BRmovie.com: BR FAQ: What is Blade Runner about?

Want the DVD? Or the BR Game? Don't know which books or music to get? Maybe you'd like a Deckard action figure? Make sure you check the BR Related section for all your BR choices.

What is Blade Runner?

"Blade Runner" is a Science Fiction film, originally released in 1982, with stylistic roots in the hardboiled "film noir" classics of the 1940's. It has turned out to be one of the most influential films ever made. Blade Runner presents a certain vision of the future that has been copied a thousand times over, presenting a dark future vision that may prove to be all too prophetic.

Blade Runner is sometimes called a "cult classic" and others refer to it as "the most influential Science Fiction film ever made". Considering that Blade Runner is not just a well known Science Fiction film, but regularly appears in "Top 100 Favourite Movies Ever" lists (and Top 10s in some countries), it is perhaps surprising that the worldwide popularity of the film isn't more widely recognised. This is no minor cult movie; it is one of the most loved films of the 20th Century! So don't be surprised that there are other Blade Runner fans out there - they are everywhere!

What is it about?

The opening crawl from the movie describes the situation as follows:

Early in the 21st Century, THE TYRELL

CORPORATION advanced Robot evolution

into the NEXUS phase — a being virtually

identical to a human — known as a Replicant.

The NEXUS 6 Replicants were superior

in strength and agility, and at least equal

in intelligence, to the genetic engineers

who created them.

Replicants were used Off-world as

slave labor, in the hazardous exploration and

colonization of other planets.

After a bloody mutiny by a NEXUS 6

combat team in an Off-world colony,

Replicants were declared illegal

on earth — under penalty of death.

Special police squads — BLADE RUNNER

UNITS — had orders to shoot to kill, upon

detection, any trespassing Replicant.

This was not called execution.

It was called retirement.

LOS ANGELES
NOVEMBER, 2019

Synopsis

A small group of rogue and extremely dangerous replicants led by Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) have managed to hijack a spaceship and have made it to Earth, looking for a way to extend their artificially limited lifespan.

When Blade Runner Dave Holden is heavily wounded after having confronted one of them, former Blade Runner Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) is coerced into tracking them down and "retiring" them.