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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1793

America a Prophecy

William Blake

Romantic. England. Written in English.

An illuminated prophetic poem that recasts the American Revolution as cosmic revolt. Its hero is Orc, a fiery spirit rising against the tyrannical Angels of Albion.

What it handed down

To Blade Runner (1982)

Direct source, well documented.

On meeting Chew, Roy Batty says 'Fiery the angels fell. Deep thunder rolled around their shores, burning with the fires of Orc.' He is adapting Blake's lines 'Fiery the Angels rose, & as they rose deep thunder roll'd / Around their shores: indignant burning with the fires of Orc.' The change from 'rose' to 'fell' casts the replicants as rebel angels descending to earth.

Where it came from

Paradise Lost, John Milton 1667
Book of Revelation, John of Patmos c. 95 CE 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

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 (1793)

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 follow this thread
Aeneid, Virgil 19 BCE follow this thread
Iliad, Homer c. 750 BCE
The Faerie Queene, Edmund Spenser 1590 follow this thread

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c. 750 BCE

Iliad

Homer

Archaic. Archaic Greece. Written in Ancient Greek.

An epic of the wrath of Achilles during the tenth year of the Trojan War.

What it handed down

To Paradise Lost (1667)

Structural model, well documented.

The war in heaven in Books 5 and 6, with its single combats, catalogues of warriors and divine weapons, takes its form from Homeric battle. Milton announces in Book 9 that his subject surpasses 'the wrath of stern Achilles'.

To Aeneid

Structural model, well documented.

The second half of the Aeneid restages the Iliad in Italy: catalogues of warriors, divine shields, the death of a young comrade (Pallas for Patroclus) and a final duel (Aeneas and Turnus for Achilles and Hector).

Where it came from

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

Find “Iliad” on Amazon

Where it came from

What it handed down

To Blade Runner (1982)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus

To America a Prophecy (1793)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To Paradise Lost (1667)

To Aeneid

Where it came from

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