#74: BLADE RUNNER (1982)

THRILL SCALE 1-10

7

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Yes, once, about 5 years ago

BEST SEQUENCE

When Roy Batty meets his maker, Eldon Tyrell

BEST LINE

"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time... like tears in rain. Time to die."

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

89%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"Misunderstood when it first hit theaters, the influence of Ridley Scott's mysterious, neo-noir Blade Runner has deepened with time. A visually remarkable, achingly human sci-fi masterpiece"

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"A blade runner must pursue and terminate four replicants who stole a ship in space, and have returned to Earth to find their creator."

THOUGHTS

• OK, so I already know I'm going to lose some of you right away, but I just don't love this movie, and honestly, I'm not even entirely sure if I like it. I can appreciate some of the things it does well, some of the things it has to say, but as a movie it just doesn't grab me
• This world of the future is impressively realized, and the special effects are quite good. There are a number of visuals which are truly stunning - the enormous video billboards, the first shots of the city with fire rising into the sky, the blimp which advertises the Off-world colonies. But it's all in service of a story that I just don't find that engaging
• Side note, at this point "world of the future" is a little inaccurate. I regret to inform you that this movie is set in 2019
• Harrison Ford is one of the actors who appears on the AFI list the most, he's tied with Claude Rains for the number one spot, and he's fine in this. This is our first mention of Harrison Ford, but it's certainly not my favourite Harrison Ford performance (we'll be talking about that much later)
• Rutger Hauer's Roy Batty is the most memorable character, and he provides the biggest thrills. His confrontation with Tyrell is chilling, and his pursuit of Deckard during the climax is uniquely creepy and intimidating just in his physicality
• Daryl Hannah, as Pris, not so much. When she leaps on Deckard's shoulders and smacks the shit out of him from above, only to follow this up with a gymnastics attack, I find it very hard to take seriously
• So, who knows. Maybe I just came to this movie too late? Perhaps it would have had more of an impact on me if I'd seen it younger? I do think it's important to mention, there are quite a few different versions of this movie available. I thought I was watching The Final Cut, considered by many to be the quintessential version, but in hindsight and after doing some research, this wasn't The Final Cut and I don't actually know what version I watched. There was no voiceover, which was only present in the earliest versions, but there also wasn't the unicorn scene, which is only present in the later versions. My version also included the "happy ending". I've gone back and found footage of what I missed, and so while I haven't seen The Final Cut from start to finish, I think I got the idea. But perhaps what I really need to see is more of this story...

Up next: We're supplementing the list again, with Blade Runner 2049