“Blade Runner” (1982), directed by Ridley Scott, has been heralded as “The Quintessential Syfy Movie”. It is one of the movies most people think of when they start talking about science fiction. The movie has been such a success that it got a sequel, “Blade Runner 2049” made thirty-six years later.
“Blade Runner” has won multiple awards and it is not hard to why the movie is considered a classic. The movie has a couple of particular parts that make truly stick out as it’s classic qualifications. The setting and the theme of life that the movie plays with are what shall be observed today.
The world of “Blade Runner” is one of the most iconic settings of all time. Massive city structures with bright neon to light the dark world of the future. Where language has started to smash together and cultural boundaries have been erased. It is a dark world, but this is the setting for the story. This world of “Blade Runner” is the world that other Syfy movies try to live up too.
They try so hard to emulate what Ridley Scott did in this movie and no one has successfully imitated it. Movies like “The Fifth Element” and “The Matrix” are just a couple of movies that have been influenced by “Blade Runner” and there will no doubt be more in the future that will draw from this well of inspiration. And with a world such as this, the themes play a big role in its creation.
The theme of life is an interesting idea for this movie. “Blade Runner”’s main conflict comes in form of synthetic humans called Replicants that cause problems on earth. However, the replicants aren’t after the total destruction of humanity. But rather they just want to live longer than their predetermined four-year warranty. They want to live as they want because they are given memories so they can do their jobs better, jobs as slaves.
We see throughout the movie that the people living on earth don’t seem to enjoy life. They just go about their lives and do things that can be taken for granted. But for these replicants, they want life more than the humans most of the time. They live in fear of an approaching death and a master who can kill them swiftly. The life that the replicants live is a hard and short one but they try to live it better than others in the film.
For a Christian watching, “Blade Runner” shows a world where humans have played God and because of that, they reap the crop they sowed. Today science advances for the convenience of humanity and the discovery of the world we live in. Some may think that religion and science are conflicting ideas and that they can never work together. But “Blade Runner” can show what happens when there is no religion to check the science.
If the world doesn’t hold itself to a moral line, then we create thinking beings to be slaves for us again. And if there is no science to check religion, then we may develop a cult mentality that hurts people who don’t agree. “Blade Runner” shows the religion not checking science part, but we see the danger that can lead to. Christians should not be scared and shun science. We need to welcome science to explain the world God has left us. And then we need to be there to be there if science becomes blind to the harmful effects it could bring. Science and religion can work together to make the world better.
Will Arbuckle's Faith Based American Classic Movie Reviews 