Essay On “Blade Runner” And Cyberpunk Genre

Blade Runner was considered one of the most significant and best made science fiction movies of its genre. The movie was directed by Ridley Scott, produced by Michael Deeley, and stars Harrison Ford and Rutger Hauer. The theme of the movie is basically man’s eternal quest to find infinite life, and how short life really is. It is also about man’s egocentrism, making cyborgs that look and act like just like humans. It is the year 2019; artificial human robots called Replicants have been made for the sole purpose of being slaves doing work in a colony on another planet. A group of renegade Replicants have escaped, their reason, to find the answers of their own mortality, each Replicant has a four year life span. Harrison Ford plays a blade runner, a person trained to track down these renegade Replicants, and force them into “retirement” meaning extermination. In his mission to destroy these robots, he also questions his own mortality and realizes how the Replicants have come to develop real human feelings.

He also falls in love with one replicant named Rachael played by Sean Young. During the movie the audience also begins to question whether or not Deckard (Ford) is also a Replicant himself. Our Service Can Write a Custom Essay on Blade Runner for You! The science fiction genre is filled with far out ideas, space, aliens, fantasy and themes that human beings create in their imaginations. One of the most significant things that Blade Runner the movie did was it was one of the first movies that were considered to be a part of the sub genre of science fiction called cyberpunk. Runner set the rules for how movies of the cyberpunk genre should be made. It is a mix of high technology and low class of living. Cyberpunk is defined as being a fast paced science fiction involving futuristic computer-based societies. One of the primary themes of cyberpunk films is in the end humans lose control of the technology they have invented and they must suffer the consequences.

Science fiction brings to life human imagination and theories of where human life will end up in the future. Critics have said that this movie was the most significant sci-fi cyberpunk movie ever made. Cyberpunk is about the importance of individualism in a world that is controlled by the ‘man’. The genre brings to light how quickly technology is moving towards the future, and that humans are not moving at the same pace. The genre itself was highly criticized when it first came to light; some science fiction writers denied that it existed. Many said that the genre of cyberpunk should not exist because the codes and conventions of the cyberpunk were the same as science fiction. As time went on though those same people after doing some research realized that cyberpunk was in deed its own separate category. The special effects, scenery, lighting, music and costumes all contributed to the greatness of this movie.

It was ground breaking in that the scenes of the futuristic cosmopolitan world looked so realistic. After sometime the critics changed there critique of the movie, looking in the deeper story lines and hidden themes. Because of its contribution to the film culture and its impact on film making, it is stored in the United States Library of Congress. The time of the movie is set in the future, 2019 and because of this the director can forget all conventional rules and procedures when it comes to the content of the film, basically anything goes. At the time, when most of the movies made were more uplifting and about positive changes in society, this movie portrayed a dark and dreary future. Many of the codes and conventions of the movie were taken from other film genres, some from the film noir genre, science fiction and action. In many of the scenes you can see aspects from film noir, such as light coming in from a window covered with Venetian blinds. Another characteristic is the old school detective played by Ford, unfeeling and incapable of emotion.