Oh Blade Runner, I could talk about it all day and all
night…haven’t done that before but start up a conversation about it and I’ll
talk about it plenty. The 1982 SciFi
Classic is not only my favorite movie of all time, it’s also a quintessential
inspiration for a lot of the Cyberpunk Genre in Anime from Ghost in the Shell
to Psycho Pass, hence why I like talking about it here on my blog. Seeing as how we’re in the middle of taking a
look at the first ever Blade Runner TV Anime, felt like I should do another
Blade Runner themed Top 5 Wednesday.
Initially I was thinking about quotes but yeesh that would be a two part
Top 5 list and next week is Thanksgiving and I have a Top 5 planned for
that. So I’m gonna just ramble on a
little bit about my Top 5 Blade Runner Scenes instead.
#5-Deckard and Rachel’s “Romantic” Scene (The
Workprint) This is supposed to be the moment where Deckard and
Rachel’s romantic storyline culminates but really, it’s not as romantic as you
think.
The way Deckard handles Rachel is
almost primal, doesn’t help his case that he’s a little plastered.
Plus the look on Rachel’s face, she’s not
enjoying this…so why is this one of my favorite scenes?
Simply put, the music.
It’s one of the reasons why I’m citing a
particular version of Blade Runner in this case.
The “Love Theme” that plays during this scene
in every other version of the film feels so out of place but the track Vangelis
uses in The Workprint, “Desolation Path”, is far superior.
It perfectly tells a tale of tragedy, regret,
desire and a hint of lust, which is every emotion being experienced by both characters
in this scene and it sucks this song wasn’t used in any other major version of
Blade Runner cause it’s my favorite musical track in the entire soundtrack.
#4-The Unicorn Scene
This scene, this changed everything I knew about Blade
Runner and did so for the better.
Don’t get
me wrong, the original cut of the movie is just fine for me, I wouldn’t love it
otherwise.
But the reintroduction of
this omitted scene opened a big door for Deckards character and it made my head
spin the first time I realized why it was in the movie at all.
The Unicorn introduces the audience to the
very real possibility that Deckard may be a Replicant and dammit I think that
makes the movie way more interesting.
So
many questions emerge from it: does Deckard know?
If he didn’t then and does now, how does he
feel?
How is he even around at all when
he’s illegal on Earth as a Replicant?
Some of these questions and more would actually fuel Blade Runner 2049’s
plot but this was where Blade Runner opened up a whole new world of deep scifi
exploration for me and I’m still gushing about it 22 years later.
#3-Deckard Kills Zora
Despite the cool sounding title, Blade Runner isn’t exactly
the most action packed scifi epic, most of its success coming from its deep,
introspective look at the bluring line between Man and Machine.
But it isn’t Action-Less, such is the case
with this centerpeice sequence.
After
failing to nab Replicant Zora at a strip bar, Deckard pursues the deadly beauty
into the streets of Los Angeles.
Its
fast and intense, made even more of the latter by watching both Cat and Mouse
try to move through the slough of congested and suffocating city streets.
It wraps up tragically beautiful as Deckard
shoots Zora multiple times from a distance and she goes crashing through
several glass windows before finally succumbing to her wounds.
Once again, Vangelis’ musical score is
perfect, perfectly capturing the emotions in Deckards soul as he and the
audience are reminded about why he quit being a Blade Runner in the first
place.
#2-Deckard does some Detecting
Deckard may be pretty good at taking down Replicants but
he doesn’t just hunt, he investigates.
After all, Blade Runner’s aren’t just glorified guns for hire, theyre
cops too.
This sequence, which
apparently
wasn’t in the original script
for the movie, sees Deckard with a bottle of booze examining every square inch
and more of a photo he found at Leon’s apartment.
It’s old school by todays standard but man
this is so cool.
Listening to Deckard
list off numerical frames and his machine beeping in reply is just so
entrancing and the more you watch and listen, the more you begin to want to
know as much as he does.
Also it’s just
so neat how in the 80’s they were able to manipulate and expand photos like
this, even titling the angle to spot Zora, something you could never spot just
simply glimpsing the polaroid.
Frak this
is just such a damn cool scene to me.
#1-Batty Kills his Creator
My God, I could write a college dissertation about this
scene for a film course.
To me, this is
a perfect scene from the way it’s shot to the dialogue to the music to the
build up and ultimate payoff.
Replicant
Roy Batty has spent the entire movie trying to meet his creator, his God, Dr.
Eldon Tyrell, to ask him to extend his lifespan.
Tyrell, more the scientist than deity that
Batty believes, lists out all the reasons why Replicants cant live past 4
years, denying Batty his one wish: more life.
Batty takes this about as well as you’d expect and at the crescendo of
the nail bitting scene, he crushes his creators head violently.
It’s so freaking poetic, beautiful, chilling
and crazy that I cant help but just watch it in awe every single time.
It's the one scene I always look forward to
every time I watch Blade Runner.
This isn’t
just a scene from my favorite movie of all time, I think it’s my favorite movie
moment in history…yeah go on and fight me on that one.
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