Is Avatar Really James Cameron's Next Film?

Man, it's been a long time--13 long years, to be exact--since James Cameron announced that he was taking Yukito Kishiro's manga, Battle Angel Alita, to the big screen. Back then, he had broken a long silence after the record-breaking success of 'Titanic' and I was completely beside myself when I heard the news at 3 in the morning. For those who aren't familiar with the manga, Alita centers around a cyborg girl named Alita who has no memories and who's only clue to who she is is her incredible combat skill and martial art style called Panzer Kunst. I stumbled across the books in the mid 90's when Anime was just beginning to take off in the States.

Probably the best way to describe the story is that it is a post apocalyptic version of Mad Max, Blade Runner, and The Wizard of Oz as tiny, but deadly, Alita searches for her identity only to find love and loss along the way. The story's many overlapping themes from philosophy, Greek mythology, psychology, and just plain weirdness combined with the most inventive artwork plus a female kick-ass central character has everything except the attributions "written and drawn by James Cameron." It's like this graphic series was written for Cameron as it has all of the megalomaniacal attention to every subatomic detail you could imagine. The main thing I thought reading it at the time was that I could not think of anything that came close to being the perfect vehicle for his next film being that he is obsessed with strong female characters and Alita's emotional arc throughout the series makes her THE strongest female character he could ever conceive.

So, when the rumors came out that he had bought the rights to Alita and that he was going to perfect the technology for it by 1st doing a test movie called project 880, I was excited. But when 880, which later became Avatar, went on to be the biggest film ever made and he slated 3 sequels behind it, I was extremely disappointed because I, and those who've read Battle Angel--particularly, the Motor Ball series with Jashugan, the Motor Ball King--know that as great as Avatar is, it pales to what Battle Angel could have been (please, read it and you will see exactly what I mean).

Today, I found out on Wikipedia that not only is Battle Angel going to be released, but that it will be directed by none other than Robert Rodriguez (Cameron will produce it). I believe that it can still be a great film, even without Cameron, in the hands of Rodriguez who can direct as he's demonstrated in the past on films like Dusk Till Dawn and Sin City. He, I believe, could pull off this film with the right script which, by the way, will be penned by Laeta Kalogridis who has worked on many films that I WOULD NOT SEE but who may do well with Alita given the source material. We will never know what this project could have been under Cameron just as we could only imagine what Cameron's interpretation of Spider-Man would have been like when he was originally tasked to bring the web-slinger to the big screen. Alita is supposed to come out in 2018 so there will be plenty of time for people to speculate on Rodriguez's vision of Alita. In the meantime, my choices of who I think could pull off Alita as well--or even better--than Cameron are 1) Paul Verhoeven 2) Ridley Scott 3) Stephen Spielberg. Any one of these guys could pull off both the action and story elements in Alita. Anyway, I can't wait till 2018!

Analysis of a scene from 'The Godfather Part 2'

In this scene from 'The Godfather Part 2' Michael Corleone disowns his brother Fredo.

Fredo tells Michael everything. Hyman and Johnny Ola wanted regime change because Michael was a tough negotiator. Fredo helped them but he did not know that they would try to kill Michael. They had promised Fredo something of his own for a change. Fredo was fed up with getting handouts from his baby brother and running errands. Fredo  pours out his pain and frustrations and when he finishes Michael calmly asks for any info that could help him in the Senate hearings. And after getting the information he needs, Michael disowns his brother. Michael orders his bodyguard Al Neri not to let anything happen to Fredo while their dying mother is alive.

The attempted murders of Don Corleone and Michael in this film are identical; they are both betrayed by someone in the family. In the 1st film, the Don is betrayed by Sonny’s impulsiveness, and Michael is betrayed by Fredo’s greed. 

I want to mention a couple of real life comparisons to Michael’s attempted assassination. The 1st comparison I’d like to make is the Libyan Revolution. In 2009, Gaddafi proposed using African gold and doing away with the U.S. Dollar as the trading currency; in other words, Libya would only accept GOLD for their oil which would have been a “threat to the financial security of the world” according to the President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy. Shortly after his proposal, America staged a coup by sponsoring Al Qaeda terrorists to overthrow Gaddafi. The so-called “rebellion” as the media described the coup, destroyed a 33 billion dollar irrigation pipeline that Gaddafi had built to supply his people with clean water among other atrocities such as the lynching of Black Africans loyal to Gaddafi, the raping of 9 year old girls and other slaughter against Libya’s populace, most of whom loved Gaddafi and his style of socialism. But Gaddafi was a tough negotiator and Nato needed regime change to get control of Libya’s oil, which it has done.

Another real life parallel to Michael’s attempted assassination is America’s overthrow of Saddam Hussein. In November of 2000, he said that he would no longer trade his country’s oil for U.S. currency and would instead trade Iraq’s oil for Euros because his country no longer wanted to deal in “the currency of the enemy.” Shortly afterward, America used 911 (including accusations of Saddam manufacturing weapons of mass destruction although no evidence of this was ever found) as an excuse to go after Saddam even though his country had nothing to do with the attacks on the World Trade Center. Following Saddam’s ouster, capture, and public lynching, America got the regime change it wanted as American oil company Halliburton (formerly headed by Vice President Dick Cheney) and other western oil companies privatized Iraqi’s oil fields. So, when negotiations in both Godfather films stalled, the other side felt that the only way to get what they wanted was to get regime change.

Why Apollonia had to die for Michael to return to Don Corleone and America

Art Of War, Chapter 9: The Army on the March

“Pass quickly over mountains, and keep in the neighborhood of valleys”--Sun Tzu

The Godfather (Mario Puzo): “Every man has but one destiny”

In this scene, Michael is still in exile in Sicily after murdering a New York Police Captain and a drug dealer. During his exile, he marries a young Sicilian woman named Apollonia. They are staying in the villa of a local Don who is a friend of The Godfather but for only a short time. Enemy spies are also in Sicily and Michael can’t stay in one place for long. His car is booby-trapped with a bomb that kills his new wife and this death of an innocent represents his baptism into his father’s world and seals his destiny to take over the Corleone empire. The Biblical metaphor here is that his love for Apollonia represented the one thing that could come between himself and complete unconditional surrender to his father’s will. Apollonia’s death and the poverty of his homeland enables Michael to fully understand his father’s determination to not be a puppet on anyone's string. Also, as explained in the previous clip, the Don had cleared the way for Michael to return to America and if Apollonia had not died, Michael may not have made the decision to return to America and stand by his father. Throughout this film, death complements life in some form or another. 

Scene analysis of Fritz Lang's 'Metropolis'

This is a scene by scene analysis of Fritz Lang's film 'Metropolis'

Hi, and thanks for stopping by my movie blog. I've put together a plot summary and scene analysis for one of my all-time favorite science fiction movies, Fritz Lang's 1929 silent classic Metropolis. If you have a DVD, pop it in and follow along. And please leave a comment or your own interpretation of this terrific film called by many the greatest science fiction film ever, predating 2001 and Blade Runner by decades.

Metropolis

Title 1 (00:00-6:47) (6:47)

In this opening title of the film we are given a summary of this particular edition of Metropolis and that it includes 25 minutes of footage retrieved from an original version discovered in Buenos Aires Argentina.  The book by the same name was written by Lang’s wife Thea Von Harbou and 1st published in a magazine (Illustrertes Blatt) and finally published by August Scherk Verlag. As we see the clips, you will be able to tell the new footage because it will look grainier and rougher than the rest of the film, which was restored in 2001. As the credits begin to roll, we hear the rising score by Gottfried Hupperitz. We see those involved in other areas of the film’s production, the actors in the film. We see the film’s epigram: “The Mediator Between the Brain and Hand Must Be the Heart,” and finally, we see a mosaic of skyscrapers clenched together in the shape of a triangle or a pyramid, which is a symbol for stratification. As we watch the clips be mindful of the pyramid motif in the sets and other elements of the film’s production. 

The opening scene appears to be in what looks like a subway with 2 wide lanes full of men, one side filling an elevator and the other side emptying an elevator. They are changing shifts. They all have on the same drab gray uniform and all walk lock-step, the side entering the elevator walking faster than the side exiting the elevator. The men entering the elevator are taken down to the lowest level where they begin their long shifts, performing monotonous tasks at the machines which run the city. 

My viewpoint

Life in Metropolis is a life of monotony and control as characterized by the way the workers are all dressed in the same drab uniforms and by the manner in which they walk lock-step and how they maintain neat rows and columns. The workers entering the elevator to go to work walk 3 steps faster than those returning from work suggesting fatigue. The workers look like zombies or robots, not interacting with each other. The elevator has bars instead of a door implying that in the social order of Metropolis, they exist within a caste society that they cannot escape from. As the elevator descends, we see the workers on it from behind and the world through the elevator’s iron bars. Instead of open sky, we see a ceiling of concrete. The inter title “Deep Below The Earth’s Surface Lay The Worker’s City” is in the form of an upside-down triangle reinforcing the fact that the workers who run the city’s machines are at the very bottom of the social structure. Also, the workers’ heads are down. 

Title 2 (6:46—12:00) (5:14)

The wealthy live high above the workers in a complex called “Club of the Sons” and enjoy a standard of living that puts them at the top of the social class. They have sports, libraries, beautiful gardens and beautiful women. They live life carelessly and completely unaware of those who work beneath the surface of the earth. A beautiful woman from below brings the sons and daughters of those who live below up to meet the “Club of the Sons.” A young man named Freder who’s the son of the master of Metropolis sees the woman from below and he falls in love instantly. The woman and children are herded back into the elevator by guards.

My viewpoint

Title 3 (14:05- 16:50) (2:45)

Freder goes underground in search of Maria and he witnesses the machines and the workers. The machine looks like a pyramid full of valves, switches, blinking lights, and buttons and workers are at various levels of the machine moving in sync. The machine overheats and explodes and Freder sees a vision of the machine as a god named Moloch and he sees the workers being fed to it.

moloch

My viewpoint 

Freder, like Moses in the Bible, goes down among the poor and sees firsthand what makes Metropolis run. It's the blood and sweat of the workers that feeds the god called Moloch that runs the city. In this instance, Freder becomes the classic paradigm of a champion standing up for the oppressed. This follows in the tradition of Tarzan, the story of Moses in the Bible, the story of Jesus, and even the film Avatar. But since this film uses Biblical metaphor, Freder is now Moses sympathizing with those of the lower class. 

Title 4 (22:09-27:20) (5:11)

Freder returns to the Babel, the tallest tower in Metropolis, to tell his father what he saw beneath the city. That he saw the faces of his brothers and sisters, those who built Metropolis. His father’s attitude is cold. The people who built the city are where they belong, his father says. Grot, the foreman of the city’s Heart Machine brings Frederson a map of an underground labyrinth where the workers are planning an uprising. 

My viewpoint

Freder continues in his role of Moses returning to his father, the master of Metropolis, on behalf of those at the bottom, the workers who run the city. In the Book of Exodus, Pharaoh also expressed concern over the possibility that the slaves, as the workers in Metropolis, would rise up against the system oppressing them. Gottfried Huppertz score reflects the grandeur of Metropolis in this scene. Also, the use of camera perspective in this scene where Grot appears shows Frederson’s social position by making him appear larger than Grot, a worker from below, and Josaphat, who’s what blacks would consider a “House Nigger” because of the enjoys a higher status than those who work beneath the city. 

Title 5 (33:39-38:13) (4:34)

Freder returns to the machines under the city and takes the place of a worker known as 11811. They trade clothes and Freder instructs the worker to wait for him at his place. The worker discovers a pile of money in one of Freder’s pockets and takes a detour to the red-light district known as Yoshiwara. 

My viewpoint

Freder now alternates between Moses and Jesus. Like Moses, he returns to the machines underground and disguises himself as a worker to know what the oppressed are going through; as Jesus, Freder instructs the worker to wait on his return but the worker is tempted from the path and deviates into sin represented by the red-light district called Yoshiwara. The scene showing 11811 in the cab was added from film that was recently found in Buenos Aires. The added footage is distinguished by it’s grainier look from the rest of the film.

Title 6 (52:31-1:00:10) (7:39)

Freder and the workers take a secret passage to a temple beneath the workers’ city where Maria teaches them the old Biblical story of Babel. Afterwards, Freder declares his love for her. Fredersen and Maria  are unaware that they are being watched by Joh Frederson and the inventor Rottwang are spying on them. Frederson orders Rottwang to build a mechanical version  of Maria to deceive the people and turn them—and Freder— against the real Maria.

My viewpoint

Maria is John the Baptist, a prophet announcing the coming of the Messiah to liberate the workers. Now, Freder goes from playing Moses to Jesus and this is confirmed when a worker asks Maria “Where is the mediator?” and suddenly Freder’s head  is backlit to look like a halo around his head.

Production note: Wikipedia

Sculptor Walter Schulze-Mittendorff created the robot costume by molding it around a full-body cast worn by actress Brigitte Helm. The costume was so rigid that she suffered cuts and bruises wearing and moving in it. 

Title 7 (123:17-126:09) (2:51)

Rottwang the inventor kidnaps Maria and gives her image to the Machine Man who will deceive the workers of Metropolis.

My viewpoint

Great scene with all of the Sci Fi cliches of the time—electrical arcs, smoking chemicals, and alchemy. Biblically, the Machine Man is the AntiChrist, an analogy that is supported by the inverted pentagram in the background. An inverted pentagram is a symbol used in Satanic rituals. So, this means that Maria herself represents both prophet and Messiah at the same time. Note the music and the theme (music) that Gottfried Support  uses to describe the Machine Man version of Maria. A livelier variation of this theme is played in the Yoshiwara scene later. As Gottfried Huppertz synced the leitmotif he used for the Machine Man with the various switches and levers in Rottwang’s lab. Each instrument in Machine Man’s theme woke up with every turned dial or thrown switch until we have the entire leitmotif. It’s like he’s conducting an orchestra.

Title 8 (129:17-1:34:54) (5:11)

Freder finds Rottwang. Maria is with Joh Frederson, Rottwang tells Freder. Freder returns to Babel and finds Maria in his father’s arms. He is unaware that this is the fake Maria.  Freder is stricken with a high fever and in a dream he is transported to the Yoshiwara night club in the red-light district. There, he sees Maria as the Whore of Babylon on a stage dancing before the upper 10,000, making them lust after her and fight and kill each other. 

My viewpoint

When Rottwang created Machine Man he created her to deceive the workers as Frederson instructed. But Rottwang never forgave Frederson stealing his woman whose name was Hel. Hel died giving birth to Freder so Rottwang also programmed the Machine Man to destroy Metropolis by making it’s men destroy one another. Again, note the music and how the faster tempo of the Machine Man’s theme here. Bridget Helm is great as the Mechanical Man in this scene. Also, staying consistent with the movie’s theme of social stratification, take note of the pyramid motifs in the set designs,  particularly Freder’s bed, the headboard and footboard. Also, you see the Machine Man as Maria in Yoshiwara driving the Club of the Sons mad, making them fight each other, kill each other, even committing suicide. He sees her riding the 7 headed beast spoken of in the book of Revelation.

Title 9 (1:39:33-1:40:30) (00:57)

Rottwang, the inventor, is holding the real Maria captive. He tells her that Fredersen wants the false Maria to resort to violence so that he can be justified in using force against them. Unlike Maria, who preached for peace, the false Maria preaches violence. 

My viewpoint

As she did with the elite in Yoshiwara, Maria, or the Antichrist, deceives the workers of Metropolis to destroy Machine City, just what Fredersen wanted. But Freder, his son, spots the fake right away, warns the people, but they overtake him and head off to destroy Machine City.

Title 10 (1:46:30-1:59:45) (13:15)

Rottwang  tells Maria that Frederson wants the workers to become violent to justify slaughtering them. But as Rottwang is telling this to Maria, Joh Fredersen is nearby eavesdropping and he breaks into the attic and overtakes the inventor. Maria escapes while they are struggling. Meanwhile, the fake Maria leads the workers to destroy the machines. The workers are so caught up that they abandon their children. The fake Marie pulls a switch that causes the city to flood.

My viewpoint

As she did with the men in Yoshiwara, the fake Maria, or in this case the AntiChrist, brings chaos to the workers beneath the city. This scene draws an analogy with the flood that is described in the Bible. 

(Wikipedia) The director got 500 children from the poorest districts of Berlin to film the flood in this sequence. He ordered the extras to throw themselves at powerful jets of water in this flooding sequence.

Title 11 (2:01:34-2:06:54) (5:20)

Freder and Maria reunite and rescue the children as the Worker’s city is flooded. Freder takes the orphaned children to the Club of the Sons. 

My viewpoint

Title 12 (2:08:28-2:10:21) (1:53)

Grot, the foreman of the Heart Machine brings the workers, elated over the destruction of Moloch, back to their senses. In all the excitement over destroying Metropolis’s machines, they’d abandoned their children. They realize that the fake Maria has tricked them into destroying their own city. Their anger is redirected to killing Maria. Meanwhile, Maria celebrates with the Club of the Sons over destroying Fredersen’s city. 

My viewpoint

Title 13 (2:14:58-2:19:39) (4:41)

The workers capture the fake Maria and burn her at the stake. The fire burns away the Maria disguise and reveals that she is really the Machine Man. Freder sees Maria on the roof of a cathedral being chased by Rottwang. Freder saves her.

Production: Wikipedia

Fritz was obsessed with making this film as authentic as possible as Brigette Helms recalled: “when Grot drags me by the hair, to have me burned at the stake. Once I even fainted: during the transformation scene, Maria, as the android, is clamped in a kind of wooden armament, and because the shot took so long, I didn’t get enough air."[22] 

Title 14 (2:23:50-2:26:50) (3:00)

Freder saves his love, Maria, and Freder brings his father and the worker’s foreman, Grot, together to shake hands. 

My viewpoint

This film was made in 1927 but it is probably more relevant now than ever with the class and racial tensions in the country today. Roger Ebert called this film angry and I agree. But Metropolis is a warning for any society that reduces its citizens to numbers and especially a warning to a society where the poor are concentrated on the bottom underneath an oligarchy of the few that are wealthy. 

Theme

Again, in this scene we see the triangle or pyramid motif as the foreman Grot, forming the head of the pyramid, leads the workers up the steps of the cathedral to confront Fredersen, the master of Metropolis. This suggests the Biblical scripture that says the 1st shall be last and the last shall be first. Now, the workers have a say. This is a very symbolic scene and no accident that it culminates on the steps of a church. The pyramid motif is reflected everywhere throughout the design of this scene (finish)

Scene By Scene Plot Analysis of Blade Runner

This is an analysis of 'Blade Runner', Ridley Scott's science fiction classic. 

Blade Runner

Title 4 (7:25—15:37) (8:12) Stop after “And if the machine doesn’t work on her?”

Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), a retired Blade Runner, is detained by a fellow Blade Runner named Gaff (Edward James Olmos) and taken to police headquarters to Captain Bryant (M. Emmet Walsh). Bryant brings Deckard out of retirement to hunt down and kill 4 bioengineered humans called replicants who have escaped an off-world slave colony and returned to Earth where replicants are banned. There were originally 6 fugitives but 2 died attempting to break into the Tyrell Corporation that created them. A replicant named Leon infiltrates the company headquarters and poses as an employee, later shooting a Blade Runner during interrogation. Captain Bryant sends Deckard to Tyrell to perform the Voigt Kampff test on an experimental replicant there named Rachel.

My viewpoint

In a documentary of the film, Ridley Scott confirms that Deckard is himself a replicant, a Nexus 6 model. But, in this scene, it is also apparent that Deckard is not just a replicant, or 2nd class citizen, but that he is also a slave. First, we find out that he is retired from duty but that he is arrested or detained by Gaff as though he is a criminal and taken to police headquarters where Captain Bryant forces him to return to work against his will. Next, we are introduced to the fugitives who, like Deckard, are slaves forced to do hard labor on other planets. Bryant forces Deckard to hunt and kill his own.

Knowing that Deckard is a replicant and that Tyrell has built a 4 year lifespan into the Nexus 6 models to prevent them from developing human emotions, it becomes clear that Deckard was created to kill his own kind before he developed human emotions, specifically, empathy which would interfere with him carrying out his job. As the film progresses, this will become clear as Deckard falls in love with Rachel (Sean Young) who is also a replicant.

Title 7 (17:46—30:19) (12:33) Stop after “And where would we find this…J.F. Sebastian 

Deckard performs the Voigt Kampff test on Rachel. It takes more questions to detect her than it ordinarily does. Two of the fugitives interrogate the contractor who made their eyes, wanting to know who their Maker is. Their genetic designer, they are told, is J.F. Sebastian.

My viewpoint

Rachel is a slave and has no history of her own. This is analogous to American slavery and how it destroyed the cultural identity of African Americans. Rachel’s memories belong to someone else, meaning that she has accepted her master’s interpretation of her history, in this case, she has been given the past (memories) of Tyrell’s (Joe Turkel) niece. But, being close to her expiration or preprogrammed death, she is beginning to suspect what she truly is, and that is, a slave. This is also analogous of childhood development. From infants up to a certain age, children are subjective, believing, for the most part, what their parents tell them. But when they reach a certain age, children have accumulated enough knowledge that they begin to question their parents, rebel against their parents. And this is why the replicants are engineered to live only 4 years and not allowed to fully develop emotionally by living to 6 years of age. As long as they only live to the age of 4 they can be controlled. 

In the following scene, Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) and Leon (Brion James) drop in on their eye maker, suggesting that they are nothing more than the sum of many parts. Again, there is the paradoxical question: “What is human?” as in the previous scene where Tyrell gives a cold, clinical breakdown of Rachel’s emotions: 

“Capillary dilation of the so-called blush response? Fluctuation of the pupil? Involuntary dilation of the iris?”

His description of replicants’ emotions are also characterized by the contractors who are responsible for supplying the various parts of the replicants, much like how companies outsource parts for things like cars and phones. Again, the question “What is human and what is machine,” in this case, biological machine, is asked. 

Title 12 (36:19—41:30) (5:11) Stop after “They’re soaked, aren’t they?”

J.F. Sebastian finds Pris in a pile of garbage on the sidewalk and takes her up to his apartment where she inadvertently finds out that he designed her. His home is occupied by other “toys” he created.  

My viewpoint

When J.F. Sebastian finds Pris in a pile of garbage, the symbolism of this suggests that she, as a replicant slave, is marginalized by society. J.F. Sebastian is her “designer” which also suggests that she is a thing and not a person. We see silhouettes of mannequins also in this scene acting as metaphors for how humans perceive replicants, as empty bodies without souls. In his apartment, Pris meets Sebastian’s friends, midgets in French military uniforms that he made. When Sebastian asks her about her folks, Pris says “I’m sort of an orphan.” The word orphan here not only means that she has no parents, but that she, acting as mankind, has been rejected by God which explains why she and the other replicants are seeking their Maker. 

The atmosphere and mood of this film is complemented by the music by Vangelis and British saxophonist Dick Morrissey who also did the love scene between Deckard and Rachel later in the film.

Title 16 (52:19-1:03:12) Stop after Rachel shoots Leon

Deckard tracks down Zhora working as a stripper in the red-light district and kills her. He then is attacked by Leon who is shot and killed by Rachel who escaped from Tyrell and who is also now a fugitive. 

My viewpoint

Zhora’s violent death is contrasted against the lifeless mannequins in a storefront display window. When they turn her body over on its back, a tear rolls out of an eye that confirms that she is a human and not simply a machine. After this, Rachel saves Deckard despite the fact that his job is to kill her along with the other replicants. She kills a fellow replicant, but, unlike Deckard who kills as part of his job, Rachel does so to save a life. 

Title 22 (1:08:07—1:12:40) Stop when Deckard and Rachel kiss

Deckard takes Rachel to his place. He owes her for saving his life and promises not to kill her. He falls asleep and when he awakens, Rachel is at his piano. He sits next to her and when he kisses her, she runs away. He corners her and they make love. 

My viewpoint 

Dick Morrissey’s tenor sax in this scene really lights it up and provides some much needed downtime from the previous scenes. Also, the cinematography plays a big part in setting the mood by using more close up shots of Rachel and then of both of them. The lighting in this scene especially that coming through the window blinds pays homage to cinematographer John Seitz’s work on Double Indemnity. This shot also foreshadows Decker’s decision later in the film to run away with Rachel, that they are both fugitives or runaway slaves. Decker’s orders to Rachel are a sort of Voigt Kampff test in that she reacts like a woman would in this situation with a man. This scene is pivotal to the plot and marks a transition in Decker’s character arc as he has fallen in love with a fugitive replicant and also this scene establishes conflict as he must carry out his job of killing the other fugitive replicants. 

Title 24 (1:14:16—1:16:10) (1:54) Stop after Roy says “No, we won’t”

Roy locates the apartment of J.F. Sebastian where he finds Pris and tells her that they are the only replicants left of the 6 who escaped the off-world slave colony.

My viewpoint

When casting for Roy Batty’s role, Production Executive Katherine Haber got Ridley Scott to watch Rutger Hauer’s Dutch films he’d done for Director Paul Verhoeven, such as Katie Tippel, Soldier of Orange, and Turkish Delight. Scott cast Hauer immediately without having met him, these films made so great an impression on him. In this short clip, Hauer alternates between a charismatic leader and a creature that is vulnerable and afraid of dying.

Title 25 (1:20:13—

Sebastian takes Roy Batty to see his Maker, Eldon Tyrell who is unable to give Roy more time. Roy kills Eldon Tyrell and Sebastian.

My viewpoint

Roy Batty is man and Tyrell is God in this clip. This meeting is the paradigm of the creature rebelling against its creator as in the biblical story of Lucifer’s fall or Shelley’s Frankenstein. This could be the scenario we may soon face if and when A.I. becomes sentient which is probably the underlying theme of this film. Roy Batty asks Tyrell the questions that mankind asks: “How much time do I have?” to which Tyrell replies “Revel in your time.” And when Roy Batty is in the descending elevator looking up at the stars, he is Lucifer falling from Heaven. Again, this scene shows why Rutger Hauer should be mentioned in the same breath with actors like Brando. And his performance in this film just as superlative as Brad Davis’s in ‘Midnight Express’ or Peter O’Toole’s in ‘Lawrence of Arabia.’ With the death of Tyrell, Roy is lost and resigned to his fate. All he has now is Pris. 

Title 31 (1:42:26-end)

Roy battles Deckard at J.F. Sebastian’s apartment and after saving Decker’s life, Roy dies.

My viewpoint

One of the great scenes and great lines in this or any genre as Roy describes to Deckard the things he’s seen working as an off-world slave. Afterwards, he releases his life represented by the dove, a cliche used many times, but nevertheless poetic and effectively used here. With Batty dead, there’s only one replicant left, Rachel, and this realization and conviction to run away with her as a fugitive completes Decker’s orbit from cold-blooded killer to empathizing with replicants and realizing that he himself is one when he sees the little origami Gaff left for him, the unicorn he dreams of throughout the film. 

'Blade Runner': plot summary

This is a plot summary of director Ridley Scott's film 'Blade Runner'

Blade Runner is a dystopian Neo Noir science fiction thriller set in the city of Los Angeles in the year 2019 concerning 4 bioengineered humans called replicants who escape an off-world slave colony and return to Earth to find their Maker—the Tyrell Corporation. The Tyrell Corporation manufactures genetically engineered slaves for dangerous and menial work on off world colonies. Replicants are banned on Earth and if discovered are retired by special police units called Blade Runners. The story begins in an interrogation room at the Tyrell complex. The 4 fugitive replicants are suspected of breaking into Tyrell and a new employee named Leon is being interrogated. A Blade Runner named Holden subjects Leon (Brion James) to the Voigt-Kampff test, a test designed to distinguish replicants from humans based on certain physiological responses to a series of cross-referenced questions. Holden asks Leon a question about his mother and Leon shoots Holden with a gun underneath the table. 

Chinatown is under a steady downpour. Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), a retired Blade Runner, is enjoying a bowl of noodles at a stand when he receives a tap on the shoulder from a fellow Blade Runner named Gaff (Edward James Olmos) who detains him and takes him to police headquarters. There, Captain Bryant (M. Emmet Walsh) brings Deckard out of retirement to hunt down 4 ‘skin-jobs’ (replicants) that have escaped an off-world labor camp. The replicants are a new generation called Nexus 6 that are indistinguishable from humans except that they lack human emotions which they develop after 6 years. For this reason, Tyrell engineered the Nexus 6 model to only live for 4 years. The fugitives’ leader is Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer), a blonde, male combat model, incept date 2016. The other fugitives are a female assassin named Zhora (Joanna Cassidy) and a ‘pleasure model’ named Pris (Daryl Hannah), incept dates also 2016. Captain Bryant sends Deckard to Tyrell to do a Voigt-Kampff empathy test on a replicant there named Rachel.

At Tyrell, Rachel passes the Voigt-Kampff, however it takes Deckard more than 100 questions to detect her as being a replicant; ordinarily, it only takes 20 questions to spot a replicant. After the test, Rachel shows up at Decker’s apartment and he breaks it to her that she is a replicant and that all of her memories are false memories implanted in her brain by Tyrell. 

Meanwhile, Roy Batty and Leon visit an eye engineer named Chew at Eye World. Roy wants to know his incept date and Chew tells him to go see J.F. Sebastian who also works for Tyrell. 

Deckard and Gaff search Leon’s hotel room and Deckard finds a stack of photographs that leads him to Zhora who is working as a stripper. Deckard pretends to be with the Committee on Moral Abuses to gain access to her dressing room but she is not fooled and flees with him in pursuit. He shoots her and she dies. Later, Bryant congratulates him and lets him know that he only has 4 more replicants to hunt down, the 3 fugitives plus Rachel who has escaped from Tyrell upon finding out the she is a replicant. 

Now, things become complicated for Deckard. Leon appears out of nowhere. Deckard draws his gun but Leon slaps it away. Rachel picks up Decker’s gun and shoots Leon in the head. Deckard takes Rachel to his place and promises not to kill her for saving his life. She asks him if he saw her incept date at Tyrell but he doesn't say. He pours himself a drink and falls asleep. Later, he is awakened by Rachel who is playing the piano. Her hair which she kept up is down along her shoulders. He kisses her but she is afraid and runs away. He corners her and forces her to confront the new sensations welling up in her. He kisses her and she finally gives in. 

J.F. Sebastian lives alone in a dilapidated hotel called the Bradbury. His apartment is full of genetically engineered humans he refers to as “toys.” He’s only in his 20’s but he looks very old because he suffers from the Methuselah Syndrome which causes him to age at an accelerated rate. He finds Pris, the pleasure model, in a pile of garbage and takes her in. And later, Roy Batty shows up. He tells Pris that they are the only 2 left; the other replicants who escaped the slave camp are dead. They manipulate Sebastian to take them to see Eldon Tyrell. 

There, Roy asks Tyrell for more life but the coding sequence cannot be altered once it is set. Tyrell consoles Roy with praise--he is the best replicant the corporation’s ever produced. Tyrell goes on to say: “The light that burns the brightest, burns half as long.” But these words mean nothing to Roy. He kisses Tyrell then kills him. Afterwards, Roy kills J.F. Sebastian and leaves the Tyrell Corporation. 

Back at J.F. Sebastian’s apartment, Deckard enters a room full of life-sized dolls. Pris blends in with these dolls and attacks Deckard. He manages to get his gun and shoots her. Roy returns to Sebastian’s apartment to find Pris dead. He torments Deckard, running through the rooms, ducking in and out of doorways, and howling like a wolf. Deckard climbs out of a window and pulls himself up to the roof of the building. Batty is already there, however, and Deckard attempts to leap across to an adjacent building. He barely makes it and struggles to pull himself up. Roy leaps to the other easily and pulls Deckard up with 1 hand. Roy then sits down and his shoulders slump. He says his last words: 

“I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shore of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate. All those moments will be lost, like tears in the rain.”

He dies. Deckard rushes back to his apartment where Rachel is asleep in his bed. He wakes her and they rush out of the apartment. In the hall, he happens to look down and sees a tiny origami, the same unicorn he saw in his dreams. Gaff left it there. Deckard and Rachel flee; now, they are both fugitives.