Blade Runner is an American cyberpunk media franchise originating from the 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick, featuring the character of Rick Deckard. The book has been adapted into several media, including films, comics, a stage play, and a radio serial. The first film adaptation was Blade Runner, directed by Ridley Scott in 1982. Although the film initially underperformed at the American box office, it became a cult classic, and has had a significant influence on science fiction. A novelization and a comic adaptation of the film were released in the same year. From 1995 to 2000, three novels serving as sequels to both Blade Runner and the original novel were written by K. W. Jeter, a friend of Dick's. A film sequel to Blade Runner, Blade Runner 2049, was released in 2017. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Blade Runner in 2012, a short film was released, and in the lead up to the release of Blade Runner 2049, several more short films detailing events that occurred between 2019 and 2049 were released. The influence of the franchise has helped spawn the cyberpunk subgenre.
Since 2011, Blade Runner is a franchise owned in all formats of media by Alcon Entertainment.
Fictional universe Replicants
A replicant is a bioengineered or biorobotic android in the Blade Runner franchise. Virtually identical to adult humans, replicants typically have superior strength, agility, and variable intelligence depending on the model. Because of their similarity to humans, a replicant can only be detected by means of the Voight-Kampff test in which emotional responses are provoked; replicants' responses differ from humans' responses. Nexus 6 replicants also have a safety mechanism, namely a four-year lifespan, to prevent them from developing empathic cognition and therefore immunity to a Voight-Kampff machine. Philip K. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, the inspiration for Blade Runner, used the term android (or "andy") rather than "replicant"; Blade Runner director Ridley Scott requested a new, separate term that did not have preconceptions from David Peoples. As Peoples was rewriting the film's screenplay he consulted his daughter, who was then involved in biochemistry and microbiology, who suggested the term "replicating", the biological process of a cell making a copy of itself. From that, either Peoples or his daughter (each would recall later it was the other) coined the term replicant, which was inserted into Hampton Fancher's screenplay.Interview with David Peoples in Sacrificial Sheep: The Novel vs. the Film. Enhancement Archive of Blade Runner Ultimate Collector's Edition
Blade runners In the films and television series, blade runners are plainclothes police officers tasked with hunting and killing replicants. The title character is blade runner Rick Deckard of the Los Angeles Police Department's Replicant Detection Unit. The term comes not from the Philip K. Dick novel but rather a 1979 novella by William S. Burroughs, called Blade Runner (a movie), itself an adaptation of a Burroughs screenplay of the 1974 novel The Bladerunner by Alan E. Nourse. Scott optioned the title from Burroughs after it was suggested by screenwriter Hampton Fancher.
Voight-Kampff machine
The Voight-Kampff machine is a fictional interrogation tool, originating in the 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. The Voight-Kampff is a polygraph-like machine used by blade runners to determine whether or not an individual is a replicant. It measures bodily functions such as blush response, respiration, heart rate and eye movement in response to questions dealing with empathy.Sammon, pp. 106–107 In the film two replicants take the test, Leon and Rachael, and Deckard tells Tyrell that it usually takes 20 to 30 cross-referenced questions to distinguish a replicant; in contrast with the book, where it is stated it only takes "six or seven" questions to make a determination. In Blade Runner, it takes Deckard more than one hundred questions to determine that Rachael is a replicant.
Spinner
Spinner is a nickname given for the type of flying car featured throughout the Blade Runner universe; they are seen in Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2049. The police variant of the vehicle in the original movie features a small "Spinner" logo attached to driver's door between "caution" and Japanese "警察" labels; today the model can be seen in Seattle MoPOP. Since the logo was not clearly visible on low-resolution home-video copies, it was often misspelled as "Skimmer", before high-resolution editions of the movie were released. These vehicles can drive on the ground as a normal car, take off vertically, cruise and hover. Spinners use an unspecified form of jet propulsion, similar to Vertical Take-Off and Landing aircraft. In Blade Runner, they are used extensively by the LAPD to survey the general population, as well as by wealthy entrepreneurs. The Spinner was designed by Syd Mead. The Spinner has been replicated in films such as Back to the Future Part II, The Fifth Element and the Star Wars prequel trilogy.
Background
Interest in adapting Philip K. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? developed shortly after its 1968 publication. Director Martin Scorsese was interested in filming the novel, but never optioned it.Bukatman, p. 13; Sammon, p. 23 Producer Herb Jaffe optioned it in the early 1970s, but Dick was unimpressed with the screenplay written by Herb's son Robert: "Jaffe's screenplay was so terribly done ... Robert flew down to Santa Ana to speak with me about the project. And the first thing I said to him when he got off the plane was, 'Shall I beat you up here at the airport, or shall I beat you up back at my apartment?Dick quoted in Sammon, p. 23
The screenplay by Hampton Fancher was optioned in 1977.Sammon, pp. 23–30 Producer Michael Deeley became interested in Fancher's draft and convinced director Ridley Scott to film it. Scott had previously declined the project, but after leaving the slow production of Dune, wanted a faster-paced project to take his mind off his older brother's death.Sammon, pp. 43–49 He joined the project on February 21, 1980, and managed to push up the promised Filmways financing from US$13 million to $15 million. Fancher's script focused more on environmental issues and less on issues of humanity and religion, which are prominent in the novel and Scott wanted changes. Fancher found a cinema treatment by William S. Burroughs for Alan E. Nourse's novel The Bladerunner (1974), titled Blade Runner (a movie). Scott liked the name, so Deeley obtained the rights to the titles. Eventually he hired David Peoples to rewrite the script and Fancher left the job over the issue on December 21, 1980, although he later returned to contribute additional rewrites.Sammon, pp. 49–63
Having invested over $2.5 million in pre-production,Sammon, p. 49 as the date of commencement of principal photography neared, Filmways withdrew financial backing. In ten days Deeley had secured $21.5 million in financing through a three-way deal between The Ladd Company (through Warner Bros.), the Hong Kong-based producer Sir Run Run Shaw and Tandem Productions.Bukatman, pp. 18–19; Sammon, pp. 64–67
Philip K. Dick became concerned that no one had informed him about the film's production, which added to his distrust of Hollywood.Sammon, pp. 63–64 After Dick criticized an early version of Hampton Fancher's script in an article written for the Los Angeles Select TV Guide, the studio sent Dick the David Peoples rewrite.Sammon, pp. 67–69 Although Dick died shortly before the film's release, he was pleased with the rewritten script and with a 20-minute special effects test reel that was screened for him when he was invited to the studio. Despite his well-known skepticism of Hollywood in principle, Dick enthused to Ridley Scott that the world created for the film looked exactly as he had imagined it.Sammon, p. 284 He said, "I saw a segment of Douglas Trumbull's special effects for Blade Runner on the KNBC-TV news. I recognized it immediately. It was my own interior world. They caught it perfectly." He also approved of the film's script, saying, "After I finished reading the screenplay, I got the novel out and looked through it. The two reinforce each other, so that someone who started with the novel would enjoy the movie and someone who started with the movie would enjoy the novel." The motion picture was dedicated to Dick.Blade Runner film, dedication after credits, 1:51:30 Principal photography of Blade Runner began on March 9, 1981, and ended four months later.Sammon, p. 98
In 1992, Harrison Ford revealed, "Blade Runner is not one of my favorite films. I tangled with Ridley."Sammon, p. 211 Apart from friction with the director, Ford also disliked the voiceovers: "When we started shooting it had been tacitly agreed that the version of the film that we had agreed upon was the version without voiceover narration. It was a nightmare. I thought that the film had worked without the narration. But now I was stuck re-creating that narration. And I was obliged to do the voiceovers for people that did not represent the director's interests." "I went kicking and screaming to the studio to record it."Sammon, p. 296 The narration monologues were written by an uncredited Roland Kibbee.
In 2006, Scott was asked "Who's the biggest pain in the arse you've ever worked with?", he replied: "It's got to be Harrison ... he'll forgive me because now I get on with him. Now he's become charming. But he knows a lot, that's the problem. When we worked together it was my first film up and I was the new kid on the block. But we made a good movie." Ford said of Scott in 2000: "I admire his work. We had a bad patch there, and I'm over it." In 2006 Ford reflected on the production of the film saying: "What I remember more than anything else when I see Blade Runner is not the 50 nights of shooting in the rain, but the voiceover ... I was still obliged to work for these clowns that came in writing one bad voiceover after another." Ridley Scott confirmed in the summer 2007 issue of Total Film that Harrison Ford contributed to the Blade Runner Special Edition DVD, and had already recorded his interviews. "Harrison's fully on board", said Scott.
The Bradbury Building in downtown Los Angeles served as a filming location, and a Warner Bros. backlot housed the LA 2019 streets. Other locations included the Ennis-Brown House and the 2nd Street Tunnel. Test screenings resulted in several changes including adding a voice-over, a happy ending and the removal of a Holden hospital scene. The relationship between the filmmakers and the investors was difficult, which culminated in Deeley and Scott being fired but still working on the film. Crew members created T-shirts during filming saying, "Yes Guv'nor, My Ass" that mocked Scott's unfavorable comparison of U.S. and British crews; Scott responded with a T-shirt of his own, "Xenophobia Sucks" making the incident known as the T-shirt war.Sammon, p. 218
In June 2009, The New York Times reported that Scott and his brother, director Tony Scott, were working on a series of 5–10 minute shorts, Purefold, inspired by Blade Runner and aimed first at the web and then perhaps television. Due to rights problems, the series was not to be linked too closely to the characters or events of the 1982 film. On February 7, 2010, it was announced that production on Purefold had ceased, due to funding problems.
On March 3, 2011, it was reported that Alcon Entertainment, a production company financed by Warner Bros., was "in final discussions to secure film, television and ancillary franchise rights to produce prequels and sequels to the iconic 1982 science-fiction thriller Blade Runner." It was also reported that month that Christopher Nolan was desired as director.