| The basic story involves a cop, Rick
Deckhard (Harrison Ford), who is forcibly recalled from retirement
to track down and kill 5 dangerous humanoid replicants. They had
escaped from their outer-world work assignment by hijacking a transport,
heading for earth, making them all outlaws, not only because they
slaughtered everyone who was on board the shuttle, but also because
these types of robots are forbidden to come to earth. As Deckhard
hunts each killer replicant down one by one, things get tough, violent,
and complicated. Bit by bit, Harrison discovers why they came back.
It seems that their main goal is to bully their creator, Mr. Tyrel,
into expanding their 4 year life span. In a secondary plot line,
he falls in love with a replicant (Rachael) who didn't know she
was one until Harrison started his investigation. She was a administrative
assistant to Mr. Tyrel, the president of the company who made all
these renegade robots for use in the outer-worlds.
This unique screenplay, by Hampton Fancher &
David Webb Peoples, was based on the book, "Do Androids Dream
of Electric Sheep?", written by the award - winning Philip
K. Dick. Dick was a well known, gifted science fiction writer,
who finally enjoyed some financial stability from money received
from the producers of Blade Runner, for the book's rights. Unfortunately,
he died at 53, before the movie premiered in 1982.
Fancher and Peoples did a great job adapting
the screenplay for this film. Using a science fiction backdrop,
this screenplay questions each one of us about the meaning of
life, what it means to be human, how much longer do we have to
live, the meaning of death, and what happens afterward, which
is cleverly intermingled with a well-paced, fascinating, intense
story.
The casting and direction was perfectly done. The replicants all
had fascinating qualities, and characteristics.Rutger Hauer played
the very scary, warrior-like, ruthless replicant, Roy Batty, that
was the leader of the motley group of renegade replicants.
Daryl Hannah, Roy's love interest, does a great
job as Priss, pleasure model replicant, who can turn on and off
her pleasant personality to gain advantages with humans, like
protection. Her make-up was a hoot.
Harrison Ford, as Deckhard, does he usual fine
job playing a man sick of his work, stuck with the task of hunting
down and killing these replicants, who falls in love with the
beautiful Rachael, played well by Sean Young.
My favorite scene takes place late in the film.
Following a violent encounter, Ford and Hauer sit on a rooftop,
after Hauer saves Ford at the last minute from falling off the
roof to certain death. Feeling himself weakening, Roy had had
a strong compulsion to save Deckhard's life. As it rains, Hauer
tells Ford some of the things he's done and seen in space, as
if he was trying to share things he had fondly experienced, that
Ford will never experience. The scene is poetic, moving, and memorable.
The film is a classic because it presents the most vivid, fully
realized look at a future society ever put on film. In addition,
the questions it raises about memory, identity, and what it truly
means to be human stay with you long after the film is over.
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BLADE
RUNNER ... THE SCI-FI REVIEW
