Tales of a Blade Runner

                     by Richard Hewison

I was going to write this article in the usual fashion, explaining
the history of the film, how it flopped at the box office and how
it has since become a cult science fiction classic. Instead, I
thought I'd approach it differently. Anyone who's reading this is
bound to know the movie already, so I thought I would present some
little known facts about the film and how it was made. Along the
way, a number of myths about Blade Runner will be exposed...
(Sources for this article include interviews made with the
Director and Harrison Ford (both when the movie was released and
more recently) that were published in U.K and U.S magazines and
books.  The BBC Omnibus special from 1992 was also invaluable).

(1) The idea of the Harrison Ford voice-over present in the
original release of the movie wasn't done against the Director's
wishes. The voice-over was in the original screenplay. However,
there was much less of it in the original preview screening of the
film. What Ridley Scott wasn't happy about was the additional
voice-over segments that were liberally added throughout the film.
(It's interesting to note that the Director's Cut now available on
video doesn't have any voice-over at all, yet the original cut of
the movie did include a few, notably a comment at the end
regarding watching Roy Batty die which differed from the one used
in the actual theatrical release).

(2) Blade Runner cost $25 million but it only earned $14 million
in the U.S. Its failure was blamed on the staggering success of
Steven Spielberg's E.T that Summer, which also destroyed any hopes
that John Carpenter's The Thing had of making any money.
Interestingly, none of Ridley Scott's movies have made big profits
despite his high profile as a Director - not even Alien (which
made a lot of money but Fox stated it hadn't made a big profit...)

(3) In the original novel (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?)
the replicants were called "andys". The name replicant was
suggested by David People's daughter, who was studying genetics at
UCLA at the time. Ridley Scott was also keen to avoid the word
androids, having already dealt with one in his previous film,
Alien.

(4) Both the dove held by Roy at the end of the film, and his line
"All those moments will be lost, like tears in rain..." were added
by Rutger Hauer. Ridley Scott was worried about the symbolism of
the dove flying off, but he was very happy with the end result.

(5) Throughout the film, small references are made to the fact
that Rick Deckard is really a replicant. His eyes reflect red in
the same manner as the artificial Owl and Rachael's do. Gaff
leaves the little unicorn made out of silver paper, which is
supposed to refer to the unicorn dream sequence cut from the
original release but put back into the Director's Cut). Another
interesting point to note is that Ridley Scott is quoted as saying
that they did originally film the unicorn sequence, yet the
Director's Cut unicorn sequence is allegedly an out-take from
Scott's film 'Legend'.


(6) Blade Runner was originally supposed to be filmed at the EMI
studios in England. However, it would have proved to have been too
expensive to re-create the streets and buildings required so the
film was relocated to L.A where they could dress up existing
backlot sets. (One of the sets used originally featured in an old
Outer Limits episode!). Harrison Ford also originally passed on
the opportunity to do the film in England because he wanted to
spend more time with his family in the U.S. When it switched to
L.A he re-considered and the rest is history.

(7) The name Blade Runner came from an unrelated non-science
fiction novel by William S. Burroughs and Alan E. Nourse.

(8) A number of filmed scenes never made it into either the
original theatrical release or the Director's Cut version. Twice
Deckard pays Holden a visit in hospital where his colleague is
still alive thanks to a futuristic chamber that looks not unlike a
brightly lit iron lung. In the released versions, the audience
assumes that Holden is killed by Leon in the first few minutes of
the film.

(9) Philip K. Dick didn't like the amount of story that was
removed from the original novel when the film was being made.
Unfortunately the author died three months before the film was
released.

(10) An 18 rated version of the film was released on Laserdisk in
the U.S in 1987. It contained slightly more violence (Pris trying
to rip off Deckard's nose, more blood and gore shown when Roy
kills Tyrell etc). None of these slightly longer violent scenes
made it back into the Director's Cut.

(11) Including preview theatrical screenings and video releases,
there are seven different versions of Blade Runner! (Admittedly,
the differences between some of them are minimal to say the
least!)

(12) The 'happy' ending with Deckard and Rachael driving off
through the countryside was added at the last minute after
disappointing preview screenings. The scenery was in fact out
takes from the beginning of Stanley Kubrick's film 'The Shining'.
It was never intended to be included and was removed from the
Director's Cut.

(13) The original music score written by Vangelis was never
released. A cover version performed by the New American Orchestra
was done instead. The 1989 Vangelis album 'Themes' contained a few
tracks but that's all. A very limited edition CD (2,000 copies
only worldwide) was released a few months ago but this CD was put
together without the permission of the composer and is of dubious
quality.

(14) Ridley Scott gained a bad reputation from making Blade
Runner.  He was allegedly in a bad mood throughout the entire
shoot due partly to a tight shooting schedule (it was filmed in
just 17 weeks) which was in turn thanks to an imminent directors
strike which was due to start the day after he finished filming!

(15) There has been a Blade Runner computer game, but it was very
poor and hardly sold at all. C.R.L published it back in the
mid-1980s for the ZX Spectrum and it was officially a game
"...inspired" by the Vangelis soundtrack - not the film!

(16) Rumours persist that the recently formed production company
between Tony and Ridley Scott in the U.S are planning to develop
Blade Runner 2.













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