Blade Runner

Blade Runner- 1982

Another cult classic film, Blade Runner has a reputation as a must see film that breaks the sci-fi mold in a very special significant way. A futuristic, detective film set in Los Angeles 2019 with classic Hollywood detective film components like smoky, limited natural light sets, a super cool detective with a questionable main character love interest. Similar to Total Recall, Blade Runner is based on the question of authentic versus synthetic experiences and memories. Blade Runner however utilizes synthetic life disguised as authentic life known as Replicants, and when a group of Replicants break their code and seek the answers to a longer life. The retired Blade Runner, Rick Deckard played by Harrison Ford is asked to come back for one last mission, to destroy the rogue Replicants. These Replicants want to live a longer existence; oh great, aggressive robots with a desire to live longer better lives. This is a post singularity world were robots are only noticeable when their technology threatens the natural social environment. The role of a Replicant is to fill unwanted responsibilities and jobs in society thus creating their own class in this futuristic society. Obvious throughout the film is the corporate advertisement, letting you know that a capitalist society has helped create a stronger void between humans and robots and destroying the overall need for human touch. Rick Deckard’s journey to destroy the rogue Replicants has its ups and downs with a small love story in between Blade Runner and a seductive Replicant named Rachel, who believes she is human, just like all of the other replicants. Rachel even has a back story and pictures of herself as a child with her family. Deckard informed her that her memories are just programmed history scenarios, planted memories. Rachel has a hard time believing that her whole existence is just a computer program and once again the similarity to Total Recall is prevalent. The topic of synthetic verses authentic memories arise, how our memories don't always reflect absolute truths and sometimes the mind has the ability to alter memorized information, over time creating a scenario that isn't exactly correct. So, Blade Runner is constantly dealing with the ideas of the synthetic vs. authentic whether its memories or existence itself and leaves many questions unanswered. Is Deckard a Replicant too? Is the whole movie a figment of Deckard’s imagination? The movie has an open ending so it's kind of cool that the viewer can come to their own conclusions about these possibilities. Blade Runner is a smooth, cool, futuristic detective sci-fi film that does not disappoint on any level.