# BLADE RUNNER: Ford, Hauer, Young, Olmos, Hannah's Best Movie Ever? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 30, 2010, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blade-runner-ford-hauer-young-olmos-hannahs-best-movie-ever/537830 "2010-04-30T04:22:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blade-runner-ford-hauer-young-olmos-hannahs-best-movie-ever/537830/81 "2010-05-01T15:15:08Z")
Heck, by that standard _Total Recall_ qualifies as film noir. ---
**Author:** ![JoelUpchurch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blade-runner-ford-hauer-young-olmos-hannahs-best-movie-ever/537830/82 "2010-05-01T20:19:06Z")
If Deckard knew about Tyrell’s niece’s spider memory, why couldn’t have someone have recorded Deckard’s memory also and Gaffe know about the Unicorn dream from the recordings. I could easily believe that Bryant decided to do some spelunking around Deckard’s memory and Gaffe had access to the records. BTW, M. Emmet Walsh did a pretty good job in the movie also, but not as good as Blood Simple. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blade-runner-ford-hauer-young-olmos-hannahs-best-movie-ever/537830/83 "2010-05-01T20:24:13Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > To be fair, the film diverges significantly from the source material, to the point that they really are two different stories connected by only a few character names and basic concepts. In the book, the main character is _Rick_ Deckard, he’s still married if unhappily, he’s a bounty hunter rather than a police officer, and he detects Rachael to be a replicant because she kills his goat. In the book, the “androids” do not have genuine emotions and are not capable of empathy, so the themes of the book and the film are distinctly different. Can’t recall now where I read this, but somebody said that the book is “anti-robot” (humans have something that no robot ever could) while the movie is “pro-robot” (there’s no fundamental difference). ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blade-runner-ford-hauer-young-olmos-hannahs-best-movie-ever/537830/84 "2010-05-01T21:10:37Z")
> [@JoelUpchurch](#): > > If Deckard knew about Tyrell’s niece’s spider memory, why couldn’t have someone have recorded Deckard’s memory also and Gaffe know about the Unicorn dream from the recordings. I could easily believe that Bryant decided to do some spelunking around Deckard’s memory and Gaffe had access to the records. When is this recording supposed to have taken place? ---
**Author:** ![Rrose\_Selavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bcef8e/32.png) [@Rrose\_Selavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rrose_Selavy)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blade-runner-ford-hauer-young-olmos-hannahs-best-movie-ever/537830/85 "2010-05-01T21:35:44Z")
Yes great film Ok you fans might know I know the title was taken from the Burroughs story but apart from that, is there any connection made in the film to the title ? ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blade-runner-ford-hauer-young-olmos-hannahs-best-movie-ever/537830/86 "2010-05-01T21:42:44Z")
> [@Rrose\_Selavy](#): > > is there any connection made in the film to the title ? Well, the term “blade runner” is _mentioned_ a couple times in the movie, but I don’t think there are any thematic or plot elements from the Burroughs story. (For those who don’t know, the “book” we’ve been referring to is by Philip K. Dick.) ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blade-runner-ford-hauer-young-olmos-hannahs-best-movie-ever/537830/87 "2010-05-01T21:48:14Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > The movie _only_ makes sense if Deckard is a replicant. I don’t get this. It makes sense either way, doesn’t it? Thematically, I think it’s much better if Deckard is human, but you could still see the story through with him as a replicant. But how does it \*not make sense \*for him to be human? ---
**Author:** ![JoelUpchurch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blade-runner-ford-hauer-young-olmos-hannahs-best-movie-ever/537830/88 "2010-05-01T23:14:08Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > When is this recording supposed to have taken place? Before the movie starts, maybe before he quits. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blade-runner-ford-hauer-young-olmos-hannahs-best-movie-ever/537830/89 "2010-05-01T23:37:53Z")
> [@](#): > > Can’t recall now where I read this, but somebody said that the book is “anti-robot” (humans have something that no robot ever could) while the movie is “pro-robot” (there’s no fundamental difference). Dick seems to be pretty fond of robots-as-menace in his stories in general. And the many movies made from Dick’s work are often very loose adaptations, but that’s OK, since they’re often better than the original. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2010, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blade-runner-ford-hauer-young-olmos-hannahs-best-movie-ever/537830/90 "2010-05-02T01:09:20Z")
O.K., let’s get straight how the title of the movie came about: > **[Blade Runner](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner)** > > Blade Runner is a 1982 science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott, and written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples. Starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, and Edward James Olmos, it is an adaptation of Philip K. Dick's 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? The film is set in a dystopian future Los Angeles of 2019, in which synthetic humans known as replicants are bio-engineered by the powerful Tyrell Corporation to work on space colonies. When a fugitive group of ad Bl... The producer of the film bought the rights to a film treatment (i.e., not a script, but a prose description of a script) that had been written by William Burroughs based on the novel _The Bladerunner_ by Alan Nourse. Although the producer and the director liked the title, they apparently had no intention of making a film from it. They instead just decided to use a variation of the title for the film that they were already preparing to make from the Philip K. Dick novel. The film treatment was later turned into a novella by Burroughs. I read it a few years ago, since it was published as a pamphlet at one point. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2010, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blade-runner-ford-hauer-young-olmos-hannahs-best-movie-ever/537830/91 "2010-05-02T02:08:10Z")
> [@JoelUpchurch](#): > > Before the movie starts, maybe before he quits. And is this a recurring dream of Deckard’s, or is the replicant software sophisticated enough to predict dreams months or years in advance, to the day? ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2010, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blade-runner-ford-hauer-young-olmos-hannahs-best-movie-ever/537830/92 "2010-05-02T02:33:29Z")
It was Youngs best Ford is the same in all his movies pretty good but not great Hannah was just as good in Kill Bill as Blade Runner. Hauer was at his best in this movie ,oddly giving his most nuanced and sensitive role as a replicant. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2010, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blade-runner-ford-hauer-young-olmos-hannahs-best-movie-ever/537830/93 "2010-05-02T05:54:02Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > If you think that Deckard was a replicant, you’ve missed the point. And if you think that he wasn’t a replicant, you’ve also missed the point. The point isn’t that he is or is not a replicant; the point is that it doesn’t matter whether he is one or not. The point is that you cannot tell the difference whether Deckard is human or replicant without making a judgment that flies in the face of evidence going the other way. Such is life. Are we human, or are we other? Is another human, or other? And Ford’s best movie was Raiders of the Lost Ark, which as a movie perfectly achieved what it set out to do. The Empire Strikes Back was a masterpiece too, but it wasn’t really a Harrison Ford vehicle. ---
**Author:** ![Rrose\_Selavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bcef8e/32.png) [@Rrose\_Selavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rrose_Selavy)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2010, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blade-runner-ford-hauer-young-olmos-hannahs-best-movie-ever/537830/94 "2010-05-02T12:56:38Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > O.K., let’s get straight how the title of the movie came about: > > [Blade Runner - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner) > > The producer of the film bought the rights to a film treatment (i.e., not a script, but a prose description of a script) that had been written by William Burroughs based on the novel _The Bladerunner_ by Alan Nourse. Although the producer and the director liked the title, they apparently had no intention of making a film from it. They instead just decided to use a variation of the title for the film that they were already preparing to make from the Philip K. Dick novel. The film treatment was later turned into a novella by Burroughs. I read it a few years ago, since it was published as a pamphlet at one point. . But what I still wonder exactly were the references to the title in the film that are mentioned previously in this thread? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2010, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blade-runner-ford-hauer-young-olmos-hannahs-best-movie-ever/537830/95 "2010-05-02T18:37:41Z")
The folks like Deckard who hunt down rogue replicants are called blade runners. It’s never explained why they’re called that, though, beyond it sounding cool. ---
**Author:** ![JoelUpchurch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2010, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blade-runner-ford-hauer-young-olmos-hannahs-best-movie-ever/537830/96 "2010-05-02T19:03:44Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > The folks like Deckard who hunt down rogue replicants are called blade runners. It’s never explained why they’re called that, though, beyond it sounding cool. In the Nourse story Bladrunners were people who smuggled contraband medical supplies, including scalpels, hence the term Bladerunners as a riff on the term Rumrunners. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2010, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blade-runner-ford-hauer-young-olmos-hannahs-best-movie-ever/537830/97 "2010-05-02T21:35:51Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > No love for Alien? You know better than to ask me about **Alien**. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2010, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blade-runner-ford-hauer-young-olmos-hannahs-best-movie-ever/537830/98 "2010-05-02T21:43:00Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > The folks like Deckard who hunt down rogue replicants are called blade runners. It’s never explained why they’re called that, though, beyond it sounding cool. It’s vaguely hinted at when Rachel asks Deckard if he’d ever retired a human by mistake and points out that this is a risk. But I agree that coolness is by far the largest factor. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2010, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blade-runner-ford-hauer-young-olmos-hannahs-best-movie-ever/537830/99 "2010-05-03T04:51:38Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > And Ford’s best movie was Raiders of the Lost Ark, which as a movie perfectly achieved what it set out to do. Sure, but what _Raiders…_ set out to do was less ambitious and interesting than what _Blade Runner_ set out to do. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2010, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blade-runner-ford-hauer-young-olmos-hannahs-best-movie-ever/537830/100 "2010-05-03T11:31:58Z")
> [@TreacherousCretin](#): > > the origami unicorn serves no other purpose in the story except to confirm, loud and clear, that Gaff knows Deckard’s dreams, just as Deckard knew Rachel’s. It’s as simple as that. Case closed. > > BUT… a few years ago I got into a long and sincere argument with someone (who also loves the movie); I challenged him to reconcile Gaff’s unicorn with Deckard being human, and damned if he didn’t. I can’t remember what his explanation was except for its being convoluted, but his theory did work. Well, consider this: > **[9. What is the significance of the unicorn? (Blade Runner)](https://stason.org/TULARC/movies/blade-runner/9-What-is-the-significance-of-the-unicorn-Blade-Runner.html)** > > When Deckard leaves his apartment with Rachael at the end of the film, she ... If the unicorn can serve a purpose even _ **without** _ the dream, then it can keep serving that purpose _ **or** _ some other purpose with the dream. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blade-runner-ford-hauer-young-olmos-hannahs-best-movie-ever/537830.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blade-runner-ford-hauer-young-olmos-hannahs-best-movie-ever/537830.md?page=6)