Blade Runner (1972)

A brilliantly conceived and designed film based on the novel by sci-fi guru Philip K. Dick, Blade Runner has become something of a cult favorite. Its $27 million price tag shows in the astonishing sets of 21st-century Los Angeles. Rain, mist, and fog swirl about titanic structures built upon the ruins of the city, as mammoth space machines lumber about promoting the good life on the "off-world colonies." Earth is in decay, both physically and psychologically. The best of the human race has departed for greener space pastures, leaving the dregs to mill around in the congested, rain-drenched streets, speaking an unrecognizable patois. Harrison Ford plays Rick Deckard, an ex-"blade runner" (detective/android killer) who reluctantly accepts a "freelance" assignment tracking down a group of cyborgs, known as "replicants," who have mutinied on a space colony and returned to Earth, seeking to prolong their short life span by altering their programmed mechanisms. Hauer is magnificent as Roy Batty, the androids' superhuman leader, Young turns in a creditable performance as Rachel, a replicant who thinks she's human, and Ford's world-weary voice over and battered trenchcoat give the film a gritty, film noir feel. A "director's cut" of the film, sans voice over and with a different, more ambiguous ending, was released in 1993.

Cast:

Performer, Character

Harrison Ford, Rick Deckard

Rutger Hauer, Roy Batty

Sean Young, Rachael

Edward James Olmos, Gaff

M. Emmet Walsh, Bryant

Daryl, Hannah Pris

William Sanderson, Sebastian

Brion James, Leon

Joseph Turkel, Tyrell

Joanna Cassidy, Zhora

James Hong, Chew Morgan

Production Credits:

Producer, Michael Deeley

Director, Ridley Scott

Screenwriter, Hampton Fancher and David Peoples based on the story "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick

Editor, Terry Rawlings

Cinematographer, Jordan Cronenweth

Composer, Vangelis

Special Effects, Douglas Trumbul