This day in Blade Runner

Today,November the 20th 2019 is an important day for fans of Ridley Scott's cyberpunk/neo noir masterpiece Blade Runner(1982).
www.imdb.com...?ref_=nv_sr_2
The film is set in what was then the future,but is now today.
At the start of the film,when Blade runner Rick Deckard(Harrison Ford)meets Rachel in the Tyrell building he does a voight-kampf test on her.


This scene is referenced in the sequel,Blade Runner 2049,when officer K(Ryan Gosling)attempts to view a damaged file while investigating evidence on the case he is working on.
When he opens the file,we see today's date:


So today could be a good day to re watch this classic film,which I think still holds up very well in terms of special effects-especially as it is one of the last big budget "futuristic" movies which did not rely on CGI-instead it used cold hard practical effects,real models,matt painting and an incredible attention to detail.
For anyone interested,I recommend the documentary "Dangerous Days: Making Blade Runner" which shows just how much work was involved in this vision of a dark future.Its a must see for fans of the movie.
www.imdb.com...?ref_=nv_sr_1
This contains so much information about the ups and downs of the movie,the fact that it was nearly abandonned/destroyed at the last minute by the financiers,and why Ridley Scott released what I believe to be the definitive "final cut"of the film many years later.

As a sci fi vision of the future,Blade Runner changed movie history and became the benchmark of we imagine the future-so many movies even today are heavily influenced by this work of art,but few if any have the same ambience or attention to detail(although the sequel was awesome and worth the wait IMO).

Thank you Ridley Scott,Syd Mead,Vangelis,Harrison Ford,Rutger Hauer,Daryll Hannah,Sean young,Edward james Olmos and all the crew and cast of one of my favorite films of all time.

And for hardcore fans,check out this 10hour(!)ambient mix of music from both Blade Runner film soundtracks-It can be a tad heavy on the rain effects in parts,but turn the treble down a bit and enjoy being taken away into the dystopian yet alluring world of Blade Runner:

Another interesting fact is that "Blade Runner" and "Alien" are both part of the same imagined future.
There are clues-In the first Blade runner film in Deckards apartment you can hear the same sounds as you hear in the med bay on the Nostromo ship from Alien.
This sound is also present in Blade Runner 2049,in the bar area where Officer K talks to Deckard(in destroyed Las Vegas).
I like to imagine the noise is made by some kind of air con/c02 scrubbing tech,which would be needed in these environments.

The other clue is in the original Blade Runner,when Deckard and Gaff are in the flying car(spinner),landing at the LAPD HQ.
You can see a graphic on a screen in the car,kind of a landing telemetry graphic-this same graphic is also present in Alien,when the shuttle detaches from the Nostromo on its way to investigate the unknown signal.
This kind of suggests that Weyland Utani corporation has swallowed up other previous companies and their technology.

Ridley Scott confirms the two films inhabit the same universe in the Dangerous days-making Blade Runner documentary,when he talks about imagining that the noodle bar area in Blade Runner is the kind of place the crew of the Nostromo would have returned to on Earth(had they survived the events of the Alien movie).
Although Alien is set over 100 years after the events of Blade Runner,it sort of fits,as both the Tyrell corp and Weyland Utani are both heavily involved in both the manufacture of replicants and off world colonies/mining operations.

The Tyrell corp began the creation of replicants as modified human clones primarily to work in the off world colonies as slaves,whereas Weyland Yutani evolved this idea into fully synthetic AI humanoids who augment their human counterparts in off world missions.

Interestingly,niether Tyrell or Weyland Yutani suceed in making human "copies"which are fully under their control-we see this when Roy Batty goes on a mission to destroy his creator in Blade Runner,and with David in Alien covenant when he show his hatred for the species who created him(humans).

I am hoping that this idea will not turn out to be prophetic,but knowing our luck...

a reply to: Silcone Synapse

Bravo !
Blade Runner is my favourite film in the history of all that is film yet the significance of today past me by , I guess from tomorrow Blade Runner is set in the past.

No one takes a beating like Harrison Ford and no one made films like Ridley Scott.

Thanks and Kudos to you



Pure art , RiP Rutger

There is also another somewhat strange crossover thing going on between films-although its more of a money saving production thing than a canonical link between films.Here it is:

In the first released version of Blade Runner(the theatrical cut),Deckard and Rachel are seen driving off into a seemingly unspoiled mountainous/forested are of the world.

As the credits roll,there are long ariel shots of this environment.
These shots were actualy from the cutting room floor of the opening shots of the Stanley Kubrik film "The Shining"-in that film they are meant to be the area around the dreaded Overlook Hotel in the mountains of Colorado.

They were used in haste and somewhat reluctantly by Ridley Scott(a friend of Kubrik)due to him being pressured by the films financial backers,who demanded a "happy ending."

That ending,and the voice over by Harrison Ford were (wisley IMO)cut from the superior "final cut" version of Blade Runner.
The final cut ending is darker and more ambiguous,which I feel is much more suited to the rest of the movie.

Not to say that original ending isn't worth a watch though-on account that we get to see Rachel with her hair down for the only time

a reply to: gortex
Nice one Gortex
Yeah that scene will be history by tomorrow,although I think the events of the film take place from November 20th 2019 to January the 5th or so 2020 if my memory is correct.
I either found that out from the making of documentary,or the trivia page on IMDB-theres lots of info all about the film there,which I read through after my last viewing of the film(i watch it too often if I am honest).
www.imdb.com...

a reply to: Silcone Synapse
Thanks for reminding me. I just watched this last weekend

www.youtube.com...

and I have always thought my B ray was the Directors Cut. Now I am not so sure, as I guess the differences between it and the Final are very minor. In fact I already forgot what he differences were.

I only saw the original once when it first came to HBO. Until that Youtube video I always thought that in the end they were flying in a car. But it looks like they are driving through the trees like a normal car. I too thought that end and the voice-over stunk.

To me the worst thing about Blade Runner IS the date. Never ever give the date in a science fiction movie, there is no need for it. If they did not have that date we might think today that the original film took place in 2049. In 1982 you could imagine that LA in 2019 was overrun by Orientals and the smog was so bad that it had turned everything to gloom and rain. By giving us the date they blew it.

Still a great movie though.

originally posted by: Silcone Synapse

For anyone interested,I recommend the documentary "Dangerous Days: Making Blade Runner" which shows just how much work was involved in this vision of a dark future.Its a must see for fans of the movie.
www.imdb.com...?ref_=nv_sr_1
This contains so much information about the ups and downs of the movie

Does the above explain why Vangelis would not release the actual soundtrack?

a reply to: Silcone Synapse

Ah, and then theres Deckards Dream inspire by the movie

a reply to: spiritualarchitect
Good point about the date-
Although technically the movie has aged very well IMO,the date does make people think its very dated when viewed today,lol.The production and effects are still excellent,although the 80's vision of future clothes are pretty funny when looked at today.
The heavy Japanese influence comes from Philip K Dicks way of thinking about the future-he felt that post WW2 and into the future,Japan would have a very big influence on western society-in a way he was right in terms of some technological trends,but maybe not as much as the way he saw it.

originally posted by: spiritualarchitect

originally posted by: Silcone Synapse

For anyone interested,I recommend the documentary "Dangerous Days: Making Blade Runner" which shows just how much work was involved in this vision of a dark future.Its a must see for fans of the movie.
www.imdb.com...?ref_=nv_sr_1
This contains so much information about the ups and downs of the movie

Does the above explain why Vangelis would not release the actual soundtrack?

If I remember correctly there is something mentioned about that it the documentary,but I forget what exactly.
I know that Vangelis was sending bits of music to the film sets during filming,and Ridley had big speakers blasting the music at the cast during some of the street scenes,along with rain machines.
They would film late into the night doing multiple takes,and by all acounts at the time many if not all on the set got pretty damned pissed off(and wet)-it wasn't a very enjoyable experience for them to be working under Ridley,him being a major perfectionist and slave driver,but the results speak for themselves and everyone who was pissed off at the time now say they are very pleased to have been a part of it.

A few other random facts:

When Deckard is searching Zhora's appartment(the replicant lady with the snake),they shot a fight scene where Deckard inturrupts a replicant cooking in the kitchen ,and ends up getting thrown through a wall-This was cut from the movie,but is redone at the start of BR 2049,when Officer K and Sapper Morton fight in his home.

Bonus fact 1:Zhoras snake was actually the actresses(Joanna Cassidy)own pet snake.

Bonus fact 2:The scale from the snake which Deckard finds in the aprtment gets analysed by the guy with a microscope-what they used for that was apparently a cannabis bud under high magnification(not sure why).

Daryl Hannah(replicant Pris)is seen to bump into a car and fall over during a chase scene-that was not scripted and she actually smashed up her elbow on the real glass window,and still has a scar.

In BR 2049,Jared Leo who played the Niander Wallace character,wore clouded contact lenses throughout his scenes which rendered him truly blind during filming(his character is blind and uses mini drones to "see").

For his first meeting with Ridley Scott,Rutger Hauer turned up in a pink leotard and giant comedy glasses,thankfully Ridley Scott figured out he was just joking around and didn't have him re cast.

The Tyrell Pyramid Building was a model with mega high power lights inside-due to the way the film was shot,by refilming over and over the same bit of film to get the desired effect,the time this took overheated the model and it caught fire,destroying some of it.

The weird shining eyes effect used to show replicants in the movie was first developed by Fritz Lang-who made the classic sci fi film "Metropolis" in 1927-that film also depicts a futuristic city,and a character in that film is a sentient humanoid robot!

a reply to: Silcone Synapse

Thank you very much for the information.