It's not an easy thing to meet your maker.
- It's a sequel 35 years in the making, but Blade Runner 2049 is only days away.
So we took this opportunity to look back into the 80s version of the future,
found some pretty cool things about the movie that started it all.
Here are seven things you didn't know about Blade Runner, probably.
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A lot of you guys already know that Blade Runner is based on Phillip K Dick's 1968
book, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.
But you probably didn't know that the producers behind Blade Runner,
as well as it's original writer Hampton Fancher,
didn't really even like the book that much.
Fact is, none of them found it all that interesting.
But Fancher, who is by the way is back as a co-writer on Blade Runner 2049,
got it in his head to adapt the book anyway.
Turning it into a story that focussed on a detective chasing androids around.
It was a much smaller story than we see in the final film and
it would have relied on casting heavily.
Because it was almost entirely characters talking,
just people talking and a handful of locations, mostly apartments.
Fancher kept butting heads with the producers on adding in things he didn't
want to add in, like sex scenes.
Eventually David Peoples was brought in to shape the script into what we know now.
They just felt Fancher was too cerebral and they wanted more action and
tasty hoots.
Tasty hoots that are sometimes crashing through a window,
which brings us to our next thing.
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Zohr's clear plastic raincoat in her death scene is one of the most
beloved costume pieces from the entire film amongst casual fans and
hardcore cosplay enthusiasts alike.
What you probably didn't know is that the addition of the raincoat was more
a form of function than costume design.
The team wanted to make sure Joanna Cassidy's stunt double,
the late Lee Polford,
would be protected when she had to run through the pane of sugar glass.
Sure it isn't real glass, but it also isn't necessarily 100% risk free.
In Hampton Fancher's version of the film Zohr died under a bus,
which doesn't sound all that risk free either.
By the way, that was boom, a bonus thing you didn't know.
As for the fact that it is far too obviously a completely different woman
playing Zohr in the death scene, that can be blamed on lack of money and
lack of time.
Blade Runner was over-budget and behind schedule and
the suits were breathing down Ridley Scott's neck.
So, they just threw a wig on Pulford that bared no resemblance to Cassidy's hair and
ran with it.
Rather, they had her run with it, through several windows.
It's one of the most egregious face-palm moments of the film,
but it clearly didn't stop Blade Runner from achieving classic status, and
it didn't stop us from dropping another bonus thing.
Moving on.
Speaking of doubles who didn't resemble the actor they were doubling,
that wasn't Darryl Hannah kicking Harrison Ford in the face just then.
In a way, it was Decker kicking himself in the face, because it was stunt
coordinator, Gary Caulms, who was also Harrison Ford's double, who did the kick.
Director Ridley Scott just wasn't pleased with the way the kick was working on
the takes where Hannah did it herself.
So Holmes had to get suited up as Pris,
and he was able to get the seated kick just right.
He told the crew that no one better laugh at him once he was in the get up.
But we're guessing he was a little bit less successful with that than he was with
the kick itself.
While we are on Pris's stunt doubles, originally they brought in a female
gymnast to do all of these flips around J F Sebastian's apartment.
Problem was Ridley Scott is somewhat notorious for shooting a lot of takes, and
I mean a lot.
By the time they were halfway through the day the poor woman was practically
collapsed in the corner from exhaustion after somersaulting for hours on end.
Gary Combs was able to get another gymnast to sub for
the second half of the day, except it was a dude.
And he had the physique you'd expect from a male gymnast, short and wide.
Pretty much the exact opposite of Daryl Hannah's build,
not to mention the female gymnast.
So you can spot when it's him flipping around in the film pretty easily.
For the death scene here, it's a combination of Daryl Hannah and
the gymnast dude.
They had to put some thin rubber underneath the because they would have
been covered in bruises without it on account of all that thrashing around.
And I hope you have some thin rubber underneath you because, boom,
I just dropped another bonus thing on you.
Blade Runner predates computer generated imaging so
there is exactly zero CG anything in the film.
They had to rely on classic special effects techniques instead,
like matte paintings and miniatures.
We mentioned before that money, more specifically,
not having enough of it was a huge problem for Blade Runner.
And it was bad enough that they wound up having to borrow a lot of miniatures for
sets from other movies.
Pretty much whatever was laying around on the studio back lot was fair game.
In fact, they used a piece from another pretty famous movie.
Remember Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind?
Well, they used the ceiling from the mothership interior.
It's right here, repurposed as the top of the police station.
Next thing.
Dr. Elder Terrell's death scene is just one of many in Blade Runner, but
it's easily the most gruesome.
What you probably didn't know is they created a $20,000 prosthetic head of
Torell for Benny to crush, and then they didn't even use it.
No wonder this movie was so wildly over budget.
Instead they did the effect in a super low fi way,
they ran some tubes up behind actor Joe Turkel's ears, so
that when Rector Howard squeezed blood would come out.
Nearly everything you see here relies merely on strategic camera angles,
special effects make-up, and performance.
Last thing.
Did you know that they cast Rutger Howard as Roy Baddie without
ever having even met him?
Obviously, he worked out great, but it seems a bit crazy, and
he probably seemed extra crazy when, for his first ever meeting with Ridley Scott,
Howard showed up with his hair already platinum blonde for the role.
Wearing pink satin pants, a fox draped over his shoulder, and ruby red contacts,
and crazy Elton John sunglasses.
It was Hauer take on futuristic apparel and how bad he might actually dress, but
Scot was wondering what the hell he had gotten himself into.
Then again, when you hear about the kind of crap the Jared Letos of the world
are pulling on set nowadays,
Rutger Hauer seems pretty god damn reasonable by comparison.
That's a wrap on this episode, but we've barely scratched the surface, so
hit the thumbs up if you want us to follow up with a part two.
And let us know on the comments if your excited for the Blade Runner sequel, or
if you think it has no chance of holding a candle to the original.
Thanks for watching and subscribe to Cinefix for
more true-ish things about movies, and
sometimes tasty replicant hoots Right here on things you didn't know.
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