Blade Runner - Caravan Of Garbage

The Weekly Planet

The hosts conduct a deep dive into the legacy and production history of the sci-fi classic Blade Runner. They explore the differences betwee

Key takeaways

The 2007 version of Blade Runner significantly alters the film's meaning by removing the original voiceover narration.
Ridley Scott utilized a 'nighttime, wet, and smoke' filming philosophy to create depth and hide budget constraints.
The name 'Blade Runner' may have been inspired by an Alan NRS novel about medical equipment smugglers.
Rutger Hauer famously improvised the emotional weight of the 'tears in rain' monologue.
Production was plagued by union issues and difficult lighting conditions that affected the cast and crew.

Main topics

Blade Runner production history
Cyberpunk aesthetic and visual design
The Replicant identity debate

Notable quotes

All those moments will be lost in time like tears in rain.

Conclusion

A nostalgic and informative look at how technical constraints and crea

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) Welcome back everybody to another episode of Caravan of Garbage where Blade Runner Oh yes Trilogy It's on everybody's lips and minds Yeah, in a Speaker 2 (0:08) way It's making a mind, lip Speaker 1 (0:10) Connection Connection, yes With the machine that breathes and looks at your eye You better believe it Speaker 2 (0:15) does And it says, Speaker 1 (0:15) you're a robot! Sure. That's what it says. Absolutely it does. Yes. Please leave a like because... Please. Speaker 2 (0:24) Please. We're hanging on by a thread here. Also, this is one of those movies where we're like, or certainly I'm like, I don't know if I'm qualified to cover this. Speaker 1 (0:31) Well, Mason, you say that. Please leave a like. But you studied this at high school, which makes me think that not only have you seen the movie and all the versions, you've read the book it was loosely based off and its sequel novels. All three or four of them. Speaker 2 (0:44) By KW Jita? No, I haven't. I haven't at all, but I remember when they came out. Speaker 1 (0:49) Yeah. And Speaker 2 (0:49) I'm Speaker 1 (0:49) like, ooh, intriguing. But? Speaker 2 (0:51) I didn't. I was going to say also, I wish I, I remember that I had a bunch of, we got handed like a big packet of like A4 notes stapled together, like of, of like. The Speaker 1 (1:01) themes and what have you. Okay, I hate that. Speaker 2 (1:03) I wish I had them still. Because it's the last vestige of like notes on these movies that weren't made with chat GPT. Like some actual human involvement in the making of those. I wish I had them. So I could just read off them verbatim as if I wrote them. Speaker 1 (1:17) I mean, that's interesting also that your school wasn't like... What did you get out of this? It's like, here's every printed off thought about Blade Runner and what it means and who's a replicate and if the machine that breathes screams at you that you're a robot or whatever. It does. But did this ruin the experience for you? Yeah, Speaker 2 (1:34) it did. Because that was my first experience with the movie Blade Runner. Which I think at the time was the director's cut. It Speaker 1 (1:39) would have been, yeah. I think Speaker 2 (1:40) so. Speaker 1 (1:40) Without the narration. Speaker 2 (1:42) The Speaker 1 (1:42) narration and the N-word, yes. What? Speaker 2 (1:45) Doesn't Harrison Ford say the N-word? I did Speaker 1 (1:47) not know that. Must have cut it out. Wow. Incredible. Somebody does. First off, 2019, ridiculous year to choose for this movie. Ridiculous timeline. The weather's about right, though, isn't it? I guess so. Wee-bass future also. Speaker 2 (2:02) Yeah, agreed. That they got Speaker 1 (2:03) right. Nothing wrong with that. So, yeah, as mentioned, it's loosely based on the story Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? And the answer is... Speaker 2 (2:11) Some of them do. Another Philip K. Dick special. What's his dick move in this? We'll find out, won't we? Speaker 1 (2:16) So Ridley Scott was initially working on Dune, which ended up being adapted by David Lynch, but that was taking too long, so he left. Also, his older brother died and he wanted to keep working, so he was like, you know that Blade Runner thing? That new sound I've been looking for? That's right. Give it to me. I'll do it. Listen to Speaker 2 (2:32) this. Oh, no, it's just the N-word. It's Harrison Ford phoning in the N-word. Don't listen to that. Allegedly, I don't know. It's interesting that the visual language of cyberpunk has sort of endured, like this version of it. Absolutely. Like Speaker 1 (2:44) when Speaker 2 (2:44) they do modern cyberpunk stuff, like Cyberpunk 2077, for example. Yeah. Like when you look at the silhouette of the clothes or the architecture or what have you, but no one... would ever make a piece of cyberpunk media today with a Vangelis score to it. Speaker 1 (2:58) That's a shame though, isn't it? Right? Yeah, what a bold decision. Agreed. I mean, people talk about, you know, whether or not you like or love or even were forced to look at this movie at school. The score has always remained incredible and popular. In Speaker 2 (3:11) literature class, no less. This is literature, exactly. So I've since come back to it and I'm like, oh yeah, good movie actually. Oh, you were mentioning the pre-production of this movie. So of course it was called Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? And they might. Some do. Maybe sometimes they do. But then I believe one of the options was just to call it Android. Speaker 1 (3:30) Yeah, okay. Because Speaker 2 (3:30) they're like, okay, well that's Speaker 1 (3:32) a Speaker 2 (3:32) very Philip K. Dick. name of a story. But it's in the hip, cool 80s and we want to make this cyberpunk and Asian cool. We're not going to call it Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. Absolutely. So Speaker 1 (3:42) Android Speaker 2 (3:42) was an option. At one point it was going to be called Dangerous Days. I Speaker 1 (3:46) don't like that either. No, I don't like Speaker 2 (3:47) it at all. That reminds me of Australian radio DJ Dangerous Dave. I mean, that I like. Yeah, hell yeah. Speaker 1 (3:53) But yeah, they eventually settled on Blade Runner. Do you know why? Is it because it's on a knife's edge? I don't know. I wish you had your big stack of... A4 paper, you can tell me. I Speaker 2 (4:02) don't think this was in the big stack of A4 paper. Oh, Speaker 1 (4:05) this is an original thought. No, it's not an original thought. Thank Speaker 2 (4:07) God. But there's no reference to why a Blade Runner is called The Blade Runner in this or I believe any of the subsequent movies or TV shows. It might be in the books. So there's a novel by a man named Alan Norse called The Blade Runner, which is also a dystopian future story. And it's about a United States where... Only certain people are allowed to get health care. Oh, my Speaker 1 (4:32) God. Exactly. Mason, is this a present-day novel that just came out? Speaker 2 (4:37) No, it's from the 70s or whatever. I don't know. So there's an underground network of surgeons and doctors to help people who can't get the official government health care, and the people that smuggle surgical equipment are called Blade Runners. Speaker 1 (4:50) Right. And so Speaker 2 (4:51) apparently... This Speaker 1 (4:52) sounds like that Jude Law, Forrest Whitaker movie we've talked about. Repo Man. Speaker 2 (4:56) Repo Man or Man. So I don't know if it's ever been officially confirmed, but apparently somebody in the production team had a copy of the novel and they acquired the rights Speaker 1 (5:04) to the entire thing. Just so they could use the name. Just Speaker 2 (5:07) so Speaker 1 (5:07) they could use the name. That's interesting. But it's Speaker 2 (5:09) interesting also, about the time the director's cut came out, the... Which Speaker 1 (5:14) was released as a mistake initially, by the way. They accidentally screened it and people went, oh, this is good. Yeah. We like this, the way that Harrison Ford doesn't say certain things. That's right. Speaker 2 (5:23) But at that time, as you mentioned, a series of spin-off sequel novels came out by K.W. Jeter. I believe in one of those they retroactively explain why they're called Blade Runners. Because they Speaker 1 (5:35) stole the name from that book. That's exactly right. So Hampton Fancher originally wrote the screenplay for this. And then David Peoples was brought in to expand the world because apparently it was mostly indoors and smoky rooms, which there is a lot of. And then Hampton Fanshawe was very upset by that. Great Speaker 2 (5:52) name, by the way, Hampton Fanshawe. Completely Speaker 1 (5:54) great, yeah. Speaker 2 (5:55) I don't know what else he did. Or his whole deal. Well, he did this, and that's Speaker 1 (5:58) good. Speaker 2 (5:58) I don't endorse his whole deal, Speaker 1 (6:00) all right? But then he came back on board as well to keep polishing it. And they ended up becoming really good friends, which I think is great. Anyway, we should talk about the story of this if you haven't seen it or studied it at school. Speaker 2 (6:11) Sure. Speaker 1 (6:11) Okay. And Ridley Scott, bearing in mind, regards this as his most complete and personal film. Presumably the 2007 version, which is the one that we watched. But he also said that Dog Stars was his best film. But then he took that back. Maybe I can't remember. Speaker 2 (6:24) And he said Paul Meskel was a big loser for being in Gladiator 2. Dude. Speaker 1 (6:30) Yeah. Is that true that he is? He is, and that's what he said. Great. So anyway, it's the far-flung future of 2019. Oh, my Speaker 2 (6:38) God. Can you imagine? Yep. Imagine the kind of flying cars we'll have in Speaker 1 (6:41) 2019. Can't Speaker 2 (6:42) wait Speaker 1 (6:42) to see it. I hate flying cars now. It's just cars with big propellers. You can't convince me that's a proper flying car. That's a whirly gig, if anything. Speaker 2 (6:50) Absolutely. It's some sort of fantabulous contraption. Speaker 1 (6:54) So anyway, there's a... Humanity has created, the Tyrell Corporation, I guess, specifically, these machines called replicants, which very closely mimic humans. They are humans. They are humans, yes. They're humans, Speaker 2 (7:05) they're just stronger than humans. Speaker 1 (7:07) Yeah, and they can... Speaker 2 (7:08) They bleed red blood. Yep. They have thoughts and feelings and emotions. Totally. Speaker 1 (7:12) And so Speaker 2 (7:13) they're Speaker 1 (7:13) used for slave labor and combat and things like that. But the replicants, because they're just humans, they don't like that. So there's various rebellions and uprisings as a result of this. And the newest models... Nexus 6s. Nexus 6s. A few of them have got loose. And not only have they got loose, they've come back to Earth, which is considered very unusual because they don't normally do that. Because anybody of substance or who has any money or who can... is not on Earth anymore. Yeah. Speaker 2 (7:39) Because Speaker 1 (7:39) Earth sucks now. That's Speaker 2 (7:41) right. Because it's Speaker 1 (7:41) 2019, which was true. Speaker 2 (7:42) Although they're always like, it's interesting that like the off-world colonies are considered this kind of dream. Speaker 1 (7:48) But it's like, are they though? I Speaker 2 (7:50) mean, why are they advertising them to the down and outs of this scumbag city? Good point. If they're so good. Speaker 1 (7:55) Well, maybe, you know, we'll see one of those off-world colonies in the movie we look at next week. Maybe. And maybe it's not Blade Runner 2049. So anyway, these replicants come back for reasons unknown, but it turns out it's because they only have a four-year lifespan, so they're tracking down their creator to extend their lifespan. Speaker 2 (8:12) And, Speaker 1 (8:12) you know, the narrative is framed, and then you've got people called Blade Runners. Harrison Ford is one whose job it is to track down replicants and... tie them and by that I mean shoot them in the back. Speaker 2 (8:22) Yeah, as they run away. Speaker 1 (8:23) As they run away. And I guess, you know, there's the moral ambiguity of this is that what does count as life? Replicants. Replicants. Who deserves to exist? Replicants. It parallels, you know, obviously to real world events. And who's really the bad guy? Deckard. Yeah, for the most part. Speaker 2 (8:41) Yeah. But Speaker 1 (8:41) also there's Speaker 2 (8:42) a Speaker 1 (8:42) little twist on that character. Oh, is there? Okay. For Deckard. Deckard AIDS. Speaker 2 (8:48) Very good.