William Blake in popular culture all cited Blake as one of their major inspirations. Comic designer William Blake Everett claims to be descended from Blake. In his film "Mean Streets" (1973), Martin Scorsese refers to Blake's poem "The Tyger" when a young pet tiger makes Harvey Keitel and Robert De Niro take refuge atop a couch, paralleling the grit and innocence of life in the city. A variation on a verse from Blake's "America a Prophecy" appears in Ridley Scott's science fiction film "Blade Runner" (1982), spoken by Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer). This has been interpreted as a way of linking Batty to Blake's mythic
Blade Runner (franchise) The "Total Recall" film was also based on a Philip K. Dick story, "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale"; many similarities between "Total Recall 2070" and "Blade Runner" were noted, as well as apparent inspiration from Isaac Asimov's "The Caves of Steel" and the TV series "Holmes & Yoyo". A debate by the movie press and science fiction communities have suggested the "Blade Runner" and "Alien" films (at least those in which Ridley Scott is involved) may share a joint universe. The films ("Prometheus" and "") have leaned heavily towards the theme of artificial intelligence and humanoid robots as