History Trivia / BladeRunner

** Creator/HarrisonFord and Creator/SeanYoung didn't get on, although he tried to comfort her after she started crying following a difficult take. Ford has a very low bullshit tolerance. (If you watch the outtakes of the love scene in the ''Dangerous Days'' documentary, then the look of distaste Harrison gives Sean as he turns away from a cut is obvious.) Scott is a very demanding director. And Young was not approaching the role "professionally" i.e. she was inexperienced, flighty, and kept breaking character and ruining scenes. All of which added up to a very tired, taxed crew working for a taskmaster (Scott) and making the already-harsh working conditions even more miserable. After the cast and crew's experiences came to light post-''Blade Runner'', she was blacklisted by a large segment of the industry. [[https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/actress-sean-young-and-actor-harrison-ford-attend-the-50th-stuntmens-picture-id126371097?s=594x594 Looks like Ford has made up with her over the years, though.]]

** ''The Android Hunter'' (Brazil and Poland)

** Creator/HarrisonFord and Creator/SeanYoung didn't get on, although he tried to comfort her after she started crying following a difficult take. Ford has a very low bullshit tolerance. (If you watch the outtakes of the love scene in the ''Dangerous Days'' documentary, then the look of distaste Harrison gives Sean as he turns away from a cut is obvious.) Scott is a very demanding director. And Young was not approaching the role "professionally" i.e. she was inexperienced, flighty, and kept breaking character and ruining scenes. All of which added up to a very tired, taxed crew working for a taskmaster (Scott) and making the already-harsh working conditions even more miserable. After the cast and crew's experiences came to light post-''Blade Runner'', she was blacklisted by a large segment of the industry. Looks like Ford has made up with her over the years, though; here they are arm in arm in 2011 at a [[https://www.gettyimag

* SparedByTheCut: A downplayed example. The original version ended with Deckard knowing that Rachel, as a replicant, presumably only has four years to live. As a replicant himself, this may apply to him as well. The theatrical release added a narration to the end, offhandedly mentioning that Deckard was told that she was special and didn't have the standard replicant expiration date.

* TroubledProduction:
** The original screenwriter, Hampton Fancher, was eventually distanced from his script for being too protective, and David Peoples created the script that eventually was filmed.
** A critical financier went bankrupt at the eleventh hour, leading to some desperate deals shortly before production began.
** Creator/HarrisonFord often veered between impatient and bored during production. He also argued with Scott over whether or not Deckard was a replicant.
** Creator/SeanYoung was cast by Scott for her Creator/AvaGardner, Creator/VivienLeigh-esque looks, although many preferred another actress, Nina Axelrod. Young was unknown and also inexperienced, which seemed at times to annoy Ford.
** Given the film is mostly set at night, it was filmed at the darkest possible hours, making everyone very exhausted, not helped by the constant fake rain. It even led to a well-known blooper: when Roy Batty releases the dove, the shot of it flying is in bright day, because the one during the night shoot got soaked and couldn't be bothered to take off.
** Towards the end of principal photography an incident occurred which has become known as the T-shirt war. The majority of the crew didn't enjoy working on the film, and didn't like working for Scott, who they considered to be cold and distant. In an article in the British press, Scott commented that he preferred working with English crews because when he asked for something they would say, "Yes guvnor" and go get it, but things weren't that simple with American crews. Makeup supervisor Marvin G. Westmore saw the article and was disgusted. In retaliation, he had t-shirts printed with "Yes guvnor my ass!" on the front, and either "Will Rogers never met Ridley Scott" or "You soar with eagles when you fly with turkeys" on the back. In retaliation, Scott and several of his closer collaborators had t-shirts made with "Xenophobia sucks" on them.
** The Director of Photography, Jordan Cronenwith, suffered from Parkinson's disease and during the shoot was very weak and in a great deal of pain. By the final month of shooting, he was working from a wheelchair.
** Scott took multiple takes for seemingly innocuous scenes, leading one to wonder if he was really looking for the right look, or just infuriating his producers. It got to the point where the exasperated crew nicknamed the film ''Blood Runner''.
** The final scene was shot literally hours before the studio was going to step in and remove Scott from the project.
** Test screenings were sharply divided over the tone of the film. The producers themselves called the voiceovers "dull", and Ford himself was not a fan of them. Ford admitted later to trying to make them dull in the hope they would be removed. In the initial theatrical release, they stayed in (but were removed in the Director's Cut and Final Cut).

** [[Music/TheWho Pete Townshend]] was at one point asked to compose the music for the film. He declined due to his experiences on ''Music/{{Tommy}}''.

* Blade Runner is one of the [[https://paleofuture.gizmodo.com/the-complete-list-of-movies-and-tv-shows-on-the-interna-1782918945 533 listed movies and Tv shows on board the International Space Station.]]

* Blade Runner is one of the 533 listed movies and Tv shows on board the International Space Station.

* BigNameFan: Music/DavidBowie was highly fond of the film, to the point where when his half-brother Terry committed suicide in 1985, he sent the funeral procession a bouquet of roses with a note attached referencing Roy's "tears in rain" monologue.
-->"You've seen more things than we can imagine, but all these moments will be lost, like tears washed away by the rain. God bless you.\\
--David."

** Creator/HarrisonFord and Creator/SeanYoung didn't get on, although he tried to comfort her after she started crying following a difficult take.

* OffTheShelfFX: Along with the PropRecycling listed below, the effects crew sought just about everything to make the miniature city look more vast, including a kitchen sink covered in debris.

** ''The Android Hunter'' (Brazil)

** Stacey Nelkin auditioned for the role of Pris, but after her audition, she was offered the role of a replicant named Mary instead; the Mary role was eventually cut. Nelkin's screen test for the role of Pris appears on Disc 4 of the collector's edition DVD set.

* DeletedRole: Stacey Nelkin 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.

* DeletedRole: Stacey Nelkin 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 the role being cut 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.

** Creator/SeanYoung was cast by Scott for her Creator/AvaGardner-esque looks, although many preferred another actress, Nina Axelrod. Young was unknown and also inexperienced, which seemed at times to annoy Ford.

* CastTheRunnerUp: Stacey Nelkin auditioned for the role of Pris, but after her audition, she was offered the role of a replicant named Mary instead. The Mary role was eventually cut. Nelkin's screen test for the role of Pris appears on Disc 4 of the collector's edition DVD set.

* TheCastShowoff: Creator/DarylHannah was a skilled gymnast and put some of her skills to use.

** When Creator/DarylHannah was asked in a 2010 [[https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/feb/08/daryl-hannah-actor interview]] with ''The Guardian'' what her “career high point” was, she had this to say:
--->“''Blade Runner''. It was like ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'': we all went into another reality."

* FlipFlopOfGod:
** Is Deckard a replicant? Director Creator/RidleyScott and lead actor Creator/HarrisonFord, as well as Rutger Hauer, screenwriters Hampton Fancher and David Peoples have all had contrasting views on the subject. Scott says yes; Ford, Hauer and the screenwriters say no. The novel on which the films based, ''Literature/DoAndroidsDreamOfElectricSheep'' states that the Deckard-character is human.
** It's generally agreed upon that the evidence suggests Deckard is human in the Theatrical Cut and possibly a replicant in the Director's/Final Cuts. Albeit the hints were stronger in the 1992 version (via an extra line by Gaff that Scott removed for the Final Cut). According to Creator/MarkKermode the idea of Deckard being a replicant at all first arose from a misunderstanding between the two screenwriters (who had little contact with each other beyond shipping script revisions back and forth): One had written into the script a line about Deckard wondering about his own creator, which was intended as him comparing himself to replicants and the creator being God. The other writer thought this line meant Deckard was a replicant, and led to both thinking the other one put forth the idea first, and eventually Scott embraced it during production much to the confusion of his crew who all thought it was clear that Deckard was a human.

** 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 "Yes, guv'nor ... my ass!" T-shirts 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 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.
** Creator/HarrisonFord and Creator/SeanYoung didn't get on. Although he tried to comfort her after she started crying following a difficult take.

** Creator/DarylHannah really slipped and smashed her elbow through a car window, chipping it in eight places. In ''Dangerous Days'', she shows us the scars.

* InspirationForTheWork: According to WordOfGod the aesthetic sources for the film's futuristic setting of brilliant night lights and factories belching fire burning off waste gas, was the Port Talbot steelworks, the director having spent part of his childhood in Wales.

** Creator/RidleyScott was originally attached to direct the latest incarnation of ''Film/{{Dune}}'' until his brother, Frank Scott, died in 1980. Stricken with grief and eager to work while ''Dune'' stagnated, Ridley Scott left the project to direct ''Blade Runner'', which was all set to begin production.

** Creator/DarylHannah really slipped and smashed her elbow through a car window, chipping it in eight places.
*** In ''Dangerous Days'', she shows us the scars.

** Creator/DustinHoffman was originally cast as Deckard. Scott intended to subvert the typical image of the burly HardboiledDetective, and Hoffman would fit that well. This period of the film's pre-production got so far that even some of the early storyboards featured Hoffman's likeness on images of Deckard. Creator/SeanConnery, Creator/RobertDuvall, Creator/ClintEastwood, Creator/PeterFalk, Creator/ScottGlenn, Creator/CliffGorman, Creator/GeneHackman, Creator/JuddHirsch, Creator/RaulJulia, Creator/TommyLeeJones, Creator/PaulNewman, Creator/NickNolte, Creator/JackNicholson, Creator/AlPacino, Creator/BurtReynolds, Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger and Creator/ChristopherWalken were also considered. Creator/MartinSheen was offered the role, but he turned it down, as he was exhausted, having come off ''Film/ApocalypseNow''.

* InsertCut: When Pris kicks Deckard in the face, she's actually a ''male'' producer dressed in his costume.

** Creator/DustinHoffman was originally cast as Deckard. Scott intended to subvert the typical image of the burly HardboiledDetective, and Hoffman would fit that well. This period of the film's pre-production got so far that even some of the early storyboards featured Hoffman's likeness on images of Deckard. Creator/SeanConnery, Creator/ClintEastwood, Creator/PeterFalk, Creator/ScottGlenn, Creator/CliffGorman, Creator/GeneHackman, Creator/JuddHirsch, Creator/RaulJulia, Creator/TommyLeeJones, Creator/PaulNewman, Creator/NickNolte, Creator/JackNicholson, Creator/AlPacino, Creator/BurtReynolds, Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger and Creator/ChristopherWalken were also considered. Creator/MartinSheen was offered the role, but he turned it down, as he was exhausted, having come off ''Film/ApocalypseNow''.

* TroubledProduction: For a film now considered a sci-fi classic, its creation was a difficult process, with Ridley Scott's perfectionism and the shoot during late hours in sets soaked in fake rain exhausting just about everyone, and the studio not liking both how production was burning money like crazy and how oblique the final result was (leading to the tacked on ending and narration, later removed in the Director's and Final Cuts of the film.)

** 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 "Yes, guv'nor ... my ass!" T-shirts had been printed and worn on the set by a few dozen crewmembers. Scott's sympathizers printed up and wore shirts of their own; the so-called T-shirt war actually helped defuse tensions on what remained a very challenging shoot.
** Creator/HarrisonFord and Creator/SeanYoung didn't get on.

* TroubledProduction: For a film now considered a sci-fi classic, its creation was a difficult process:
** The original screenwriter, Hampton Fancher, was eventually distanced from his script for being too protective, and David Peoples created the script that eventually was filmed.
** A critical financier went bankrupt at the eleventh hour, leading to some desperate deals shortly before production began.
** Creator/HarrisonFord often went between impatient and bored during production.
** Creator/SeanYoung was cast by Scott for her Creator/AvaGardner-esque looks, although many preferred another actress, Nina Axelrod. Young was unknown and also inexperienced, which seemed at times to annoy Ford.
** Scott made comments during the shoot that he preferred working with UK crews (as he did with ''Alien'') which annoyed the mostly American crew.
** Scott, coming from advertising and by his own admittance very controlling over visuals, made Art Director David Snyder's position practically moot.
** The Director of Photography, Jordan Cronenwith, suffered from Parkinson's disease and during the shoot was very weak and worked in a great deal of pain; by the final month of shooting, he was working from a wheelchair.
** Scott took multiple takes for seemingly innocuous scenes, leading one to wonder if he was really looking for the right look, or just infuriating his producers.
** Test screenings were sharply divided over the tone of the film. The producers themselves called the voiceovers 'dull', and Ford himself was not a fan of them. Ford cops later to trying to make them dull in the hopes they were removed. In the initial theatrical release, they stayed in (but were removed in the Director's and Final Cuts of the film.)

* HostilityOnTheSet: Creator/HarrisonFord and Creator/SeanYoung didn't get on.

* OrphanedReference: The tortoise story is the last remnant of an environmental theme present in both the source novel and Hampton Fancher's early drafts of the screenplay. The novel features an epigram of a (real) wire service story about the death of a 200-year-old sea turtle revered as an honorary chief by the people of Tonga, and the extinction of animals is a recurring theme. In an early draft by Fancher a distraught Deckard walks through the desert and finds a dying turtle on its back and saves it by turning it over.