OVERVIEW

My favorite movie happens to be Blade Runner, and when I was looking for the script I found out that there's a few different versions that all vary quite a bit from each other. I thought that I should narrow my search and look for a script specifically for the 25th Anniversary Final Cut release of the film, but no luck. The best I could find was simple transcripts of the dialogue, but they didn't capture the magic of the movie. So I decided to make a 1:1 script that exactly follows the narrative of the movie.

THE PROBLEM

The clearest and most succinct summarization of the issue at hand comes from BRMovie.com:
‍

"The Blade Runner script went through years of creation and recreation. Hampton Fancher wrote the first draft in 1978. It was 1980 by the time Ridley Scott was signed up to the picture and he wanted a different flavour to the film. Some hard work later and Fancher got to the point where he said no more changes. Scott promptly hired David Peoples to make further changes, (though Peoples thought the script was already great). Still, changes were made as the filming deadline rapidly approached.

During filming, more changes were made, because of budget constraints, because of normal filming changes (when you get on set and actually do it, there often have to be adjustments). Then there are directorial changes and suggestions from actors, etc. A few script changes had to be made by a writer and Peoples was no longer available, so Fancher came back to do those.

Of course that is not the end of the story. The final shooting script was put together from several of the preceding versions of the screenplay and then was changed during filming itself."

THE GOAL

Create an immersive webpage that lets users experience the whole movie in as close to a cinematic fashion as you can get without just loading the thing up on Netflix. Stills from the movie should be included to place users in the scene, and quality of life features like a table of contents and the full credits should also be included.

PLOT OVERVIEW

Set in the year 2019 on a dystopian Earth that is growing unfit for human population (definitely not anything like our planet right now at all), blade runner Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) is forced out of retirement to hunt four replicants - genetically engineered humans who have mysteriously landed on earth. Designed to do difficult, hazardous work in deep space, these manufactured humans are stronger, faster, and smarter than natural humans. They don't feel pain or remorse and you couldn't pick them out of a crowd. Deckard needs to stop these intruders before they cause real damage, but what starts out as a straightforward hunt ends up leaving Deckard with some harrowing questions.

ORIGINAL SCRIPTS

The two commonly circulated scripts are one version from 1980 written by Hampton Fancher, and another one from 1981 by Fancher AND David Peoples. Viewers and fans of the movie will quickly notice that after the beginning interrogation with Holden, things seem to diverge fairly quickly compared to what we got with the final film.

MY SCRIPT

My version of the script includes the exact dialogue of the movie with translations where needed, scene headings and actions from the 1981 script, a table of contents that you can use to scroll to any scene you'd like, a full recreation of the end credits, and stills from an HD version of the Final Cut so you can visually digest each scene as its happening. Available on desktop, tablet, and mobile!

Because there is a good bit of separation from the 1981 script and the final movie, especially around the 60% mark, there were scenes that had no actions for me to use. Whenever this was the case, I pulled text from the Netrunner Multi-Script, which aims to provide one script that accurately follows all the different cuts of the movie. For the few instances where the Multi-Script didn't have anything, then I wrote something myself - but never more than a line or two and always in accordance with the film's style.

You can browse my Blade Runner Definitive Script in full here. I've also created a version with just the text in the format of a traditional screenplay.

In addition to all the other features of my adaptation, considering that it is a webpage, I added some "remote controls" to make the script easier to navigate. The controls are shown below:

SHOW CONTROLS

PREVIOUS SCENE

SCENE SELECTION

FOLLOWING SCENE

HIDE CONTROLS

SPECIAL THANKS

This project wouldn't be possible without:

The amazing BRMovie site which is not only a great example of old school web design but also FULL of Blade Runner information, trivia, and downloads.

The website of Stephen (Kepano) Trussel, which has a handy transcript of the Final Cut's dialogue.

The 1981 script hosted by Houston Community College here.

My brother, who ended up loving this movie as much as I do and always pushed me to finish this project and put it out there. He's actually seen the movie more than I have.

PrintScreen and MS Paint

IS DECKARD A REPLICANT?

NO. It ruins the whole point of the story. The original ending is so bad I'm glad it ended up being ambiguous in the movie, but even still it should've been a clear no because it invalidates Harrison Ford's entire character arc and the main lesson of the movie just to be edgy. That's a rant for another day though...