Blade Runner

Blade Runner

Sidey: Classic corner for one of the films that we watched this Fortnight

Reegs: who asked us to watch this Blade Runner that it is.

Sidey: Uh, we had quite a few asks of this, uh, and I think also timed quite nicely with Pete having watched it, what, 2049 recently.

Pete: So I watched, I watched Blade Runner and then Blade Runner 2049.

I watched this a week or so ago, but it was before you, we did the thing

Sidey: Andy Connolly asked

us.

Pete: So it, it tied in really nicely.

Sidey: Um,

we should shout out some of the other ones that people asked us. I did make a list, but, um, Charlie Bingham still disgruntled that we haven't done our collab, but that was a tech thing that let us down.

Um, so she withheld her answer, but I'd imagine it would be some sort of Princess Diaries esque

Reegs: I'd be into

that. Yeah.

Great. What was the one that we watched on her behalf? It was great.

Sidey: It was the one with Hillary Duff. Yeah. And a guy.

We all really liked it. Um, we did Shallow Grave by Za. He also asked us to watch Lost City and The Mummy, but not the good one.

And Kroll, I don't know what that is. It sounds like a

Cris: secret. It's some alien kind of thing.

Reegs: It's, yeah, it's an eighties, like Star Wars type ripoff. I've seen it many moons ago. Yeah.

Sidey: Andy Conley asked us to do Blade Runner, which we're about to do. Um, he asked us to do living, which is a bill naive one.

It looks

Dan: Oh, we watched that.

I watched

Sidey: He also asked us to do Creed three, which Dan did actually watch, but we're not gonna talk about this week. But I would like to watch that. Uh, Mel asked us for across the universe. Um,

Reegs: she's asked us for that before and we've ignored it

Sidey: so we will do that at some point. Bevis has asked us for the Pope's Exorcist, which Chris did watch.

Yeah. Was it good?

Cris: I dunno,

Sidey: Doesn't know. Um, and Sicario, which we did do,

Reegs: and may have talked about or may not have done.

Sidey: Yeah. So that was all good fun. But this, yeah. Blade Runner, I'm sure someone else asked us for Blade Runner. Um, we, we've gonna talk about that.

Reegs: Let's just get one thing outta the way. What version did I watch?

The director's cut so it definitively answers the question of whether Deckard is a unicorn or not. Um,

Sidey: right. Well, I'm glad you raised that because I have only ever seen the director's cut. But for this, I, uh, I didn't know I was watching it, but I watched one of the shitty old ones with the voiceover.

Reegs: Well, what the theatrical cut, I think it's a better cut of the movie, but we can get into that.

I guess

Sidey: I had never seen one with the voiceover before.

Reegs: Mm-hmm. What

Cris: that mean? Or voiceover?

Sidey: So when it was originally, when the, when the execs saw the first cut. The first cut is the deepest. Uh, they were like, what the fuck is this? It doesn't make any sense. And so they got Harrison Ford back and basically forced him to record a voiceover explicitly, explicitly.

He basically explains everything in the movie and leaves no ambiguity. And then when the. It's like, so there's a famous sort of backstory about the film and how

Reegs: well there were four versions of this

Sidey: and then there's a direct, so there's the director's cart, which takes that out and it's, I dunno if it still is, but famously it was the only director's cut that was shorter than is the, than the

theatrical

Cris: would I know which one I

Sidey: and then there's a, there's a

Reegs: final cut.

Well, the director's cut. Does Dekar dream of unicorns in it? Is is one way to remember. Does he have a dream that a unicorn runs through a forest? Is it one good way of,

I

Cris: can't remember that,

Pete: The one I saw had that

Reegs: Yeah.

Sidey: Okay.

Pete: So which one did I watch?

Reegs: You watched the director's

cut.

Pete: That's the one I

Sidey: then after the director's cut, there was a final cut where he just tinkers a bit, a little bit more. But I don't think it makes a huge difference. Um, but this is Ridley Scott's favorite film or certainly, um, his preferred film out of his cannon. Um, so that's strong recommend.

Cris: Yeah.

Sidey: It's, and it's, we, we watched the Jetsons, which, uh, when we spoke about the Jetsons, I said that following some sort of oil crisis that happened in the seventies, every,

Pete: is bleak.

Sidey: Every, uh, version of the future was bleak. And this is like about as bleak as it gets. Um, it's, uh, 10, 20 19, I think.

Reegs: Mm-hmm. Yes

Pete: it is.

Sidey: And it opens with a shot of really fucking great cities. Thank,

Reegs: it. Spot on.

Yes.

Dan: Yeah.

Sidey: It's like sin. Um, a cityscape shot with like fire, like appearing outta buildings. Yeah. And then a

shot of

Cris: a aerial picture of image of la

Sidey: Yeah. Yeah.

And then it's someone's eye reflecting it

Reegs: We have actually had a bit of text crawl that explains about the Replicants, um,

Cris: and the Blade Runners.

Reegs: the Blade Runners.

Sidey: So the replicants are effectively a kind of slave race,

Reegs: a sort of sophisticated robot that can pass for human. But

Pete: well,

they're, they're, they're like, they're bio-engineered, aren't they?

So they're not, You know, you cut 'em and they will bleed and

Sidey: things. Yes. Yeah. But they're given a sale by date.

Reegs: Yeah.

They've got a built-in fail safe. That is, that essentially they die after four years

Pete: And, and that's because they, they've, they've been signs, cuz previously they didn't have that, but there were signs that they were developing their own emotions.

So basically like AI and, and the

Sidey: it's, it's the classic ai it's like, you know, they're gonna take over, there's a

Reegs: well, they're stronger than us already. They could be at least as smart as us.

Sidey: Yeah. Um, so that's the premise. And then Deckard. He has been, I think, dragged outta

retirement. Yeah, he's, retired.

um,

to go and find out where. So there's some that have gone rogue and he's gonna need to go and find out where they are, who they are, identify them, and fucking execute them.

Reegs: He's dragged to watch the Voight Camp test, which is a test of emotion that we see at the beginning of the movie.

And then we see again, uh, with hi with James Elmos and his other boss, I think. And, uh, it's a series of questions designed to elicit some sort of. Micro emotional response that you can measure that replicants don't have. And the question he's asking the guy at the beginning, Leon, who turns out to be a replicant, uh, is something about a turtle.

You see a turtle lying on

its

Sidey: what's that? What's that? I've never heard of that

Reegs: before.

Yeah.

Like a tortoise. But

Yeah,

Sidey: Okay. Um, and eyes is a recurring theme throughout the movie as well.

Reegs: Yeah,

Cris: that's where the emotion shows or doesn't show.

Sidey: Well, there's a thing about red eyes, the, the, uh, the eye, the how and I think

Reegs: well, and when we get introduced to the other, like protagonist, Roy Batty and all that, it's in an eye factory.

That's gonna happen soon as well. James Hong runs a sort of Mr. Freestyle eye factory.

Sidey: but the, the look of the thing like out of the gate is fucking stunning.

Pete: Yeah.

Reegs: It's this sort of film noir, it's all

Sidey: a neo noir, I think is how it's described these days. Yeah. Yeah. It's

Reegs: And it's still the special effects, I think largely still hold up in the flying cards and the grim

Dan: Controversial, um, opinion. Then I always struggled the light in this. I always thought it was too dark. I never really got a good visual and it always made me enjoy the film less, to be honest. I know that had that kind of, um, You know, it's meant to, to look like that, but it was always too bleak for me. I

Sidey: it is relentlessly bleak. Like The.

whole film, there's no let

Pete: and the rain, it is just raining all the time.

Dan: never like that. Yeah.

Sidey: though it is

in the future, but everything is decaying and then we see stuff later on when

Reegs: well, everybody's moving off. Planet Earth's a shit old. Everybody's moving off

planet.

Dan: I just found it hard to see, like even hard to, to watch because it, not because I didn't like the scenery or anything, it just.

Seem to not watch

like the,

shadows, I couldn't even kind of see. Yeah, I'd have to see it

Sidey: you watch one of the, more like the 4K restoration stuff, then it, that might clear up a few things with, but, but in terms of bleakness, yes, it is fucking relentlessly bleak.

Like you say, there's. They people have moved off world and basically the only people who've stayed on world haven't passed a medical to be able to fuck off. Yeah. So all the shit's been left behind and the everything is crumbling. And when we get to the climax, it's just like punching through walls and you know Yeah.

Going through buildings, like everything, finding holes to fucking crawl

Pete: And I, and I think predominantly the purpose of, of Replicants in the first place was

Sidey: do the show Yeah. labor

Pete: off world.

To like build these like much better places for humans to be able to live.

Sidey: Yeah. So the, the, the crux of the matter is that there's a gang.

Yeah. Four.

Reegs: he's been hired to get rid of

Sidey: Led by, uh, Rook Hower, uh, Roy Batty, um, uh, that are out there, like up to no good. Those guys

killing people. Yeah.

Um, and they need to be stopped.

always struck

Pete: me as weird that he had a first name surname and none of the others did.

Like it is, and, and, and his surname's like batty, which is like a. I don't know. It's not a,

Sidey: it's an unusual

Pete: because they're like, they're called like pri and I can't remember the, the names of the others, but there's, uh, I've got 'em here. Zuora pri, they're very kind of like, you know, space eg names. And Roy Batty sounds like a bloke who drinks down the boozer in like, in like Yorkshire somewhere.

Dan: Coronation Street. Yeah.

Reegs: So, um, Deckard is given a sort of Voight camp detector machine and told to take it down to Terro headquarters, um, to speak with the head of the Tyro Corporation.

Yeah. Uh, to test out this new machine. Yeah, the

Dan: Yeah.

Reegs: guys. Yeah, And he opens the door and Rachel's there. Uh, it's the sort of love interest that she'll become. Um, she offers him some ham and mustard crisps. Um, and, uh, yeah, no, she leads him into,

Pete: I still can't get my head around that. This is Louis Einhorn.

Reegs: Yeah.

Pete: It's so, it is so difficult for me because she's fucking hot. This and June, like the original, is it the

Reegs: Shawn Young, isn't it? Isn't

Pete: Yeah. Sean Young. That's super duper hot.

And she's hot when

Sidey: she's

is it weird

that she's, Shaun? Would that be weird if you were,

Pete: I

dunno, dating

Sidey: Dating her

Pete: kind of lends itself nicely to her character in Ace Ventura.

Sidey: Yeah.

Pete: Anyway.

Reegs: But do people cry out your face? Does Kayleigh cry out Jonathan, in your

Pete: Jonathan?

Reegs: your

Sidey: No. Maybe it's not weird at all.

Reegs: Yeah. I think it's weird if people call you by your first name, like, yeah. I

Sidey: Yeah, very few people do that. Um, yes, they, uh, she's introduced and she's smoking hot, but she is, there's no doubt she's a replicant.

Pete: Well, there is

it, it's not immediately

Reegs: Well, he runs the test on

her. He, he's asked to run the test and, um, she, uh, be, he runs hundreds of questions eventually, and he, you know, to kind of long story short, he comes to the conclusion that she is a robot, but she doesn't know or

Sidey: not, yeah, I thought she was like the baseline, so he knew, you know, his, how the test worked or whatever, but yeah, she doesn't know.

Reegs: Her story's kinda sad because later she'll relate some memories and stuff and he's just like, oh, well, it's all

Sidey: Yeah, they fucked you.

Yeah.

Pete: Yeah. They were like Terrell's niece or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That had been implanted. Mm-hmm.

Reegs: there's, I mean, there's a bit of like hunting and stuff. He ends up in an apartment, doesn't he? Where he finds the snake

Pete: It's Leon's apartment. The original

Reegs: That's right.

Pete: first replica is his apartment and he finds a snakes a snake scale, but it's like synthetic, like, you know, it's, it's been synthetically created and, uh, He goes to, I think that he finds the person who creates it.

He uses one of his like little street vendor guy

Reegs: Oh, is this JF Sebastian?

Pete: I dunno, because, I dunno who that is.

Oh, No,

no.

no, It's not Jf Sebastian, sorry. No, no, no. It's one of the little, you know, like he,

Cris: he does the, he does the, that thing where he enlarges and

Pete: Yeah, like microscope. That

Reegs: Yeah.

From the photo, he puts the photo in and then he can manipulate the photo and reconstruct

reality around it. It was

Pete: it. Yeah, yeah,

Yeah. yeah.

Cris: And he, and he

Sidey: you can do that on Photoshop now,

Pete: yeah,

Cris: He gets the image of that lady with a, with a kind of like a dragon tattoo in her face. Yeah. And then because he finds that scale, he finds out who creates, who makes these artificial or synthetic snakes. And then he asks, who do you sell it to? Sell it to?

This guy goes to this guy that's hanging out in a bar. And do you know what I have to say? I, I might have been lost in translation there, but did that commentator say that that woman's gonna have sex with that snake?

Sidey: Mm, I didn't see that.

Pete: missed

Reegs: don't remember.

Cris: the movie. When, when, when he's in asking the guy that ordered the artificial snake is that guy at the bar with the two chicks next to him.

He goes and speaks to him, get this guy a drink, and then they announce the stage that there's. Zamora or

Pete: Zora is her name.

Yeah.

Cris: no, but there's, she's got a stage name, Zora is, is that the

Reegs: yeah, Bobby Zamora.

Cris: Yeah. That guy

Pete: Zamora. Anyway, she's a, she's a stripper in a,

Cris: out to the stripper, but she's doing that thing with the snake.

Pete: yeah,

Cris: I'm pretty sure. In the way they word it is like she's gonna do this thing with a snake that the only. But I dunno if she's gonna do something inside or, it is, it's

Reegs: weird

Yes. All right. I've got visions. Yeah, it's right. Is

it hot? I,

Cris: that's, maybe I understood it wrong, but anyway,

Reegs: I didn't pick up on that. And then we get a really weird scene where, um, Deckard sort of puts on this like nerdy voice and pretends to be from the union. Yeah. Uh, to talk to Zuora. Um, he's like, I'm from the stripper union.

You might, yeah. But he's got this like, really weird, nerdy.

Pete: Like stripper union guy voice. Yeah.

Yeah. She sees right through that though. She does, because she sort of plays that She's gonna just have like, yeah, oh, just let me sort my makeup out and stuff. And then like turns around and pounces on him and she's gonna like snap him in half somehow.

Reegs: Yeah. She beats the shit out

of him. And then she runs, doesn't she? She

Pete: um,

Cris: and he chases her

Reegs: Yeah.

Pete: Through

Cris: the streets and,

Pete: and shoots her. Um, and as she's, she's, and she ends up falling through the glass

Reegs: one of the iconic scenes, I

think in the movie of, uh, her falling through the glass and being shot.

Yeah. In

Sidey: They had run out of money, uh, or were about, or their film was about to be taken over by the production company, um, at this point.

So, They had to shoot it with whoever was around and get it done. And I think they had to, it looked so shit that when they eventually wangle got some more money out, they, they reshot it

Pete: Okay.

Sidey: Um, to, to make it look good. But there was this whole thing about the,

Reegs: it did look good though,

Sidey: the film was like, it was a bit like Apocalypse Now, where the story of the film is like almost as good as the, the film itself.

Like, you know,

Reegs: Um, so anyway, Decker's boss turns up and he's like, oh, well done. You killed them.

There's still four remaining. He's like, well, no, there's three remaining. Uh,

Pete: Yeah, there's still Leon.

Reegs: add, you've gotta add Rachel to

it to the list. now as well.

Pete: Yeah,

Cris: she escaped, she ran away from the Chris Platy.

Reegs: Yeah.

And then straight after that, Deckard is, um, accosted by Leon.

Leon looks like he's gonna kill him.

I think he's gonna, they have this thing about squeezing eyes

Sidey: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sort

Reegs: of stuff. Like you were talking with eyes and then Rachel shoots him. Yeah, yeah. From

Sidey: he gets the big like hole in his head cuz she shoots him with this, the guns.

And they make a really loud booming explosion noise when they shoot this and it takes his whole fucking brain out.

Reegs: and they go back and it's, it's quite a long scene and it's like, you know him. Uh,

basically eventually, and falling asleep at a crucial moment when she asks him if he's ever done the, uh, VOT camp, uh,

Cris: yeah. On himself that I, I found that I, I was a bit like,

Reegs: well, in the original cut, I guess without all the stuff, because we have glossed over a point where we get, um, Deckard dreaming.

When he's asleep or is it now where he

Sidey: He does dream. Oh, the piano.

Reegs: He dreams of

Sidey: the, he's got,

so he's got all the

photos of his childhood on the piano and he falls asleep and that's when he sees the unicorn.

Reegs: Yeah. So that's what this grown man dreams of. His unicorns.

Sidey: Yeah.

Cris: as we do, as we all do, we all dream

Sidey: when you're watching the cut of the film where there's still a lot of ambiguity, it's one of the clues to his origin.

Reegs: Uh, so anyway, yeah, she does get horny, but then she's kind of into it, not into it. He gets a bit rape. He pushes her up against, well, it's not really rapey is it, but

Cris: well, he kind of just

Reegs: it's a bit coercive, should we say. Um, but then does she, she fucks off, doesn't she?

Sidey: I think it cuts to, uh, Chris doing the. Spraying her eyes, then it goes Yeah. Like pretty much straight to her. And Jf Sebastian.

Pete: Yeah. Well, we, we, you, you touched on it before re but they're, they're looking for this guy who's uh, basically they see him as a means to an end to get to Terrell. Yeah. Um, but he's like an eye manufacturer or whatever. So they've located jf, Sebastian,

Sidey: toys and shit. Huh?

He makes,

seems to make toys. and

Cris: because the eye guy is the, sorry, is the Asian guy that they kill already?

Reegs: Yeah. James Hong.

Pete: Right. But they, they, you know, Jeff Sebastian's means to, and, and Chris has ingratiated herself with him by li by sleeping outside in

Sidey: she's a fbo.

Pete: Yeah. She's, uh, she's outside in the bins, uh, outside to Sebastian's gaff, and he takes pity on her and invites her up.

And now they're pals.

Sidey: I thought they went.

Had you had quite a few distilled shots of where his place and all the Croatians that he'd made are fucking stunning.

Pete: Yeah. Yeah. yeah.

Reegs: And it turns out nicely thematically for the plot, but Jf Sebastian, who has a relationship with Tero via chess Yeah. Uh, also has a condition, uh, that makes him seem a lot older than the 25 years that he is.

So he also has a sort of artificially built in expiration date, much like the robot, the Replicant sim that he wants to

Dan: 2019. probably about 10 years off, aren't they?

Maybe.

Reegs: the plan is to go to Tyrell headquarters, isn't it? And

Sidey: Well, batty turns up, doesn't he? And he's like, well, you know, you're gonna, I think he goes on about the chess, doesn't he?

He say, well, this is our play with, um, with. Tyrell or Tyrell, whatever they call him. And that's the in to go meet him and we turn up, he lives in a kind of like pyramid structure. Doesn't near his building. Yeah. Um, and they go off there and it's where,

Reegs: what is it? Tyrell? Tyrell, what have I

Sidey: thought it was Tyrell Court.

But

Reegs: Tyrell,

what have I, Tyrell?

Cris: I think it's

Sidey: Gore.

Reegs: have I been saying?

Sidey: Blinding.

Reegs: It's so annoying when you listen back to the thing and you're like, oh God, I said

Cris: I'm pretty sure it was Tyrell in the movie, the way they named it. So,

Sidey: um, but anyway, they go to his like pyramid building and

Reegs: I've gotta get me one of those.

Sidey: Yeah. Roy Batty Rau is just basically saying, look, you know, We're not gonna fucking accept four years.

You know, we, we don't want that. Um,

Reegs: He tries to suggest a load of

Sidey: Everything, everything that they've, they've already tried it. And it, what happens is it just creates a virus that fucking wipes that whole thing out, and they're the Nexus six,

Pete: Yeah.

Sidey: A brand of fucking, um, synths. Um, and he said, no, we could do that.

And he suggested another one. He says, no, that just creates a different kind of virus. And so there's a realization from this gang that actually no, they are fucked. Like there's no way out. And so, uh, rather than just that Terrell go, he crushes his

Pete: well, he kisses him first.

Sidey: Yeah. He

he properly snugs him. And then, Uh, starts to crush his skull and then again goes for the eyes. Yeah.

Um, and you hear it's like Game

of

Pete: Strong Game of Thrones

Sidey: Yeah.

Off but off camera where you just see Roy's face as he's fucking crushing this guy's skull. It's fucking grim. Yeah. Um, but they know that actually there's fucking nothing they can do. Um, they're just gonna have to, I don't know, cause some fucking chaos before they go out

Cris: Yeah. Do as much damage as you can before you're out. No.

Sidey: so it's just, I think at this point it's just Chris and Roy and Rachel knocking about like doing her thing. Um, but Decker turns up at Jeff Sebastian's Um, and it really does look like Epic set. I mean, everywhere you look at this place, this film just looks

Cris: Oh, it's brilliant. With the, all the mannequins

Sidey: and and you say mannequins because Chris has just sat, uh, at the front of the kind of set here. Um, just like. You know, posing, trying to blend in and we know, uh, it's a matter of time. She's got a kind of veil over herself and as soon as Decker's like looking around and as soon as he kind of like lifts the veil, she goes at him and she kind of attacks him in like a gymnastic way.

Bit like Xena on the top from gold golden

Pete: yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Sidey: she's gonna try and crush him to death with her thighs

Pete: Even that,

Sidey: a bad way to

Pete: of like, it's, it's fairly preposterous.

And, and even before, you know, you're first introduced to her as a character, she comes kind of like, you know, back cartwheeling into the, but even though it's kind of

Sidey: it's an awful death.

This one. Huh?

It's an awful death.

Pete: Yeah. That is an awful death. But

Cris: the, oh

Pete: kind of silly, but it like, I dunno, just you believe it and you like just accept

Sidey: without question. Well, one of the things that I do like about it is it's not, it's not one of those films where it's like an emboss fight that things go on, on, it's just a fucking gunshot.

And that's the end of it because she goes at him and she batters him a bit. Um, but when she does had, because she attacks him by, um, like fucking cartwheeling at him and, and, and like doing the, the fucking leg squeeze. And she bats him a bit and she goes for another one and he just fucking shoots her.

Yeah. And

Pete: couple of times did you wish you were decade in those,

Sidey: No. Bit, yeah. It wasn't, it wouldn't have been a bad way to go.

Pete: No, no, no.

Sidey: Um,

but she, uh, when she takes the first hit, she then goes,

Fucking crazy on the floor. Like a wounded animal? Just Yeah. Just limbs, flailing like a hundred million miles an hour.

Just riving and screaming. I mean, it's fucking loud and, uh, pretty grim. And he has to put her out of her mis history, so it's fucking guns are down again. Yeah. Uh, and that's when we now get the, the, the

proper

Pete: showdown.

Sidey: boss fight, with,

Pete: is, which is a, a fucking chilling game of like hide and seek

Reegs: cat and mouse.

Pete: Yeah. Where, and you, you can just hear

Roy's. Yeah. like,

Sidey: Like, so the first one is they're, they're in different rooms. It's almost police squad where they're so close

Reegs: He says, uh, I'm gonna give you a few seconds before I come l.

Sidey: And he's, but he does do the count and he gets to two and he just punches through the wall.

Yeah. Grabs deck hands.

He breaks breaks his fingers, so he's got him right. He could just end it there. And then, so it's a bit weird. Like what quite is his motivation at this point?

Reegs: Well, I think he knows he's running down

out of time as well. He

Sidey: to go. Yeah. Um, so he breaks two of deck's fingers and gives him back the gun and lets him go.

So he can just enjoy this last like, um, uh, fucking encounter that they have. And so he sets him off and then at one point deck is in a room and he just, Bangs his head through the horse, almost like comedically, just his head just appears through the fucking wall. Yeah. And it's like, oh, hello.

Pete: But

it is, it's, but it is chilling. It's like you can't get away from it. It's like sort of classic horror trope

Sidey: Jason,

Pete: yeah, yeah. Doesn't matter how fast you move, how many floors you go up or down or whatever.

Reegs: I was about to say,

Pete: you down, finds you.

Reegs: because he does, they move outside, he's climbing up a ledge. There's tent

sequences of climbing and. Uh, up there, although, um, he, he, uh, Deckard does this really, like, really dangerous climb up to the roof and then Batty just turns up outta the fire

next to him. Yeah.

Um, and then we get the terrific, really improvised dialogue of Bat Roy Bat's death. He he saves Deckard.

Pete: he does. Yeah. He, he jumps from one building to

Sidey: Yeah. Decker Decker's not made the jump. He's hanging

on with his broken fingers

to uh, um, To an r sj. Yeah. And Decker just like easily jumps it and then it's just you, you think, well, what's gonna happen here? Um, and.

Pete: he

pulls him up,

Sidey: He, he does, but he does lose his grip.

He is gonna die and he catches him as he's falling in by his wrist and pulls him up and then gives him the famous speech about sea beams and

Reegs: and how the

memories he's acquired will all be washed away, like

Dan: Tears in the

Sidey: That was the improvised line. Amazing. Just, just come up with that.

Reegs: and the townhouse gate and all that was

Sidey: Yeah. Um, and he just, yeah, he just expires just like kind of

almost.

Pete: an incredible scene because it, it doesn't go the way you think it's gonna go. You think

Sidey: it's almost anti climactic where he just kind of stops

and,

Pete: but, but to a point where I, I, I mean, I remember watching this the first time, a long time ago, and then even like, rewatching it, it, it didn't leave me.

Like feeling like unfulfilled in terms of like that, I mean, basically I saw the cat and ing as, as, as a couple of things. One, him, him getting a bit more, I mean what he gets is kicks out of which is basically fucking intimidating and, and scaring people and, and just exercising the control that he has over people.

Um, but then also, The, you know, he's just demonstrating how supreme he is as a, as a being to humans, I guess, and, and almost like showing the, the whole reason why that they're such a threat and why they've got this, this lifespan. Because this is an example of where they can go and he's already turned. Um, so I think that it just kind of like, nicely, kind of like finishes off like the point of what Deckard is trying to do and why these people are, why these beings are such a threat.

Reegs: so after all that, oh, and the dove flies off two different versions.

You, your, your dove Yeah. He's got a dove in his pocket.

Your dove probably didn't fly off into a moody sky. Yours probably went off into a blue sky.

Sidey: sky. Yeah. This is what it sounds like when Doves cry.

Reegs: Yeah. Yeah.

Pete: Yeah.

Sidey: Um, and then it's back to the, uh, apartment for Ross and Rachel.

Um,

Reegs: well, James Elmos. Crucially

comes to

Sidey: of say, he kind of, he kind of almost explicitly says, you're a replicant.

Reegs: Yeah. Well, he leaves a, an origami figure of a unicorn on the, on the floor,

Sidey: implying that his dream was a plant.

Pete: It was a plant. Yeah.

Sidey: And he says also, you've done a man's job.

Reegs: Yeah. It's too bad she won't live. But then again, who does?

Sidey: Well, no one does. So ultimately there's no difference between the replicants and the humans. They're all gonna die

Pete: Absolutely.

Reegs: uh, so yeah, in the director's cut, that's the end. Um,

he crushes the unicorn and off he went. And in the version you saw,

Sidey: uh, we got some more.

Yeah. Um, really shit fucking, voiceover.

and it really sounds like it could be Humphrey Bogart in like a, like an old school film noir kind of detective thing. It's really, really bizarre. It sounds so incongruous to everything you've seen. Well, I'd seen it. A million times bought always his director's cut.

And this time you're like, what is this fucking crap? Uh, Harrison Ford fucking hated having to do it,

Reegs: Yeah, he did, didn't he?

Sidey: He wouldn't talk about the film for a long time because he was just like, well, you fucked it. Um, Philip k Dick really loved this. Um, I think it didn't, I don't think he got to see it finished cuz he died, uh, just before it came out.

But he saw Harrison Ford his deck and he was like, yeah, fucking nailed it. Um,

Reegs: So this is a true sci-fi classic, huge influence on other movies, a triumph of like sound and lighting design, and one of the fucking most boring movies ever.

Uh,

Dan: it's a slow mover, isn't it? Yeah. I've never, I've seen it a couple of times, seen the different versions like, Each one wants probably, um, always thinking it's gonna get better at some stage or each one because there's so I love the idea, you know, artificial intelligence and I think that's why it is cuz it's like in the eighties this was just like way ahead, you know, it was way ahead of its time.

And I think he got that cult kind of instant classic. Feeling that. Wow. Harrison Ford, all these people,

Reegs: but that's it. Harrison Ford's in this Indiana Jones. Yeah. The fucking hand

solo and the Deckard

character is like an instant

Pete: classic. I

Sidey: No, it was, it it wasn't a, it was a flop. it became

Pete: a cult, like a hit, like later on.

Dan: because it, it's, it's so bleak, it's so dark and it, it, there's not, you know, a masses of pace in the film that keeps you like, intrigued.

Reegs: in Well, certainly the Director's Cup removing any ambiguity about it all completely undermines the movie.

I

Dan: I

think that's the first version I ever saw of it that I, that had this narration over the top.

Um,

Sidey: well, the Director's Cup takes that out.

Dan: Yes. And then I've seen it with the. You know, the director's cut. Um,

Reegs: I believe the theatrical version has none of the. Voiceover stuff and none of, doesn't have the unicorn dream sequence.

It only has the unicorn at the end. So

Dan: Maybe that's one I haven't seen. But, um, it doesn't

Reegs: plot wise either. Why doesn't, um, thinky have super strength like all of the other ones? And what was

No

Deckard,

Pete: Yeah. But there's different versions of

Sidey: he wasn't an Exus six, was he? Cause he was, he'd come outta

Pete: Spec

Dan: know that? He definitely was a

Reegs: Well I mean,

it's pretty obvious in

Pete: Yeah. But he obviously wasn't an Exer six because he

Sidey: then we go into 2049

Reegs: oh I haven't seen that. And I wanna do it maybe for the pod.

Pete: I, I did watch it and I'd like to talk about it. So let's watch

Dan: It it, it is funny though, you know the, oh, interesting. The way that they're blurring the lines between, you know, hu humans and. Obviously putting feelings into replicants and um, and how close they get.

And then not even knowing themselves if they're a robot or not, you

Reegs: basically

everybody in the movie that you follow is a replicant. Yeah. And that makes it much less interesting by default.

Pete: I'd say it differently in the sense that I like taking it at, at, at sort of face value.

It's a, it's, it is quite a simple plot really. And there's only really like a couple of acts in it. There's not. All this, you know, like extra kind of like, you know, loads of exposition and loads of like little scenes where they're just filling it with like conversation and, and, and so on. It, it's, Everything seems to be relevant to the story, but it is a simplistic story, but done in such an impressive, like, visually, like, incredible way that I personally believe still stands up, you know, to to this day.

Reegs: All the visuals, all the aesthetic, all the themes are great. Interesting.

Pete: I, I quite, I don't mi I don't mind like a, a dark, bleak film or whatever

Dan: Loads of syn

Pete: as there's enough, yeah. Load loads

Sidey: Yeah. Soundtrack.

as,

Pete: as as long as there's enough in it to kind of make it like just. You know, a bit more interesting than there's something that is just like totally bleak

Reegs: the soundtrack. it's

Pete: the right side of that for me.

And it's still a, a brilliant film in my eyes.

Reegs: The soundtrack was lulling me to sleep it sometimes,

Dan: but I, I, I enjoyed it because I enjoyed the, the theme of it and I enjoyed the idea of it.

Um, I, I think it could be done better this whole kind of

Pete: but I don't how, how far do you go before you start

Dan: go all the way. I go

Pete: Star Wars or whatever, but you get into like, full sight.

Exactly. Like you get into something that's just like, you know, goodies and baddies and the, and the goody wins by punching the badie to death. And so like, I, I like the sort of the, the fact that it's not like typical, it's, it's an atypical film. And I still, and again, I, I think it stands up in terms of interest for audiences as an atypical film, even in this day and age as well.

Sidey: I think the well building is really great. It looks stunning, especially you see one of the, like remasters, it's fucking

brilliant Talk,

Pete: talking of

Sidey: You have to watch, you do have to watch the right cut to get the most satisfying

Pete: That's obviously problematic, but that existed, you know, right from the get go. So there's not, not really much that can be done about that now, but talking about worlds is, is this set in the aliens world?

I've heard that there's links between

Sidey: Yeah, I've heard that. Well, they did

Reegs: Well, they're the Terrell Tani company in, uh, in Alien is the name of the company. So it implies a merger between

Pete: yeah.

Sidey: Alien, uh, came first. That was 79. This is 80.

Two. Um, but they did also reuse some of the set, some of the computer screens and stuff are from aliens, so there's also that would lend that, uh, into it.

I, I think this is great. It's really

Pete: We, we had a, a new, yeah. Enjoyed a virgin here.

Cris: I really enjoyed it. Uh, I mean, obviously I know what I'm getting myself into, but for, uh, I knew it was, I think it's pre, I'm pretty sure it's 1984,

Sidey: I think. Yeah, I think you might, right? Actually.

Cris: Um, uh, but, uh, I, I enjoyed it com compared to some of the, Futuristic. I, this is not in space, it's still on earth,

Sidey: but could be a western though, could, could be a western story.

You know, gunslinger goes out

Reegs: thriller,

Cris: Well,

Sidey: guns gunslinger goes out to get four

bandits. You

Cris: point I was confused because I don't wanna be a racist towards someone in the room, but so many Asian people in la, everywhere they seemed to eat was

Reegs: That's, well, I think that was part of the point. They'd

become a more global, uh, globalization.

And Ja, the Japanese had taken over as well because you get the blimps with the Yeah.

Cris: Anyway, I would that, I dunno, I was surprised about that in LA and the fact that it rained, which is never rains,

Sidey: but, well I think that was, that was a chat about the global

Cris: situation.

Yeah, it makes sense.

Sidey: think you were supposed to,

Cris: I did enjoy it though.

Sidey: and the rarity of seeing an animal, but you were supposed to believe that animals were basically

Reegs: Yeah, well that guy had not heard of the tour was, or Turtle or whatever it was

earlier.

Cris: So, no, it was, I enjoyed it. And to be fair, pretty much like some of the other movies that we've done on the podcast, the, the introduction to it was quite unusual, especially for, I would imagine 1984, where with the interview with, with the guy that he.

Oh, you wanna know by my mother. Yeah. And then just bang, bang, you know,

Sidey: Through the wall.

Cris: which is, you know, you know, it's gonna be something weird because he keeps answering in a very strange way. So, so

Sidey: I can imagine that audience is, Weren't ready for this. Yeah.

This

Pete: of, yeah. Think dialogue.

It was ahead of its time. Yeah.

Cris: But no, I, I enjoyed it.

I did fell asleep a couple of times throughout the movie.

Sidey: I watched the sequel at cinema and fell asleep at the cinema

Cris: Uh, but so, you know,

Reegs: to put on if you wanna have asleep, then Yeah,

Cris: uh, a couple of times I, I kind of went in and out, but, uh,

Sidey: the old in and out. Yes. Strong recommend for insomniacs though.

Cris: Yeah, yeah,

yeah, definitely.

Reegs: do.