Oftentimes, films that are based off of novels get a bad reputation. The art of cinema translates stories in a manner completely different than that of novels. Cinema can’t always give the details that a novel can. However, Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner: The Final Cut (1982) manages to take world building and set design to another level despite being based off of a novel (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by: Phillip K. Dick). This cult classic sci-fi film takes place in Los Angeles in the year 2019. In the opening text sequence the audience learns about the world before the movie starts, setting the scene and giving the audience a glimpse at the world they will gradually learn about throughout the film. Furthermore, the film engages the audience with the opening scene that sets the aesthetic in place by showcasing a city encased in shimmering lights accompanied by flying cars whirring by buildings. Along with that, the inclusion of distinctly unique characters, the use of lighting, coloring, and smoke-- on set and post production effects-- all throughout every scene, and the world building through the minor/major details in set design make the audience truly immersed in the world of Blade Runner: The Final Cut.
The characters, human and replicants, all have their own problems like morality, mortality, and realizing they aren’t who they think they are. Each character has something going on, and at the end of the day it doesn’t really matter whether a character is a replicant or a human because the problems one character goes through can be seen within another character. An example of this would be how J.F. Sebastian (played by William Sanderson) and Roy Batty (played by Rutger Hauer) both have similar problems. J.F. (a minor character in the film) is a human genetic designer that helped make Roy (the antagonist), a replicant. The genetic designer struggles with the accelerated aging as a human due to Methuselah syndrome which causes his glands to grow too fast. He faces his mortality everyday as he ages to his death. The audience can tell he must have, at some point in his life, struggled with this, but ultimately he came to accept his mortality for what it is. Roy Batty, leader of the rebelling replicant group, struggles with his early mortality due to being a replicant. Because replicants can develop emotions, they were designed to have lifespans of 4 years as a failsafe. He’s very much in denial about his mortality and is willing to do anything to extend his lifespan throughout the film. It’s characters like these that effectively create a universe that is believable.
When it comes to the aesthetic of the world, viewers get a clear idea of how the audience is supposed to feel from the use of on-set and post-production effects. The effects that stand out the most are the atmospheric effects like smoke and rain. One of the first few sights in the movie is that of a bustling city shrouded in neon lights and heavy rain. The city feels packed, cold, and cruel as everyone has a destination they are trying to get to. To elaborate, throughout the film it can be seen that this city has a homeless population, trash littering the streets, and decrepit buildings. In particular at the timestamp of 46:23, the audience can see street squatters and homeless people near fire pits, trying to keep warm. It’s all a stark contrast to the scientific improvements in this world such as futuristic flying cars with screen displays inside, loading docks for these cars, video advertisements on large blimps, interactive software in apartment elevators and phone booths. The city is definitely far from being a utopia.
For a majority of the movie, in scenes that take place in the city, the coloring is often a cold blue toned coloring that works well with the dark nighttime lighting. It adds a layer of mystery to the city, truly giving it a tech-noir feel as Deckard (the protagonist), played by Harrison Ford, navigates through it in his signature trench coat as he exterminates these rogue replicants. It’s only in certain scenes like when Deckard is interrogating Taffey Lewis at the bar that we see warm toned lighting. The warm lighting makes the scene feel very intimate and less harsh, as if the bar is a safe space for these people to forget about their problems. Ultimately, these aesthetic set design choices point out the fact that even though this world has seen many scientific improvements it isn't perfect. In fact, it’s far from it.
The aesthetic choices that were used for Blade Runner: The Final Cut pair well with the characters and world building because the three rely on each other to paint the picture of a world that has scientifically improved yet still has a plethora of problems that affect the people who live there. All three of these aspects would be lacking without each other. And it’s because they all are seamlessly intertwined together that the film executed the scifi/futuristic genre so well. While it definitely helped that this film was based off of a novel that has the backbones of this world, the film is able to convey aspects of the world visually that can’t be given through words.
Works Cited
Scott, Ridley, director. Blade Runner: The Final Cut. Warner Home Video, 1982.