Blade Runner - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[edgar]

About the significance of the dove Roy releases after his death. Accounts in both the book "Future Noir" and the Dangerous Days: Making Blade Runner (2007) documentary on the Final Cut DVD indicate that the dove was an idea improvised by Rutger Hauer on the day of shooting. Hauer confirms it in his own autobiography "All Those Moments", saying it served as a replacement for a page-long piece of monologue they had intended for him. For Hauer, the dove flying away symbolized Batty's death, with his soul escaping and flying into freedom: There's a lot of symbolism there. And I don't mean Christian ones. The dove could represent Batty's soul, freedom, wings, a liberation from a certain lifestyle, all that. There's a lot of interesting connections to birds in mythologies and religions other than Christianity.

[beth]

Ridley Scott actually turned down directorial duties on the project as he was about to begin work on another science fiction adaptation, Dune (1984) and was also prepping a version of 'Tristan & Isolde'. Michael Apted, Bruce Beresford and Adrian Lyne also turned down the script. Eventually, Robert Mulligan was hired to direct the picture, and he and Hampton Fancher set about rewriting the screenplay. However, they disagreed about the direction of the project, and Mulligan left after three months. When Scott was presented with a revised version of the script, after he had left Dune (1984) due to a lack of progress, he decided to make it to take his mind off his brother Frank's recent death.It is generally believed that Scott's feelings about his brother's passing have strongly influenced the movie's dark atmosphere.

[stephanie]

Deckard's gun was based upon a real-life gun, but not a pistol. It was, rather, a double-trigger bolt-action rifle smithed by the Austrian company Steyr-Mannlicher. The propmakers cut the barrel and the stock off the gun, added a curved pistol grip and some LED's, and a legend was born. The only problem, of course, was that the gun weighed so much, nearly twice what a normal pistol weighed, and that it was chambered for 5.56mm ammunition, which required the use of special blanks when it was fired on the set.

[harry]

The question of whether or not Deckard is a replicant has a curious past. In the source novel it is clear (or as clear as possible in a Philip K. Dick novel) that Deckard is human; at one point he even takes the Voight-Kampff test and passes. Dick's theme is that it takes the androids to show Deckard the meaning of empathy and being "human;" in a sense they are "more human than human." In Hampton Fancher's final full draft (dated December 1980) Deckard muses in a voice over about who "designed" him, a philosophical theme Fancher meant to be metaphorical. David Webb Peoples's draft reworded this as Deckard being a "combat" model but later claimed that this, too, was meant to be a metaphor and that he was surprised that Ridley Scott took it literally. Harrison Ford was opposed to the idea, and Fancher felt that Scott made it too obvious. Whatever Scott's intentions, the question did not come up until the director's cut was released in 1992.

[carl]

(at around 27 mins) Outside of the eye scientist's lab, on the left hand side of the door is some graffiti in Japanese/Chinese characters that reads: "Chinese good, Americans bad."

[jeffrey]

(at around 9 mins) Translation of entire noodle-bar scene: Upon a seat becoming free at the counter, the Sushi Master (Bob Okazaki) shouts to Deckard (Harrison Ford), "Akimashita, akimashita! Irasshai, irasshai". In Japanese, "Akimashita" is the past tense of "aku", which means 'to become free'; "Irasshai" means "Welcome". So the Sushi Master is pointing at the seat and saying "It's free, it's free. Welcome, welcome". When Deckard approaches the bar, the Master says "Sa dozo", meaning "Come, please", followed by "Nan ni shimasho ka?", meaning, "What'll it be?" When Deckard asks for four, the master replies, "Futatsu de jubun desu yo", meaning "Two is enough" (he repeats this twice). When Gaff (Edward James Olmos) and a uniformed policeman approach Deckard, at first the policeman says, "Hey, idi-wa", Korean for: "Hey, come here". Gaff then says "Monsieur, azonnal kövessen engem bitte". "Monsieur" is French for Sir; "azonnal" is Hungarian for "immediately"; "kövessen" is the Hungarian imperative "to follow"; "engem" means "me"; "bitte" is German for "please". So a translation is "Sir, follow me immediately please". When Deckard tells Gaff that he's got the wrong person, Gaff says "Lófaszt, nehogy már. Te vagy a Blade ... Blade Runner". In Hungarian, "Lófaszt" is a rude expression. "Lo" means "horse" and "fasz" means "prick" or "dick". (The "t" is added at the end because of the rules of Hungarian grammar.) This expression is basically the equivalent of saying "Bullshit" in English. "Nehogy már" means "no way" in English. "Te vagy" means "you are", and "a" means "the". As such, a close literal translation is "Bullshit, no way, you're the Blade...Blade Runner". Gaff then says, "Captain Bryant toka. Me ni omae yo". This is based on Japanese, but is not strictly Japanese in structure. "Captain Bryant toka" is probably a version of "Captain Bryanto ga", meaning, "Captain Bryant is the subject of this sentence". "Me ni mae" means "to meet someone"; "omae" is the informal way of saying "you", and "yo" is simply an exclamation. As such, the translation would be "Captain Bryant. He wants to see you!"

[victoria]

Rachael's phone number is 555-7583.

[riley]

About the reason Deckard doesn't know about the Replicants' four-year lifespan. While the film never states one way or the other, it can be inferred that the four-year lifespan was a new development, specific to the Nexus-6 model. Otherwise, it would make no sense that Deckard, an experienced Blade Runner, would have to be told this fact by Bryant. Since we know that Deckard had been retired from the job for an undisclosed amount of time, he might not be familiar with the newer model Replicants and required a catch-up briefing.

[kenneth]

Leon's gun is a COP .357 Derringer. The double action COP (Compact Off-duty Police) was designed as a backup weapon for off-duty police and fired .357 magnum rounds. The version seen in the film has been altered slightly; the ratcheting striker has been modified to fire two cartridges at a time to create a bigger flash.

[veronica]

Hy Pyke filmed his scene in a single take, something almost unheard-of with Ridley Scott whose drive for perfection resulted at times in double-digit takes.

[eli]

(at around 26 mins) Roy Batty's first spoken line, as his hand is cramping up, is "Time enough," a line said by Hamm, a character in Samuel Beckett's play, 'Endgame'.