History Trivia / BladeRunner

** Creator/RidleyScott himself wanted [[{{Music/Blondie}} Debbie Harry]] to play Pris, but she passed up on it, and later expressed regret over it.

* AccidentallyCorrectWriting: When Batty and Tyrell are arguing about how to prolong a Replicant's lifespan, Batty mentions something called "EMS". Tyrell says they already tried "Ethyl methanesulfonate" unsuccessfully. Ethyl methanesulfonate ''is'' an actual organic compound with mutagenic qualities, used in genetics. The scriptwriter later admitted he did no research for the conversation and the mention of a real compound in the TechnoBabble was coincidental.

** Creator/RutgerHauer came up with many inventive ideas for his characterization, like the moment where he grabs and fondles a dove. It is a well-known fact that most of the "Tears in Rain" speech was improvised by Hauer, who found Roy Batty's dying words in the original screenplay to be too unwieldy.

* CreatorBacklash: For a long time, Creator/HarrisonFord refused to talk about the film for years due to the miserable experience he had to make it and generally expressed dislike about the film and working with Scott, and he also disliked the whole "replicant" debate. He became more positive about in TheOughties and TheNewTens and agreed to star in the sequel. He states that part of the reason he's mellowed is how ''Blade Runner'' has gone on to inspire many young directors and he's happy to be part of a classic. Ford also likes the 2007 Final Cut version best of all versions of the film, as does Ridley Scott.

* CreatorPreferredAdaptation: Creator/PhilipKDick died less than four months before the film premiered. During production, he was critical of the screenplays and the multiple changes from the source material and the renaming of characters and concepts, but during a set visit, he saw an earlier version with the effects, mainly the opening scene showing the skyline of Future-LA and was blown away by it and was impressed by Scott despite the fact that he admitted to not having read the source material. He felt that visually and aesthetically, the film, despite his initial misgivings about its departure from his novel ''Literature/DoAndroidsDreamOfElectricSheep'' was in synch with the spirit of his ideas.

* DeletedRole: Creator/StaceyNelkin had a role as Mary, a replicant that escapes from "off-world" and comes to Earth, but budget constraints resulted in her part being cut from the film early in the period of principal photography. Some had argued that this cut character explains a conflicting exchange between Bryant and Deckard in which Bryant initially tells Deckard there are four "skin jobs" on the loose, but a few minutes later, he says six escaped, and one was killed by the "electronic gate", which should leave five.
* DeletedScene: In the scene where Deckard and Gaff find the snake scale, they were originally supposed to pull down a Murphy bed, releasing a replicant hiding inside who would fight them.

** When Deckard stops Rachael from leaving his apartment, he pushes her away from him. The expression of pain and shock on Creator/SeanYoung's face was real, as Creator/HarrisonFord had difficulties playing the scene with her, and had pushed her too hard.

** The crew had already had it up to here with Creator/RidleyScott's demands, like showing up on the very first morning of filming and deciding that he wanted the columns in the temple-like Tyrrell Corporation set flipped upside down, which took the swing gang four hours, when an interview he did with a British newspaper trickled back to L.A. Asked about the difference between British and American crews, Scott said semi-jocularly that the American crews were not as compliant as the British crews he had worked with, whose attitude he characterized as "Yes, guv'nor". Within a day a whole run of T-shirts that had "Yes, guv'nor ... my ass!" on the front and either "Creator/WillRogers never met Ridley Scott" or "You soar with eagles when you fly with turkeys" on the back had been printed and worn on the set by a few dozen crewmembers. Scott's sympathizers printed up and wore shirts of their own written "Xenophobia sucks" (Scott later said it was meant as a joke, and to defuse the situation; he thought that people would be confused by the word "xenophobia" and had to ask what it meant) and Scott wore one with a hat reading "Guv'nor" for extra mockery; the so-called T-shirt war actually helped defuse tensions on what remained a very challenging shoot.

* TheProductionCurse: The film provides something of a variation on the theme: it suffered a similar curse, but instead of cast and crew members, it was the sponsors that got hit:

** The very top of the roof of the police headquarters building was originally the ceiling of the Mothership interior from ''Film/CloseEncountersOfTheThirdKind''. The building itself is rather similar to the Tower of Babel as depicted in {{Film/Metropolis}}.

** There are a few ad-libbed lines, most notably in the FinalWords of both Leon and Roy Batty. Roy originally had a lengthier, wordy final monologue which Creator/RutgerHauer disliked for being "operatic" and not suited to the film, so he cut it down to two lines and wrote the "tears in rain" line himself.

** The pidgin Gaff speaks was largely put together by Edward James Olmos from languages he had some familiarity with.
** The iconic line "It's too bad she won't live, but then again, who does?" was also written by Edward James Olmos.

* WordOfDante: The continuiation novel ''Blade Runner 2: Edge of Human'' by Creator/KWJeter claims Pris was an insane human woman who thought she was a replicant. This and other elements of that book and its two sequels are considered CanonDiscontinuity.

The Trivia page for the Westwood video game can be found [[Trivia/BladeRunnerVideoGame here]].

* CreatorChosenCasting: Creator/PhilipKDick described Creator/RutgerHauer as "the perfect Batty – cold, Aryan, flawless".

** Ridley Scott does not think the love scene between Deckard and Racheal is very "successful" in his own words. On the commentary for the Final Cut he says he wishes the scene had more and different dialoge and that he had directed it differently. [[IWarnedYou He acknowledges that both Ford and Young did not like the direction of the scene]] and his perceived failure of it [[ItsAllMyFault is his fault]].

** Ridley Scott does not think the love scene between Deckard and Racheal is very "successful" in his own words. On the commentary for the Final Cut he says he wishes the scene had more and different dialoge and that he had directed it differently. [[IWarnedYouHe acknowledges that both Ford and Young did not like the direction of the scene]] and his perceived failure of it [[ItsAllMyFault is his fault]].

** Ridley Scott does not think the love scene between Deckard and Racheal is very "successful" in his own words. On the commentary for the Final Cut he says he wishes the scene had more and different dialoge and that he had directed it differently. [[ IWarnedYouHe acknowledges that both Ford and Young did not like the direction of the scene]] and his perceived failure of it [[ItsAllMyFault is his fault]].

-->Jaffe's screenplay was so terribly done ... Robert flew down to Santa Ana to speak with me about the project. And the first thing I said to him when he got off the plane was, "Shall I beat you up here at the airport, or shall I beat you up back at my apartment?"

* TheWikiRule: [[http://bladerunner.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page Off-World]].

* WordOfSaintPaul: Creator/HarrisonFord has stated that he believed Deckard to not be a replicant, as being one would undercut the theme of his character rediscovering his own humanity, and turns the man vs. machine climactic battle into a robot vs. robot fight. His word is backed by the film's screenwriters and by co-star Rutger Hauer. Creator/RidleyScott on the other hand, claims that Deckard was always meant to be a replicant. Production documents support Ford and Co. on this. None of the screenwriters agreed with it, and this was a concept Scott devised mid-production, and as such in no ways was it planned from the start.
** As of 2023, it seems [[https://screenrant.com/blade-runner-movie-deckard-replicant-harrison-ford-response-confirmed/ Ford has come around to the idea that Deckard is a replicant.]]

* TropeNamer: TannhauserGate.

* CreatorChosenCasting: Creator/RidleyScott cast Creator/RutgerHauer without having met him, based solely on his performances in Creator/PaulVerhoeven's movies. Creator/PhilipKDick described him as "the perfect Batty – cold, Aryan, flawless".

* LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition: ''Blade Runner'' has been re-released many times. There's a Director's Cut, a Special Edition, a "Five-Disc Ultimate Collector's Edition" (that comes in the same kind of metal briefcase as the Voight-Kampff machines), and a 3-Disc 30th Anniversary Edition.[[note]]The 30th Anniversary Edition compresses three discs of the Five-Disc Ultimate Collector's Edition into one 50 GB Blu-ray Disc and adds an HD Stills Gallery.[[/note]] The 5 versions included in the two newest releases include: The 1982 Workprint, The US Theatrical Cut, The International theatrical cut, The 1992 Director's cut, and the 2007 Final Cut, but nowadays WB prefers to only sell the Final Cut. According to Wiki/TheOtherWiki there are ''two other versions'' that exist but aren't included in any set (A TV broadcast version and a sneak preview version that uses deleted scenes).

* WordOfDante: The continuiation novel ''Blade Runner 2: Edge of Human'' by Creator/KWPeter claims Pris was an insane human woman who thought she was a replicant. This and other elements of that book and its two sequels are considered CanonDiscontinuity.