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Blade Runner (1982)
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Mon May 25, 2015 9:34 pm    Post subject: Blade Runner (1982) Reply with quote



Everybody knows what this movie is about, so I'll kick off this discussion with my take on the controversial theory concerning whether or not Deckard (Harrison Ford) is actually a replicant himself and doesn't know it.

The film (all seven versions) provides no definitive answer to this question — and the film makers themselves are actually divided on the subject!

The Wikipedia article says this:

Both Michael Deeley (the producer) and Harrison Ford (the star) wanted Deckard to be human, while Hampton Fancher (the screenwriter) preferred ambiguity. Ridley Scott has confirmed that in his vision, Deckard is a replicant.

The first time I read what Scott stated I thought the idea was silly!

But after a bit more thought I realized it would make the story much more interesting. And the movie sets up the idea perfectly.

Consider this.

Dr. Eldon Tyrell made Rachael just as real as possible to see if he could create a perfect artificial human — right down to her implanted memories so that even she believed she was real.

So, Tyrell went a step farther; he created a replicant of a living Blade Runner (the real Deckard), a man who hunted down replicants while having no clue he was one himself.

When I first pondered this question I realized we were supposed to be fooled by the fact that Deckard's former superior makes reference to having known him for years — thereby proving to us that Deckard was human.

And Deckard most certainly was human. . . until he was killed and secretly replaced by Dr. Tyrell with the replicant-Deckard for his experiment. Human-Deckard's memories were implanted in replicant-Deckard's head before he was sent out to unwittingly prove that replicants were perfect artificial humans.

What are your thoughts on this, folks?

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~ The Space Children (1958)


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Pye-Rate
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 09, 2016 3:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

_________________________________

__________ Blade Runner Trailer - Classic Noir


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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 09, 2016 4:16 am    Post subject: Re: Blade Runner (1982) Reply with quote

Bud Brewster wrote:
And Deckard most certainly was human. . . until he was killed and secretly replaced by Dr. Tyrell with the replicant-Deckard for his experiment.

What are your thoughts on this, folks?

"I woke up one morning and all of my stuff had been stolen... and replaced by exact duplicates."
─ Stephen Wright

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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 09, 2016 10:36 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Frankly I wasn't over impressed with this movie when I first saw it.

Oh sure, it has a lot visually impressive scenes, and the music is lovely — but story-wise it just seemed grim and pessimistic simply because it was fashionable to show that people are rotten and mankind is headed towards a future which really sucks.

But when I realized that Deckard was a replicant, his character sudden became much more interesting, and the story has an unexpected depth. It even has an element of hope that it wouldn't have without that brilliant and important element.

Here's why.

If mankind is headed toward a grim future, and if people are essential rotten, then Tyrell's perverted experiment might be a good thing that came out of an evil act. The inhumane and immoral Tyrell created two very humane and moral "humans" who surpassed their creator in all the ways that count.

If Blade Runner is just a story about how low the human race has sunk, I'm not really interested in it. But if it's about a miraculous and unexpected twist that actually spawns a better version of mankind than mankind himself . . . and that's a story worthy of my time and attention.

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 09, 2016 2:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

But would the experiment be repeatable? It seems like all the essential personnel on the project were eliminated. Is it now up to just Deckard and Rachael to multiply like rabbits?
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 09, 2016 7:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

orzel-w wrote:
But would the experiment be repeatable? It seems like all the essential personnel on the project were eliminated. Is it now up to just Deckard and Rachael to multiply like rabbits?

Since the point of experiment was to create artificial humans that were as good as real humans, the success of the experiment would be determined by their ability to reproduce.

Therefore, yes. Deckard and Rachel would be expected to do the "jungle rumble" and make fake babies.
Very Happy
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 29, 2018 11:09 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

I posted a fan-made trailer for The Last Starfighter (1984) on the thread for that movie, and the trailer had this amusing message at the beginning.






I wondered just how true the claim at the bottom was, so I made a list of 1980s science fiction films that I thought were good, just to see if that decade really did produce a significant number of “the best” sci-fi movies.

This movie is on the list I made. I know what I like about the film (and a few things I don’t like), but I’d like to hear the pros and cons from the rest of you folks.

So, what do you think, guys? Cool

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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mach7
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PostPosted: Tue May 29, 2018 9:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bud, like you I was not impressed with this film when it came out. I waited 10-15 years to watch it again. For whatever reason it really made me think.

I've watched it many times since and it gets better each time. This is one of the few films where the movie is better than the book, by a long shot.

I've heard all the theories about Deckard being a replicant. The movie is vague, purposely and rightly so.

I wasn't convinced.

The visual imagery and story are amazing. Rutger Haure is inspired, when I first saw it I thought the Daryl Hannah was the weak link. Boy was I wrong!

I've now seen Blade Runner 2049, and I'm somewhat disappointed that they answered the question.

BTW, while I liked 2049, I didn't love it. I'll wait a while and rewatch it.
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Bogmeister
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 24, 2019 4:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

____________
_____________

___________________ Blade Runner (1982)


__________


Blade Runner was Ridley Scott's follow-up to Alien (79). In the previous film, the focus was on the alien monster, with the futuristic backdrop mostly peripheral.

Here, the future is presented in all its splendor — it becomes more about the vast architecture and sets than anything else, including the characters. The character who comes off best is lead Replicant Roy Batty (goofy name), played by Rutger Hauer. This was a breakthrough role for the actor and he dominates much of the film, including the efforts of Harrison Ford as the main lead, detective Deckard.

Based on Phillip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, the near-future of 2019 L.A. forms the backdrop for the tale of a group of Replicants — artificial humans or androids — who have gone rogue after serving as mankind's soldiers in outer space somewhere.


______________ Blade Runner - Opening Scene


__________



___________________

2019 seemed like a long way off when this was first released but is now just around the corner. Hence the futuristic scenario here does not look feasible now. Maybe in year 2059.

Everything in the film — the plot, the characters, the themes — seems subordinate to the visual presentation of this vast city, whether these are all governed by the wet weather or the smokey atmosphere, or by the baroque architecture and retro interiors.

I got bored when I first watched this in a theater back in '82, but later I could relax with the images, especially with great DVD quality, and just drink in all the ambiance and tone of the piece. Though the visuals drown out some of the character work, this doesn't mean that these are poor performances; on the contrary, most of the supporting roles are very well done.




Morgan Paull has a brief role at the start, sort of like Deckard's predecessor; he's very compelling. Other Replicants are played by Darryl Hannah (early role), Brion James and Joanna Cassidy — all excellent. Then there's the sad William Sanderson, who manages some pathos.

Edward James Olmos is always intense, here in the small role of another cop. The ever-reliable M.Emmet Walsh is the head of police and sends Deckard after the Replicants. And Joe Turkel is the corporation head who developed those troublesome Replicants.

The powerful theme involves artificial beings seeking out their creator for answers and salvation, but it's predictably downbeat — these creations aren't much different from humanity, just more durable (yet, with severely limited lifespans). The disturbing element involves the lack of difference between them and us; it might remind us that we are not, after all, divine.



This film has gained quite a reputation in science fiction circles — and it's sometimes rated #1 on lists — but it's a bit over-rated. The pace is very slow in parts and some tantalizing questions are never addressed, such as why some Replicants rebel and others do not.

Why, for example, is Batty a leader and more evolved than most other Replicants? No one, including their creator, muses on this at any time.

There exist at least 3 different versions of this film — one might be with Deckard's narration, another may not. The big question which materialized over time in the various versions is whether Deckard himself is a Replicant. Director Scott himself has pushed forward this possibility, but this premise does not advance or improve on the story at all.



Blade Trivia: Though highly-regarded now, this was one of Harrison Ford's lowest grossing films

The year before, '81, Raiders of the Lost Ark grossed $248 million; the year after Blade Runner, the final Star Wars film, Return of the Jedi, grossed $309 million. Blade Runner grossed only $33 million at the time of its original run.

BoG's Score: 8 out of 10






BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus


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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 24, 2019 5:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bogmeister wrote:
There exist at least 3 different versions of this film — one might be with Deckard's narration, another may not. The big question which materialized over time in the various versions is whether Deckard himself is a Replicant. Director Scott himself has pushed forward this possibility, but this premise does not advance or improve on the story at all.

I submit that Andrew was dead wrong to think that the additional plot element concerning Deckard's true nature as a replicant (without knowing it) would "not advance or improve on the story at all."

What it would do is super-charge a story that (to me, at least) is easy to describe in eight words. "Replicants rebel, cop hunts them down . . . The End." Rolling Eyes

However, the idea that Dr. Eldon Tyrell wanted to find out if he could make a replicant who could pass completely as a human is very interesting.

The story SHOULD have been about how Tyrell made a replicant which was a copy of an actual Blade Runner and then disposed of the original. Tyrell gave the "replicant Deckard" artificial memories, then sent him out completely unaware that he was not the real Deckard . . . a Blade Runner who continued to hunt down replicants when they rebelled. Shocked

It would be the ultimate test of Tyrell's creation. Even the "replicant hunter" doesn't realize he's a replicant!

When he meets Rachael, he determines she's a replicant, and he develops feelings for her. Near the end, when he finds our HE'S a replicant too, he runs off with Rachael, and they speculate about the possibility that Tyrell even made them both capable of reproducing!

Now THAT'S a good story! And think of the sequels! Very Happy

Rise of the Replicants

War of the Replicants

Planet of the Replicants!

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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ralfy
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 26, 2020 8:22 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm re-watching it right now. I had to pause and mention that I completely forgot the point that it's set in LA in November, 2019.

"Blade Runner was set in November, 2019. Here's what it and other movies got right and wrong about the 'future'"

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-01/blade-runner-is-set-today-the-future-is-now/11504502
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 06, 2020 11:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Thinking Outside the "Plot"!
________________________________

As I've stated in other posts, the version of Blade Runner that appeals to me the most (even though it's not what Phillip K. Dick and screenplay writers Hampton Fancher and David Webb Peoples had in mind) is one which has Dr. Eldon Tyrell create Deckard as a test to see if he could make a replicant so much indistinguishable from humans that even HE would know it.

So, the real Deckard was killed, the replicant Deckard was given false memories, and he unknowingly assumed the identity of the actual man.

That was just a review. Here's a new idea.

~ A Question for the Members: After Rachael and Deckard go off together, both knowing they're replicants, is it possible they would decide to somehow create replicants of themselves which would remain in suspended animation and someday assume their identities — thus extending their lifespans in a way?

~ My Theory: Remember Roy Batty's dying words about how it was tragic for all his memories and experiences to be lost at the moment of his death? That was an important point in the movie.

Since my pet version of the premise has both Deckard and Rachael reconciled to being replicants with false memories of their "childhoods" and real memories from their adult experiences, I think they might want to artificially continue their "life journeys" by preserving their personalities and character traits, along with their own treasured memories in the new versions of themselves.

Whether they would want the duplicates to know they were both Version 2.0 is another question to ponder.


_______________ Blade Runner - Final scene


_________

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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ralfy
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 12, 2020 2:33 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

They can theorize about the idea of copying not just memories but one's consciousness.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sun Aug 16, 2020 11:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

ralfy wrote:
They can theorize about the idea of copying not just memories but one's consciousness.

Interesting comment, Ralfy!

My first thought was, "What IS a person's consciousness?" Shocked

The Oxford dictionary has two distinct definitions of "consciousness".
________________________________

1. the awareness or perception of something by a person.
"her acute consciousness of Mike's presence"

2. the fact of awareness by the mind of itself and the world.
"consciousness emerges from the operations of the brain."

________________________________

The second definition is the one we're discussing here.

I'm not clear on how the consciousness of one person could be "copied" from an individual and transferred to another — either in a real human or a replicant.

Consciousness is determined by a person's neurological abilities — like "intelligence" or "artistic talent". It's not the person's overall identify — such as his character (good or bad. moral or immoral, brave or cowardly).

Consciousness is achieved by an individual through their possession the complex neurological structures in their brain — the ones needed for a person to have the abilities I named above.

A prefect "replicant" of me would need a physical brain which has all my strengths and all my weaknesses — all my talents and shortcoming, all my healthy neurological regions and all my defective ones, all my neurons which have survived to the ripe old age of 73 . . . and all the ones that have died off or been destroyed by the alcohol I've consumed. Rolling Eyes

Once a perfect replicant of me has been created, the brain of Bud Brewster 2.0 could then be uploaded with all my memories.

Think of the replicant's physical brain as a computer's hardware. The memories of the person he becomes are the brain's software.

The result would be a replicant who is absolutely indistinguishable from the beloved site administrator of All Sci-Fi. Wink

In fact, such a replicant might have just finished typing this entire message — complete with all of "Bud's" typical typos! Sad

After all, how would anyone know for sure! Cool

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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PostPosted: Fri Dec 18, 2020 1:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

IMDB has 290 trivia items for this production! I picked the ones below from the first 40. I'll add more in a week or so. Hopefully you guys will have plenty to say about the movie, inspired by all the info below. Very Happy
________________________________

~ Director Ridley Scott and director of photography Jordan Cronenweth achieved the famous "shining eyes" effect by using a technique invented by Fritz Lang known as the "Schüfftan Process": light is bounced into the actors' and actresses' eyes off of a piece of half mirrored glass mounted at a forty-five-degree angle to the camera.

Note from me: I'm not sure what "shining eyes" the item above is referring to. Can anybody help me out?

~ According to Rutger Hauer's biography, the final confrontation between Rick Deckard and Roy Batty was to have been a fight in an old gym, using martial arts like kung-fu or something similar. Hauer disliked the idea, saying it was "too Bruce Lee" (he didn't know kung-fu anyway) and claims to have come up with the idea of Batty chasing Deckard.

Note from me: Rutger might not know kung-fu, but he was sure quick on his feet when he came up with a way to get out of the fight in the gym! Laughing

~ Rutger Hauer came up with many inventive ideas for his characterization, like the moment where he grabs and fondles a dove. He also improvised the now-iconic line "All those moments will be lost in time... like tears in rain". He later chose "All those moments" as the title of his autobiography.

Note from me: Mr. Hauer wasn't just a pretty face! He apparently had the soul of poet as well. Very Happy

~ The novel hints at the "Is Deckard a Replicant?" problem by having Deckard casually mention that one indicator of an android is a lack of sympathy for other androids. His interlocutor then points out that, given his job, this means that Deckard could be one too.

Note from me: Check the first post in this thread for my comment on why it makes the story much more interesting if Deckard is a replicant. The theory I like is that Dr. Elden Tyrell wanted to prove his creations were so close being human he could make one that fooled everybody — even the replicant!

~ Although Philip K. Dick saw only the opening 20 minutes of footage prior to his death on March 2, 1982, he was extremely impressed, and has been quoted by Paul Sammon as saying, "It was my own interior world. They caught it perfectly."

However, neither director Ridley Scott nor screenwriter David Webb Peoples had actually read Dick's novel; only original screenwriter Hampton Fancher had.

Upon re-writing the script, Peoples had actually asked Scott if he should read the book, but Scott told him "don't bother", since the spirit of the book was already in Fancher's original draft. As of 2020, Peoples still hadn't read it.


Note from me: First of all, why did Philip K. Dick only see the first twenty minutes? Second, I'm amazed that the visual look of the movie was so accurate to Phillip's vision, since the only person involved in the production who actually read the book was the writer of the original script — not anyone connected with the production design!

Screenplays include very few descriptions of a production's visual. What little they do include tends to be very general.

~ The term "replicants" is used nowhere in Philip K. Dick's writing. The creatures in the source novel are called "androids" or "andies".

The movie abandoned these terms, fearing they would sound comical spoken on-screen. "Replicants" came from screenwriter David Webb Peoples' daughter, Risa, who was studying microbiology and biochemistry. She introduced her father to the theory of replication — the process whereby cells are duplicated for cloning purposes.


Note from me: "Replicants" was a wise choice.

"Androids" is certainly a well-worn term, and "andies" doesn't work for several reasons; it's sounds like the mountain range as well as the plural form of two guys named Andy! Laughing

~ At some point of this movie, each replicant has a red brightness in his or her eyes.

It is most prominently seen in the replicant owl at Dr. Elden Tyrell's office. Leon Kowalski has the red glow during his Voight-Kampff test, like Rachael during her test. Rachael also has the glow in Rick Deckard's home, and Pris in J.F. Sebastian's home.

Zhora has the glow while in the club, and Roy Batty has the glow several times, most prominently while killing Tyrell.
Deckard also has the shining in his eyes while talking to Rachael in his house.

In July 2000, Director Ridley Scott confirmed that Deckard is, in fact, a replicant. Harrison Ford takes issue with this, however. "We had agreed that he definitely was not a replicant", Ford said.

In his autobiography, Rutger Hauer expressed some disappointment with Scott's revelation, because he felt that it reduced the final clash between Deckard and Batty from a symbolic "man vs. machine" battle to two replicants fighting.


Note from me: So THAT was the "shining eyes" I was puzzled about earlier! And it's yet another bit of evidence that Deckard is a replicant.

I can understand Rutger Haur's objection to making Deckard a replicant. But one element of the climactic scene was to show that Roy envied Deckard for not having a short lifespan like Roy did. And that's still true if Deckard is a completely human-like replicant who may in fact live longer than normal humans!

This next item is well-worth reading, and it certainly reflects my own revulsion towards the Nazis. Sad

~ Philip K. Dick first came up with the idea for his novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" in 1962, when researching "The Man in the High Castle", which deals with the Nazis conquering the planet in the 1940s.

Dick had been granted access to archived World War II Gestapo documents in the University of California at Berkley, and had come across diaries written by S.S. men stationed in Poland, which he found almost unreadable in their casual cruelty and lack of human empathy.

One sentence in particular troubled him: "We are kept awake at night by the cries of starving children."

Dick was so horrified by this sentence that he reasoned there was obviously something wrong with the man who wrote it. This led him to hypothesize that Nazism in general was a defective group mind, a mind so emotionally flawed that the word human could not be applied to them.

Their lack of empathy was so pronounced that Dick reasoned they couldn't be referred to as human beings, even though their outward appearance seemed to indicate that they were human. The novel sprang from this. And, interestingly enough, it is now thought that some people are "Occupational Psychopaths" due to low-functioning amygdala, the fear centers of the brain's limbic system.


Note from me: It's bad enough that individuals have this defect, but the fact that large groups of them have banded together through history and inflicted their cruelty on the human race is absolutely tragic.

~ The studio wasn't happy with the original final ending where Rick Deckard is looking at the piece of origami, and leaves his building with Rachael. The ending of the U.S. theatrical cut, with Deckard's voice-over about Rachael, used left-over helicopter footage from the opening scene of The Shining (1980).

Note from me: I actually prefer the ending with the voice over. Deckard speculates about Rachael's lifespan, and we wonder if two replicants who were designed to be completely human might be able have offspring.

Here's a nice video that examines this debate.


_________ The Ending Of Blade Runner Explained


__________

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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