutes)
Directed and produced by Charles de Lauzirika for The Final Cut version of the film. Its source material comprises more than 80 interviews, including extensive conversations with Ford, Young, and Scott.[224] The documentary is presented in eight chapters, with each of the first seven covering a portion of the filmmaking process. The final chapter examines Blade Runner's controversial legacy.[225]
All Our Variant Futures: From Workprint to Final Cut (2007, 29 minutes)
Produced by Paul Prischman, appears on the Blade Runner Ultimate Collector's Edition and provides an overview of the film's multiple versions and their origins, as well as detailing the seven-year-long restoration, enhancement and remastering process behind The Final Cut.[87]
Blade Runner Phenomenon (2021, 53 minutes)
Directed by Boris Hars-Tschachotin and made by the France and Germany European public service channel ARTE, this documentary informs viewers using behind-the-scenes material from various sets, photos, original locations in Los Angeles, and interviews with those involved in the production.

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