Blade Runner is the best and one of the most influential Science Fiction films ever made. Based on the excellent book "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep", by Philip K. Dick, Ridley Scott created Blade Runner as a stunning view of the dark near-future. Although seen as disturbingly bleak when it was first released, as time has moved on, it can now be seen as increasingly prophetic of the way the world is changing.
Deckard is a retired Blade Runner - a hunter of 'Replicants', (androids of the future created by the Tyrell Corporation to be "more human than human"). Replicants were declared illegal on Earth, but a group of the most advanced, the Nexus-6 Replicants, have hijacked a shuttle and returned from off-world. Deckard is forced back from retirement and it is his job to terminate them.
What do these Replicants want? Simple - they want "More Life". They have been limited with a four year lifespan. They are created as slave labour, but all they want is to live like humans. Led by the charismatic and very intelligent Roy Batty, they seek to confront their 'maker', Eldon Tyrell, head of one of the most powerful corporations on Earth.
In the action that sprawls across a fantastic, futuristic cityscape of Los Angeles, 2019, we follow the dehumanised Blade Runner as he chases down the renegade Replicants. Things are complicated with the addition of a new Replicant created by Tyrell as an 'experiment'. The new addition, Rachael, has been gifted with memories and believes she is human, before she discovers what she really is.
Blade Runner is visually stunning, with a cityscape that has been much copied, but never bettered, even after 20 years. The atmosphere is beautifully enhanced by the music of Vangelis. The actors are brilliant and many have gone on to successful careers. Ultimately, the movie leaves us asking those most fundamental philosophical questions, "What does it mean to be human" and "Who am I".
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