Ridley Scott's 1982 film Blade Runner is now widely recognized as an undisputed masterwork of science-fiction cinema and one of the most influential films released in the last forty years. Yet on its original release, it was both a critical and commercial failure, criticized for its perceived prioritizing of style over content and a narrative that did not deliver the anticipated high-octane action that its star casting and large budget normally promise. How did a film that was removed from circulation within a month of its premiere come to mean so much to modern audiences and provide such a ri ... More

Ridley Scott's 1982 film Blade Runner is now widely recognized as an undisputed masterwork of science-fiction cinema and one of the most influential films released in the last forty years. Yet on its original release, it was both a critical and commercial failure, criticized for its perceived prioritizing of style over content and a narrative that did not deliver the anticipated high-octane action that its star casting and large budget normally promise. How did a film that was removed from circulation within a month of its premiere come to mean so much to modern audiences and provide such a rich seam of material for film and media studies? This book excavates the many significances of the film — its breakthrough use of special effects as a narrative tool; its revolutionary representation of the future city; its treatment of racial and sexual politics; and its unique status as a text whose meaning was fundamentally altered in its re-released Director's Cut form, then further revised in a Final Cut in 2007, and what this means in an institutional context.