Blade Runner is a 1982 American science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, and Sean Young. The screenplay, written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, is loosely based on the novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick.
The film depicts a dystopian Los Angeles in November 2019 in which genetically engineered organic robots called replicants—visually indistinguishable from adult humans—are manufactured by the powerful Tyrell Corporation as well as by other "mega–manufacturers" around the world. Their use on Earth is banned and replicants are exclusively used for dangerous, menial or leisure work on Earth's off-world colonies. Replicants who defy the ban and return to Earth are hunted down and "retired" by police special operatives known as "Blade Runners". The plot focuses on a brutal and cunning group of recently escaped replicants hiding in Los Angeles and the burnt out expert Blade Runner, Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), who reluctantly agrees to take on one more assignment to hunt them down.
Blade Runner initially polarized critics: some were displeased with the pacing, while others enjoyed its thematic complexity. The film performed poorly in North American theaters but, despite the box office failure of the film, it has since become a cult classic and is now widely regarded as one of the best movies ever made. Blade Runner has been hailed for its production design, depicting a "retrofitted" future, and it remains a leading example of the neo-noir genre. Blade Runner brought the work of author Philip K. Dick to the attention of Hollywood and several later films were based on his work. Ridley Scott regards Blade Runner as "probably" his most complete and personal film. In 1993 Blade Runner was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Seven versions of the film have been shown for various markets as a result of controversial changes made by film executives. A rushed Director's Cut was released in 1992 after a strong response to workprint screenings. This, in conjunction with its popularity as a video rental, made it one of the first films released on DVD, resulting in a basic disc with mediocre video and audio quality. In 2007 Warner Bros. released The Final Cut, a 25th anniversary digitally remastered version by Scott in selected theaters, and subsequently on DVD, HD DVD, and Blu-ray Disc.
Among the folklore that has developed around the film over the years has been the belief that the film was a curse to the companies whose logos were displayed prominently as product placements in some scenes. While they were market leaders at the time, more than half experienced disastrous setbacks during the next decade. Atari dominated the home video game market when the film came out, but was making losses by the 1990s. Cuisinart and Pan Am went bankrupt in 1989 and 1991 respectively. The Bell System monopoly was broken up in the year of the film's release. The Coca-Cola Company suffered losses during its failed introduction of New Coke in 1985, but soon afterwards regained its market share.
It was announced on August 18, 2011 that Ridley Scott was to be at the helm of a new Blade Runner movie, either a sequel or a prequel, with filming to begin no earlier than 2013 and a release for the following year. Indications from producer Andrew Kosove were that Harrison Ford was unlikely to be involved in the project.
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