Thoroughly impressive and deeply engaging, this is a movie that oozes supremacy

Rating: Null/10 (14 November 2003)

BLADE RUNNER ****
This futuristic sci-fi thriller will stand the test of time as a defining moment in the genre. With cult status firmly behind it, the movie manages to bring together so many strands that it is interesting, thought provoking, entertaining and endearing. Harrison Ford plays the Blade Runner detective Deckard, who once again takes up his duty to retire Replicants. Early in the 21st century, the Tyrell company engineered robots that were comparable to humans in all attributes whilst also being more intelligent than us, and used as slave labour in off world colonies. The work was dangerous and often the information of the colonies would be cloudy, so it was necessary to send in robots as a test.
When a particular band of robots under the umbrella of the Nexus 6 model rebelled against the humans however, they fled and came to Earth; Los Angeles to be exact. The year is 2019, and Deckard is sent to find out why the Replicants have come back to Earth and to retire them before they can blend in to the surroundings. Ford is supreme in this role and commands the stage with presence throughout. The film addresses many issues, some a little far fetched and others more believable.
The latest model of Replicant is so advanced that it has started feeling emotions just like a human. To be more easily controlled, the founder of the Tyrell company implanted a history' into their minds so that they become easier to control. But the escaped Replicants fear something is wrong through their intuition that they have learned to experience. From the primary story of Ford's quest to kill these Replicants, are the other stories that blend together brilliantly. Deckard feels a pain and uneasiness about killing Replicants even if they are solely robotic. He forges a friendship with a Replicant who works at the Tyrell company and finds it difficult to communicate with her after many truths have been revealed.
Rutger Hauer plays the leader of the Nexus Six brigade who seems to be on a personal quest to find out what he wants to know with his Replicant friends. Hauer is excellent, capturing the uneasy quality that we associate with anything that looks human but we know is synthetic. He plays suspense expertly, and along with Daryl Hannah creates a believable story line and triggers feelings of sadness and sorrow at their plight mixed with an uncertainty as to whether they are playing on our emotions. Ford embarks on his quest trying to fit the pieces of the jigsaw, and his roguish attractive style is perfectly suited to the movie.
The backdrops are stunning and what we get is a real feel for the place. Los Angeles has become a mixture of nationalities and customs in which it is seemingly dull and dank except for the glimpses of blazing sun that basks its heat over the Tyrell building. Perhaps Tyrell thinks he has become some sort of God with the blessing of the above. The city is shrouded in steam from the Chinatown region in which stalls and market places rule. Overhead are the neon signs and lights that light up the darkened sky and factories spurn out flame after flame for production. Why would the Replicants come back to this, shouldn't they have escaped to another colony? Deckard must find out, coming up against his greatest foe yet.
Armed with a Voigt Kampf testing machine, that measures impulses to decide whether the subject is human or not, and by his own judgement from working the city he must get to the bottom of the mystery. Ridley Scott has made one of the best sci-fi movies here. Everything comes together supremely and Hauer's finishing speech is memorable and moving, something which fits the movie as a whole.