18 Mind-Blowing Facts About Blade Runner

We’ve still got a few months to go before the long-awaited sequel to Ridley Scott’s iconic sci-fi is finally released but the reveal of Blade Runner 2049’s official, full-length trailer last month has certainly got our appetites well and truly whetted.

Directed by Denis Villeneuve and starring Ryan Gosling alongside original Blade Runner alum Harrison Ford, it’s set for an early October release and if all the trailer is anything to go by it looks pretty good. Fellow star Dave Bautista has even gone so far as to claim the sequel is better than Scott’s original.

That remains to be seen, but in celebration of both movies what better time to delve a little deeper into the Blade Runner universe? Even though the sequel is still shrouded in secrecy, we managed to rustle up a few juicy titbits about Blade Runner 2049 alongside some interesting factoids about the original movie to pique your interest before October.

There be spoilers ahead, so anyone who has somehow got through life without seeing Blade Runner yet: you have been warned.

The moving soliloquy that Roy Batty delivers just prior to his death has gone down as one of cinema’s most iconic moments. Combined with his saving Deckard’s life just moments before and the eloquence and feeling behind his dying words, it’s a defining moment that makes Rutger Hauer’s replicant arguably more human-like than his human counterparts.

It was actually Hauer himself who was largely responsible for the speech. Feeling the original version was overlong, he cut the monologue down and added the line, “All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in the rain.”

The dove Roy Batty cradles in the scene was also one of Hauer’s improvisations. While filming the scene, the little critter was supposed to fly away but got so soaked in the constant rain that it was only able to hop away. The bird we do see flying away was a random bird Ridley Scott filmed later on the streets of London.