History Main / Bladerunner

* ''Literature/BladeRunner'', a medical ScienceFiction novel by Alan E. Nourse (the title of the aforementioned movie came from this, though it's otherwise unrelated).

* ''Film/BladeRunner'', a classic ScienceFiction film by Creator/RidleyScott.
* ''VideoGame/BladeRunner'', the hit 1997 AdventureGame of the same name developed by Creator/WestwoodStudios.

* ''Literature/BladeRunner'', a medical ScienceFiction novel by Alan E. Nourse (the title of the movie came from this, though it's otherwise unrelated).

* ''VideoGame/BladeRunner'', the hit 1997 AdventureGame of the same name developed by WestwoodStudios.

* ''VideoGame/BladeRunner'', the hit 1997 adventure game of the same name developed by WestwoodStudios.

[[redirect:Film/BladeRunner]]

[[quoteright:240:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/blade-runner.jpg]]

''Blade Runner'' is a genre-bending 1982 ScienceFiction film that borrowed stylistic elements from FilmNoir and HardboiledDetective fiction. Set in a [[{{Dystopia}} dystopian]] [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture near-future]] [[CityNoir Los Angeles]], it established much of the tone and flavor of the CyberPunk movement and the film style of [[TheFutureIsNoir Tech Noir]]. It is a highly intelligent film, visually ''stunning'' and featuring a seriously great script. The definitive high-def/BluRay DirectorsCut came out in 2007.

Deckard is a Blade Runner. His job is to [[DeadlyEuphemism "retire"]] renegade [[ArtificialHuman Replicants]] -- rogue androids that are not supposed to be on Earth. Some of the most advanced replicants yet have escaped, and Deckard has to retire them. But they are so like normal humans that Deckard can't help but empathize with them, and he even falls for one.

''Blade Runner'' was loosely based on the [[PhilipKDick Philip K. Dick]] novel ''DoAndroidsDreamOfElectricSheep'' The title itself comes from the novel ''The Bladerunner'' by Alan E. Nourse[[hottip:*:though in a roundabout fashion; the writer Hampton Fascher, took it from a William S. Burrough adaptation Blade_Runner_(a_movie) which was originally meant to be a treatmen of Nourse's novel but became its own novella]]. Other than the title, the movie has nothing to do with ''The Bladerunner''. It just [[RuleOfCool sounded cool]].

The film failed upon release, but it later became a widely acknowledged [[VindicatedByHistory classic]] that [[http://www.time.com/time/2005/100movies/0,23220,blade_runner,00.html regularly appears on "Best Films Of All Time" lists]].

Not to disappoint anyone, but no one [[BladeRun runs on blades]] in this movie.
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!!BladeRunner provides examples of the following:
* AdaptationDistillation: PhilipKDick loved the visual imagery of those parts of the film he saw. He said they resonated deeply with his imagined future. But he is also on record as saying RidleyScott inverted the meaning of the replicants' inhumanity; from being self-serving non-empathic killers to being 'supermen who couldn't fly'. As impressed as he was, PKD maintained that it wasn't his story. In the final interview before his death, Dick said "After I finished reading the screenplay, I got the novel out and looked through it. The two reinforce each other, so that someone who started with the novel would enjoy the movie and someone who started with the movie would enjoy the novel."
* AdultChild: While the Replicants are adults both physically and mentally, they're still very childlike in their emotions, be it Pris's very whimsical behavior or Roy basically having a temper tantrum [[spoiler:when meeting Tyrell and becoming a SelfMadeOrphan]].
* AnimalMotifs: Major characters have association with animals.
** Roy: Wolves [[spoiler: and doves when he dies]]
** Leon: Walruses, Turtles
** Zhora: Snakes
** Pris: Raccoons
** Tyrell: Owls
** Rachael: Spiders
** Sebastian: Mice
** Deckard: Chicken, but [[spoiler:actually Unicorn]]
* TheAlcoholic: It's much faster to count the scenes in which Deckard ''isn't'' drinking. And if you can still drink with a split lip, then you are an überholic.
** Very probably a ShoutOut- the film takes much of its visual and stylistic cues from FilmNoir, a genre in which the average alcohol intake of any given main character could probably drop a bull elephant.
* AmbiguouslyHuman: The Replicants. [[spoiler:And Deckard himself as well.]]
* ArtificialHuman: The Tyrell Corporation's Human Replicants. Roy, Leon, Zhora, Pris, Rachael, [[spoiler:definitely possibly (according to [[strike:recent]] latest version of the [[FlipFlopOfGod ever-changing]] {{Word of God}}) Deckard]], etc.
* AntiHero: Deckard. Depending on your interpretation of the movie, it is positively unnerving to have a state-sponsored killer of escaped slaves as the protagonist, quite unremarked, anvils undropped.
** Or he is simply a guy fixing machines that go haywire and kill people.
** Depending on how you interpret the film's morality, Batty may qualify since his motives are very relatable and he shows more remorse over his actions than Deckard ever does. Then again, crushing an unarmed man's head open with his bare hands at least makes him a Type IV. Deckard's pretty much a Type V, though depending on how you interpert what's going on in his head after Batty's death it could be argued he goes up to a Type IV.
*** Bearing in mind however, that the man whose head Roy Batty crushed is the man responsible for installing him and his fellow replicants with a retirement date, you cant really blame him. In this case he is arguably more a Type III.
*** Then again he killed Sebastian, a man who'd sheltred and helped him, not to mention a lot of the crew during his original escape though he does feel some remorse for this.
* AntiVillain: Roy Batty. Created as a slave-soldier with a short expiration date, his only goal for himself and his fellow replicants is life.
* AuditThreat: Attempted by Deckard when trying to get information from strip club owner Taffey Lewis.
-->'''Deckard:''' Did you ever see this girl?
-->'''Taffey:''' Never seen her. Buzz off.
-->'''Deckard:''' Your licenses in order, pal?
-->'''Taffey:''' [unimpressed] Hey, Louie. The man is dry. Give him one on the house, okay? See ya.
* AwesomeYetPractical: The neon-lit umbrellas carried by the people in the background.
* BadassLongcoat: Deckard and Batty.
* BarrierBustingBlow: Batty punches through a rotting wall during their final encounter.
* BilingualBonus: Gaff's multilingual Cityspeak. Lófasz! Nehogy már!
* BittersweetEnding: The director's and final cut end with Deckard realizing that the four years expiration date ''does'' apply to Rachael, and he [[spoiler:- possibly being a replicant himself - may end with the same fate a well]]. However, the film closes on a note of acceptance, as the quote on the bottom of this page suggests.
* BlownAcrossTheRoom: Holden in the scene at the beginning of the film in which he interrogates Leon.
* BodyMotifs: Eyes.
* BoomHeadshot: How [[spoiler: Leon]] meets his fate.
* ChessMotifs: The game of correspondence chess played by Sebastian and Tyrell (which Batty wins with his genius intellect). Notably, it's based on the famous [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immortal_game "Immortal Game"]] of 1851, which ties into the film's themes of mortality and a quest for life.
** According to [[WordOfGod Ridley Scott]], the "Immortal Game" reference was a coincidence. [[DeathOfTheAuthor Though why let that stop you?]]
* {{Chiaroscuro}}: The film's dark, gritty feel set it apart from most science fiction films up to that point, and set a template for many to follow.
* CityNoir: A crowning example.
* ClimbingClimax: Inverted, just like SaveTheVillain below -- it is the protagonist that climbs onto the top of the building for the ultimate showdown, and the antagonist that follows him.
* CrapsackWorld: One of the most influential dystopias in cinema, and a huge influence on CyberPunk.
* CultureChopSuey: The film has a kind of "the future is Asian" theme with a [[FarEast mishmash of East Asian cultural stereotypes]]: Geishas in advertising, Chinese noodle stalls, Japanese and Chinese writing scattered about, broken {{Engrish}}, squadrons of bicycles ridden through squalid streets by [[AllAsiansWearConicalStrawHats people in big hats]], etc.
* CyberPunk: possibly an UnbuiltTrope: without computer networks or virtual reality, it's just another sci-fi dystopia. The genre, however, has been informed by it for ''decades''. Even WilliamGibson despaired on seeing it, because it featured the exact kind of visuals he had in mind for ''{{Neuromancer}}'' and he was afraid he'd be accused of ripping it off.
** And this is the first sci-fi film where the [[PunkRock "punk"]] [[PunkPunk aspect]] is really present.
* CyberpunkWithAChanceOfRain: ''Blade Runner'' is [[TropeCodifier probably responsible]] for associating CyberPunk settings with constantly rainy weather in popular imagination.
* DarkenedBuildingShootout: The final encounter between Deckard and Batty involves gunplay in a darkened building (the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradbury_building Bradbury Building]] in LA).
* DeadlyEuphemism: "Retire" for kill.
* DeathOfTheAuthor: One of the reasons Deckard's being a replicant or not is still hotly debated. (Also, a film has multiple authors, and in this case [[FlipFlopOfGod they disagree with each other]].)
* {{Defictionalization}}: Deckard's whiskey glasses and bottle, trenchcoat and even the tiles in his apartment have been made into real (albeit [[CrackIsCheaper insanely expensive)]] products. Even the [[http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/gear/d163/ Neon light Umbrellas]] are available from thinkgeek (albeit the thinkgeek versions are. more practical led/fiber optic rather then neon tubes).
* DesignatedHero: The replicants are escaped slaves. The Blade Runners are bounty hunters who get money for gunning them down. A Blade Runner protagonist makes for an uneasy moral setting at best.
** Invoked in this case.
* DigitalHeadSwap: The original version had a shot during Zhora's death where it was obvious that a stunt double was standing in for the actress. For the 2007 [[ReCut Final Cut]], actress Joanna Cassidy's face was digitally superimposed over that of the stunt double.
* DisturbedDoves: In the Bradbury Building, where the final confrontation takes place.
* DoAndroidsDream: Ironically more than in the book.
* DramaticThunder: During Roy Batty's death speech, echoing his earlier line about thunder: ''"Fiery the angels fell; deep thunder rolled around their shores, burning with the fires of Orc."'' (This is a deliberate misquote of William Blake's poem ''America: A Prophecy'': "Fiery the angels rose, and as they rose deep thunder roll'd / Around their shores, indignant burning with the fires of Orc.")
* DullSurprise: The narration in the theatrical cut seems to be trying for "PrivateEyeMonologue" and falling into "Bored Out of My Mind" instead. (Part of the reason for the "[[FanonDisContinuity What theatrical cut?]]" mentality) Rumor has it that Harrison Ford disliked the idea of the narration and tried to prevent it from happening by deliberately botching his line delivery. [[SpringtimeForHitler The narration got used anyway.]] Ford denies that he did it deliberately, saying he did his best with what he was given. Possibly the legendarily difficult shoot had got to him.
* EarnYourHappyEnding : In the theatrical cut Deckard's voiceover informs that the four years expiration date did not apply to Rachael, and the final shot is just the opposite of the dark and oppressive mood of the whole movie; a bucolical and sunny place crossed by a road that implies they reach a HappilyEverAfter.
* EarthThatUsedToBeBetter: Overcrowded, polluted and rainy.
* EnhanceButton: One of the most-often referenced examples. Possibly the TropeMaker, almost certainly the TropeCodifier. Though ironically there is no actual button, as the machine is voice activated.
* EvilAlbino: Roy Batty is a cruel, sadistic, and exceptionally fierce albino, which would make this an InvokedTrope on part of Batty's creators, since he is an artificial human.
* EvilCounterpart: Not "evil", exactly, but Roy/Pris to Deckard/Rachael.
* ExecutiveMeddling: The ending in the original movie was changed by higher-ups due to its ambiguity, and narration was added to help dispel the ambiguity evident in most of the movie itself. It has -- thank God -- been restored in the DirectorsCut.
* EyeScream: [[spoiler: Tyrell's death]]. Leon appears to be about to shove his fingers into Deckard's eyes at one point.
* FaceDeathWithDignity: What Roy finally does in the end.
--> '''Roy Batty''': "All those moments will be lost in time... like tears... in rain. Time to die."
* FailureIsTheOnlyOption [[spoiler: The replicants' quest for more life is doomed from the beginning]]
* FamousLastWords: Roy Batty's famous lines, "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 the TannhauserGate. All these moments will be lost in time ... like tears ... in rain. Time to die."
** Made all the more awesome by the fact that "like tears in rain" was ad-libbed by Rutger Hauer.
* FantasticAesop: The movie seems to be trying to use the replicants to make a point about human understanding and identity which relies heavily on the replicants having a short 'hard-coded' lifespan.
* FantasticRacism: The sexually-charged racial-slur "skin-job" says a ''lot'' about how a person who uses it thinks of replicants, as [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded by the much-maligned narration of the non-director's cut.]]
--> '''Deckard:''' ''"Skin job", that's what he calls them. Historically he's the kind of cop who calls black men niggers."''
* FauxlosophicNarration: The narration in the theatrical cut is kind of dreadful, and veers straight into this at the end of the film.
* FeatherBoaConstrictor: Zhora wears a replicant snake as a fashion accessory.
* FinalSpeech: Delivered famously by Roy.
* FiveStagesOfGrief: Roy appears to go through them all except for denial.
** Anger: "Fiery the angels fell; deep thunder rolled around their shores; burning with the fires of Orc!"
** Bargaining: His attempt to extract a longer life span from his own creator.
** Depression: When he realises it's already too late for his comrades and howls with grief over Priss' body
** Acceptance: His famous dying speech expresses only regret that the things he knows will become lost forever.
** Rachael goes through a similar process, only we also get to see her early Denial stage, which we can assume happened to Roy and the others off-screen before the start of the story.
* FlipFlopOfGod: Is Deckard a replicant? Director Ridley Scott says yes. Screenwriters Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, as well as lead actor Harrison Ford, say no.
* ForcefulKiss: Deckard to Rachel. Has overtones of RapeIsLove.
* FullFrontalAssault: Batty takes on Deckard in the final showdown, dressed only in some shorts and running shoes. It's utterly creepy.
* [[TheFutureisNoir The Future Is Noir]]: ''Blade Runner'' practically invented a genre by mixing FilmNoir aesthetics and CyberPunk themes.
* GaiasLament: Earth is an ecological disaster, with an irradiated atmosphere, and very little natural life left.
** Indeed, aside from making human slave labour, the Tyrell Corporation has a nice [[OnlyElectricSheepAreCheap lucrative little side line in synthetic animals]] going. A fact that allows Deckard to advance his search for Zhora by finding snake scales with a serial number on them.
* GainaxEnding: In the DirectorsCut. Although there's a general (and movie-changing) implication, the details are unclear, at best. What was up with that [[spoiler:unicorn]]? [[hottip:* :Don't try to explain it here, people -- take it to the Wild Mass Guessing page instead. It's open to interpretation.]]
* GlamourFailure: [[hottip:*:Despite the name, this trope is when inhuman characters aren't very good at hiding the fact.]] Replicants are identical to humans. The only reliable way to detect them is the Voight-Kampff test which monitors answers and subtle physical response to emotional questions. However, on occasion their eyes can be seen to glow slightly.
* {{Gorn}}: [[spoiler: Tyrell's]] death, in the International and Final cuts.
* GrayAndGrayMorality: The story is rife with this. Roy Batty [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] Deckard's proclivity for shooting unarmed people in the back.
--> '''Roy''': Not very sporting to fire on an unarmed opponent. I thought you were supposed to be good. Aren't you the... "good" man?
** Also apparently one of the arguments for Deckard being human, in that Deckard has lost his humanity and morality, becoming detached, and regains it through Rachael, whereas Batty has learnt to be human and actively emotes more than Deckard does.
** Also quite telling in the scene where Deckard practically [[ForcefulKiss forces Rachael to kiss him]], whereas Batty and Pris are much more caring between one another.
* HandCannon: Deckard's handgun seems to fire explosive shells. It certainly makes pretty big holes in walls during his fight with Roy in the hotel. Its components include a bolt-action .222 rifle and a Charter Arms Bulldog revolver. So it's basically a huge single shot rifle in the shape of a pistol.
* HauntedHouse: The Bradbury Building is an extremely uninviting place at the best of times. When Roy Batty is somewhere inside howling like a wolf is very very far from the best of times.
* ImpostorExposingTest: The Voight-Kampff test, which is used to distinguish Replicants from humans.
* IndustrialGhetto
* JapanTakesOverTheWorld: Remembered as one of the classic examples, even though the "Asian" culture in the movie wasn't strictly just Japanese. The "building-size geisha advertisement", however, is a classic example of the trope and was more or less the image of how people in TheEighties expected things to go down.
* LackOfEmpathy: Why letting Replicants run around is a bad idea. Unlike most examples, though, it's played for sympathy, since it's implied that their callous nature is more akin to young children then any real quality of being a Replicant-they literally don't live long enough to understand what is and isn't right.
** It becomes apparent that Replicants become increasingly emotionally aware as they age - Tyrell suggests that one of the reasons for their lifespan limitations is that were they allowed to continue developing, they might become indistinguishable from humans.
* LettingHerHairDown: Rachael does this in Deckard's apartment, which is notable since she has PowerHair for most of the film.
* LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition: Blade Runner has been re-released '''many''' times. There's a Director's Cut, a Special Edition, and now a "Five-Disc Ultimate Collector's Edition" that comes in the same kind of metal briefcase as the Voight-Kampff machines. Ridley Scott tweaks scenes and dialogue in each one, sometimes altering the mood of scenes significantly.
** The 5 versions included in this version are: The 1982 workprint, US Theatrical Cut, International theatrical cut, the 1992 directors cut and the 2007 directors cut. According to TheOtherWiki there are ''two other versions'' that exist but aren't included in the current set.
* MandatoryUnretirement: At the beginning of the movie, Deckard is no longer a Blade Runner, but is reluctantly recruited back. [[RiddleForTheAges Or is he?]]
* MegaCorp: The Tyrell Corporation, whose massive pyramidal headquarters dominates the skyline of Los Angeles (not unlike the Ministry of Truth in ''NineteenEightyFour'').
* MercyKill: Deckard's first shot at Pris causes her to malfunction in a horrific way, and Deckard quickly shoots again in order to end the pain.
* MenCantKeepHouse: Deckard's apartment has stuff littering every surface. When Rachael visits, he has to clear stuff out of a chair so that he can sit down. She remains standing. Deckard offers Rachael a drink, and has to clean a glass from the sink because there are no clean glasses available.
* MultipleEndings: Various versions of the film end in different ways.
* MurderousThighs: Pris tries to use them on Deckard, but he ultimately survives and kills her.
* MyRevengeIsMercy: Roy has Deckard in a literal cliffhanger but is dying himself. At the last moment, Roy saves Deckard's life, and is rewarded with an ObiWanMoment.
* NicknamingTheEnemy: The term "Skinjobs" is used to refer to Replicants.
* NonindicativeName: There is nary a blade to be found in this movie. The term "blade runner" comes from ''The Blade Runner'', a completely unrelated dystopian novel in which the term refers to someone who sells black-market medical supplies. RidleyScott bought the rights to the novel so that he could use the term in his film for no other reason than that it [[RuleOfCool sounds cool]]. Also, given a certain [[FollowTheLeader thematic similarity]] to an earlier dystopian action film, it was just clever marketing to use a title with the word "[[LogansRun runner]]" in it.
* NothingIsScarier: The final confrontation between Deckard and Roy.
* OrwellianRetcon: Originally, Scott, Ford, and the writers agreed that Deckard was human. When Scott made the DirectorsCut in 1992, he had [[ShrugOfGod changed his mind]], and he inserted a [[DreamSequence two-second-long clip of a unicorn]] to change Deckard's nature in the movie.
* PopCulturalOsmosis: ''Blade Runner'' was highly influential on CyberPunk and PostCyberPunk fiction. It is such a poster child for popcultural osmosis that the imagery in the film is sometimes familiar to people who've never even seen it.
* PrecisionFStrike: "I want more life... fucker!" There are cuts where Roy says "father" instead. It is extremely interesting to see how a single word can completely change the mood of the scene.
* PrettyInMink: Rachael wears a few, indicative of her pampered status.
* ProductPlacement: The dreaded Blade Runner Curse struck many of the brands featured in the movie. Atari was hammered by TheGreatVideoGameCrashOf1983, barely survived, and is now a shadow of its former self. Pan-Am is long extinct. Coca-Cola launched New Coke shortly after the movie was released, but managed to survive anyway. Bell was broken up for monopolistic practices. Cuisinart went bankrupt and was bought out by a rival company, living on only as a brand name. Budweiser dodged the Curse all the way up to 2008, when Anheuser-Busch was bought by [=InBev=].\\
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[=RCA=] (big neon sign out Deckard's apartment window), as a company, bit the dust in '86. (The name is still trademarked by Technicolor, however, and sometimes used on products that come from its licensees.) TDK, whose sign appears on the building opposite the Bradbury near the end, seems to have made it through more or less OK--although its sign is partially obscured.
* PropRecycling:
** The spinners' dashboard displays are taken from ''{{Alien}}''. RidleyScott directed both films, so this may actually be a ShoutOut.
** The roof of the police headquarters building was originally the ceiling of the Mothership interior from ''CloseEncountersOfTheThirdKind''.
** One of the buildings next door to the police station is a model of the [[StarWars Millennium Falcon]] tilted vertically and covered with Christmas lights.
** The ''DarkStar'' miniature can be seen in the background near the police station as well.
** Additionally, later sci-fi films would sometimes recycle props and set pieces from this one. Be on the lookout for a spinner in the junkyard in ''{{Soldier}}'', and check out Craig Bierko's apartment in ''TheThirteenthFloor''.
** Some of the Lord of Darkness' palace interiors from ''{{Legend}}'' (most notably, the huge, spiraling columns) were featured in this film.
* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler:Roy Batty, rescuing and sparing Deckard's life just before his death. And Deckard himself: if he is a replicant, he will die very soon "paying" for the replicants he killed in the name of the state.]]
* RiddleForTheAges: PhilipKDick's characters don't always know what's real and what's not real. There's not supposed to be a "right answer." Filmmakers are most faithful to the source material when they leave the ambiguities in, whether intentionally or not. RidleyScott chose to disregard this advice.
* RidiculousFutureInflation: Deckard has to pay a fairly infuriating price for a 30-second [[VideoPhone vidphone]] call.
* RidiculouslyHumanRobots: The Replicants are almost perfect in resemblance to regular humans, to the point where only a psychological test can detect them. Rachael takes this trope even further: she's a Replicant who thinks she is human. When Deckard tests the machine on Rachael, it takes over one hundred questions for him to determine she is a Replicant (it takes only twenty or thirty, normally). And that's not even getting into the idea [[spoiler: that Deckard may be a Replicant]].
* {{Robosexual}}: Kind of, sort of, maybe. Especially depends on if you take RidleyScott at his word. [[spoiler:Is it robosexual if two "[[RidiculouslyHumanRobots robots]]" do it?]]
* RuinedForever: If you prefer the film without the ambiguity of Deckard being human.
* RuleOfCool: There's no meaning behind the term "blade runner," used to refer to bounty hunters. The filmmakers just thought it sounds cool.
* SaveTheVillain: A reversal of this trope. Or not, depending on how you view Deckard and Batty.
* SceneryPorn: Throughout the film, especially during the extended aerial shots without dialog.
* SheFu: Zhora and Pris.
* SlapSlapKiss: Rachael and Deckard don't actually hit each other, but Deckard is very rough and dominating with her before they fall into each others' arms.
* SmartPeoplePlayChess: Tyrell and Sebastian regularly play chess. The replicant Roy Batty tricks his way into Tyrell's presence by demonstrating his chess skills.
* SpiritualSuccessor: To the 1920s silent film ''{{Metropolis}}'', in the minds of most critics; see above.
* StockFootage: Not quite "stock", but reused. At one point, a computer displays a clip from ''{{Alien}}'', and more noticeably, the original theatrical ending was [[spoiler:actually one of the alternate opening credits sequences for ''TheShining''.]]
* TakeThatKiss: In the scene where Deckard forcibly seduces Rachael.
* TanksForTheMemories: Rachael is given a copy of the memories of Tyrell's niece.
* TannhauserGate: Roy Batty's famous death speech. TropeNamer.
* ThighHighBoots: Zhora wears them during her chase/fight with Deckard.
* ThrowItIn: Somehow "The tiny elevator whizzes down the huge nighttime pyramid" turned into [[FasterThanLightTravel stars zooming past the elevator cage]] on the screen. Since [[ArtisticLicenseAstronomy there is no way you would actually see this]] from an earthbound elevator, as anybody who has ever strolled down a hill at night intuitively understands, the result was to inject an unintentional FlashBack into the visuals at that point ... which luckily fit together with Roy's FinalSpeech a few minutes later.
** Or, it's a view of the constant falling rain from Roy's perspective in the glass elevator...
* TomatoInTheMirror:
** Rachael initially believed herself to be human, based on memories duplicated from Tyrell's niece (named Sarah in the novels).
** Depending on the version, [[spoiler: Deckard]] is hinted to various degrees to be a replicant with false memories himself, something that was overtly teased in the book. The film's director RidleyScott says he is, while Harrison Ford and both of the film's writers say he is not. That particular argument is [[InternetBackdraft a good way to make enemies]] in the fandom. It's ''that'' divisive.
** Interestingly, the climactic confrontation between Deckard and Roy Batty takes place in the Bradbury Building -- which was also the setting of "Demon With a Glass Hand", the classic TomatoInTheMirror episode of ''TheOuterLimits''. This probably was ''not'' accidental.
** Additional behind-the-scenes material on the [=DVDs=] reveals that the movie script contained a scene in which [[spoiler:Roy Batty, after killing Tyrell, enters a lab adjacent to Tyrell's penthouse apartment and finds out that the ''real'' scientist Tyrell died years ago; Roy Batty finds a cloning chamber and evidence that the "Tyrell" he killed was also merely a replicant, programmed with Tyrell's memories.]]
* TooDumbToLive: Tyrell, Tyrell, Tyrell. When your angry, vengeful creation is holding you at gunpoint demanding you perform a medical procedure on him, the correct answer is not to explain why that procedure would be fatal, it's to ''perform it anyway''. Possibly justified in that his idolization of Roy as his ultimate creation may have been stronger than his self-preservation.
* TrashcanBonfire: Visible during Deckard's pursuit of Zhora.
* TroubledProduction: One of the most (in)famous in movie history.
* TurnedAgainstTheirMasters: The replicants, angry over their servitude and intentionally limited lifespan. A lifespan that was limited in order to curb the development of rebellious anger, even.
* {{Ubermensch}}: Roy Batty was intentionally created to be one, with a genius-level intellect. He naturally becomes the leader of the escaped replicants.
* UglyHeroGoodLookingVillain: The final showdown. Compare the grimy, grizzled, blood-smeared form of Deckard to the nearly naked, nearly flawless body of Roy Batty. May or may not be an inversion and/or subversion depending on who you regard to be the hero and villain of the piece. During the '80s Harrison Ford was well-known for getting his ass kicked on camera really well.
* UnfortunateImplications: Deckard's, uh, ''politically incorrect'' love scene with Rachael.
* UsedFuture
* VideoPhone: Deckard has a vidphone in his car, which he uses to call Sebastian's residence, only for his call to be answered by Pris.
* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: A major theme in the film.
* WhiteHairedPrettyBoy / WhiteHairedPrettyGirl: Both Roy and Pris have almost white, platinum blond hair, possibly because they're near the end of their lifespans.
* WeAreAsMayflies: Inverted with the Replicants, who only live four years before they shut off.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: An earlier draft of the script, called "Dangerous Days" would have been a far more action-packed affair, including a famous unused scene where Deckard shot a seemingly innocuous man, then took his skull apart to reveal mechanical components.
* WindowPain: Zhora's retirement.
* YoungerThanTheyLook: Sebastian has an aging disease, making him look over fifty when he's in fact in his twenties. Replicants never live past four, by design.
* YourApprovalFillsMeWithShame: After Deckard kills Zhora, Brian tells Gaff that he could lean a thing or two from Deckard and refers to him as a "God-damned one-man slaughterhouse" with a huge grin on his face. Deckard's expression at this point is one of utter disgust, though it's not quite clear if it's disgust at Brian for his praise, or disgust at himself because he knows Brian is right.
* {{Zeerust}}: Can be partially overlooked as UsedFuture, but every FlyingCar looks an awful lot like cars from TheEighties with jet-like parts added. The rather boxy and overly clicky photo analyzer is similarly dated -- but on the other hand, the ''absolutely insane'' resolution of the photo itself is still something that modern photographers would kill for.

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::[-''It's too bad she won't live. But then again, who does?''-]
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* BoomHeadshot: How [[spoiler: Leon]] meets his destiny.

* LackOfEmpathy: Why letting Replicants run around is a bad idea. Unlike most examples, though, it's played for sympathy, since it's implied that their callous nature is more akin to young children then any real quality of being a Replicant-they literally don't live long enough to understand what is and isn't right.

* SmartPeoplePlayChess: Tyrell and Sebastian regularly play chess. The replicant Roy Batty tricks his way into Tyrell's presence by demonstrating his chess skills.
** The game Tyrell and Batty play is a re-creation of a famous chess match, known as [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immortal_Game The Immortal Game]].

* Some of the Lord of Darkness' palace interiors from ''{{Legend}}'' (most notably, the huge, spiraling columns) were featured in this film.

Deckard is a Blade Runner. His job is to [[DeadlyEuphemism "retire"]] renegade [[ArtificialHuman Replicants]] -- they are not supposed to be on Earth. Some of the most advanced replicants yet have escaped, and Deckard has to retire them. But they are so like normal humans that Deckard can't help but empathize with them, and he even falls for one.

* FlipFlopOfGod: Is Deckard a replicant?

''Blade Runner'' was loosely based on the [[PhilipKDick Philip K. Dick]] novel ''DoAndroidsDreamOfElectricSheep?'' The title itself comes from the novel ''The Bladerunner'' by Alan E. Nourse[[hottip:*:though in a roundabout fashion; the writer Hampton Fascher, took it from a William S. Burrough adaptation Blade_Runner_(a_movie) which was originally meant to be a treatmen of Nourse's novel but became its own novella]]. Other than the title, the movie has nothing to do with ''The Bladerunner''. It just [[RuleOfCool sounded cool]].

* ProductPlacement: The dreaded Blade Runner Curse struck many of the brands featured in the movie. Atari was hammered by TheGreatVideoGameCrashOf1983, barely survived, and is now a shadow of its former self. Pan-Am is long extinct. Coca-Cola launched New Coke shortly after the movie was released, but managed to survive anyway. Bell was broken up for monopolistic practices. Cuisinart went bankrupt and was bought out by a rival company, living on only as a brand name. Budweiser seems to have dodged the Curse, though.\\

[=RCA=] (big neon sign out Deckard's apartment window), as a company, bit the dust in '86. (The name is still trademarked by Sony, however, and sometimes used on products that come from its daughter companies.) TDK, whose sign appears on the building opposite the Bradbury near the end, seems to have made it through more or less OK--although its sign is partially obscured.

* GlamourFailure: [[hottip:*:Despite the name, this trope is when inhuman characters aren't very good at hiding the fact.]] Replicants are identical to humans. The only reliable way to detect them is the Voight-Kampff test which monitors answers and subtle physical response to emotional questions.

* AwesomeYetPractical: The neon lit umbrellas carried by the people in the background.

* BilingualBonus: Gaff's Multilingual Cityspeak. Lófasz! Nehogy már!

* CyberPunk: possibly an UnbuiltTrope: without computer networks or virtual reality, it's just another sci-fi dystopia. The genre, however, has been informed by it for ''decades''. Even William Gibson despaired on seeing it, because it featured the exact kind of visuals he had in mind for ''{{Neuromancer}}'' and he was afraid he'd be accused of ripping it off.

* CyberpunkWithAChanceOfRain: ''Blade Runner'' is probably responsible for associating CyberPunk settings and constantly rainy weather in popular imagination. TropeCodifier.
* DarkenedBuildingShootout: The final encounter between Deckard and Batty involves gunplay in a darkened building.

* FamousLastWords: Roy Batty's famous lines, "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 the Tannhauser Gate. All these moments will be lost in time ... like tears ... in rain. Time to die."

* FantasticRacism: The sexually-charged racial-slur "Skin-job" says a ''lot'' about how a person who uses it thinks of replicants, as [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded by the much-maligned narration of the non-director's cut.]]

* FarEast: The film runs a kind of "the future is Asian" thing with a mishmash of East Asian cultural stereotypes: Geishas in advertising, Chinese noodle stalls, Japanese and Chinese writing scattered about, broken {{Engrish}}, squadrons of bicycles ridden through squalid streets by people in big hats etc.

* ForcefulKiss: Deckard to Rachel.

* [[TheFutureisNoir The Future Is Noir]]: ''Blade Runner'' practically invented a genre by mixing Film Noir aesthetics and CyberPunk themes.

* GainaxEnding: In the DirectorsCut. Although there's a general, and movie-changing, implication, the details are unclear, at best. What was up with that [[spoiler:unicorn]]? [[hottip:* :Don't try to explain it here, people -- take it to the Wild Mass Guessing page instead. It's open to interpretation.]]

** Also quite telling in the scene where Deckard practically [[RapeIsLove forces Rachael to kiss him]], whereas Batty and Pris are much more caring between one another.

* LettingHerHairDown: Rachael.

* NonindicativeName: There is nary a blade to be found in this movie. The term "blade runner" comes from ''The Blade Runner'', a completely unrelated dystopian novel in which the term refers to someone who sells black market medical supplies. RidleyScott bought the rights to the novel so that he could use the term in his film for no other reason than that it [[RuleOfCool sounds cool]]. Also, given a certain [[FollowTheLeader thematic similarity]] to an earlier dystopian action film, it was just clever marketing to use a title with the word "[[LogansRun runner]]" in it.

* PrecisionFStrike: "I want more life... fucker!" There are cuts where Roy says "Father" instead. It is extremely interesting to see how a single word can completely change the mood of the scene.

** The game Tyrell and Batty play is a re-creation of a famous chess game, known as [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immortal_Game The Immortal Game]].

* TakeThatKiss: In the scene where Deckard ... forcibly seduces ... Rachael.

* TannhauserGate: Roy Batty's famous death speech. Trope namer.
* ThighHighBoots: Zhora wears them during he chase/fight with Deckard.

** Depending on the version, Deckard is hinted to various degrees to be a replicant with false memories himself, something that was overtly teased in the book. The film's director RidleyScott says he is, while Harrison Ford and both of the film's writers say he is not. That particular argument is [[InternetBackdraft a good way to make enemies]] in the fandom. It's ''that'' divisive.

* LackOfEmpathy: Why letting Replicants run around is a bad idea. Unlike most examples, though, it's played for sympathy, since it's implied that their unsympathetic nature is more akin to young children then any real quality of being a Replicant.

* AbuseIsLove: Deckard and Rachael's "romance" has elements of this.

* EyeScream: [[spoiler: Tyrell's death]].

* WhiteHairedPrettyBoy / WhiteHairedPrettyGirl: Both Roy and Pris have almost white, platinum blond hair.

* AmbiguouslyHuman: The Replicants.

*** Bearing in mind however, that the man whose head Roy Batty crushed is the man responsible for installing him and his fellow replicants with a retirement date, you cant really blame him. To me he is more a Type III