Runner of the Blade

Rating: 10/10 (9 April 2004)

Based on the book "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by the late Philip K. Dick.
Ford is Rick Deckard, a burned out bounty hunter cop officially called a BLADE RUNNER who was charged with the job of killing cyborgs called "replicants", who are human like in appearance but can be built with super strength, super stamina, super everything, including super intelligence, or they can be built to be stupid. A group of replicants led by Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) has made it to Earth from an off world colony (the late Brion James as Leon, Joanna Cassidy as Zora, and a pre-Splash Daryl Hannah as Priss). Even though replicants are supposed to die after 4 years in order to keep them from copying human emotions too accurately, they still cause problems, which leads to the creation of blade runners being employed to kill them. Deckard is yanked out of retirement when the blade runner who was assigned to "retire" (kill) them is put on a ventilator by Leon and given orders to pick up where the other guy left off. First, however, Deckard meets Rachael (Sean Young), a replicant who doesn't even know that she's a replicant but is "beginning to suspect" and later has a torrid love affair with Deckard, leaving Deckard with the ethical dilemma of either killing her or hiding her.
But is Deckard himself a genuine human? Hopefully not, because that would take all the sting and exoticism out of his relationship with Rachael. But you never know, he may very well be one of them, as he takes a horrible beating all throughout the film and always manages to survive.

Harrison Ford is fine in his usual quiet demeanor, but the film is stolen from him by Rutger Hauer with his intense, off beat performance as Roy Batty, the near Christ like Replicant leader. However, the film is dedicated to them in different halves before they meet for the climax. A flop at the box office in 1982 in light of the new desire of the time for dashing, swashbuckling adventure films, it has found its audience and appreciation in the years that followed,
Visually stunning, best suited to night time viewing.