Blade Runner Day

Today is Blade Runner Day, meaning you all now finally have permission to start dressing fashionably.

You may have seen people making "Blade Runner Day" posts on November 1, but those people are Wrong. Blade Runner occurs between Nov 19 and Nov 22, 2019.

There are several shots in Blade Runner showing Decard reading a newspaper ("The Independent Sentinel", "Farming The Oceans, The Moon and Antarctica", "World Wide Computer Linkup Planned"), however the date on that paper is unreadable, and I've never found a clear photo of the original prop (and neither has Typeset in the Future). I even tried enhancing 34 to 36.

But! The execrable Blade Runner 2049 establishes that Deckard interviews Rachel on the 20th, just before that scene where the screenwriter turns two characters to face the camera and monologue his Lit Crit 101 podcast analysis of a scene from the earlier, better movie.

It was daytime during Rachel's interview. I figure Gaff picked Decard up on evening of the 19th, as he was eating dinner, so Holden presumably got aired out earlier that same day. Deckard kills Zhora and Rachel kills Leon on the evening of the 20th while Pris is scamming JF. Roy shows up at JF's for breakfast on the 21st. Later that evening Roy kills Tyrell and JF, and Deckard returns to the Bradbury to witness Roy's death early on the morning on the 22nd (as per the Workprint voiceover).

So you can start dressing like this now, but FFS, please smoke less:

And as long as we're here, thinking about how Blade Runner endures as one of the greatest movies of all time, let me refer you back to my hit-piece on Blade Runner 2049. That movie is very, very bad, and I'm still proud of my post about it.

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18 Responses:

  1. M says:

    It’s difficult to believe that Blade Runner takes place more than midway through November without seeing Christmas decorations in every storefront.

    • dzm says:

      Some things about the dystopian future/present also give us a reason to hope.

    • Nick Lamb says:

      Why would there be Xmas decorations in storefronts in November? Blade Runner is set in our near future (but got the dates wrong) and presumably by then in November stores are selling "Year of the Rat" Chinese New Year 2020 merch - December is for selling Valentine's Day crap.

      My local grocery store literally changed banners from "Back to School" to "Holiday Season" and shoved Halloween and Xmas stuff onto the same seasonal products shelves in maybe mid-September, they didn't even have two sections. Pumpkin shaped candy bucket? Right next to the chocolate reindeer. Stocking-shaped advent calendar ? In between the witches hats and the rubber spiders. Since I like candy and don't much care about seasons (although dressing up is fun) that works for me.

  2. robert_ says:

    Just so long as you're referring to the Director's Cut of the original Bladerunner - the one without the unneccessary commentary.

    • finophile says:

      well robert, I happen to like both, and indeed having taken a young millenial along to see the "directors cut" at the cinema in 1994, he walked out saying "what the hell was that about" ... we later sat down and watched a Laser Disc of the original and he said "well that explained a lot".

      I loved the directors cut while I was watching it for the first time, revelled (if I may) in hearing dialog I never heard ... but if you watch it blind first time the voice overs help. If you get the 25th anniversary version there are quite a many movie directors who also prefer the voiceover version.

      Just goes to show that there's room for diversity in opinions

  3. TKorho says:

    What about the obvious, Roy's birth date? Since the death was so sudden, it hints the death is pretty sharp, not only there about. Why would it be 2 months early, by luck? Especially if the replicants are so previously expensive.

    • Nick Lamb says:

      "You have burned so very, very brightly". Roy has vastly exceeded his intended use, so even if he was expected to live two months longer this last brief excitement on Earth and the doubtless... violent means by which that freedom was achieved could have "used up" that lifespan.

  4. 205guy says:

    There is still time for a creative person to enact (not re-enact) the "Tears in the rain" scene on a Los Angeles rooftop tomorrow night. It might just rain for real. Pigeon may be substituted for white dove, but otherwise not optional. Just so the two timelines share a special moment.

  5. thielges says:

    Yeah 2049 was terribly bad and showed that without the original crew of creatives who made it happen, The producers are exposed as being out of ideas. You can make a checklist of elements that made the original great and tick them off one by one as 2049 plays through the reel. The whole isn’t the sum of the parts. And who came up with the brilliant idea of inserting a stock Hollywood villain into 2049? The beauty of the original was the suspense and intrigue created without a clear bad guy.

    The best way to watch 2049 is to mute the sound and turn on your own soundtrack. As the marketing blurb said “Visually stunning”. At least 2049 delivered on that.

    Thanks for the heads up on these auspicious dates. I’ll celebrate tonight using photoshop to enhance while munching a bowl of ramen.

  6. jboy says:

    You forgot the best Blade Runner fashion:

    (Alternative image links: 1 2)

    Goths in 2019 represent!

    • jwz says:

      I mean, those are solid but they're kinda "pull a goth off the street in 1982." Or 1996. Or 2019.

      • jboy says:

        I like to think that timelessness is part of the appeal of goth(s).

        Between the Hare Krishnas, the Andrews Eldritch, and the neon sex-club sign in the background, the only way to date this scene is the fluorescent-tube umbrella ("they promised us ... and all we got was 140 characters") and the absence of mobile phones.

      • jboy says:

        ... Though this does raise an interesting question about the timeliness of sci-fi fashion:

        The romantic cynicism of cyberpunk & neo-noir has been reified as the cold speculum of unblinking, computer-vision-enabled mass surveillance (of both the state & corporate variety). When your adversary is a computerized camera, you evade it by confusing it, not frying it with an EMP. This fine publication has frequently reported on developments in CV dazzle & glitch.

        The Ghost In The Shell films (both the 1995 anime and the 2017 live-action scene-for-scene-but-soulless remake) have demonstrated "invisibility cloaks" to confuse human vision.

        But have there been any modern sci-fi films that incorporate dazzle, worn by a protagonist, to confuse computer vision in a post-20th-century surveillance dystopia?

        (Altered Carbon certainly didn't. Neither did Incredibles 2, which was set in the '60s(?). I don't recall that Upgrade did, either.)

    • apm74 says:

      I always liked the random 2001: A Space Odyssey space helmet perhaps accidentally left behind on top of the cab or whatever that is in this shot.

  7. hellpé says:

    Hey, I've just noticed, why do your Blade Runner screencaps look like they are seen through the eyes of someone with deuteranopia?

    • jwz says:

      That is the color grading that was used on The Final Cut. Colors are somewhat muted compared to The Director's Cut.

      • hellpé says:

        Okay, so it's a deliberate choice then. I should take a look at this Final Cut, but seriously, it really makes me think of color blindness filters at a first glance:

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