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 television film (and later series) "Total Recall 2070" was initially planned as a spin-off of the film "Total Recall" (based on Philip K. Dick's short story "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale"), but was produced as a hybrid of "Total Recall" and "Blade Runner". Many similarities between "Total Recall 2070" and "Blade Runner" were noted, as well as apparent influences on the show from Isaac Asimov's "The Caves of Steel" and the TV series "Holmes & Yoyo". The film has been the subject of several documentaries. A direct sequel was released in 2017, titled "Blade Runner 2049", with Ryan