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This is it, the best science fiction film ever. Yes, even better than Star Wars. Ridley
Scott takes a regular raincoated-dectective story and blasts it into a neon-lit
megacity setting. Harrison Ford plays the eponymous supercop who wants to retire but is
drawn back in to help track down five Replicants, human-like androids who have escaped their
off-world slave labour life and returned to Earth hoping to seek out extra time on their
built-in limited life spans. In trying to learn about the Replicants he meets Rachael who works
for the Tyrell Corporation, the company that makes the androids, and finds he empathises with
her after she is revealed to be a Replicant following extensive interviewing techniques. A
question as to whether or not Deckard (Ford) himself is a Replicant lingers from here on.
But the chase must go on as Deckard tries to 'retire' the escaped Replicants before they
retire him. Two versions of this excellent film were released. The first, which was the
original cinema release features a Deckard narration describing what it's like to be
a Blade Runner and generally what's going on in the film. The film studio, much to the
disagreement of the director felt that this was necessary to keep the audience up to speed
with the story. Ridley Scott countered with his own 'Director's Cut' which removes the
narration, adds further 'is he or isn't he' conjecture to the 'Deckard as Replicant' angle
and changes the ending leaving the whole story with a 'what happened next' cliffhanger.
Both versions are superb, the musical score from Vangelis is one of the most haunting and
atmospheric ever and now you can try Blade Running yourself if you have a PC and a copy
of the now-at-budget-price
Blade Runner computer game from Westwood Studios.
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Directed by Ridley Scott (1982).