'Blade Runner' is set in Los Angeles in the year 2020. The world has become a highly polluted place where the climate has changed radically. On screen it constantly rains, which adds to the atmosphere that director, Ridley Scott, is trying to convey.
Click here to see the rest of this review...
Large corporations such as 'Tyrell Corporation' have taken power. This is due to the advancing market of technology, which has made Tyrell, owner of 'Tyrell Corporation', one of the richest persons in the world. Tyrell built his company on creating robotic replicants, a replicant is virtually identical to a human, with superhuman strength. This is where the movie plot begins.
A group of elite policemen called 'Blade Runner Unit' have been called to exterminate (retire) all four remaining replicants. This is because of the threat they pose against the human race. It is a fact that the replicants, although not originally intended, may begin to develop emotions, and try to pass as human themselves. In order to identify a replicant, they must undertake the Voight-Kampff or 'Eye Test' this deciphers between the eye movements of humans and of replicants.
Dekard, the main 'Blade Runner' cgases through future Los Angeles, seeking out clues and performing random eye tests to find the four replicants, Zhora, Rachel, Pris and Roy. Zhora who is an entertainer has deadly strength and agility and almost escapes from Deckard's grip, Rachel who is a works with Tyrell was not aware that she was a replicant until Deckard informed her, Pris who was blond haired and created for the pleasure of man also has deadly strength and agility, and Roy who had inconceivable strength and uniquely possessed strong emotions.
In the scene where Roy meets his creator, Roy demands more life, but Tyrell rejects Roy's demands by saying that it is impossible to give him more life because of the irreversible genetic factors involved and that he should spend his final days enjoying what's left of his life. Roy was furious at this and brutally murdered Tyrell.
When Deckard successfully tracked down Roy, it was a life threatening chase for Deckard because of Roy's super human abilities. At one stage Deckard was hanging onto the ledge of a multistory building, grasping for his life when Roy grabs Deckard's arm just as it was about to lose its grip and pulls him up to safety. This scene symbolizes that Roy has developed human emotions and sympathizes for Deckard. It shows Roy just before his last moments perform an act of decency. Just before Roy died he talked to Deckard from the depths of his heart and said, "Quite an experience to live in fear isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave." This scene impeccably describes the capabilities of replicants to feel human emotions, Roy's face was truly sincere when he was talking with Deckard and just before he died.
There was also a scene where Rachel heroically saved Deckard's life when he was under attack from another replicant, this scene was beautifully portrayed as the screen was shot from Deckard's perspective, and the sheer surprise on Deckard's face shows the his relief. This scene tells us in more depth about the character of Rachel, she does not judge who is a replicant or not and is not bias to her type, but rather she saved Deckard's life because he was a good person and it was the right thing to do.
The review of this Movie prepared by Don
Detective Rick Deckard is a ex-future bounty hunter called a Blade Runner. These special police officers hunt down and "retire" rampant cyborgs called "replicants". Deckard is brought back by his former chief to hunt down 4 replicant slaves that have killed many escaping an offworld colony, lead by the intelligent Roy Batty. They have made there way to Earth in order to find someway to get rid of there 4-year lifespan.
This takes Deckard to the creator of replicants, Tyrell. At the Tyrell Corporation Building, he meets Tyrells assistant Rachael and gives her the cyborg- finding test, called VK. He can't get any info, so he goes to Holden's, his Blade Runner friend, apartment. He finds so pictures and analyzes them with a special machine that zooms in and around the space in pictures. He finds some clues that lead to a strange nightclub in the "Animoid Row" disrict.
After tracking down and destroying cyborg female Zhora, he is assaulted by the big, dumb cyborg Leon. Leon beats Deckard up, but Rachael blasts Leon in the head, destroying him. The chief then tells Deckard that Rachael is now on the list to be "retired".
While all this is happening, the low level biotechnition J.F. Sebastion runs into a cyborg named Pris. Pris stays with Sebastion until Roy arrives and forces Sebastion to take him to Tyrell. He kills both J.F. and Tyrell that night. At the same time, Deckard and Rachael "hit it off" in his apartment.
That following day, Deckard tracks down Sebastion's apartment. He goes up and gets attacked by Pris. He kills her, which in turn angers Roy. The fight between Deckard and Batty commences in the old apartment.
The review of this Movie prepared by Sam Ward
Blade Runner is about a bounty hunter chasing three robotic androids. The androids, who have escaped from enslavement, are headed to earth to find the person who created them. The androids were designed with short life spans and wish to live longer and believe that the person who created them can give them what they desire. They get to earth and begin their hunt for him but they are being hunted as well.
The review of this Movie prepared by Jacob Hylton
This movie is set in the near future, in a world where access to, and control of, technology determines who holds power. One of the products of advancing technology are the Replicants, humanoid robots who are programmed for certain tasks, and provided with someone elses identity and memories, as well as a short life span. As the Replicants strive to prolong their lives, Rick Deckard is commissioned to kill them off.
The review of this Movie prepared by Soph
Most readers of this website will know the plot - Deckard is sent to kill replicants, and does so. What makes this film an outstanding entry in the history of science fiction is Ridley Scott's subtle and immediate mastery of the genre. Science fiction works when you don't notice, or question, the science. Scott builds his dystopian city and blends in P K Dick's ideas seamlessly, and then ignores them. Deckard makes a journey of self-discovery, with his replicant floozy, while he hunts and kills his peers. The Director's Cut, without the irritating voiceover, has a few extra scenes which better describe Deckard's journey into self doubt. If you haven't seen it, throw those fantasy novels away and prepare to marvel.
The review of this Movie prepared by Martin Farncombe
A homage to film noir set in a tired and gritty future. Deckard (Harrison Ford) is hired to locate and 'retire' (kill) four 'replicants', "androids" (or more correctly, genetically engineered humanoids), led by Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer), who have illegaly traveled to Earth.
His investigations lead him to fall in love with Rachael (Sean Young) who proves to be another replicant who has had 'memory implants' leaving her to believe she is a human with a history.
As the story unfolds, it emerges that the replicants have come to Earth in order to find a cure to their 'expiration dates' (artificial death date).
Deckard works his way through the replicants, until the gothic finale in a deserted building, with an unexpected and moving conclusion.
One of the most interesting points of the film is whether or not Deckard himself is a replicant.
The review of this Movie prepared by Matt Lewis
Harrison Ford plays a legal hit-man, a blade-runner, the cop who specialises in retiring made-to-measure clones who have gotten out of control. He wishes that he could get off the treadmill and retire too. This is a classic dystopian sci-fi film, based on a novel by Philip K. Dick, in which the Frankenstein theme is played out to its limits. Technology may be able to make human-looking soldiers and female playmates, but do they have a soul? Are they really human or just the tools of their makers? What is it to be human? The latest clones are almost too good, sub-creations made in the image of their masters. Unfortunately, the likeness is a grim shock, they are all crying inside. It is so difficult to tell the clones from the real humans, even with the expert administration of the empathy test it is hard to tell. The leader of the replicant band brings his team back to earth. They want revenge on the Corporation for being made as off-the-peg persons; but really as un-persons with a genetically coded 'Use By' date. They are designed to be sterile, and are all programmed to die on a certain date. But the blade runner may get them first.
The review of this Movie prepared by Michael JR Jose
Harrison Ford is assigned to track down and eliminate four escaped replicants (androids) that are trying to overcome their built-in limited lifespan in order to live a longer life. The director's cut is far superior.
The review of this Movie prepared by Artemis
Based on Philip Dick's wonderful (and very different) novel, _Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?_, "Blade Runner" concerns a bounty hunter who specializes in tracking and "killing" escaped androids but is looking to retire. Rick Deckard (Ford) accepts one last job taking out five "replicants" who escaped from an offworld colony and hijacked a ship back to Earth in order to lose themselves in a big, bright, modernistic but dirty city. Sean Young plays a beautiful robot who captures Deckard's heart, Rutger Hauer the smartest and strongest android he will have to face. The sets, acting, and camera work of this excellent film make it one of the best SF movies ever made, although an altered, shortened version with voiceover narration made the rounds for much of its first decade before a 117-minute director's cut was released in 1992 to theaters and video.
The review of this Movie prepared by David Loftus
This is a deceptively complex film examining the question of what it means to be HUMAN and what risks one is prepared to take to preserve humanity's best, fundamental qualities. That the principal defenders of Life & Humanity are CLONE/REPLICANTS is an irony that speaks for itself.
Superficially, the plot concerns a Blade Runner-killer (Ford)assigned to hunt and destroy a "family" of REPLICANT humanoids (Hauer et. al) trespassing on Earth, seeking their own WHY? WHEREFORE? and possible vengeange against their CREATOR...
The review of this Movie prepared by Arthur F. McVarish
