History YMMV / BladeRunner

* DesignatedHero: Rick Deckard in all versions is a low-rent cop who hunts down and murders humanoid robots for a living. He (arguably) forces himself on Rachael, and his killing of Replicants is often quite dishonorable (shooting Zhora in the back) and others when they are injured and weak. Likewise the end of the film has [[spoiler:Roy Batty saving his life, not because he respects Deckard but precisely because he has contempt for him and his kind, and his act of rescue is meant to spite Deckard and taunt him about his lack of worth]].

* ActorAllusion: Or rather, a possible case of musician allusion. Creator/RutgerHauer improvised part of Roy Batty's famous dying "Tears in rain" monologue. The phrase "tears in rain" resembles the title of the popular song ''Rain and Tears'' of ''Music/AphroditesChild'', written by Music/{{Vangelis}} and performed by Demis Roussos. Vangelis went on to compose the score for ''Film/BladeRunner'' and Roussos contributed the vocals, so it's possible that Rutger Hauer included the line as a tribute to the creators of the film score.
** Apparently, the filming was completed well before the film score was composed, but Hauer may still have been aware of Vangelis and Roussos' intended involvement in the project.

** Much, [[SturgeonsLaw if not most]], of science fiction has not substantially improved upon this film's take on the boundaries and nature of humanity in light of advanced androids. Today, while its take on the topic is still more artful than most, it can seem as thematically uninspired as the works that have failed to use it and its kin as philosophical stepping stones.

** Roy's soliloquy in the rain, often listed as one of the finest moments of the science fiction genre and cinema in general. It even has its [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tears_in_rain_monologue own page]] on Wiki/{{Wikipedia}}.

** Roy Batty's "tears in rain" monologue, to the point where [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tears_in_rain_monologue it has its own article]] on Wiki/TheOtherWiki.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: The synth-heavy soundtrack, treasure trove of ProductPlacement for defunct or dethroned companies, analog monitors, primitive computer displays, and heavy use of MiniatureEffects all date this film to the early 80's. The soundtrack in particular is representative of synthesizer-driven music in a pre-SynthPop era; even though the latter genre emerged around 1977 and became the dominant form of music by the time of the film's release, Music/{{Vangelis}}' much more ambient-oriented score is very much tethered to an era in which synths were utilized in a more experimental and/or musically progressive context.

* MagnificentBastard: Roy Batty is a [[Characters/BladeRunnerReplicants Replicant]] and former soldier model who is driven to gain more life for himself and his partners from his "father", Dr. Eldon Tyrell. Stealing to Earth while eluding all pursuers, Roy has his lover Pris seduce the Tyrell [[Characters/BladeRunnerCorporations Corporation]] engineer Sebastian to provide access to Tyrell, whereupon Roy learns his wish is impossible. Killing Tyrell and Sebastian, Roy engages the [[Characters/BladeRunnerBladeRunnersAndLAPD Blade Runner cop]] Rick Deckard in battle, but ends up saving and sparing Deckard despite having the cop dead to rights. Using his last moments to impart a few of his memories to Deckard, Roy ensures he will not be forgotten even as he notes his own memories shall be gone "like tears in rain", proving himself one of the most complex, charismatic and dynamic antagonists in sci-fi cinema.

* MagnificentBastard: Roy Batty is a [[Characters/BladeRunnerReplicants Replicant]] and former soldier model who is driven to gain more life for himself and his partners from his "father", Dr. Eldon Tyrell. Stealing to Earth while eluding all pursuers, Roy has his lover Pris seduce the Tyrell [[Characters/BladeRunnerCorporations Corporation]] engineer Sebastian to provide access to Tyrell, whereupon Roy learns his wish is impossible. Killing Tyrell and Sebastian, Roy engages the [[Characters/BladeRunnersAndLAPD Blade Runner cop]] Rick Deckard in battle, but ends up saving and sparing Deckard despite having the cop dead to rights. Using his last moments to impart a few of his memories to Deckard, Roy ensures he will not be forgotten even as he notes his own memories shall be gone "like tears in rain", proving himself one of the most complex, charismatic and dynamic antagonists in sci-fi cinema.

* MagnificentBastard: Roy Batty is a replicant and former soldier model who is driven to gain more life for himself and his partners from his "father", Eldon Tyrell. Stealing to Earth while eluding all pursuers, Roy has his lover Pris seduce the engineer Sebastian to provide access to Tyrell, whereupon Roy learns his wish is impossible. Killing Tyrell and Sebastian, Roy engages the Blade Runner cop Deckard in a battle, but ends up saving and sparing Deckard, using his last moments to impart a few of his memories to Deckard, ensuring he will not be forgotten even as he notes his own memories shall be gone "like tears in rain", proving himself one of the most complex, charismatic and dynamic antagonists in sci-fi cinema.

** [[spoiler: The dying Pris thrashing on her back as if she's throwing a temper tantrum]]. Even between viewings, this scene doesn't necessarily age well. It does not help that the female stunt actress was too exhausted to do the preceding scenes and they had to get a ''man'' in poor makeup to do it. As noted on the [[NightmareFuel/BladeRunner Nightmare Fuel page]], though, many people find that scene disturbing because of how [[UncannyValley unnatural and jerky her movements are]]. That is, she really does look like a robot shorting out or something.

** [[spoiler: Pris thrashing around wildly as she dies]] is, to a lot of people, far more disturbing than goofy, thanks to the [[UncannyValley violently jerky, inhuman]] movements.

** Roy's soliloquy in the rain, often listed as one of the finest moments of the science fiction genre and cinema in general. It even has its [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tears_in_rain_monologue own page]] on Wiki/TheOtherWiki.

* UncannyValley: Sebastian's toys are played by little people in prosthetics, and make some very inhuman, jerky movements. The replicants avert this trope as they are so human, physically and emotionally, but the scene where Pris disguises herself as one of the toys has her wearing some pretty UncannyValleyMakeup.

* ActorAllusion: Or rather, a possible case of musician allusion. Creator/RutgerHauer improvised part of Roy Batty's famous dying "Tears in the rain" monologue. The phrase "tears in the rain" resembles the title of the popular song ''Rain and Tears'' of ''Music/AphroditesChild'', written by Music/{{Vangelis}} and performed by Demis Roussos. Vangelis went on to compose the score for ''Film/BladeRunner'' and Roussos contributed the vocals, so it's possible that Rutger Hauer included the line as a tribute to the creators of the film score.

*** Coca-Cola launched the infamous New Coke shortly after the movie was released, although managed to bounce back stronger than ever.

*** [=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, as well as [[Creator/RCARecords the venerable record label]].)

** The 1985 game for the 8-bit home computers, on the other hand, was nothing special. Though, for rights reasons, that's technically an adaptation of the Vangelis sound track.

* VindicatedByHistory: Upon its initial release, the film was advertised as an action movie, met with mixed reviews and an underwhelming box office performance (it did decently and made back its budget, but it was in no way the hit that The Ladd Company assumed it would be. It also had the bad luck of coming out the week after the much anticipated ''Film/ETTheExtraTerrestrial'' hit theaters). In the ensuing years it became a CultClassic in its director's cut, and is now generally considered one of the greatest science fiction films of all time.

* ActorAllusion: Or rather, a possible case of musician allusion. Creator/RutgerHauer improvised part of Roy Batty's famous dying "Tears in the rain" monologue. The phrase "tears in the rain" resembles the title of the popular song ''Rain and Tears'' of ''Music/AphroditesChild'', written by Music/Vangelis and performed by Demis Roussos. Vangelis went on to compose the score for ''Film/BladeRunner'' and Roussos contributed the vocals, so it's possible that Rutger Hauer included the line as a tribute to the creators of the film score.

* ActorAllusion: Or rather, a possible case of musician allusion. Creator/RutgerHauer improvised part of Roy Batty's famous dying "Tears in the rain" monologue. The phrase "tears in the rain" resembles the title of the popular song ''Rain and Tears'' of ''Music/AphroditesChild'', written by Creator/{{Vangelis}} and performed by Demis Roussos. Vangelis went on to compose the score for ''Film/BladeRunner'' and Roussos contributed the vocals, so it's possible that Rutger Hauer included the line as a tribute to the creators of the film score.

* ActorAllusion: Or rather, a possible case of musician allusion. Creator/RutgerHauer improvised part of Roy Batty's famous dying "Tears in the rain" monologue. The phrase "tears in the rain" resembles the title of the popular song ''Rain and Tears'' of ''Music/AphroditesChild'', written by Creator/Vangelis and performed by Demis Roussos. Vangelis went on to compose the score for ''Film/BladeRunner'' and Roussos contributed the vocals, so it's possible that Rutger Hauer included the line as a tribute to the creators of the film score.

** From the 1997 game adaptation is Clovis reciting "[[Creator/WilliamBlake The Tyger]]" while threatening the pet store owner in the opening, which gives the initial impression that the writers took the "WarriorPoet" concept [[LiteralMinded far too literally]] and ended up writing the BigBad as a big dork.

-->'''Tyrell:''' You were made as well as we could make you.
-->'''[[spoiler:Roy]]:''' But not to last.
-->'''Tyrell:''' The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long. And you have burned so very, very brightly, [[spoiler:Roy]].
* TrueArtIsAngsty:
** Played straight with the film's look and themes. The inevitability of death and mortality are both a major focus of the story, as is self-doubt and a feeling of entrapment, plus a good deal of existential angst over what it means to be human. Further emphasized by the Miltonian antagonist Roy Batty, Deckard's apparent alcoholism and depression, and the deliberately and artistically dark neo-noir aesthetic to highlight these themes.
** Goes full well for the 1997 video game as well. Ray is subject to mind games from multiple factions, making him question his own identity and humanity. In one of the endings Clovis laments that he spent his final days fighting and killing in a futile attempt to find a way to extend his own life and the lives of his fellow replicants instead of cherishing the time he had left with his friends.

** "If you can't get it up, I'm gonna have to kill ya."

--->'''Roy''': I've seen things you people wouldn't believe...

** A camp considers the "Deckard is a Replicant" theory to be an AssPull that is not even properly foreshadowed beyond the unicorn dream/origami. They often point out that, as the film establishes, the Replicants of the Nexus-7 differ from humans by being stronger and more durable than them, just the opposite of Deckard, who clearly doesn't match the Replicants in skills and only wins any fight scene by scraping by, receiving external help or fighting dirty. Moreover, if Deckard is an older Replicant model or a later up-to-date model, it makes no sense why he should be designated for a job that involves fighting down models far more advanced than he is, or what corporate interest could have an experiment based on pitting an unaware, weaker Replicant against stronger and better trained ones. Then again, "more human than human" is Tyrell's goal, and his ultimate goal is to create artificial humans, not soldiers -- and not knowing they're artificial.

*** The problem with the "Deckard is a Replicant" theory is that one of the major themes of the movie is the rise of the replicants vs. the decline of the mankind. The colonies are thriving while the Earth is decaying. The Replicants are gaining their humanity, while the mankind is losing its humanity. Roy and Deckard embody this conflict, but the juxtaposition falls apart if both Roy and Deckard were Replicants. Plus, there's already a story of a person discovering they're not human but actually a machine: Rachel. It removes the entire point of her role in the story other than as a LI if Deckard's also a Replicant.
* CommonKnowledge: Common Knowledge says the Voight-Kampff test measures how much empathy a person has. Actually, it doesn't. In the future, animals have been driven to the brink of extinction, causing humanity to fetishize them to the point they have more cultural value than actual artificial people, the replicants.[[note]] ''The book is more explicit about the cultural symbolism behind animals in 21 century [=LA=], whereas it's mostly just for flavor in the film.''[[/note]] The Voight-Kampff test measures how well a person has been indoctrinated with the animal-deification ideology that dominates the future society. A person is only deemed human if they have the appropriate cultural response to the sanctity of animal life. In keeping with the book's more explicit Nazi allegory, half the name is literally taken from Adolf Hitler's manifesto, who--as we all know--loved animals but accused the subhumans of trying to infiltrate and destroy German civilization.

For the ''VideoGame/BladeRunner'' YMMV apage see [[YMMV/BladeRunnerVideoGame here]]

** Westwood Studios released a lovingly faithful AdventureGame based on this movie in 1997. The game featured randomized plot points and the player's actions could lead the game towards thirteen different alternate endings. There's even a remastered version for [=PS4=], Xbox One, Windows, and Switch in the works.

*** The problem with the "Deckard is a Replicant" theory is that one of the major themes of the movie is the rise of the replicants vs. the decline of the mankind. The colonies are thriving while the Earth is decaying. The Replicants are gaining their humanity, while the mankind is losing its humanity. Roy and Deckard embody this conflict, but the juxtaposition falls apart if both Roy and Deckard were Replicants.

** To a modern audience, the ForcefulKiss from Deckard to Rachael has overtones of DateRape, but [[SocietyMarchesOn at the time apparently nobody complained]]. Ultimately there is still the context of Rachael not being an actual human and thus having zero knowledge of how to be physically intimate with someone, so Deckard has to teach her as they go along.

* AwardSnub: Yes, it got nominated for Visual Effects and Production design. No, Creator/RidleyScott didn't get nominated for Best Director, Creator/RutgerHauer didn't get up for Best Supporting Actor, Music/{{Vangelis}} didn't get nominated for Best Score and the film's Costume Design was overlooked.