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Blade
Runner (1982)
In director Ridley Scott's sci-fi classic - an imaginative,
film-noirish and futuristic sci-fi melodrama, adapted from a Philip
K. Dick novel, that told about a decaying and dreary Los Angeles
in the year 2019:
- the fiery apocalyptic view of Los Angeles ("Neo-Tokyo")
in the dystopic 21st century with hover cars, gigantic skyscrapers,
electronic holographic advertisement-billboards on floating crafts,
etc. - reflected in a single human eye in the film's opening
- the film's first glimpse in the rainy drizzle of the
blade runner-hero Deckard (Harrison Ford) reading a newspaper against
a store display window
- the scene in which Deckard informed unknowing replicant
Rachael (Sean Young) that she wasn't human
- the love scene between Deckard and Rachael when he
slammed her against venetian blinds; he cornered her there and finally
broke her down with a kiss; he then instructed the android on how
to reciprocate his love, although she protested - unsure of her romantic
capability; he instructed her on love until she, on her own, told
him to put his hands on her, and continue their love-making
- the chase through the busy streets after exotic replicant
snake lady Zhora (Joanna Cassidy) who was wearing a transparent raincoat
- and her slow-motion death amidst shattering glass and blood, when
she crashed through plate glass windows before her shard-covered
death, after she was repeatedly shot by Deckard
Spectacular Deaths of Replicants
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Zhora
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Pris
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Roy Batty
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- the exciting scene of acrobatic replicant Pris'
(Daryl Hannah) hiding among dolls and then her attempt to crush
Deckard's head between her thighs, before he was able to shoot
her in the stomach - she died an agonizing death, screeching as
her limbs flailed spastically; later after finding her corpse with
her lifeless tongue protruding from her mouth, teary-eyed and grieving
lead replicant Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) - in a sensual, intimate
farewell moment in the obliquely-cold film, sadly and soulfully
kissed his dead lover's lips and caressed her tongue; when he pulled
away from her mouth, he repositioned her tongue within her mouth
so that she didn't die looking like an animal
- the sequence of Roy's brutal killing of Tyrell (Joe
Turkel) who was responsible for the creation of the replicants; Roy,
the "prodigal son", reverently touched Tyrell's cheek with
one hand, and placed his strong hands on both sides of Tyrell's face
and kissed his replicant God - his 'father' Tyrell, passionately
on the lips [Note: a reference to the Jesus/Judas betrayal in the
New Testament, with a kiss.]; with his powerful bare hands and a
look of utter contempt and pathos, Roy suddenly crushed and caved
in his maker's skull with superhuman strength and gouged his eyes
(!) out as Tyrell screamed - with blood oozing out of his eye sockets
- the final vivid and brutal chase scene between Roy
Batty and Deckard - through Sebastian's apartment and onto the rooftop,
and Deckard's rescue from the edge of the building
Roy Batty's Soliloquy to Deckard
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- Roy's climactic, mournful and poignant soliloquy:
("I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships
on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in
the dark near Tanhauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in
time like tears in rain. Time to die....") as he expired in
the rain and a white dove flew upward - supplemented by Deckard's
musings and narration: "I don't know why he saved my life.
Maybe in those last moments he loved life more than he ever had
before. Not just his life - anybody's life. My life. All he'd wanted
were the same answers the rest of us want. Where do I come from?
Where am I going? How long have I got? All I could do was sit there
and watch him die"
- the final sequence when Deckard's fellow cop Gaff
(Edward James Olmos) left a shiny, silver, tin-foil origami of a
unicorn outside Deckard's apartment - one of Gaff's sculptured, calling-card
creations; Gaff had spared replicant Rachael's life when he had the
chance to kill her; Gaff's words about her short time to live were
recalled to Deckard (as he held up the origami creation):
"It's too bad she won't live. But then again, who does?";
Deckard joined love interest Rachael in the elevator as they left to
escape the law into an uninhabited wilderness with blue skies; a final
voice-over narration (in a tacked-on 1982 version) explained that Rachael
was a special replicant without a pre-set or fixed termination date:
("Gaff had been there, and let her live. Four years, he figured.
He was wrong. Tyrell had told me Rachael was special: no termination
date. I didn't know how long we had together. Who does?")
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Los Angeles Cityscape
Deckard's Kissing Scene With Rachael
Roy Kissing Pris' Corpse
Roy Batty's Murder of Tyrell by Eye-Gouging
The Tin-Foil Origami Unicorn
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