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

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1590

The Faerie Queene

Edmund Spenser

Elizabethan. England. Written in English.

An allegorical romance epic in which knights embodying the virtues pursue quests in Faerieland, with Prince Arthur as a linking hero.

What it handed down

To Paradise Lost (1667)

Thematic kinship, well documented.

Dryden reported that Milton called Spenser his 'original', and Areopagitica praises Spenser as a better teacher than Aquinas. Spenser's Garden of Adonis and Bower of Bliss inform Milton's Eden, and his allegorical figure of Error stands behind Milton's Sin.

Where it came from

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

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 (1590)

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 (1667)

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 Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus

To America a Prophecy (1793)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To Paradise Lost (1667)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To The Big Sleep

To The Faerie Queene (1590)

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 (1667)

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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