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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1946

The Big Sleep

Film by Howard Hawks

Classical Hollywood film noir. United States. In English.

Humphrey Bogart plays Philip Marlowe, hired by a dying general to deal with a blackmailer and drawn into the affairs of his two daughters. Its shadowed sets and laconic hero helped define film noir.

What it handed down

To Blade Runner (1982)

Stylistic influence, probable.

Blade Runner wraps its science fiction in 1940s detective-film conventions: a weary investigator, a femme fatale in padded shoulders and rolled hair, and venetian-blind shadows in smoky rooms. Rachael's first scene in Tyrell's office plays like a client interview in a Marlowe picture. The theatrical cut's voiceover imitates the hardboiled detective's narration.

Where it came from

The Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler 1939

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1939

The Big Sleep

Raymond Chandler

Hardboiled crime fiction. United States. Written in English.

Chandler's first novel: Los Angeles private eye Philip Marlowe, hired by General Sternwood, works through blackmail, pornography and murder in the narrator's wisecracking first person.

What it handed down

To The Big Sleep (1946)

Direct source, well documented.

Hawks's film, scripted by William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett and Jules Furthman, adapts Chandler's novel scene by scene. It keeps Marlowe's interviews with General Sternwood in the hothouse and much of Chandler's dialogue.

Where it came from

The Maltese Falcon, Dashiell Hammett 1930 follow this thread
Le Morte d'Arthur, Thomas Malory 1485 (completed c. 1470)

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1485 (completed c. 1470)

Le Morte d'Arthur

Thomas Malory

Late medieval. England. Written in Middle English.

Malory's English prose compilation of the Arthurian legend from Arthur's birth to the fall of the Round Table, printed by Caxton.

What it handed down

To The Big Sleep (1939)

Thematic kinship, probable.

The novel opens with Marlowe studying a stained-glass panel of a knight rescuing a lady tied to a tree. He reflects that he may have to help the knight. The detective of Chandler's early stories was named Mallory, and critics read Marlowe as a knight-errant on mean streets.

To The Faerie Queene

Direct source, probable.

Spenser made Prince Arthur the poem's unifying hero and explained the choice in his letter to Raleigh. He took Arthurian names and episodes, including Tristram in Book 6, from the tradition Malory had gathered in English.

Where it came from

Lancelot-Grail (Vulgate Cycle), Anonymous c. 1215-1235

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c. 1215-1235

Lancelot-Grail (Vulgate Cycle)

Anonymous

High Middle Ages. France. Written in Old French.

A vast prose cycle of Arthurian romance covering Lancelot's life, the Grail quest and the death of Arthur.

What it handed down

To Le Morte d'Arthur (1485 (completed c. 1470))

Direct source, well documented.

Malory repeatedly cites 'the French book' as his source, and much of his narrative condenses the Vulgate prose Lancelot, Queste del Saint Graal and Mort Artu. The love of Lancelot and Guinevere and the fall of the Round Table come from these romances.

Where it came from

Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart, Chrétien de Troyes c. 1180

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c. 1180

Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart

Chrétien de Troyes

High Middle Ages. Champagne, France. Written in Old French.

A verse romance in which Lancelot, devoted to Queen Guinevere, humiliates himself by riding in a criminal's cart to rescue her.

What it handed down

To Lancelot-Grail (Vulgate Cycle) (c. 1215-1235)

Direct source, well documented.

The prose Lancelot absorbs Chrétien's story of Lancelot's love for Guinevere, including the episode of the cart and the rescue from Meleagant's kingdom. It expands it into a full biography.

Where it came from

Roman de Brut, Wace 1155

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Roman de BrutWace

1155

Roman de Brut

Wace

Anglo-Norman. Normandy and England. Written in Old French.

A verse adaptation of Geoffrey's history into French, which first mentions Arthur's Round Table.

What it handed down

To Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart (c. 1180)

Direct source, probable.

Wace's French verse chronicle gave Chrétien's audience Arthur's court in the vernacular, along with the Round Table Wace was first to mention. Chrétien set his romances in that court, moving the focus from the king to individual knights.

Where it came from

History of the Kings of Britain (Historia Regum Britanniae), Geoffrey of Monmouth c. 1136

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c. 1136

History of the Kings of Britain (Historia Regum Britanniae)

Geoffrey of Monmouth

Anglo-Norman. England. Written in Latin.

A largely legendary chronicle of British kings from Brutus to Cadwallader, with the first full life of King Arthur and the prophecies of Merlin.

What it handed down

To Roman de Brut (1155)

Direct source, well documented.

The Roman de Brut is a free French verse adaptation of Geoffrey's Latin history. It follows his line of kings from Brutus through Arthur, with added courtly detail.

Where it came from

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c. 829

History of the Britons (Historia Brittonum)

Anonymous (attributed to Nennius)

Early medieval. Wales. Written in Latin.

A compilation of British history tracing the Britons to Brutus, a descendant of Aeneas, and listing Arthur's twelve battles.

What it handed down

To History of the Kings of Britain (Historia Regum Britanniae) (c. 1136)

Direct source, well documented.

Geoffrey took from the Historia Brittonum the descent of the Britons from Brutus, the story of Vortigern and the boy prophet whose tale he gave to Merlin, and Arthur as a war leader against the Saxons.

Where it came from

On the Ruin of Britain (De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae), Gildas c. 540
Aeneid, Virgil 19 BCE

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c. 540

On the Ruin of Britain (De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae)

Gildas

Sub-Roman Britain. Britain. Written in Latin.

A sermon-history denouncing British kings and clergy, with an account of the Saxon invasions and the British resistance at Mount Badon.

What it handed down

To History of the Britons (Historia Brittonum) (c. 829)

Direct source, well documented.

The Historia's account of Vortigern's invitation to the Saxons and the British wars that followed draws on Gildas, whose narrative it expands with legend.

Where it came from

Aeneid, Virgil 19 BCE

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19 BCE

Aeneid

Virgil

Augustan. Augustan Rome. Written in Latin.

An epic of the Trojan Aeneas, who flees burning Troy, wanders the Mediterranean and fights in Italy to found the Roman line.

What it handed down

To Paradise Lost

Structural model, well documented.

Milton modeled his epic on Virgil's, beginning in medias res, invoking the Muse and adopting a twelve-book structure in the 1674 edition. Satan's journey through Chaos and the founding of a new race echo Aeneas's voyage and mission.

To History of the Kings of Britain (Historia Regum Britanniae) (c. 1136)

Structural model, well documented.

Geoffrey modeled Brutus's exile, sea voyage and oracle-guided search for a promised land on Aeneas's journey. The goddess Diana's prophecy to Brutus parallels the oracles that direct Aeneas to Italy.

To History of the Britons (Historia Brittonum) (c. 829)

Direct source, well documented.

The Historia makes Brutus, the eponymous founder of Britain, a descendant of Aeneas, using the Trojan genealogy Virgil made famous. Britain is thus given a Roman-style Trojan origin.

To On the Ruin of Britain (De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae) (c. 540)

Stylistic influence, probable.

Gildas wrote an elaborate Latin shaped by the schoolroom canon, and his prose echoes Virgil's diction. Through him the Virgilian manner carried into British historical writing.

Where it came from

Odyssey, Homer c. 725 BCE
Iliad, Homer c. 750 BCE follow this thread

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c. 725 BCE

Odyssey

Homer

Archaic. Archaic Greece. Written in Ancient Greek.

An epic of Odysseus's ten-year voyage home from Troy, including his descent to the land of the dead.

What it handed down

To Aeneid (19 BCE)

Structural model, well documented.

The first six books follow the Odyssey's pattern of sea wanderings, a hero telling his own story at a foreign court, and a descent to the underworld in Book 6. Aeneas even passes the land of the Cyclops Odysseus escaped.

Where it came from

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

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Where it came from

What it handed down

To Blade Runner (1982)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To The Big Sleep (1946)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To The Big Sleep (1939)

To The Faerie Queene

Where it came from

What it handed down

To Le Morte d'Arthur (1485 (completed c. 1470))

Where it came from

What it handed down

To Lancelot-Grail (Vulgate Cycle) (c. 1215-1235)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart (c. 1180)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To Roman de Brut (1155)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To History of the Kings of Britain (Historia Regum Britanniae) (c. 1136)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To History of the Britons (Historia Brittonum) (c. 829)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To Paradise Lost

To History of the Kings of Britain (Historia Regum Britanniae) (c. 1136)

To History of the Britons (Historia Brittonum) (c. 829)

To On the Ruin of Britain (De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae) (c. 540)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To Aeneid (19 BCE)

Where it came from

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