18 Mind-Blowing Facts About Blade Runner

One way to identify a replicant beyond the Voight-Kampff Test is by their strangely glowing eyes – an effect seen throughout Blade Runner in the eyes of Roy Batty, Pris, Rachel and even the replicant owl Dr Eldon Tyrell keeps in his pope-inspired penthouse apartment.

This effect was achieved via something known as the Schufftan Process. Invented by German cinematographer Eugen Schufftan while he was working on Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, the process involves bouncing light off a mirrored glass placed at a forty-five degree angle to the camera and into the actors’ eyes.

The effect was also used in several of Alfred Hitchcock’s films including The Man Who Knew Too Much and The 39 Steps and more recently in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.