Blade Runner

JUNE 28, 1982

The film Blade Runner, an adaptation of Philip K. Dick's 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, explores what it means to be human. The film’s moody setting, striking production design, and powerful story carried the film from cult classic to pillar of the science fiction genre.

Directed by Ridley Scott, Blade Runner (1982) follows a detective, Rick Deckard, who is hired to destroy a group of renegade replicants, or androids, in a futuristic Los Angeles. The film opts for a quiet, futuristic film noir setting, emphasizing the value of memory and emotion over explosive bombast.

Blade Runner came about at the same time as the nascent cyberpunk genre—both emphasize common people and high technology, usually set in gritty, dark futures. Blade Runner won a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation and is a National Film Registry inductee.