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

Find “Blade Runner” on Amazon

1927

Metropolis

Film by Fritz Lang

Weimar cinema. Germany. Silent.

In a vertical city of the future, a ruling class lives above while workers toil underground. An inventor builds a machine-woman in the likeness of the saintly Maria to incite the workers.

What it handed down

To Blade Runner (1982)

Stylistic influence, well documented.

Scott and his designers drew on Lang's vertical city of towers, aerial traffic and an underclass at street level. The Tyrell Corporation's pyramid rising over the city echoes the ruler's New Tower of Babel. The man-made woman who passes as human is a shared device.

Where it came from

Metropolis, Thea von Harbou 1925
Book of Revelation, John of Patmos c. 95 CE follow this thread
Genesis, Anonymous c. 6th century BCE follow this thread
When the Sleeper Wakes, H. G. Wells 1899 follow this thread

Find “Metropolis” on Amazon

1925

Metropolis

Thea von Harbou

Weimar Republic. Germany. Written in German.

Von Harbou's novel of the divided future city, written alongside her screenplay for her husband Fritz Lang's film. It contains the inventor Rotwang and his machine-woman.

What it handed down

To Metropolis (1927)

Direct source, well documented.

Von Harbou wrote the novel and co-wrote the screenplay with Lang, and the film follows her plot of Freder, Maria, Joh Fredersen and Rotwang. The novel was serialized as the film was in production.

Where it came from

Find “Metropolis” on Amazon

The Future EveAuguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam

1886

The Future Eve (L'Ève future)

Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam

French Decadence. France. Written in French.

A fictionalized Thomas Edison builds Hadaly, an electric android woman, as a perfect copy of a beautiful but shallow singer for a lovesick English lord. It popularized the word 'android'.

What it handed down

To Metropolis (1925)

Thematic kinship, probable.

Villiers's inventor builds an electric woman and gives her the exact appearance of a real one, as Rotwang gives his machine Maria's face. Both works treat the android double as a seductive substitute that confuses love and power.

Where it came from

Find “The Future Eve (L'Ève future)” on Amazon

8 CE

Metamorphoses

Ovid

Augustan. Augustan Rome. Written in Latin.

Fifteen books of linked myths of transformation from the creation of the world to Ovid's own day. It includes Prometheus shaping humankind from clay and Pygmalion's statue brought to life.

What it handed down

To The Future Eve (L'Ève future) (1886)

Thematic kinship, probable.

Ovid's Pygmalion, the sculptor whose ivory woman comes to life, supplies the ancient pattern for a man who prefers a made woman to real ones. Lord Ewald's request to Edison is a modern Pygmalion story, with electricity in place of Venus.

To Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus

Thematic kinship, probable.

Mary Shelley read Ovid in 1815, before writing her novel. Ovid's Prometheus shaping man from clay is the form of the myth her subtitle 'The Modern Prometheus' invokes.

Where it came from

Theogony, Hesiod c. 700 BCE

Find “Metamorphoses” on Amazon

c. 700 BCE

Theogony

Hesiod

Archaic. Archaic Greece. Written in Ancient Greek.

A hexameter poem on the origin of the cosmos and the genealogy of the gods. It tells how Prometheus tricked Zeus and stole fire for mortals and was punished.

What it handed down

To Metamorphoses (8 CE)

Direct source, probable.

Ovid's first book opens with the creation of the world out of chaos and Prometheus molding humans from earth and water, building on the Hesiodic accounts of origins and of Prometheus. The genealogy of gods and the war of the Giants also descend from Hesiod.

To Prometheus Bound

Direct source, well documented.

The play takes up Hesiod's story of Prometheus's theft of fire and punishment by Zeus, turning the trickster into a defiant benefactor of humanity. Hesiod's genealogy of the Titans supplies the cast.

Where it came from

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

Find “Theogony” on Amazon

Where it came from

What it handed down

To Blade Runner (1982)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To Metropolis (1927)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To Metropolis (1925)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To The Future Eve (L'Ève future) (1886)

To Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus

Where it came from

What it handed down

To Metamorphoses (8 CE)

To Prometheus Bound

Where it came from

Share this