The influences behind Blade Runner

1982

Blade Runner

Film by Ridley Scott

1980s Hollywood. United States. In English.

Ridley Scott's 1982 adaptation of Philip K. Dick's novel follows Rick Deckard, an ex-cop hired to hunt down four escaped replicants in a rain-soaked Los Angeles of 2019. It joins the hardboiled detective film to the old story of the made creature who confronts its maker.

Where it came from

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1818

Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus

Mary Shelley

Romantic. England. Written in English.

A young scientist builds a living man from dead matter and abandons him. The creature, educated and spurned, turns on his creator.

What it handed down

To Blade Runner (1982)

Thematic kinship, probable.

Batty's confrontation with Eldon Tyrell ('It's not an easy thing to meet your maker') restages the creature's reckoning with Victor Frankenstein. The creation demands a longer life, is refused, and kills its creator. Critics routinely read the replicants as heirs to Shelley's abandoned creature.

To R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots)

Thematic kinship, probable.

Old Rossum's attempt to synthesize life in his laboratory follows the pattern Shelley set: a scientist seizing the power of creation, with fatal consequences. As in Frankenstein, the created beings turn against their makers. Critics have long placed R.U.R. in Frankenstein's line.

Where it came from

Paradise Lost, John Milton 1667
Metamorphoses, Ovid 8 CE follow this thread
Prometheus Bound, Aeschylus (attributed) c. 460 BCE follow this thread

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1667

Paradise Lost

John Milton

Restoration. England. Written in English.

A blank-verse epic of Satan's rebellion and fall and the temptation and expulsion of Adam and Eve. Its rebel angels and its questioning creatures shaped Romantic writing.

What it handed down

To Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818)

Direct source, well documented.

The novel's epigraph is Adam's complaint from Book 10: 'Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay / To mould me Man?' The creature finds a copy of Paradise Lost, reads it as true history, and compares himself first to Adam and then to Satan.

To America a Prophecy

Thematic kinship, well documented.

Blake's prophetic books argue with Milton throughout. In America the rebel Orc plays the part of Milton's Satan, now a hero of liberty, while the Angels of Albion are the tyrannical heavenly host. The language of fiery angels and thunder comes from Milton's war in heaven.

Where it came from

Genesis, Anonymous c. 6th century BCE
Aeneid, Virgil 19 BCE follow this thread
Iliad, Homer c. 750 BCE follow this thread
The Faerie Queene, Edmund Spenser 1590 follow this thread

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c. 6th century BCE

Genesis

Anonymous

Ancient Israel. Ancient Israel and Babylonian exile. Written in Hebrew.

The first book of the Hebrew Bible: the creation, Adam and Eve in Eden, the Fall, the Flood and the Tower of Babel, and the patriarchs.

What it handed down

To Metropolis

Direct source, well documented.

In the catacombs Maria tells the workers the story of the Tower of Babel, which the film stages as a parable of planners who never meet the builders. Fredersen's headquarters is called the New Tower of Babel.

To R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots)

Direct source, well documented.

In the final scene the last human, Alquist, reads the creation verses from Genesis over the robots Primus and Helena, who have learned to love. He names them Adam and Eve and sends them out as founders of a new humanity.

To Paradise Lost (1667)

Direct source, well documented.

Milton's epic expands the first chapters of Genesis, the creation, Eden, the serpent's temptation and the expulsion, into twelve books. He quotes and paraphrases the biblical text throughout.

To Book of Revelation

Direct source, well documented.

Revelation closes the story Genesis began: the 'old serpent' is cast down (12:9) and the tree of life reappears in the new Jerusalem (22:2). Eden is restored at the end of history.

Where it came from

This is one of the oldest surviving works in its tradition; the line ends here.

Find “Genesis” on Amazon

Where it came from

What it handed down

To Blade Runner (1982)

To R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818)

To America a Prophecy

Where it came from

What it handed down

To Metropolis

To R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots)

To Paradise Lost (1667)

To Book of Revelation

Where it came from

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