Blade Runner directed by Ridley Scott
Discussion Questions
1. Blade Runner is set in a desolate futuristic Los Angeles (2019). Pay careful
attention to the film's visual description of Los Angeles. How does the film use
lighting, set design, and other details to characterize Los Angeles? Pay careful
attention to the ruins and rubble that fill the city's streets. How does the setting
characterize the film as an example of the cyberpunk genre?
2. In the same context, how does the film seem to be treating the concept of race or
ethnicity? What groups have been "left behind" on earth? How does the film use
physical space to develop race relationships in the film? What do you make of
the film's association between replicants and slaves? Within the context of race,
what do you make of the character of Roy Batty?
3. What is the film's attitude towards technology? What technologies are "new" in the
futuristic world imagined by the film? What technologies seem surprisingly
obsolete to the viewer in 2005?
4. The "primary" technology in the film is the ability to produce replicants. What is
the film's attitude toward replicants? Toward the designers of replicants? How
does this idea resonate with the viewer in 2005?
5. A key puzzle raised by Blade Runner is whether we can definitively distinguish
between real humans and artificially engineered replicants. Suppose that no test
(either objective or subjectively introspective) could show this for sure. Would
that mean that a given replicant was indeed fully human?
6. One of the principle concerns in Blade Runner is with vision/sight. Identify
several sequences in the film that call attention to eyes or sight. How does the
film seem to be treating vision? Does its treatment of vision change over the
course of the film?
7. In a similar context, photographs serve an important function in Blade Runner.
Identify several sequences in the film in which photographs appear. How would
you describe the photographs? How are photos treated in the film? How are they
filmed? What function do they serve for Rachael? For Leon? For Deckard?
8. One of the more dramatic philosophical points made in the movie is that we can’t
trust our memories: they may have been implanted in us regardless of how true
they seem. What is the main reason that we trust our memories as more or less
accurate accounts of our past events? Which of your memories are real, and which
of them really come from someone else's childhood? How could you tell the
difference? Would it make a difference? That is, would it be important which of
your memories were your own? Or should we rather have the attitude that Cypher
takes towards living in the Matrix: – " Ignorance is bliss" – it doesn't matter if it's
an illusion. What comparisons can you make between the treatment of memory
and identity in Blade Runner and in Memento?
9. The director’s cut version of the movie made an alteration to the original
theatrically-released story line: at the close of the movie it seems clear that
Rachael has a short replicant life-span, rather than a full human life-span.
Assuming that she and Deckard safely escape, does this make the ending that
much less happy?
10. Another alteration in the director’s cut is that questions are raised about whether
Deckard himself is a replicant. What is the main indication of this, and what sort
of impact should this have on Deckard, particularly in view of his feelings about
Rachael?
11. A moral message of the movie is that it was wrong to enslave the replicants and
use them as forced labor since they were so human-like in both appearance and
thought process. What would need to be different about replicants in order for us
to feel that it was OK to use them for labor?
12. Read the article below, “What is Cyberpunk?” Then read Bruce Bethke’s short
story, “Cyberpunk.” In a short essay of at least 250 words , discuss the
comparisons you can make between Blade Runner and “Cyberpunk” as examples
of the same genre.
What is Cyberpunk?
http://www.hatii.arts.gla.ac.uk/MultimediaStudentProjects/00-01/0003637k/project/html/condef.htm
Cyberpunk: A science-fiction subgenre characterized by countercultural antiheroes
trapped in a dehumanized, high-tech future.
The term cyberpunk was first coined by Bruce Bethke in his short story “Cyberpunk”
published in 1983. "Cyber" was derived from cybernetics, a control theory that studies,
for example, human/machine interaction and is often used in connection with information
technology. "Punk" was taken from punk rock music, suggesting an urban anti-
establishment sensibility.
Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction. It originally referred to a school of American
science fiction writers but has come to mean a sub-genre of science fiction culture in
general. It is also sometimes used to refer to various technological sub-cultures,
especially those using information technology, like the hackers.
Before cyberpunk became established as a genre, it existed as "The Movement", a literary
community of young writers disappointed with the state of the mainstream science
fiction. The writers, most notably Bruce Sterling, Rudy Rucker and John Shirley
exchanged ideas, short stories and articles through a newsletter called Cheap Truth
edited by Sterling who remains the leading theorist and advocator of the genre.
The two defining moments in the birth of the genre were the publications of
Mirrorshades , an anthology of cyberpunk short stories edited by Bruce Sterling and
William Gibson's debut novel Neuromancer .
With the publication of Neuromancer in 1984, cyberpunk emerged into the public
consciousness and captured the attention of the media. The novel won all three most
prestigious science fiction awards; Hugo, Nebula, Philip K. Dick on the year of its
publication. It was critically acclaimed both for its use language as well as it's credible
speculation and visionary power. The novel established the themes and also the stylistic
traits that came to characterize cyberpunk fiction; a "street-level" point-of-view,
fragmentary narrative and fast paced plot. It is, perhaps, most famous for popularizing the
term "cyberspace", that was coined by Gibson in an earlier story called “Burning
Chrome.”
Although Gibson himself has been unwilling to categorize himself as a cyberpunk writer,
stylistic and thematic discussion of the genre has largely centered on Gibson, more
specifically his so-called Sprawl trilogy, Neuromancer ,Count Zero and Mona Lisa
Overdrive .
The publication of Mirrorshades, an anthology of short stories by the first wave of
cyberpunk writers, in 1986 was the establishing the genre as a whole. The preface of the
anthology, written by Sterling, contained the first concise definition of the genre. It tried
to establish the ideological and stylistic essence of cyberpunk and place the genre in the
tradition of science fiction.
Following the publicity created the publication Neuromancer , cyberpunk moved beyond
its literary origins. The term became widely used in the media during the 80's and its
meaning was extended to a whole range of technological sub-cultures, most importantly
the hackers. It also started to influence the whole spectrum of science fiction culture;
movies, comics and role-playing and computer games.
Although the term has been widely used in media, popular culture and literary theory to
refer to a certain kind of high-tech science fiction appearing from 1980's onward, it has
never been clearly defined without controversy. Some critics dismiss the term as an
artificially created marketing device while others argue that cyberpunk is by nature
indefinable.
Although there is no objective definition of cyberpunk, it is possible to distinguish certain
traits shared by works that are considered to represent cyberpunk.
THEMES
o Elements of the philosophical discussion of what makes something "alive"
o Discussion of whether or not artificial life forms (Be they robots or AI's)
should have citizenship/rights
o The effect on a technology entrenchment/dependence on the individual or
society.
o Legality of hacking/using neural augmentation
STOCK ELEMENTS
o Neural augmentation
o AI's
o Genetic and/or Cybernetic modifications
o Some sort of a internet. Remember, cyberpunk was created before the
internet. Some old cyberpunk books like "Islands of the Net" describe a
cyberspace that was basically a communication medium including TV,
Phone, Fax (they really emphasized the wonders of fax...), and a "Data
Feed" which seemed more like Telnet than the web.
o All form of weird mind-trips.
o Megacorporations
STYLE/BACKDROP
o A sort of gritty "streets" feeling
o Overpopulation
o Pollution
o Usually takes place on the "wrong side of the law" that sort of thing
o Highly manipulated government
o Struggle of humanity against the power of machines