IMDB 8.2
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Jack's Rating :
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The best neo-noir movie ever? Maybe. The best science fiction movie ever? Maybe. There's not many movies you can say that about. If it's not the best in each of those genres, it's pretty close.
Deckard is a blade runner who wants out. He no longer wants to hunt down replicants on earth and terminate them. But he is dragged back in by Bryant, who says "Stop right where you are! You know the score, pal. You're not cop, you're little people!"
Four replicants have escaped to earth from the colonies to find out if they can extend the time that is designated for them to live. Deckard is called in to get them.
Deckard visits the Tyrell Corporation, who created the replicants, and is asked to do a test on Rachael. Deckard finds out that she is a replicant too, but didn't even know it.
Deckard terminates one, Zhora, and is about to be terminated himself by another, Leon, when Rachael steps in and shoots Leon down. It was just like a scene out of classic noir, with the smoke rising and the femme fatale saving the day.
Deckard tells Rachel that if she escaped up North he would not hunt her, but someone would. When Deckard goes to kiss Rachel he has the tell-tale shadows of the blinds across his face tells us he is a doomed man (or replicant).
Roy Batty, one of the replicants, goes and visits his creator, Dr. Eldon Tyrell. After finding out his life can't be extended, Roy kills Dr, Tyrell.
Deckard, in the meantime, has killed Pris. Roy arrives and is going to finish off Deckard who has killed his three friends. This is a man who has made his living killing replicants. But when Deckard is about to fall to his death, he looks up and spits at Roy, and Roy reaches down like a god and saves him He seems to see something in Deckard. But Roy is dying, his time is up. Roy tells Deckard "I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time... like tears in rain... Time to die."
Gaff, one of Bryant's minions, sees Deckard and says: "You've done a man's job, sir. I guess you're through, huh?"
Deckard: "Finished."
[Gaff throws Deckard his gun]
Gaff: "It's too bad she won't live! But then again, who does?"
Gaff knows Deckard will not go after Rachael. When Deckard goes back to the apartment, he finds Rachael and goes off with her.
Several versions of the movie were made and early ones had Deckard using a noirish voice-over to help narrate the movie. Ridley Scott didn't like it and removed it for his later versions,
Everything about this movie is so good. The music, the cinematography, the story, the acting, the style .. About as good as it gets,
Quotes:
Gaff: You've done a man's job, sir. I guess you're through, huh?
Deckard: Finished.
[Gaff throws Deckard his gun]
Gaff: It's too bad she won't live! But then again, who does?
Deckard: [narrating] I don't know why he saved my life. Maybe in those last moments he loved life more than he ever had before. Not just his life - anybody's life; my life. All he'd wanted were the same answers the rest of us want. Where did I come from? Where am I going? How long have I got? All I could do was sit there and watch him die.
Holden: Describe in single words only the good things that come into your mind about... your mother.
Leon: My mother?
Holden: Yeah.
Leon: Let me tell you about my mother.
Bryant: I need ya, Deck. This is a bad one, the worst yet. I need the old blade runner, I need your magic.
Rachael: That Voight-Kampf test of yours. Have you ever tried to take that test yourself?