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

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Book of RevelationJohn of Patmos

c. 95 CE

Book of Revelation

John of Patmos

Early Christian. Roman Asia Minor. Written in Koine Greek.

An apocalyptic vision of the war in heaven, the Whore of Babylon on the seven-headed beast, the fall of Babylon and a new Jerusalem.

What it handed down

To Metropolis (1927)

Direct source, well documented.

Freder reads of the Whore of Babylon in a book of Revelation, and the false Maria's dance in the Yoshiwara club is framed by that image, ending on the seven-headed beast. The film's cathedral sequences add statues of Death and the Deadly Sins.

To America a Prophecy

Stylistic influence, probable.

Blake titled the poem a prophecy and filled it with apocalyptic imagery of plagues, falling stars, burning angels and the end of an old order. He took the visionary mode and much of its imagery from Revelation.

Where it came from

Genesis, Anonymous c. 6th century BCE

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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 (1927)

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

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 (c. 95 CE)

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.

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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 Metropolis (1927)

To America a Prophecy

Where it came from

What it handed down

To Metropolis (1927)

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

To Paradise Lost

To Book of Revelation (c. 95 CE)

Where it came from

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