BRmovie.com: Blade Runner Souvenir Magazine - Official Collector's Edition

Harrison Ford poses with stunt double.

While most of the battle took place on the soundstage, I designed a roof set for when Harrison gets out the window and up onto the roof. This was a very interesting idea because we originally wanted to do that scene on location downtown at what used to be an old hotel on 5th and Main Street in Los Angeles. When we went up on the roof, Rifley wanted both Harrison and Rutger to jump across a 20-foot alleyway. It was a 12-story drop if they missed. You can put nets out, but it became very impractical to shoot downtown, especially for the amount of time we needed to shoot the scene. Ridley and I sat down and came up with a design of a sectioned roof top that was 22 feet above the ground and could be adjusted for the distance between the two roofs. The stuntman said, "No Larry, I'm not jumping 20 feet. Let's make it 10 feet." We ended up moving it a little closer and he made the leap - just!
- LAWRENCE G. PAULL