The Dark Vision of 'Blade Runner' Is Clearer Than Ever in 'Final Cut'; A Bleak Future Worth Going Back To

I have heard Harrison Ford hated the movie.

From what I've heard, he was uncomfortable on the set because of Scott's training of Sean Young on set (and the two apparently had little to no chemistry on-set) and hated the editing they had to do to make the movie "work" for the studio (there's the legend that he intentionally tried to suck as much as humanly possible on the voice-overs so that the studios might change their mind), but I don't remember him saying that he "hated" the movie.

OK, now that is a sad prospect. Remaking The Man Who Fell to Earth without David Bowie is like making a day without sunshine.

Does Brazil count as sci-fi?

I wouldn't see why not. IMHO the problem with the whole genre began with Star Wars and Lucas's special effects which gussied up what is essentially a comic book script and story line and reached its apex with Cameron's Terminator series. The beauty of Blade Runner and the aforementioned Man Who Fell to Earth is that they speak to the human condition generally regardless of their particular setting. And this is what made the original Star Trek so good too and one I forgot to mention, Gattaca.

Bang on, Bill. You've neatly captured what I consider to be the difference between real sci fi today (eg, Solaris) and shoot-em up action films that happen to be set in space (Total Recall).

I woulda taken a whole article to do that, curse you....

Bill: I agree that Gattaca is frickin' awesome.

Synthesis: I would say that Total Recall is a little more than your basic shoot-em up. The plot had a lot to do with dreams and fantasies--you can look at it either as reality or a dream. Granted, it's more than likely not as intelligent as the aforementioned Solaris, but I think there's some meaty story in there too.

Brazil is twisted. Terry Gilliam's other sci-fi piece, Twelve Monkeys, is also quite good...

Both movies express a profound sadness about the human condition. Time has, so far, been nicer to Brazil than 12 Monkeys. Brazil displays an eerie resemblance to current reality. Even if Brad Pitt delivers one of his best performances ever, the plot of 12 Monkeys revolves around a premise that seems to be mostly a characteristic of the 90s. Yet, eco-terrorism might flare up and make it relevant again. Let's hope it is just in the projections of the Feds.

Yes, but it's not really about eco-terrorism. It's more a commentary on our inability to change the fate of the world, regardless of our intentions. Very dark.

But there is one new scene in the Final Cut that proves Deckard is a replicant. It is not the famous unicorn scene. That scene, first inserted in the Director's Cut, is indeed reshot and greatly improved in the Final Cut. What's telling in the new film is a new shot of Deckard staring in amazement at his broken fingers after using them to cling to a wet girder while climbing the Bradbury building. This is clearly Deckard realizing for the first time that he is a replicant.

Wow! Thanks, Peter, you just blew my mind. This is my favorite sci fi film (as I repeat below), and I've seen it a couple of dozen times (if not nearly as many as you), but and you just pointed out a detail whose significance I never picked up on.

Cool! (and BTW...my 'sushi/cold fish' comment in #8 below is only one of the references in the film that I did take to mean that Deckard was a replicant. Another is Rachael's pointed jab to Deckard when she asks him if he ever passed one of those tests.)

SERIOUS SPOILERS below - I mean even if you've watched the film many times - SPOILERS.

how do they reshoot a movie scene so many years after the fact?

The unicorn was an isolated dream sequence with none of the principals in shot. There is another reshot sequence - Zhora's death scene - where an obvious stunt double detracted. This was reshot with the original actress, Joanna Cassidy, 25 years after the rest of the film. It's still not right - despite amazing physical conditioning there's no question Cassidy is older. Still an improvement.

More problematic is the rewriting of one line of dialog. Batty's

I want more life ... @!$%#er.

has been overdubbed

I want more life ... father.

This may not grate on the nerves of new viewers, but fans find it very, very annoying. The only justification I can think of is the possibility of a sequel in which Tyrell also turns out to be a replicant. Scenes of a Tyrell replicant were in the screenplay ... unknown whether any were shot ...

Another is Rachel's pointed jab to Deckard when she asks him if he ever passed one of those tests.

And then there's the red eyes. All replicants got 'em. Even the "expensive" owl. Ever ask yourself why it was expensive?

But if you really want your mind blown check out the cut-scene where Deckard is interviewing Rachel with the VK machine. There is some echoing background dialog. It has the effect of indicating to the viewer that time has passed and several questions have been asked that we're not privy to.

Listen carefully to the echoing background and you'll find it's lifted from the question Deckard asks when he's interviewing Rachel in his apartment later on:

orange body, green legs ...

You've watched the film dozens of times and I'll bet you never noticed that. It's a test designed to evoke an emotional response ...

Peter, I love your analysis. I have a question though:

implanted with the memories of an implacable, sociopathic killer,

Where is it said that he has implanted memories of a killer?

Well, actions speak louder than words ...

There's a more than superficial resemblance between Deckard and Holden, the Blade Runner we see at the start of the film, and I feel this strongly implies the source of Deckard's implants. The textual prologue of the film sets us up to dehumanize the replicants ourselves:

This was not called execution. It was called retirement.

Most viewers, Hunter included, leave the cinema believing that. But if it's not true then Holden is a sociopathic killer.

Peter Merel,

You are quite possibly the only person I have met who can offer a more intricate analysis of Blade Runner than me. Seeing this, I have a question:

What do you make of the faded black and white family photos that Deckard keeps in his apartment. The film is set in Los Angeles, 2019, and Deckard is a middle age man. Unless he keeps rigorous track of his ancestry, the photos of his dear family would have been artificially aged. Simulacrum is a theme in the movie, of course, but what justifies that Deckard would think this peculiar fashion is normal? - unless it is somehow indicated elsewhere that retro is highest fashion among the sad remnants of human population on Earth.

Another question: European movie analysts, academics, often discuss the "rape scene" where Deckard instructs Rachel to act in a sexually enticing/emoting fashion. I have heard it called "the infamous rape scene", but always thought it was a comment on how adolescents explore their rudimentary sexuality, leading to some kind of emotional attachment - as indicated by the scene where Deckard lowers his gun (arguably a post-coital fallic symbolism - it is no longer just sex, but love). I sometimes have Ridley Scott pegged as a feminist (Ripley in Aliens, GI Jane), but I do not know where to place the disturbing "love scene".

More problematic is the rewriting of one line of dialog. Batty's

I want more life ... @!$%#er.

has been overdubbed

I want more life ... father.

This may not grate on the nerves of new viewers, but fans find it very, very annoying.

It's wrong, just wrong - the overdubbing, that is. "@!$%#er" is not just an obscenity, but a profiling of Tyrell and humans in general, their lack of humanity (empathy) as well as their sexuality.

Jared Kardos:

Where is it said that he has implanted memories of a killer?

It's implicit in the initial scenes that establish character that a part of his personal history is that he has served as a chief executioner before ("one man slaughterhouse", "I need your magic"), but you are right - it could be actual "retirements" and not implanted ones.

Hi Claus,

Thanks for the kind words. There are many folk who know a lot more about the film than I do. I haven't even seen a copy of the Ultimate Collector's Edition material ... yet. I'll admit that somewhere I have tucked away the original bootleg soundtrack CD from back when Vangelis wouldn't let them publish the soundtrack for real. On the liner notes it reads "replication strictly prohibited" - cute.

I assume Deckard/Holden collected the photos from replicants he retired. Nexus 6's implanted memories were to correct

a strange obsession

I take the strange obsession to imply some kind of pack-rat behaviour in previous Nexus generations. Note that Deckard (minus voice over) appears to actively look for Leon's photos. He has a purpose built image enhancer in his home office for analyzing them. And he keeps Rachel's phony photo with the others - so he's unlikely to think of these as his own family.

I think he thinks of them as part of his job. Or maybe as mementos of his victims.

I don't feel the Deckard/Rachel sex scene is intended to portray a rape, but a necessary power exchange. Rachel initiates physical contact at the piano but then backs off. Deckard requires her to speak what she wants, and she does - she doesn't just repeat his words. Power exchange is a necessary element in sex of all sorts - though certainly here it's clumsy and brutal,

... emotionally inexperienced

If this scene is rape then I feel it's implausible that Deckard and Rachel would speak of love and trust later. Then again you could just interpret this as Rachel having no choice - facing certain death without Deckard's protection. That doesn't ring true to me, but everyone is different.

Deckard lowering his gun - he's still primed with blade running implants. He's not going to kill Rachel, but it's there - the blade runner is still in him.

And as a final note, is Joanna Cassidy hot or what!!! I'd give her my serpent day, night or whenever!!

"replication strictly prohibited" - cute.

Ha ha... good observation.

As for your "strange obsession" analysis I have to give you (more) credit: Wow. You are better than I thought. It never even struck me, this explanation, but now that you lay it out, I can see you are right: It is collector's items, as well as a part of his (slightly ritualistic) investigation process (I usually refer to the mystical sequence where he goes through the photo in the computer as "the divination scene", as I see it as another hint that Deckard has superhuman intuition).

Deckard requires her to speak what she wants, and she does - she doesn't just repeat his words.

Good point. I noticed that too.

Power exchange is a necessary element in sex of all sorts - though certainly here it's clumsy and brutal,

Responses vary. Some of the post-modern feminist deconstructionists who have put BR through their image enhancer were appalled by the scene, dubbing it "rape" and "exploitation", while some young people on YouTube commenting on it in a homemade music video confessed that they got turned on by it. It doesn't have any of those effects on me: I simply think it is one of the most original and emotionally charged love scenes in movie history.

Thanks for responding. Your kung fu is very good. Have you ever taken the Voigt-Kampff test yourself?

Yep. Says I'm a lesbian.

Here's a leading question for you, Claus: What is the significance of the chess metaphor in BR?

@Bill, you'd be surprised what a guy would go through to get a glimpse of a beautiful body.

Here's a leading question for you, Claus: What is the significance of the chess metaphor in BR?

Hmmm... BBC has this:

Blade Runner features a game based on Anderssen against Kieseritzky in London in 1851, known to some as the Immortal Game, and 1925's Chess Fever which featured Cuban world champion Jose Raul Capablanca playing a champion.

Google search Immortal Game:

The immortal game was a chess game played on 21 June 1851 by Adolf Anderssen and Lionel Kieseritzky. The very bold sacrifices made by Anderssen to finally secure victory have made it one of the most famous chess games of all time. He gives up both rooks and then his queen, checkmating his opponent with his three remaining minor pieces. It has been called an achievement "perhaps unparalleled in chess literature."[1]

Enhance footnote Themes in Blade Runner:

It is one of the most literate science fiction films, both thematically — enfolding the philosophy of religion and moral implications of the increasing human mastery of genetic engineering, within the context of classical Greek drama and its notions of hubris[3] — and linguistically, drawing on the poetry of William Blake and the Bible. This is a theme subtly reiterated by the chess game between J. F. Sebastian and Tyrell based on the famous Immortal Game of 1851 symbolizing the struggle against mortality imposed by God.[4][5] (The king and queen are interposed on Tyrell's side, a position which a grandmaster would never attempt).

"Look at you, you're the prodigal son, you're quite a prize"

Chess is, of course, an appropriate metaphor, considering Deep Blue and the

moral implications of the increasing human mastery of genetic engineering

and even the term "Immortal Game" fits very well to the overarching theme: Longevity.

"We're no computers, Sebastian. We're physical"

Good one, Peter. Nice game.

Yes, but I mean this question more at the level of plot. Deckard and Rachel as black king and queen, Batty and Pris as white king and queen - or should Tyrell be the white queen? What's the best way to map the film onto the Immortal Game for it to be meaningful and then how does the game reflect on the film?

I have a sneaking suspicion there is and can be no such mapping. The chess boards in the film, after all, match neither themselves nor the Immortal game. But I wonder if you may have come across a deeper analysis in your travels. Since I'm not a chess afficionado I'm reluctant to perform one myself if there's already one out there.

I agree, I have enjoyed all the different cuts. Enough so that I have my older children hooked on it also.

Scott, if it helps, I'm sure your original vision is very noir as well....

I dream in black and white when I dream with visions at all. More often i dream in script form. If that isn't noir I don't know what is.

I bet you have seen things us people wouldn't believe...

Well at least it's not @!$%#ing unicorns!

Or, at worst, literally @!$%#ing unicorns.

I keep a bottle of Ubik handy in case of nightmares. Use only as directed.