Blade Runner: 7 surprising facts you never knew about the Harrison Ford classic…

Good morning, Culturedemandsgeeks.

Gearing up for Altered Carbon? Pondering those life questions?

How about, ‘you’ make a coffee and toast. Sit down. And read the article on Blade Runner… Sounds good, right?

Very few films can match the acclaim and fandom that surrounds Ridley Scott’s 1992 classic Blade Runner.

The Harrison Ford sci-fi masterpiece finally got a sequel in 2017, with Ryan Gosling teaming up with Ford on the long-awaited Blade Runner 2049.

1. Harrison Ford wasn’t the first choice for Deckard

Ridley Scott originally wanted Dustin Hoffman to play the role and despite months of pursuing him, couldn’t get him to budge on the film.

“Why the hell do you want me to play this macho character?” was apparently Hoffman’s initial response to the offer.

2. Blondie were almost in the film

Or at least Debbie Harry. The 80s popstar was apparently offered the role ‘Pris’ before Daryl Hannah.

Harry said later: “My record company didn’t want me to take time out to do a movie. I shouldn’t have listened to them”.

3. (A well known fact) The Tears In Rain speech was improvised

Rutger Hauer’s iconic speech has been analysed by more media studies students than just about any movie moment. However, it wasn’t planned to be like that.

Apparently, Hauer ditched half the line because he thought the script was too long and added in the famous line (“All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.”) himself.

4. The film is connected to The Shining

The closing scene in the theatrical cut uses footage from Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining.

Kubrick apparently agreed because he was a big Alien fan and was willing to do the favour for Ridley Scott.

The two films also star Joe Turkel, who plays Dr Eldon Tyrell in Blade Runner and Lloyd the ghostly bartender in The Shining.

5. It’s very different from Philip K Dick’s book

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep wasn’t set in Los Angeles, has Deckard still employed and never once mentions the words blade runner or replicants.

The term Blade Runner originates from William S Borough’s 1979 sci-fi novel, while replicants was inspired by David Webb People’s daughter who was studying cell replication when the film was being developed.

6. Blade Runner and Alien are connected

In the Blu-ray release of Prometheus, Ridley Scott fans spotted a connection between the two universes.

Prometheus’ villain Peter Weyland describes a competitor of his that “ran his corporation, like a God on top of a pyramid overlooking a city of angels” and created “genetic abominations” that he “enslaved and sold off-world.”

It was also revealed that Scott actually wanted to go one step further and actually using Tyrell’s name by calling Weyland Industries the Weyland-Tyrell Corporation.

Connecting Blade Runner with Prometheus ties it together with other Ridley Scott films in the series – Alien and Predator.

7. There is a Blade Runner curse

Corporations that used product placement in the original film didn’t fare too well after the 1982 release, sparking rumours of a ‘movie curse’.

Airline Pan AM went out of business, computer game firm Atari got pushed aside by rivals and former giants RCA and Bell Phones got bought out.

Even Coca Cola suffered a failure shortly after the film with New Coke flopping.

What is Blade Runner 2049?

Thirty years after the events of the first film, a new blade runner, LAPD Officer K (Ryan Gosling), unearths a long-buried secret that has the potential to plunge what’s left of society into chaos. K’s discovery leads him on a quest to find Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), a former LAPD blade runner who has been missing for 30 years.

There you have it. Coffee drunk. Toast crumbs trickling down your chin.

We hope you enjoyed the article.

Enjoy your weekend, folks.