EQ short introduction for Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner—Michael Abbott
Ridley Scott (b. 1937)
• Major English director known for thoughtful action films.
• Alien (1979)
• Gladiator (2000)
• Black Hawk Down (2001)
• American Gangster (2007)
Blade Runner in context
• Based on the science-fiction novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick.
• Representative of the “cyberpunk” genre: deals with a dystopian future, focused on technology, and featuring a hero struggling against society (think The Matrix).
• Philip K. Dick’s novels and stories have become a central part of contemporary culture.
• Film adaptations include Minority Report, Total Recall, A Scanner Darkly, to name a few.
Some Questions to Consider
• What kind of a hero is Deckard?
• How does Blade Runner deal with issues of identity and personhood?
• How does the film confront the question of “What is real?”
• How does the style of the film work with the themes of the film?
• Do issues in this film remind you of those in other EQ texts? Which ones? Why?