Blade Runner - 1982 Original
02/10/17 Filed in: Amazon rental
We hope to see the new Blade Runner film later this week so yesterday evening we watched the original 1982 movie. Perhaps the most fascinating thing about the original film is that the setting is 2019. The Sci Fi imagination clearly saw a lot more technical progress being achieved in respect of flying cars, while portraying Los Angeles as decayed and dystopian. And it never seems to stop raining.
Harrison Ford plays Rick Deckard, a retired blade runner, a specialist police officer who hunts down replicants. These are bioengineered androids that are confined to off-world colonies, but are unwelcome back on Earth, thus the need for blade runners. Deckard is forced out of retirement to track down four such replicants, these being highly advanced and difficult to distinguish from humans. There is a test that will reveal a replicant, but these advanced models have embedded memories and can be quite difficult to identify. An attempt to do so with one of this group, Leon, ends rather badly for another blade runner.
Deckard visits the Tyrell Corporation, which produces these advanced androids, and he conducts the 'test' on one of the latest Nexus-6 models, Rachael, a stunningly attractive brunette. The test lasts for over 100 questions, whereas it would normally require only around 30. Nexus-6 models are clearly going to be a challenge. Deckard later upsets Rachael when she visits his apartment, where he tells her that her memories aren't real. She is clearly so advanced as to believe herself human, as are the four rogue replicants that Deckard is pursuing.
A bit of detective work leads Deckard to the one of the group, Zhora, whom he identifies and chases, but only after nearly being throttled by her. One down, but Leon is nearby and it's nearly curtains for Deckard, whose friendship with Rachael proves to be his saviour at this point. Two down, and intimacy ensues between the blade runner and the super advanced replicant.
The remaining two rogue replicants, Roy and Pris, are far more of a challenge. They track down Sebastian, a gifted genetic designer who has a hobby making very humanoid toys. Their objective is to get to Eldon Tyrell, head of the Tyrell Corporation, in an attempt to enhance their already impressive humanoid characteristics by extending their lives. This doesn't go well.
The denouement is at Sebastian's apartment, where Deckard initially encounters Pris, played very athletically by Daryl Hannah. That struggle over, he is faced with Roy, and turns out to be no match for him. But it all ends quite poignantly as we see just how human Roy has become.
And what happens to Rachael, in effect the fifth rogue replicant? Well, sometimes rules can be broken.
I didn't quite know what to expect from this film but I had to remind myself at times that it was released in 1982. It has obviously shaped many films that followed it. Although the film has since received somewhat of a cult status, and is regarded as a science fiction classic, at the time reviews were definitely very mixed.
Interestingly, the following trailer refers to six replicants, whereas the plot only features four, or five if you include Rachael.
A bit of detective work leads Deckard to the one of the group, Zhora, whom he identifies and chases, but only after nearly being throttled by her. One down, but Leon is nearby and it's nearly curtains for Deckard, whose friendship with Rachael proves to be his saviour at this point. Two down, and intimacy ensues between the blade runner and the super advanced replicant.
The remaining two rogue replicants, Roy and Pris, are far more of a challenge. They track down Sebastian, a gifted genetic designer who has a hobby making very humanoid toys. Their objective is to get to Eldon Tyrell, head of the Tyrell Corporation, in an attempt to enhance their already impressive humanoid characteristics by extending their lives. This doesn't go well.
The denouement is at Sebastian's apartment, where Deckard initially encounters Pris, played very athletically by Daryl Hannah. That struggle over, he is faced with Roy, and turns out to be no match for him. But it all ends quite poignantly as we see just how human Roy has become.
And what happens to Rachael, in effect the fifth rogue replicant? Well, sometimes rules can be broken.
I didn't quite know what to expect from this film but I had to remind myself at times that it was released in 1982. It has obviously shaped many films that followed it. Although the film has since received somewhat of a cult status, and is regarded as a science fiction classic, at the time reviews were definitely very mixed.
Interestingly, the following trailer refers to six replicants, whereas the plot only features four, or five if you include Rachael.