More human than human: Evolution of the Blade Runner saga

Chennai

Here’s a look at the evolution of the series: 

Blade Runner (1982) 

• Adapted from a sci-fi novel by Philip K Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? 
• Set in Los Angeles in a dystopian 2019, the film tells the story of artificial humans or replicants manufactured by the Tyrell Corporation, who are employed as slave labour in offworld colonies. As a group of fugitive replicants, led by the enigmatic Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) escape to earth to rebellion, a world-weary cop Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) is enlisted to hunt them down. 
• Things take a turn when Deckard falls in love with Rachel (Sean Young), a replicant and begins questioning everything he stands for. 

High points Of the cult film

• The film is the gold standard when it comes to adaptations of sci-fi novels by Philip K Dick, like Total Recall (Paul Verhoeven) and Minority Report (Steven Spielberg). 
• A flop at the time of release, the film has attained masterwork status subsequently, with top directors drawing inspiration from its themes. 
• There are close to seven different versions of the film. The version approved by Ridley Scott is called the Final Cut.
• The film the most elegiac of death scenes, with Rutger Hauer’s Roy Batty saving Deckard’s life, and closing his heart-breaking, monologue, “All these moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.” 

Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

• The film is set 30 years after the first Blade Runner film and stars Ryan Gosling as K, a cop, who assigned with quelling the Replicant Resistance. His task is to find and destroy a child, born from the union of two Replicants, who could instigate a full-blown war between humans and replicants. 
• The film also stars Ana De Armas and Robin Wright Penn. It harkens back to the world of the first film, while creating an original narrative. 
• There are few films this year that can match up to the visual and CGI-spectacle served up by legendary cinematographer Roger Deakins. The score by Hans Zimmer helps propel the narrative forward in exciting new directions.  

— Compiled by Bijoy Bharathan 

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