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• 1080p High Definition

• 5.1 EX and ES Surround Sound

• Audio Commentary with James Cameron

• Audio Commentary Featuring 26 Cast and Crew Members

• The Electric Dream: Remember Philip K. Dick

• Sacrificial Sheep: The Novel Vs. the Film

• Signs of the Times: Graphic Design

• Philip K. Dick: The Blade Runner Interviews

• Fashion Forward: Wardrobe & Styling

• The Light That Burns: Remembering Jordan Cronenweth

• Deleted and Alternate Scenes

• Deck-A-Rep: The True Nature of Rick Deckard

• Promoting Dystopia: Rendering the Poster Art

• Screen Tests: Rachel & Pris

• Interactive Menus

• English and Spanish Subtitles

Special Feature Rating:

Blade Runner is set in a dystopian future where synthetic humans, known as Replicants, are used as slave labor on off-Earth colonies. Since Replicants are as intelligent as the scientists who created them, they tend to develop their own special brand of emotions after a few years of life. Replicant emotions tend to veer towards violence and anger. As a precaution, Replicants are given a four year life span. The hope is, that they will die naturally before they start to develop these stunted emotions. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case and the events of Blade Runner revolve around a group of four renegade Replicants who make their way back to Earth and seek their creators within the giant Tyrell corporation. Harrison Ford stars as Rick Deckard, a special brand of police officer, a Blade Runner to be more specific, assigned to the duty of killing any Replicants who make it back to Earth. All is not right with Deckard, however, and this latest assignment might be his last.

Blade Runner succeeds for me as a film on a number of different levels. Initially, I was taken with the film’s amazing production design. The world of Blade Runner is about as intricately developed as any film yet imagined. Every nook and cranny is spilling over with set detail of striking, retro-futuristic design. The film’s many shots of the future cityscape of Los Angeles, complete with fire-spewing smoke stacks and enough smog to choke a two pack a day smoker, definitely set an intense mood for the film. Everything about Blade Runner feels lived in and completely feasible. It’s a remarkable accomplishment and the film’s effects still pack an intensely realistic punch to this day. That’s more than can be said for just about any other film made in 1982. Additionally, the film’s story is the stuff of sci-fi dreams. Based on the book, “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep” by Philip K. Dick, Blade Runner is deep, moving, occasionally scary and will stick with you for days. This is science fiction that answers questions and doesn’t exist to simply look cool or to be an excuse for blowing things up. Blade Runner certainly does have it’s action oriented side and there is quite a bit of intense violence, but it all exists to serve the story and is never tacked on gratuitously. Roy (Rutger Hauer), the film’s chief antagonist and leader of the wayward Replicants, gives an incredibly moving speech towards the end of the film that is about as close to Shakespearian as one will ever find in a science fiction film. These villains and heroes are complex characters and don’t exist simply to be “bad” or “good”. Finally, the music of Blade Runner is also a remarkable thing to behold. Vangelis has created a stunningly futuristic score that harkens back to romance pictures of the forties as much as is calls out to the future. If you’ve never heard this soundtrack to Blade Runner before, you are in for a real treat.

This Blu-Ray edition includes all five versions of Blade Runner. I’ll leave it up to the viewer to decide which version of the film is the best, but they all have something to offer. For those of you new to the film, you might start by watching the newest “Final” cut and then work you way back to the original versions. The film’s original domestic cut, with its tacked on narration and happy ending, will surely be a surprise if you’ve seen the “Final” version first. Rest assured, however, that despite any complaints from fans about early cuts of Blade Runner, the film in its original form is still powerful and nothing short of exceptional. Would we still be going over Blade Runner with a fine-toothed comb 25 years later, otherwise?

Story Rating:

Blade Runner has found its way to the Blu-ray format in pristine 1080P transferred from a newly minted 4K master. It’s clear that a huge effort was made in cleaning up the film as the source looks as though it was created recently as opposed to twenty-five years ago.

Blade Runner on Blu-ray looks amazing and is, most likely, the best the film is ever going to look. Like their stunning new Blu-ray version of 2001, Warner has really delivered top notch quality with their release of Blade Runner.

Picture Rating:

Warner has opted to include a full 5.1 Dolby TrueHD track on this release of Blade Runner. Quite frankly, I’ve never heard Blade Runner sound quite this remarkable.

Dialogue is crisp and always intelligible and never recedes into breaking up, even in the most quietly whispered scenes. Vangelis’ amazing score is crystal clear as well and this TrueHD presentation reveals even more layers of synthesized bass and atmosphere in this revolutionary soundtrack. Like the video, each successive step backwards in the film’s version will reveal a little less in the soundtrack department. After the “Final” cut in TrueHD, the remaining versions are presented in standard Dolby Digital with the “Workprint” being in Dolby 2.0 stereo. Clearly the “Final” version is the standout of the set and is sure to give your home theater a nice workout.

Sound Rating:

Overall Rating:

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