Which cult film, starring Harrison Ford, was based on the story Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
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Harrison Ford Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Blade Runner
Harrison Ford (born July 13, 1942) is an American actor and film producer. He gained worldwide fame for his starring roles as Han Solo in the original Star Wars epic space opera trilogy and the title character of the Indiana Jones film series. Ford is also known for his roles as Rick Deckard in the neo-noir dystopian science fiction film Blade Runner (1982), John Book in the thriller Witness (1985), and Jack Ryan in the action films Patriot Games (1992) and Clear and Present Danger (1994). Most recently, Ford reprised his role of Han Solo in Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015).

His career has spanned six decades and includes roles in several Hollywood blockbusters; including the epic war film Apocalypse Now (1979), the legal drama Presumed Innocent (1990), the action film The Fugitive (1993), the political action thriller Air Force One (1997) and the psychological thriller What Lies Beneath (2000). Seven of his films have been inducted into the National Film Registry: American Graffiti (1973), The Conversation (1974), Star Wars (1977), The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and Blade Runner.

In 1997, Ford was ranked No. 1 in Empires "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list. As of 2016, the U.S. domestic box-office grosses of Ford's films total over US$4.7 billion, with worldwide grosses surpassing $6 billion, making Ford the highest-grossing U.S. domestic box-office star.  Ford is married to actress Calista Flockhart, who is known for playing the title role in the comedy-drama series Ally McBeal.

Early life

Ford was born at the Swedish Covenant Hospital in Chicago,  to Christopher Ford (born John William Ford; 1906-1999), an advertising executive and former actor, and Dorothy (née Nidelman; 1917-2004), a former radio actress.   A younger brother, Terence, was born in 1945. Ford's paternal grandparents, John Fitzgerald Ford and Florence Veronica Niehaus, were of Irish Catholic and German descent, respectively. Ford's maternal grandparents, Harry Nidelman and Anna Lifschutz, were Jewish immigrants from Minsk, Belarus (at that time a part of the Russian Empire). When asked in which religion he and his brother were raised, Ford has jokingly responded, "Democrat,"  "to be liberals of every stripe".  In a television interview shown in August 2000, when asked about what influence his Irish Catholic and Russian Jewish ancestry may have had on his life as a person and as an artist, Ford humorously stated, "As a man I've always felt Irish, as an actor I've always felt Jewish."Inside the Actors Studio. Harrison Ford, Season 6, Episode 613. August 20, 2000. 

Ford was active in the Boy Scouts of America, and achieved its second-highest rank, Life Scout. He worked at Napowan Adventure Base Scout camp as a counselor for the Reptile Study merit badge. Because of this, he and director Steven Spielberg later decided to depict the young Indiana Jones as a Life Scout in the film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. They also jokingly reversed Ford's knowledge of reptiles into Jones' fear of snakes.

In 1960, Ford graduated from Maine East High School in Park Ridge, Illinois. His was the first student voice broadcast on his high school's new radio station, WMTH, and he was its first sportscaster during his senior year (1959–60). He attended Ripon College in Wisconsin, where he was a philosophy major and a member of the Sigma Nu fraternity. He took a drama class in the final quarter of his senior year to get over his shyness.   Ford, a self-described "late bloomer,"  became fascinated with acting.

Early career

In 1964, after a season of summer stock with the Belfry Players in Wisconsin,  Ford traveled to Los Angeles to apply for a job in radio voice-overs. He did not get it, but stayed in California and eventually signed a $150-a-week contract with Columbia Pictures' New Talent program, playing bit roles in films. His first known role was an uncredited role as a bellhop in Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round (1966). There is little record of his non-speaking roles (or "extra" work) in film. Ford was at the bottom of the hiring list, having offended producer Jerry Tokovsky after he played a bellboy in the feature. He was told by Tokovsky that when actor Tony Curtis delivered a bag of groceries, he did it like a movie star; Ford felt his job was to act like a bellboy.  Ford managed to secure other roles in movies, such as A Time for Killing (The Long Ride Home), starring Glenn Ford, George Hamilton, and Inger Stevens.

His speaking roles continued next with Luv (1967), though he was still uncredited. He was finally credited as "Harrison J. Ford" in the 1967 Western film, A Time for Killing, but the "J" did not stand for anything, since he has no middle name. It was added to avoid confusion with a silent film actor named Harrison Ford, who appeared in more than 80 films between 1915 and 1932, and died in 1957. Ford later said that he was unaware of the existence of the earlier Harrison Ford until he came upon a star with his own name on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Ford soon dropped the "J" and worked for Universal Studios, playing minor roles in many television series throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s, including Gunsmoke, Ironside, The Virginian, The F.B.I., Love, American Style, and Kung Fu. He appeared in the western Journey to Shiloh (1968) and had an uncredited, non-speaking role in Michelangelo Antonioni's 1970 film Zabriskie Point, as an arrested student protester. Not happy with the roles being offered to him, Ford became a self-taught professional carpenter to support his then-wife and two small sons. While working as a carpenter, he became a stagehand for the popular rock band The Doors. He also built a sun deck for actress Sally Kellerman and a recording studio for Brazilian band leader Sérgio Mendes. 

Casting director and fledgling producer Fred Roos championed the young Ford, and secured him an audition with George Lucas for the role of Bob Falfa, which Ford went on to play in American Graffiti (1973). Ford's relationship with Lucas would profoundly affect his career later on. After director Francis Ford Coppola's film The Godfather was a success, he hired Ford to expand his office and gave him small roles in his next two films, The Conversation (1974) and Apocalypse Now (1979); in the latter film he played an army officer named "G. Lucas".

Milestone franchises

Star Wars

Harrison Ford's previous work in American Graffiti eventually landed him his first starring film role, when he was hired by Lucas to read lines for actors auditioning for roles in his then-upcoming film Star Wars (1977). Lucas was eventually won over by Ford's performance during these line reads and cast him as Han Solo.  Star Wars became one of the most successful movies of all time and established Ford as a superstar. He went on to star in the similarly successful Star Wars sequels, The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983), as well as the Star Wars Holiday Special (1978). Ford wanted Lucas to kill off Han Solo at the end of Return of the Jedi, saying, "That would have given the whole film a bottom," but Lucas refused.  However, in an interview in 2015, Ford admitted that "he was wrong" to want his character killed off. 

Ford reprised the role of Han Solo in the sequel Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015).  During filming on June 11, 2014, Ford suffered what is said to be a fractured ankle, when a hydraulic door fell on him. He was rushed to the hospital for treatment.  Ford's son Ben released details on his father's injury, saying that his ankle would likely need a plate and screws, and that filming could be altered slightly with the crew needing to shoot Ford from the waist up for a short time until he recovers.  Ford made his return to filming in mid-August, after a two-month layoff as he recovered from his injury.   Ford's character was killed off in The Force Awakens;  however, it was subsequently announced, via a casting call, that Ford would return in some capacity as Han Solo in Episode VIII.  In February 2016, when the cast for Episode VIII was confirmed, it has indicated that Ford won't reprise his role in the film.  When Ford was asked if his character could come back in "some form", he replied, "Anything is possible in space."  A Han Solo spin-off movie is scheduled to be made, but Ford is not involved in the production. The Daily Mail reported that Ford was paid £16 million plus a 0.5% share of the revenue to appear in The Force Awakens. In the original 1977 film, Ford was paid $10,000. 

Indiana Jones

Ford's status as a leading actor was solidified when he starred as globe-trotting archeologist Indiana Jones in the film Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), a collaboration between George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. Though Spielberg was interested in casting Ford from the start, Lucas was not, due to having already worked with the actor in American Graffiti and Star Wars, but he eventually relented after Tom Selleck was unable to accept. 

Ford went on to star in the prequel Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) and the sequel Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989). He returned to the role yet again for a 1993 episode of the television series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, and even later for the fourth film Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008). On March 15, 2016 Walt Disney Studios announced that Ford will appear in a fifth film due for release in July 2019. 

Other film work

Ford has been in other films, including Heroes (1977), Force 10 from Navarone (1978), and Hanover Street (1979). Ford also co-starred alongside Gene Wilder in the buddy-Western The Frisco Kid (1979), playing a bank robber with a heart of gold. He then starred as Rick Deckard in Ridley Scott's cult sci-fi classic Blade Runner (1982), and in a number of dramatic-action films: Peter Weir's Witness (1985) and The Mosquito Coast (1986), and Roman Polanski's Frantic (1988).

The 1990s brought Ford the role of Jack Ryan in Tom Clancy's Patriot Games (1992) and Clear and Present Danger (1994), as well as leading roles in Alan Pakula's Presumed Innocent (1990) and The Devil's Own (1997), Andrew Davis' The Fugitive (1993), Sydney Pollack's remake of Sabrina (1995), and Wolfgang Petersen's Air Force One (1997). Ford also played straight dramatic roles, including an adulterous husband in both Presumed Innocent (1990) and What Lies Beneath (2000), and a recovering amnesiac in Mike Nichols' Regarding Henry (1991).

Many of Ford's major film roles came to him by default through unusual circumstances: he won the role of Han Solo while reading lines for other actors, was cast as Indiana Jones because Tom Selleck was not available, and took the role of Jack Ryan supposedly due to Alec Baldwin's fee demands, although Baldwin disputes this (Baldwin had previously played the role in The Hunt for Red October).

1990s–2010s

Starting in the late 1990s, Ford appeared in several critically derided and commercially disappointing movies, including Six Days Seven Nights (1998), Random Hearts (1999), K-19: The Widowmaker (2002), Hollywood Homicide (2003), Firewall (2006), and Extraordinary Measures (2010). One exception was 2000's What Lies Beneath, which grossed over $155 million in the United States and $291 million worldwide. 

In 2004, Ford declined a chance to star in the thriller Syriana, later commenting that "I didn't feel strongly enough about the truth of the material and I think I made a mistake."  The role eventually went to George Clooney, who won an Oscar and a Golden Globe for his work. Prior to that, he had passed on a role in another Stephen Gaghan-written role, Robert Wakefield in Traffic. That role went to Michael Douglas.

In 2008, Ford enjoyed success with the release of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, another Lucas/Spielberg collaboration. The film received generally positive reviews and was the second highest-grossing film worldwide in 2008.  He later said he would like to star in another sequel, "...if it didn't take another 20 years to digest."

Other 2008 work included Crossing Over, directed by Wayne Kramer. In the film, he plays an immigrations officer, working alongside Ashley Judd and Ray Liotta. He also narrated a feature documentary film about the Dalai Lama entitled Dalai Lama Renaissance. 

Ford filmed the medical drama Extraordinary Measures in 2009 in Portland, Oregon. Released January 22, 2010, the film also starred Brendan Fraser and Alan Ruck. Also in 2010, he co-starred in the film Morning Glory, along with Patrick Wilson, Rachel McAdams, and Diane Keaton. 

In July 2011, Ford starred alongside Daniel Craig and Olivia Wilde in the science fiction Western film Cowboys & Aliens. To promote the film, Ford appeared at the San Diego Comic-Con International and, apparently surprised by the warm welcome, told the audience, "I just wanted to make a living as an actor. I didn't know about this." 

In 2011, Ford starred in Japanese commercials advertising the video game Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception for the PlayStation 3. In 2013, Ford co-starred in the corporate espionage thriller Paranoia, with Liam Hemsworth and Gary Oldman, and directed by Robert Luketic,  as well as Ender's Game, 42, and Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues.

On February 26, 2015, Alcon Entertainment announced Ford would reprise his role as Rick Deckard in the sequel to Blade Runner. 

Personal life

Marriages and family

Ford is one of Hollywood's most private actors, guarding much of his personal life. He has two sons, Benjamin (born 1967) and Willard, with his first wife, Mary Marquardt, to whom he was married from 1964 until their divorce in 1979. With his second wife, screenwriter Melissa Mathison, whom he married in March 1983 and from whom he was separated in August 2001 and eventually divorced, he has two more children, Malcolm and Georgia (born 1990).

Ford began dating actress Calista Flockhart after meeting at the 2002 Golden Globes, and together they are parents to her adopted son, Liam (born 2001). Ford proposed to Flockhart over Valentine's Day weekend in 2009.  They married on June 15, 2010, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where Ford was filming Cowboys & Aliens. 

Ford has three grandchildren: Eliel (born 1993), Ethan (born 2000) and Waylon (2010).  Son Benjamin, a chef and restaurateur, owns Ford's Filling Station, a gastropub at The Marriott, L.A. Live, Los Angeles.  Son Willard is the owner of Strong Sports Gym,  and was co-owner of Ford & Ching and owner of the Ludwig Clothing company. 

Back injury

In June 1983, at age 40, during the filming of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom in London, he herniated a disc in his back, forcing him to fly back to Los Angeles for an operation. He returned six weeks later. 

Ankle injury

On June 11, 2014, Ford injured his ankle during filming of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. He was airlifted to John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, England.  Ford's wife soon traveled from the U.S. to be at his hospital bedside, as it was feared that injuries sustained on the set could be worse than previously thought. Doctors suspected that his ankle might have been broken and he might have received a pelvic injury. Producers stated that filming would continue as planned. 

Aviation

Ford is a private pilot of both fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters, and owns an 800 acre ranch in Jackson, Wyoming, approximately half of which he has donated as a nature reserve. On several occasions, Ford has personally provided emergency helicopter services at the request of local authorities, in one instance rescuing a hiker overcome by dehydration.

Ford began flight training in the 1960s at Wild Rose Idlewild Airport in Wild Rose, Wisconsin, flying in a Piper PA-22 Tri-Pacer, but at $15 an hour, he could not afford to continue the training.  In the mid-1990s, he bought a used Gulfstream II and asked one of his pilots, Terry Bender, to give him flying lessons. They started flying a Cessna 182 out of Jackson, Wyoming, later switching to Teterboro, New Jersey, flying a Cessna 206, the aircraft he soloed in. 

On October 23, 1999, Harrison Ford was involved in the crash of a Bell 206L4 LongRanger helicopter (N36R). The NTSB accident report states that Ford was piloting the aircraft over the Lake Piru riverbed near Santa Clarita, California, on a routine training flight. While making his second attempt at an autorotation with powered recovery, Ford allowed the aircraft's altitude to drop to 150–200 feet before beginning power-up.  The aircraft was unable to recover power before hitting the ground. The aircraft landed hard and began skidding forward in the loose gravel before one of its skids struck a partially embedded log, flipping the aircraft onto its side. Neither Ford nor the instructor pilot suffered any injuries, though the helicopter was seriously damaged. When asked about the incident by fellow pilot James Lipton in an interview on the TV show Inside the Actor's Studio, Ford replied, "I broke it." 

Ford keeps his aircraft at Santa Monica Airport,  though the Bell 407 is often kept and flown in Jackson, Wyoming, and has been used by the actor in two mountain rescues during the actor's assigned duty time assisting the Teton County Search and Rescue. On one of the rescues, Ford recovered a hiker who had become lost and disoriented. She boarded Ford's Bell 407 and promptly vomited into one of the rescuers' caps, unaware of who the pilot was until much later; "I can't believe I barfed in Harrison Ford's helicopter!" she said later. 

Ford flies his de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver (N28S) more than any of his other aircraft, and has repeatedly said that he likes this aircraft and the sound of its Pratt & Whitney R-985 radial engine.  According to Ford, it had been flown in the CIA's Air America operations, and was riddled with bullet holes that had to be patched up. 

In March 2004, Ford officially became chairman of the Young Eagles program of the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA). Ford was asked to take the position by Greg Anderson, Senior Vice President of the EAA at the time, to replace General Charles "Chuck" Yeager, who was vacating the post that he had held for many years. Ford at first was hesitant, but later accepted the offer and has made appearances with the Young Eagles at the EAA AirVenture Oshkosh gathering at Oshkosh, Wisconsin, for two years. In July 2005, at the gathering in Oshkosh, Ford agreed to accept the position for another two years. Ford has flown over 280 children as part of the Young Eagles program, usually in his DHC-2 Beaver, which can seat the actor and five children. He is involved with the EAA chapter in Driggs, Idaho, just over the Teton Range from Jackson, Wyoming.

As of 2009, Ford appears in internet advertisements for General Aviation Serves America, a campaign by the advocacy group Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA).  He has also appeared in several independent aviation documentaries, including Wings Over the Rockies (2009),  Flying The Feathered Edge: The Bob Hoover Project (2014),  and Living in the Age of Airplanes (2015).  

Ford is an honorary board member of the humanitarian aviation organization Wings of Hope. 

On March 5, 2015, Ford's plane, believed to be a Ryan PT-22 Recruit, made an emergency landing on the Penmar Golf Course in Venice, California. Ford had radioed in to report that the plane had suffered engine failure. He was taken to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, where he was reported to be in fair to moderate condition.  Ford suffered a broken pelvis and broken ankle during the accident, as well as other injuries. 

Activism

Environmental causes

Ford is vice-chair of Conservation International  an American nonprofit environmental organization headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. The organization's intent is to protect nature.  The institution tries to combine the services or benefits of science, field work, and partnership to find global solutions to global problems. Three ways CI goes about solving nature-related problems are: 1) identifying and moving to protect locations that are crucial, such as those affecting water, food, and air; 2) working with large companies that are involved in energy and agriculture, to ensure the environment is being protected; and 3) working with governments to ensure they have the knowledge and the proper tools to construct policies that are environmentally friendly.

From its origins as an NGO dedicated to protecting tropical biodiversity, CI has evolved into an organization that works with governments, scientists, charitable foundations, and business.  CI has been criticised for links to companies with a poor environmental record such as BP, Cargill, Chevron, Monsanto and Shell and for allegedly offering greenwashing services.   CI has also been chastised for poor judgment in its expenditure of donors' money.

In September 2013, Ford, while filming an environmental documentary in Indonesia, interviewed the Indonesian Forestry Minister, Zulkifli Hasan. After the interview the Presidential Advisor, Andi Arief, accused Ford and his crew of "harassing state institutions" and publicly threatened them with deportation. Questions within the interview concerned the Tesso Nilo National Park, Sumatra. It was alleged the Minister of Forestry was given no prior warning of questions nor the chance to explain the challenges of catching people with illegal logging.     Ford was provided an audience with the Indonesian President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, during which he expressed concerns regarding Indonesia's environmental degradation and the government efforts to address climate change. In response, the President explained Indonesia's commitment to preserving its oceans and forests.  

In 1993, the arachnologist Norman Platnick named a new species of spider Calponia harrisonfordi, and in 2002, the entomologist Edward O. Wilson named a new ant species Pheidole harrisonfordi (in recognition of Harrison's work as Vice Chairman of Conservation International). 

Since 1992, Ford has lent his voice to a series of public service messages promoting environmental involvement for EarthShare, an American federation of environmental and conservation charities.

Ford has been a spokesperson for Restore Hetch Hetchy, a non-profit organization dedicated to restoring Yosemite National Park's Hetch Hetchy Valley to its original condition. 

Ford appears in the documentary series Years of Living Dangerously, which provides reports on those affected by, and seeking solutions to climate change. 

Political views

Like his parents, Ford is a lifelong Democrat,  and a close friend of former President Bill Clinton.

On September 7, 1995, Ford testified before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee in support of the Dalai Lama and an independent Tibet.   In 2008, he narrated the documentary Dalai Lama Renaissance. 

In 2003, he publicly condemned the Iraq War and called for "regime change" in the United States. He also criticized Hollywood for making violent movies, and called for more gun control in the United States. 

After Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said his favorite role of Ford's was Air Force One because he "stood up for America", Ford reasoned that it was just a film and was doubtful that Trump's presidential bid would be successful.  

Archaeology

Following on his success portraying the archaeologist Indiana Jones, Ford also plays a part in supporting the work of professional archaeologists. He serves as a General Trustee  on the Governing Board of the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA), North America's oldest and largest organization devoted to the world of archaeology. Ford assists them in their mission of increasing public awareness of archaeology and preventing looting and the illegal antiquities trade.

Selected filmography

Awards and honors

Ford received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor for Witness, for which he also received "Best Actor" BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations. He received the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the 2002 Golden Globe Awards and on June 2, 2003, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He has received three additional "Best Actor" Golden Globe nominations for The Mosquito Coast, The Fugitive and Sabrina.

He received the first ever Hero Award for his many iconic roles, including Indiana Jones and Han Solo, at the 2007 Scream Awards, and in 2008, the Spike TV's Guy's Choice Award for Brass Balls.  Both roles earned him two Saturn Awards for Best Actor in 1981 and 2015, respectively.

Ford has also been honored multiple times for his involvement in general aviation, receiving the Living Legends of Aviation Award and EAA's Freedom of Flight Award in 2009,   Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy in 2010,  and the Al Ueltschi Humanitarian Award in 2013.  In 2013, Flying Magazine ranked him number 48 on their list of the 51 Heroes of Aviation. 

Harrison Ford received the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2000. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (retitled Blade Runner: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? in some later printings) is a science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick. First published in 1968, the novel is set in a post-apocalyptic San Francisco, where Earth's life has been greatly damaged by nuclear global war. Most animal species are endangered or extinct from extreme radiation poisoning, so that owning an animal is now a sign of status and empathy, an attitude encouraged towards animals. The book served as the primary basis for the 1982 film Blade Runner.

The main plot follows Rick Deckard, a bounty hunter who is faced with killing ("retiring") six escaped Nexus-6 model androids, while a secondary plot follows John Isidore, a man of sub-par IQ who aids the fugitive androids. In connection with Deckard's mission, the novel explores the issue of what it is to be human. Unlike humans, the androids are claimed to possess no sense of empathy.

Synopsis

Background

In post-apocalyptic 1992 (or, in later editions, 2021),  after "World War Terminus," the Earth's dust-irradiated atmosphere leads the United Nations to encourage mass emigrations to off-world colonies to preserve humanity's genetic integrity, with the incentive of free personal androids: robot servants identical to humans. On Earth, owning real live animals is a status symbol for keeping up with the Joneses, because of mass extinctions and the accompanying cultural push for greater empathy that has motivated a technology-based religion called Mercerism. Poor people can only afford realistic-looking electric animals, including Deckard, who owns a robotic black-faced sheep. Mercerism uses "empathy boxes" to simultaneously link users to a collective virtual reality of communal suffering, centered on a martyr-like character, Wilbur Mercer, who eternally climbs up a hill while being hit with crashing stones.

Plot summary

Bounty hunter Rick Deckard signs on to a new police mission to earn enough money to buy a live animal to replace his electric sheep, seeking greater existential fulfillment for himself and his depressed wife, Iran. The mission involves hunting down ("retiring") a group of six Nexus-6 androids that violently went rogue after their creation by the Rosen Association. Deckard visits Rosen headquarters in Seattle to confirm the validity of a question-and-answer empathy test: a method for identifying any androids posing as humans. Deckard is greeted by Rachael Rosen, who quickly fails his test. Rachael attempts to bribe Deckard into silence, but he verifies that she is indeed a Nexus-6 android used by Rosen to try to discredit the test.

Deckard soon meets a Soviet police contact, who turns out to be one of the disguised Nexus-6 renegades. Deckard retires the android, then flies off to retire his next target: an opera-singing Nexus-6. This android, however, has him arrested by a police officer he has never met and detained at a police department he has never known. At this strange police station, Deckard's worldview is shaken when an official named Garland accuses Deckard himself of being an android. After a series of increasingly mysterious revelations at the police station, Deckard for the first time ponders the ethical and philosophical questions his line of work raises regarding android intelligence, empathy, and what it really means to be human. Phil Resch, the station's bounty hunter, finally gets testing equipment to determine if his coworkers as well as Deckard are androids or humans. Finally, Garland reveals that the entire station is a sham, completely staffed by androids, including Garland himself. Resch shoots Garland in the head and escapes with Deckard; together, they find and arrest the android opera singer, which Resch suddenly, brutally retires in cold blood. Although Resch and Deckard are now collaborating, each still worries that the other, or himself, might be an android. Deckard at last administers the empathy test to himself and Resch alike, which confirms that Resch is just a particularly ruthless human being, and that Deckard is also human.

Only three of the Nexus-6 android fugitives remain, and one, Pris Stratton, moves in to an apartment building whose only other inhabitant is John R. Isidore, a radioactively-damaged, intellectually slow human classified as a "special." The lonely Isidore attempts to befriend her. The final two rogue androids visit the building, and they all together plan how to survive. Meanwhile, Deckard with his reward money buys Iran an authentic Nubian goat. After quitting work, Deckard is pulled back in after being notified of a new lead and experiencing a vision of the prophet-like Mercer confusingly telling him to proceed though his mission is immoral. Deckard calls back upon Rachael Rosen, since her own insider knowledge as an android will aid his investigation. Rachael reveals that she and Pris are the same exact model, meaning that he will have to shoot down an android that looks just like her. Rachael coaxes Deckard to have sex, after which they mutually confess their love, but she reveals she has slept with multiple other bounty hunters in order to dissuade them from their missions. Deckard abruptly deserts her.

Isidore develops friendships with the three android fugitives, and they all watch a television program giving definitive evidence that Mercerism is a hoax. Suddenly Deckard enters the building, with supernatural warning visions of Mercer appearing to both him and Isidore. Deckard becomes legally justified in shooting down all three androids without testing them, since they attack him first, and he successfully does so. Isidore is devastated, and Deckard is soon rewarded for a record number of Nexus-6 kills in one day. When Deckard returns home, he finds Iran grieving because Rachael Rosen recently showed up and murdered their goat.

Deckard goes to an uninhabited, obliterated region of Oregon to reflect. He climbs a hill when he is hit by falling rocks and realizes this is an experience similar to Mercer's. Rushing back to his car, he stumbles abruptly upon a toad, an animal previously thought to be extinct. With newfound joy, Deckard brings the toad home, where Iran quickly discovers that it is just a robot. While Deckard is unhappy, he decides that he at least prefers to know the truth: whether the toad is real or artificial.

Adaptations

Film

In 1982, Hampton Fancher and David Peoples' loose cinematic adaptation became the film Blade Runner, which was directed by Ridley Scott. Following the international success of the film,  the title Blade Runner was also used for some later editions of the novel.

Radio

As part of their Dangerous Visions dystopia series, BBC Radio 4 broadcast a two-part adaptation of the novel. It was produced and directed by Sasha Yevtushenko from an adaption by Jonathan Holloway. It stars James Purefoy as Rick Deckard and Jessica Raine as Rachael Rosen.  The episodes were originally broadcast on Sunday 15 June and 22 June 2014.

Audiobook

The novel has been released in audiobook form at least twice. A version was released in 1994 that featured Matthew Modine and Calista Flockhart.

A new audiobook version was released in 2007 by Random House Audio to coincide with the release of Blade Runner: The Final Cut. This version, read by Scott Brick, is unabridged and runs approximately 9.5 hours over eight CDs. This version is a tie-in, using the Blade Runner: The Final Cut film poster and Blade Runner title. 

Theater

A stage adaptation of the book, written by Edward Einhorn, ran from November 18 to December 10, 2010 at the 3LD Art & Technology Center in New York  and made its West Coast Premiere on September 13, playing until October 10, 2013 at the Sacred Fools Theater Company in Los Angeles. 

Comic book

BOOM! Studios published a 24-issue comic book limited series based on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? containing the full text of the novel illustrated by artist Tony Parker.  The comic garnered a nomination for "Best New Series" from the 2010 Eisner Awards. 

Prequel Comic book

In May 2010 BOOM! Studios began serializing an eight issue prequel subtitled Dust To Dust and written by Chris Roberson and drawn by Robert Adler.  The story took place in the days immediately after World War Terminus. 

Sequels

Three novels intended to serve as sequels to both Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and Blade Runner have been published:
#Blade Runner 2: The Edge of Human (1995),
#Blade Runner 3: Replicant Night (1996),
#Blade Runner 4: Eye and Talon (2000).
These official and authorized sequels were written by Dick's friend, K. W. Jeter. They continue the story of Rick Deckard and attempt to reconcile many of the differences between the novel and the film.

Critical reception

Critical reception of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? has been overshadowed by its 1982 Ridley Scott film adaptation, Blade Runner. Of those critics who focus on the novel, several nest it predominantly in the history of Philip K. Dick's body of work. In particular, Dick's 1972 speech "The Human and the Android" is cited in this connection. Jill Galvan  calls attention to the correspondence between Dick's portrayal of the narrative's dystopian, polluted, man-made setting and the description Dick gives in his speech of the increasingly artificial and potentially sentient or "quasi-alive" environment of his present. The essential point in Dick's speech, for Galvan, is that "[o]nly by recognizing how [technology] has encroached upon our understanding of 'life' can we come to full terms with the technologies we have produced" (414). As a "bildungsroman of the cybernetic age," Galvan maintains, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? follows one person's gradual acceptance of the new reality. Christopher Palmer  emphasizes Dick's speech to bring to attention the increasingly dangerous risk of humans becoming "mechanical" (225). "Androids threaten reduction of what makes life valuable, yet promise expansion or redefinition of it, and so do aliens and gods" (ibid). Gregg Rickman  cites another, earlier and lesser known Dick novel that also deals with androids, We Can Build You, asserting that Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? can be read as a sequel.

In a departure from the tendency among most critics to examine the novel in relation to other texts by Dick, Klaus Benesch  examined Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? primarily in connection with Lacan's essay on the mirror stage. There, Lacan claims that the formation and reassurance of the self depends on the construction of an Other through imagery, beginning with a double as seen in the mirror. The androids, Benesch argues, perform a doubling function similar to the mirror image of the self, but they do this on a social, not individual, scale. Therefore, human anxiety about androids express uncertainty about human identity and society. Benesch draws on Kathleen Woodward's  emphasis on the body to illustrate the shape of human anxiety about an android Other. The debate over distinctions between human and machine, Woodward asserts, usually fail to acknowledge the presence of the body. "If machines are invariably contrived as technological prostheses that are designed to amplify the physical faculties of the body, they are also built, according to this logic, to outdo, to surpass the human in the sphere of physicality altogether" (Benesch, 391).

Awards and honors

* 1968Nebula Award nominee 
* 1998Locus Poll Award, All-Time Best SF Novel before 1990 (Place: 51) Blade Runner is a 1982 American tech noir science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott, and starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, and Edward James Olmos. The screenplay, written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, is a modified film adaptation of the 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick.

The film depicts a dystopian Los Angeles in which genetically engineered replicants, which are visually indistinguishable from adult humans, are manufactured by the powerful Tyrell Corporation. The use of replicants on Earth is banned and they are exclusively utilized for dangerous or menial work on off-world colonies. Replicants who defy the ban and return to Earth are hunted down and killed ("retired") by special police operatives known as "Blade Runners". The plot focuses on a group of recently escaped replicants hiding in L.A. 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 year following its release, the film won the prestigious  Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation. Blade Runner underperformed in North American theaters, but has since become a cult film.  Hailed for its production design, depicting a "retrofitted" future,  it remains a leading example of the neo-noir genre.  It brought the work of 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, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Blade Runner is now regarded by many critics as one of the best science fiction films ever made.

Seven versions of the film have been shown for various markets as a result of controversial changes made by film executives. A 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, which is the only one on which Scott had complete artistic freedom  and was shown in selected theaters and subsequently released on DVD, HD DVD, and Blu-ray. 

Plot

In Los Angeles in November 2019, ex-police officer Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) is detained by officer Gaff (Edward James Olmos) and brought to his former supervisor, Bryant (M. Emmet Walsh). Deckard, whose job as a "Blade Runner" was to track down bioengineered beings known as replicants and "retire" (a euphemism for killing) them, is informed that four have come to Earth illegally. As Tyrell Corporation Nexus-6 models, they have only a four-year lifespan and may have come to Earth to try to extend their lives.

Deckard watches a video of a Blade Runner named Holden administering the "Voight-Kampff" test designed to distinguish replicants from humans based on their emotional response to questions. The test subject, Leon (Brion James), shoots Holden after Holden asks about Leon's mother. Bryant wants Deckard to retire Leon and the other three replicants: Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer), Zhora (Joanna Cassidy), and Pris (Daryl Hannah). Deckard initially refuses, but after Bryant ambiguously threatens him, he reluctantly agrees.

Deckard begins his investigation at the Tyrell Corporation to ensure that the test works on Nexus-6 models. While there, he discovers that Dr. Eldon Tyrell's (Joe Turkel) assistant Rachael (Sean Young) is an experimental replicant who believes herself to be human. Rachael has been given false memories to provide an "emotional cushion". As a result, a more extensive test is required to determine whether she is a replicant.

Events are then set into motion that pit Deckard's search for the replicants against their search for Tyrell to force him to extend their lives. Roy and Leon investigate a replicant eye-manufacturing laboratory and learn of J.F. Sebastian (William Sanderson), a gifted genetic designer who works closely with Tyrell. Rachael visits Deckard at his apartment to prove her humanity by showing him a family photo, but after Deckard reveals that her memories are implants from Tyrell's niece, she leaves his apartment in tears. Meanwhile, Pris locates Sebastian and manipulates him to gain his trust.

While searching Leon's hotel room, Deckard finds a photo of Zhora and a synthetic snake scale that leads him to a strip club where Zhora works. Deckard kills Zhora and shortly after is told by Bryant to also retire Rachael, who has disappeared from the Tyrell Corporation. After Deckard spots Rachael in a crowd, he is attacked by Leon, but Rachael kills Leon using Deckard's dropped pistol. The two return to Deckard's apartment, and during an intimate discussion, he promises not to hunt her; as she abruptly tries to leave, Deckard physically restrains her, forcing her to kiss him.

Arriving at Sebastian's apartment, Roy tells Pris the others are dead. Sympathetic to their plight, Sebastian reveals that because of "Methuselah Syndrome", a genetic premature aging disorder, his life will also be cut short. Sebastian and Roy gain entrance into Tyrell's secure penthouse, where Roy demands more life from his maker. Tyrell tells him that it is impossible. Roy confesses that he has done "questionable things" which Tyrell dismisses, praising Roy's advanced design and accomplishments in his short life. Roy kisses Tyrell, then kills him. Sebastian runs for the elevator followed by Roy, who then rides the elevator down alone.  Though not shown, it is implied by Bryant via police radio that Roy also kills Sebastian.

Upon entering Sebastian's apartment, Deckard is ambushed by Pris, but he manages to kill her just as Roy returns. As Roy starts to die, he chases Deckard through the building, ending up on the roof. Deckard tries to jump to an adjacent roof, but misses and is left hanging precariously between buildings. Roy makes the jump with ease, and as Deckard's grip loosens, Roy hoists him onto the roof, saving him. As Roy's life runs out, he delivers a monologue about how his memories "will be lost like tears in rain"; Roy dies in front of Deckard, who watches silently. Gaff arrives and shouts across to Deckard, "It's too bad she won't live, but then again, who does?" Deckard returns to his apartment and finds the door ajar, but Rachael is safe, asleep in his bed. As they leave, Deckard notices a small tin-foil origami unicorn on the floor, a familiar calling card that brings back to him Gaff's final words. Deckard and Rachael quickly leave the apartment block.

Themes

Although Blade Runner is ostensibly an action film, it operates on multiple dramatic and narrative levels. It is indebted to film noir conventions: the femme fatale; protagonist-narration (removed in later versions); dark and shadowy cinematography; and the questionable moral outlook of the hero – in this case, extended to include reflections upon the nature of his own humanity.   It is a literate science fiction film, thematically enfolding the philosophy of religion and moral implications of human mastery of genetic engineering in the context of classical Greek drama and hubris.  It also draws on Biblical images, such as Noah's flood,  and literary sources, such as Frankenstein.  Linguistically, the theme of mortality is subtly reiterated in the chess game between Roy and Tyrell, based on the famous Immortal Game of 1851,  though Scott has said that was coincidental. 

Blade Runner delves into the implications of technology on the environment and on society by reaching to the past, using literature, religious symbolism, classical dramatic themes, and film noir. This tension between past, present, and future is mirrored in the retrofitted future of Blade Runner, which is high-tech and gleaming in places but decayed and old elsewhere. Ridley Scott described the film as: "extremely dark, both literally and metaphorically, with an oddly masochistic feel", in an interview by Lynn Barber for the British Sunday newspaper The Observer in 2002. Scott "liked the idea of exploring pain" in the wake of his brother's skin cancer death: "When he was ill, I used to go and visit him in London, and that was really traumatic for me."

An aura of paranoia suffuses the film: corporate power looms large; the police seem omnipresent; vehicle and warning lights probe into buildings; and the consequences of huge biomedical power over the individual are explored – especially the consequences for replicants of their implanted memories. Control over the environment is depicted as taking place on a vast scale, hand in hand with the absence of any natural life, with artificial animals substituting for their extinct predecessors. This oppressive backdrop explains the frequently referenced migration of humans to extra-terrestrial ("off-world") colonies. 
The dystopian themes explored in Blade Runner are an early example of cyberpunk concepts expanding into film. Eyes are a recurring motif, as are manipulated images, calling into question reality and our ability to accurately perceive and remember it.   

These thematic elements provide an atmosphere of uncertainty for Blade Runners central theme of examining humanity. In order to discover replicants, an empathy test is used, with a number of its questions focused on the treatment of animals – seemingly an essential indicator of someone's "humanity". The replicants appear to show compassion and concern for one another and are juxtaposed against human characters who lack empathy while the mass of humanity on the streets is cold and impersonal. The film goes so far as to put in doubt whether Deckard is human, and forces the audience to re-evaluate what it means to be human. 

The question of whether Deckard is intended to be a human or a replicant has been an ongoing controversy since the film's release.  Both Michael Deeley and Harrison Ford wanted Deckard to be human while Hampton Fancher preferred ambiguity.  Ridley Scott has confirmed that in his vision Deckard is a replicant.  

Deckard's unicorn dream sequence, inserted into the Director's Cut, coinciding with Gaff's parting gift of an origami unicorn is seen by many as showing that Deckard is a replicant – as Gaff could have accessed Deckard's implanted memories.  The interpretation that Deckard is a replicant is challenged by others who believe the unicorn imagery shows that the characters, whether human or replicant, share the same dreams and recognize their affinity,  or that the absence of a decisive answer is crucial to the film's main theme.  The inherent ambiguity and uncertainty of the film, as well as its textual richness, have permitted viewers to see it from their own perspectives. 

Production 

Casting

Casting the film proved troublesome, particularly for the lead role of Deckard. Screenwriter Hampton Fancher envisioned Robert Mitchum as Deckard and wrote the character's dialogue with Mitchum in mind.  Director Ridley Scott and the film's producers spent months meeting and discussing the role with Dustin Hoffman, who eventually departed over differences in vision. Harrison Ford was ultimately chosen for several reasons, including his performance in the Star Wars films, Ford's interest in the Blade Runner story, and discussions with Steven Spielberg who was finishing Raiders of the Lost Ark at the time and strongly praised Ford's work in the film. Following his success in films like Star Wars (1977) and Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Ford was looking for a role with dramatic depth. According to production documents, several actors were considered for the role, including Gene Hackman, Sean Connery, Jack Nicholson, Paul Newman, Clint Eastwood, Tommy Lee Jones, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Al Pacino, and Burt Reynolds.

One role that was not difficult to cast was Rutger Hauer as Roy Batty, the violent yet thoughtful leader of the replicants.  Scott cast Hauer without having met him, based solely on Hauer's performances in Paul Verhoeven's movies Scott had seen (Katie Tippel, Soldier of Orange and Turkish Delight). Hauer's portrayal of Batty was regarded by Philip K. Dick as, "the perfect Batty—cold, Aryan, flawless". Of the many films Hauer has done, Blade Runner is his favorite. As he explained in a live chat in 2001, "Blade Runner needs no explanation. It just [is]. All of the best. There is nothing like it. To be part of a real masterpiece which changed the world's thinking. It's awesome."  Hauer rewrote his character's "tears in rain" speech himself and presented the words to Scott on set prior to filming.

Blade Runner used a number of then-lesser-known actors: Sean Young portrays Rachael, an experimental replicant implanted with the memories of Tyrell's niece, causing her to believe she is human;  Nina Axelrod auditioned for the role. Daryl Hannah portrays Pris, a "basic pleasure model" replicant; Stacey Nelkin auditioned for the role, but was given another part in the film, which was ultimately cut before filming. Casting Pris and Rachael was challenging, requiring several screen tests, with Morgan Paull playing the role of Deckard. Paull was cast as Deckard's fellow bounty hunter Holden based on his performances in the tests. Brion James portrays Leon Kowalski, a combat replicant, and Joanna Cassidy portrays Zhora, an assassin replicant.

Edward James Olmos portrays Gaff. Olmos used his diverse ethnic background, and personal research, to help create the fictional "Cityspeak" language his character uses in the film.  His initial address to Deckard at the noodle bar is partly in Hungarian and means, "Horse dick [bullshit]! No way. You are the Blade ... Blade Runner." M. Emmet Walsh plays Captain Bryant, a hard-drinking, sleazy, and underhanded police veteran typical of the film noir genre. Joe Turkel portrays Dr. Eldon Tyrell, a corporate mogul who built an empire on genetically manipulated humanoid slaves. William Sanderson was cast as J. F. Sebastian, a quiet and lonely genius who provides a compassionate yet compliant portrait of humanity. J. F. sympathizes with the replicants, whom he sees as companions,  and shares their shorter lifespan due to his rapid aging disease;  Joe Pantoliano was considered for the role.  James Hong portrays Hannibal Chew, an elderly geneticist specializing in synthetic eyes, and Hy Pyke portrays the sleazy bar owner Taffey Lewis with ease and in a single take, something almost unheard-of with Scott whose drive for perfection resulted at times in double-digit takes. 

Development

Interest in adapting Philip K. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? developed shortly after its 1968 publication. Director Martin Scorsese was interested in filming the novel, but never optioned it.  Producer Herb Jaffe optioned it in the early 1970s, but Dick was unimpressed with the screenplay written by Herb's son Robert: "Jaffe's screenplay was so terribly done ... Robert flew down to Santa Ana to speak with me about the project. And the first thing I said to him when he got off the plane was, 'Shall I beat you up here at the airport, or shall I beat you up back at my apartment? 

The screenplay by Hampton Fancher was optioned in 1977.  Producer Michael Deeley became interested in Fancher's draft and convinced director Ridley Scott to film it. Scott had previously declined the project, but after leaving the slow production of Dune, wanted a faster-paced project to take his mind off his older brother's recent death.  He joined the project on February 21, 1980, and managed to push up the promised Filmways financing from US$13 million to $15 million. Fancher's script focused more on environmental issues and less on issues of humanity and religion, which are prominent in the novel and Scott wanted changes. Fancher found a cinema treatment by William S. Burroughs for Alan E. Nourse's novel The Bladerunner (1974), titled Blade Runner (a movie). Scott liked the name, so Deeley obtained the rights to the titles. Eventually he hired David Peoples to rewrite the script and Fancher left the job over the issue on December 21, 1980, although he later returned to contribute additional rewrites. 

Having invested over $2.5 million in pre-production,  as the date of commencement of principal photography neared, Filmways withdrew financial backing. In 10 days Deeley had secured $21.5 million in financing through a three-way deal between The Ladd Company (through Warner Bros.), the Hong Kong-based producer Sir Run Run Shaw and Tandem Productions. 

Philip K. Dick became concerned that no one had informed him about the film's production, which added to his distrust of Hollywood.  After Dick criticized an early version of Hampton Fancher's script in an article written for the Los Angeles Select TV Guide, the studio sent Dick the David Peoples' rewrite.  Although Dick died shortly before the film's release, he was pleased with the rewritten script and with a 20-minute special effects test reel that was screened for him when he was invited to the studio. Despite his well known skepticism of Hollywood in principle, Dick enthused to Ridley Scott that the world created for the film looked exactly as he had imagined it.  He said, "I saw a segment of Douglas Trumbull's special effects for Blade Runner on the KNBC-TV news. I recognized it immediately. It was my own interior world. They caught it perfectly." He also approved of the film's script, saying, "After I finished reading the screenplay, I got the novel out and looked through it. The two reinforce each other, so that someone who started with the novel would enjoy the movie and someone who started with the movie would enjoy the novel."  The motion picture was dedicated to Dick.  Principal photography of Blade Runner began on March 9, 1981 and ended four months later. 

In 1992, Ford revealed, "Blade Runner is not one of my favorite films. I tangled with Ridley."  Apart from friction with the director, Ford also disliked the voiceovers: "When we started shooting it had been tacitly agreed that the version of the film that we had agreed upon was the version without voiceover narration. It was a  nightmare. I thought that the film had worked without the narration. But now I was stuck re-creating that narration. And I was obliged to do the voiceovers for people that did not represent the director's interests."  "I went kicking and screaming to the studio to record it."  The narration monologues were written by an uncredited Roland Kibbee. 

In 2006, Scott was asked "Who's the biggest pain in the arse you've ever worked with?", he replied: "It's got to be Harrison ... he'll forgive me because now I get on with him. Now he's become charming. But he knows a lot, that's the problem. When we worked together it was my first film up and I was the new kid on the block. But we made a good movie."  Ford said of Scott in 2000: "I admire his work. We had a bad patch there, and I'm over it."  In 2006 Ford reflected on the production of the film saying: "What I remember more than anything else when I see Blade Runner is not the 50 nights of shooting in the rain, but the voiceover ... I was still obliged to work for these clowns that came in writing one bad voiceover after another."  Ridley Scott confirmed in the summer 2007 issue of Total Film that Harrison Ford contributed to the Blade Runner Special Edition DVD, having already done his interviews. "Harrison's fully on board", said Scott. 

The Bradbury Building in downtown Los Angeles served as a filming location, and a Warner Bros. backlot housed the LA 2019 streets. Other locations included Ennis-Brown House and the 2nd Street Tunnel. Test screenings resulted in several changes including adding a voice over, a happy ending and the removal of a Holden hospital scene. The relationship between the filmmakers and the investors was difficult, which culminated in Deeley and Scott being fired but still working on the film. Crew members created T-shirts during filming saying, "Yes Guv'nor, My Ass" that mocked Scott's unfavorable comparison of U.S. and British crews; Scott responded with a T-shirt of his own, "Xenophobia Sucks" making the incident known as the T-shirt war.  

Design

Ridley Scott credits Edward Hopper's painting Nighthawks and the French science fiction comic magazine Métal Hurlant ("Heavy Metal"), to which the artist Moebius contributed, as stylistic mood sources.  He also drew on the landscape of "Hong Kong on a very bad day"  and the industrial landscape of his one-time home in northeast England.  The visual style of the movie is influenced by the work of Futurist Italian architect, Antonio Sant'Elia.  Scott hired Syd Mead as his concept artist who, like Scott, was influenced by Métal Hurlant.  Moebius was offered the opportunity to assist in the pre-production of Blade Runner, but he declined so that he could work on René Laloux's animated film Les Maîtres du temps – a decision that he later regretted.  Production designer Lawrence G. Paull and art director David Snyder realized Scott's and Mead's sketches. Douglas Trumbull and Richard Yuricich supervised the special effects for the film.

Blade Runner has numerous deep similarities to Fritz Lang's Metropolis, including a built-up urban environment, in which the wealthy literally live above the workers, dominated by a huge building – the Stadtkrone Tower in Metropolis and the Tyrell Building in Blade Runner. Special effects supervisor David Dryer used stills from Metropolis when lining up Blade Runners miniature building shots. 

The extended end scene in the original theatrical release shows Rachel and Deckard traveling into daylight with pastoral aerial shots filmed by director Stanley Kubrick. Ridley Scott contacted Kubrick about using some of his surplus helicopter aerial photography from The Shining.   

"Spinner" is the generic term for the fictional flying cars used in the film. A spinner can be driven as a ground-based vehicle, and take off vertically, hover, and cruise using jet propulsion much like vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft. They are used extensively by the police to patrol and survey the population, and it is clear that despite restrictions wealthy people can acquire spinner licenses.  The vehicle was conceived and designed by Syd Mead who described the spinner as an "aerodyne"—a vehicle which directs air downward to create lift, though press kits for the film stated that the spinner was propelled by three engines: "conventional internal combustion, jet, and anti-gravity"  Mead's conceptual drawings were transformed into 25 working vehicles by automobile customizer Gene Winfield.  A spinner is on permanent exhibit at the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame in Seattle, Washington. 

Voight-Kampff machine

The Voight-Kampff machine is a fictional interrogation tool, originating in the novel where it is spelled Voigt-Kampff. The Voight-Kampff is a polygraph-like machine used by Blade Runners to determine whether an individual is a replicant. It measures bodily functions such as respiration, blush response, heart rate and eye movement in response to questions dealing with empathy.  In the film two replicants take the test, Leon and Rachael, and Deckard tells Tyrell that it usually takes 20 to 30 cross-referenced questions to distinguish a replicant; in contrast with the book, where it is stated it only takes "six or seven" questions to make a determination. In the film it takes more than one hundred questions to determine that Rachael is a replicant.

Music

The Blade Runner soundtrack by Vangelis is a dark melodic combination of classic composition and futuristic synthesizers which mirrors the film-noir retro-future envisioned by Ridley Scott. Vangelis, fresh from his Academy Award winning score for Chariots of Fire,  composed and performed the music on his synthesizers.  He also made use of various chimes and the vocals of collaborator Demis Roussos.  Another memorable sound is the haunting tenor sax solo "Love Theme" by British saxophonist Dick Morrissey, who performed on many of Vangelis's albums. Ridley Scott also used "Memories of Green" from the Vangelis album See You Later, an orchestral version of which Scott would later use in his film Someone To Watch Over Me. 

Along with Vangelis' compositions and ambient textures, the film's soundscape also features a track by the Japanese ensemble Nipponia – "Ogi No Mato" or "The Folding Fan as a Target" from the Nonesuch Records release Traditional Vocal and Instrumental Music – and a track by harpist Gail Laughton from "Harps of the Ancient Temples" on Laurel Records. 

Despite being well received by fans and critically acclaimed and nominated in 1983 for a BAFTA and Golden Globe as best original score, and the promise of a soundtrack album from Polydor Records in the end titles of the film, the release of the official soundtrack recording was delayed for over a decade. There are two official releases of the music from Blade Runner. In light of the lack of a release of an album, the New American Orchestra recorded an orchestral adaptation in 1982 which bore little resemblance to the original. Some of the film tracks would, in 1989, surface on the compilation Vangelis: Themes, but not until the 1992 release of the Director's Cut version would a substantial amount of the film's score see commercial release.

These delays and poor reproductions led to the production of many bootleg recordings over the years. A bootleg tape surfaced in 1982 at science fiction conventions and became popular given the delay of an official release of the original recordings, and in 1993 "Off World Music, Ltd" created a bootleg CD that would prove more comprehensive than Vangelis' official CD in 1994. A set with three CDs of Blade Runner-related Vangelis music was released in 2007. Titled Blade Runner Trilogy, the first disc contains the same tracks as the 1994 official soundtrack release, the second features previously unreleased music from the movie, and the third disc is all newly composed music from Vangelis, inspired by, and in the spirit of the movie. 

Special effects

The film's special effects are generally recognized to be among the best of all time,    using the available (non-digital) technology to the fullest. In addition to matte paintings and models, the techniques employed included multipass exposures. In some scenes, the set was lit, shot, the film rewound, and then rerecorded over with different lighting. In some cases this was done 16 times in all. The cameras were frequently motion controlled using computers.  Many effects utilised techniques which had been developed during the production of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. 

Release

Blade Runner was released in 1,290 theaters on June 25, 1982. That date was chosen by producer Alan Ladd, Jr. because his previous highest-grossing films (Star Wars and Alien) had a similar opening date (May 25) in 1977 and 1979, making the date his "lucky day".  Blade Runner grossed reasonably good ticket sales according to contemporary reports; earning $6.1 million during its first weekend in theaters.  The film was released in proximity to The Thing, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Conan the Barbarian and, most significantly, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. These big-budget science fiction/fantasy films all released in 1982 undoubtedly glutted the market. 

Critical reception

Initial reactions among film critics were mixed. Some wrote that the plot took a back seat to the film's special effects, and did not fit the studio's marketing as an action/adventure movie. Others acclaimed its complexity and predicted it would stand the test of time.  Negative criticism in the United States cited its slow pace.  Sheila Benson from the Los Angeles Times called it "Blade Crawler," and Pat Berman in The State and Columbia Record described it as "science fiction pornography".  Pauline Kael praised Blade Runner as worthy of a place in film history for its distinctive sci-fi vision, yet criticized the film's lack of development in "human terms". 

Academics began writing analyses of the film almost as soon as it was released,  in particular its dystopic aspects, its questions regarding "authentic" humanity, its ecofeminist aspects,  in genre studies  and in recent years, popular culture. The film has been the subject of academic interest over decades. 

Since its original release, the film has become a science fiction classic. Roger Ebert praised the visuals of both the original and the Director's Cut versions and recommended it for that reason; however, he found the human story clichéd and a little thin. He later added The Final Cut to his "Great Movies" list.  Critic Chris Rodley and Janet Maslin theorized that Blade Runner changed cinematic and cultural discourse through its image repertoire, and subsequent influence on films.  Blade Runner holds an 89% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a website that rates films based on published reviews by critics, averaging a score of 8.5 out of 10 from 104 reviews. The site's main consensus reads "Misunderstood when it first hit theaters, the influence of Ridley Scott's mysterious, neo-noir Blade Runner has deepened with time. A visually remarkable, achingly human sci-fi masterpiece."  Denis Villeneuve, who is to direct the Blade Runner sequel, cites the movie as a huge influence for him and many others.

Accolades

Blade Runner has won and been nominated for the following awards: 

Versions

Several different versions of Blade Runner have been shown. The original workprint version (1982, 113 minutes) was shown for audience test previews in Denver and Dallas in March 1982. Negative responses to the previews led to the modifications resulting in the U.S. theatrical version.   The workprint was shown as a director's cut without Scott's approval at the Los Angeles Fairfax Theater in May 1990, at an AMPAS showing in April 1991, and in September and October 1991 at the Los Angeles NuArt Theater and the San Francisco Castro Theatre.  Positive responses pushed the studio to approve work on an official director's cut.  A San Diego Sneak Preview was shown only once, in May 1982, and was almost identical to the U.S. theatrical version but contained three extra scenes not shown in any other version, including the 2007 Final Cut. 

Two versions were shown in the film's 1982 theatrical release: the U.S. theatrical version (117 minutes), known as the original version or Domestic Cut, released on Betamax, CED Videodisc and VHS in 1983 and Laserdisc in 1987; and the International Cut (117 minutes), also known as the "Criterion Edition" or "uncut version", which included more violent action scenes than the U.S. version. Although initially unavailable in the U.S., and distributed in Europe and Asia via theatrical and local Warner Home Video Laserdisc releases, it was later released on VHS and Criterion Collection Laserdisc in North America, and re-released in 1992 as a "10th Anniversary Edition". 

Scott's Director's Cut (1991, 116 minutes) was made available on VHS and Laserdisc in 1993, and on DVD in 1997. Significant changes from the theatrical version include: the removal of Deckard's voice-over; re-insertion of the unicorn sequence; and removal of the studio-imposed happy ending. Scott provided extensive notes and consultation to Warner Bros. through film preservationist Michael Arick, who was put in charge of creating the Director's Cut. Scott's The Final Cut (2007, 117 minutes) was released by Warner Bros. theatrically on October 5, 2007, and subsequently released on DVD, HD DVD, and Blu-ray Disc in December 2007. This is the only version over which Scott had complete editorial control.

Legacy

Cultural impact

While not initially a success with North American audiences, the film was popular internationally and garnered a cult following.  The film's dark style and futuristic designs have served as a benchmark and its influence can be seen in many subsequent science fiction films, anime, video games, and television programs. For example, Ronald D. Moore and David Eick, the producers of the re-imagining of Battlestar Galactica, have both cited Blade Runner as one of the major influences for the show.  Blade Runner continues to reflect modern trends and concerns, and an increasing number consider it one of the greatest science fiction films of all time.  It was voted the best science fiction film ever made in a poll of 60 eminent world scientists conducted in 2004.  Blade Runner is also cited as an important influence to both the style and story of the Ghost in the Shell film series, which itself has been highly influential to the future-noir genre.  

The film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry in 1993 and is frequently used in university courses.  In 2007 it was named the second most visually influential film of all time by the Visual Effects Society. 

Blade Runner is one of the most musically sampled films of the 20th century.  The 2009 album, I, Human, by Singaporean band Deus Ex Machina makes numerous references to the genetic engineering and cloning themes from the film, and even features a track titled "Replicant". 

Blade Runner has influenced adventure games such as the 2012 graphical text adventure Cypher,  Rise of the Dragon,   Snatcher,  Beneath a Steel Sky,  Flashback: The Quest for Identity, Bubblegum Crisis (and its original anime films),   the role-playing game Shadowrun, the first-person shooter Perfect Dark,  and the Syndicate series of video games.   The film is also cited as a major influence on Warren Spector,  designer of the computer-game Deus Ex, which displays evidence of the film's influence in both its visual rendering and plot. The look of the film, darkness, neon lights and opacity of vision, is easier to render than complicated backdrops, making it a popular choice for game designers.  

Blade Runner has also been the subject of parody, such as the comics Blade Bummer by Crazy comics,  Bad Rubber by Steve Gallacci,  and the Red Dwarf 2009 three-part miniseries, "Back to Earth".  

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, Atari, Bell, Cuisinart and Pan Am experienced setbacks after 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.

Media recognitions for Blade Runner include:

American Film Institute recognition

* AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies – Nominated 
* AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills – #74
* AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains: 
** Roy Batty (Villain) – Nominated
** Rick Deckard (Hero) – Nominated
* AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes: 
** "I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die." – Nominated
* AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores – Nominated 
* AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – #97
* AFI's 10 Top 10 – #6 Science Fiction Film

In other media

Before filming began, Cinefantastique magazine commissioned Paul M. Sammon to write an article about Blade Runners production which became the book Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner. 
The book chronicles Blade Runners evolution, focusing on film-set politics, especially the British director's experiences with his first American film crew; of which producer Alan Ladd, Jr. has said, "Harrison wouldn't speak to Ridley and Ridley wouldn't speak to Harrison. By the end of the shoot Ford was 'ready to kill Ridley', said one colleague. He really would have taken him on if he hadn't been talked out of it." 
Future Noir has short cast biographies and quotations about their experiences, and photographs of the film's production and preliminary sketches. A second edition of Future Noir was published in 2007. 

Philip K. Dick refused a $400,000 offer to write a Blade Runner novelization, saying: "[I was] told the cheapo novelization would have to appeal to the twelve-year-old audience" and "[it] would have probably been disastrous to me artistically." He added, "That insistence on my part of bringing out the original novel and not doing the novelization – they were just furious. They finally recognized that there was a legitimate reason for reissuing the novel, even though it cost them money. It was a victory not just of contractual obligations but of theoretical principles." Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? was eventually reprinted as a tie-in, with the film poster as a cover and the original title in parentheses below the Blade Runner title. 
Archie Goodwin scripted the comic book adaptation, A Marvel Super Special: Blade Runner, published in September 1982. 

There are two video games based on the film, one from 1985 for Commodore 64, Sinclair ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC by CRL Group PLC based on the music by Vangelis (due to licensing issues), and another action adventure PC game from 1997 by Westwood Studios. The 1997 video game featured new characters and branching storylines based on the Blade Runner world. Eldon Tyrell, Gaff, Leon, Rachael, Chew, and J.F. Sebastian appear, and their voice files are recorded by the original actors. The player assumes the role of McCoy, another replicant-hunter working at the same time as Deckard. 

The PC game featured a non-linear plot, non-player characters that each ran in their own independent AI, and an unusual pseudo-3D engine (which eschewed polygonal solids in favor of voxel elements) that did not require the use of a 3D accelerator card to play the game. 

The television film Total Recall 2070 was initially planned as a spin-off of the film Total Recall, and would eventually be transformed into a hybrid of Total Recall and Blade Runner.  The Total Recall film was also based on a Philip K. Dick story, "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale"; many similarities between Total Recall 2070 and Blade Runner were noted, as well as apparent inspiration from Isaac Asimov's The Caves of Steel and the TV series Holmes & Yo-Yo. 

The film has been the subject of several documentaries. On the Edge of Blade Runner (2000, 55 minutes) was directed by Andrew Abbott and hosted/written by Mark Kermode. Interviews with production staff, including Scott, give details of the creative process and the turmoil during preproduction. Insights into Philip K. Dick and the origins of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? are provided by Paul M. Sammon and Hampton Fancher.  Future Shocks (2003, 27 minutes) is a documentary by TVOntario.  It includes interviews with executive producer Bud Yorkin, Syd Mead, and the cast, and commentary by science fiction author Robert J. Sawyer and from film critics. Dangerous Days: Making Blade Runner (2007, 213 minutes) is a documentary directed and produced by Charles de Lauzirika for The Final Cut version of the film. It was culled from over 80 interviews, including Ford, Young, and Scott.  The documentary consists of eight chapters, each covering a portion of the film-making – or in the case of the final chapter, the film's controversial legacy.  All Our Variant Futures: From Workprint to Final Cut (2007, 29 minutes), produced by Paul Prischman, appears on the Blade Runner Ultimate Collector's Edition and provides an overview of the film's multiple versions and their origins, as well as detailing the seven-year-long restoration, enhancement and remastering process behind The Final Cut.

Sequels

Dick's friend, K. W. Jeter, wrote three authorized Blade Runner novels that continue Deckard's story, attempting to resolve the differences between the film and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?:  Blade Runner 2: The Edge of Human (1995), Blade Runner 3: Replicant Night (1996), and Blade Runner 4: Eye and Talon (2000). By 1999, Stuart Hazeldine had written a sequel to Blade Runner based on The Edge of Human, titled Blade Runner Down; the project was shelved due to rights issues.  Blade Runner co-author David Peoples wrote the 1998 action film Soldier, which was referred to by him as a "sidequel" or spiritual successor to the original film, set in the same shared universe. 

Scott considered developing a sequel, tentatively titled Metropolis. At the 2007 Comic-Con, Scott again announced that he was considering a sequel to the film.  Eagle Eye co-writer Travis Wright worked with producer Bud Yorkin for several years on the project. His colleague John Glenn, who left the project by 2008, stated the script explores the nature of the off-world colonies as well as what happens to the Tyrell Corporation in the wake of its founder's death. 

In June 2009, The New York Times reported that Scott and his brother Tony Scott were working on a Blade Runner prequel, set in 2019. The prequel, Purefold, was planned as a series of 5–10 minute shorts, aimed first at the web and then perhaps television. Due to rights issues, the proposed series was not to be linked too closely to the characters or events of the 1982 film.  On February 7, 2010, it was announced that production on Purefold had ceased, due to funding problems.  On March 4, 2011, io9 reported that Yorkin was developing a new Blade Runner film.  It was also reported that month that director Christopher Nolan was the desired choice to make the film. 

It was announced on August 18, 2011, that Scott was to direct a new Blade Runner film, with filming to begin no earlier than 2013. Indications from producer Andrew Kosove were that Ford was unlikely to be involved in the project.   Scott later said that the film was "liable to be a sequel" but without the previous cast, and that he was close to finding a writer that "might be able to help [him] deliver".  On February 6, 2012, Kosove denied that any casting considerations had been made in response to buzz that Ford might reprise his role, saying, "It is absolutely, patently false that there has been any discussion about Harrison Ford being in Blade Runner. To be clear, what we are trying to do with Ridley now is go through the painstaking process of trying to break the back of the story ... The casting of the movie could not be further from our minds at this moment."  When Scott was asked about the possibility of a sequel in October 2012, he said, "It's not a rumor—it's happening. With Harrison Ford? I don't know yet. Is he too old? Well, he was a Nexus-6 so we don't know how long he can live. And that's all I'm going to say at this stage." 

In November 2014, Variety magazine reported that Scott was no longer the director for the film and would only fulfill a producer's role. Scott also revealed that Ford's character will only appear in "the third act" of the sequel.  In February 2015, Alcon Entertainment confirmed that Scott will not be back to direct, and they were negotiating with Prisoners director Denis Villeneuve. Ford, however, will return, as will original writer Hampton Fancher, and the film is expected to enter production in mid-2016.  The sequel is set decades after the first film. Besides Ford, the film will also star Ryan Gosling in a currently undisclosed role. It is to be directed by Villeneuve and executive produced by Scott. Oscar-nominated cinematographer Roger Deakins is also attached.   On November 16, 2015, Gosling told Collider.com that he will be starring in the sequel. 

Principal photography began in July 2016. Warner Bros. will handle its domestic release, while Sony (through Columbia Pictures) will be releasing the film in all overseas territories.  On March 31, 2016, Variety reported that Robin Wright was cast in a role,  and in April Dave Bautista, Ana de Armas and Sylvia Hoeks joined the cast.      In June 2016, Mackenzie Davis and Barkhad Abdi were cast,    with David Dastmalchian and Hiam Abbass joining in July.  Originally slated for release in North America January 2018, Alcon Entertainment has now set a global release for October 6, 2017.
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