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    The Architecture ofBlade Runner:Collage and Contradiction in a Vision of the Future

    Arch 684

    Architecture and Film

    Tony Round

    96220523

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    Early in the 21st Century, THE TYRELL COR-

    PORATION advanced Robot evolution into the

    NEXUS phase a being virtually identical to a

    human known as a Replicant.

    The NEXUS 6 Replicants were superior in

    strength and agility, and at least equal in intel-

    ligence, to the genetic engineers who created

    them.

    Replicants were used Off-world as slave

    labor, in the hazardous exploration and coloni-

    zation of other planets.

    After a bloody mutiny by a NEXUS 6 combat

    team in an Off-world colony, Replicants were

    declared illegal on earth under penalty of

    death.

    Special police squads BLADE RUNNER UNITS

    had orders to shoot to kill, upon detection, any

    trespassing Replicants.

    This was not called execution.It was called retirement.1

    blade runner

    S

    ince the lms release in 1982 Blade Runner has been the

    fuel for much analysis, thought, praise and criticism by

    lm critics, cultural theorists, and urban planners.2 As

    director Ridley Scotts third feature lm release, and only his

    second attempt at science ction, why has this lm provoked

    such vast amounts of discussion?

    Open ing tex t f r om BL A D E

    R U N N ER

    BLADE RUNNER was one

    of those chancey accidents

    that turned into a cult

    event.3

    S y d M e a d

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    Perhaps the answer may lie in the lms, intentional or not,

    open ended layering of many seemingly disparate elements,

    be they cinematic, cultural, economic, or architectural. No mat-

    ter the school of thought, from modernism to postmodernism,

    much can be read in the commentary Blade Runner provides

    about varied aspects of contemporary culture.

    uncovering the future: the architecture ofblade runner

    As a critique, Blade Runner functions as an attempted

    insight into the future of architecture and urbanism.A careful investigation of the elements at work in

    the lm reveals that Ridley Scott and his team of visionaries,

    artists, and set designers made a deliberate efforts to provide

    the audience with an informed vision of the future of Los

    Angeles.4 Setting the events of the story in the future freed the

    movie from the need of believability; conceivably anything

    awaits us in the future so the lm is unrestricted as a forum for

    architectural proposition. This is precisely one of the strengths

    of the science ction genre: released from the conventions of

    normal life, we can read in the elements of a science ction

    story an essential reection of larger issues.

    Of course the same is true of the medium of lm as it relates

    particularly to architecture. The limits to pure architectural

    vision (money, program, function, structure, construction,

    etc.) are removed in the two dimensional screening of mov-

    ing images, enabling pure speculation about architecture.

    The architecture of a science ction lm is doubly freed from

    normal constraint. In Blade Runner, therefore, we can attempt

    to uncover some essential statements about architecture and

    urbanism.

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    such as Ingmar Bergman opened Scotts eyes to lms creative

    potential and the accidental discovery of a 16mm camera

    crystallized his desire to pursue the art form.

    After graduating from the Royal College of Art, Scott spenttime in New York, among other things, working in the editing

    room of documentarians Richard Leacock and D.A. Pen-

    nebaker. Returning to England he worked for the BBC and

    eventually developed the skills and reputation to earn himself

    entrance into the emerging world of TV commercial design and

    direction. The next decade saw Scott depart the BBC to start his

    own highly sucessful advertising production company. The

    connes and focus of advertising work allowed him to develop

    intense drive and personal style, notably mirroring comic

    books, that would later inform his feature lms. By the time he

    had reached the age of 40, Ridley Scott had directed over 2500

    TV commercials, an activity he continues to this day.

    Ridley Scotts long held desire to work on feature lms found

    outlet when he directed The Duellists, a costume drama adapted

    from a Joseph Conrad short story. By no means a commercial

    success, the movie afforded him praise for its sophistication

    and visual realism. Receiving the Special Jury Prize at Cannes

    was Scotts ticket to Hollywood.6

    Released in 1979, Alien was the rst widely known lm di-

    rected by Scott and it his vision found no less expression in the

    science ction genre than in his earlier works. He worked with

    many conceptual artists, including Swiss designer and artist

    H. R. Giger, in putting together the overall scheme for the

    movie. Later he was to put as even more care into the visual

    concepts for Blade Runner. Alien told the story of the crew of

    a distant cargo ship and their discovery of a new, hostile life

    I was able to be the insane

    perfectionist, controlling

    all the elements - photog-

    raphy, design, direction

    - in one neat capsule.5

    Rid l ey S co t t

    1 . Mov i e Po s te r fo r A l i en

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    form. The lm rejected earlier comic book style precedent for

    aliens in favour of Gigers concept of a terrifying and am-

    biguous monster. The lm is infused throughout with a gritty

    realism and contrasted greatly with the popular notion of the

    future. Though it makes reference to Stanley Kubriks 2001: A

    Space Odyssey with a crew in suspended animation on a years

    long voyage, the overall tone of Alien is much less austere

    and quite pessimistic. The critical and popular success of the

    lm established Scott as an important director and, though he

    didnt intend it, a visionary for the science ction genre.7

    Despite some trepidation about working again in science

    ction, thus labelling himself7, Scott worked on Blade Runner

    shortlyafter Alien. The same desire for futuristic realism car-

    ried through to the Blade Runner project.

    designing blade runner: visionary intent

    As was the case with his previous lms, Ridley Scott

    put took great care to research artists as a sourceof inspiration for the imagery ofBlade Runner. The

    work of artist, futurist, illustrator and conceptual designer9

    Syd Mead attracted Scotts attention and Mead was invited

    to work on the project. Originally Meads limited role was

    as a designer for some of the vehicles but his responsibilities

    expanded as his working relationship with Scott grew.

    Ridley had his London staff round up available books by

    futurists and sci- illustrators. My rst book, SENTINEL,

    had just been published by an English publishing group.

    That was the link. Ridley specically liked one rainy, mega-

    structure city expressway view, and when he came to Los

    It was really Ridley who

    generated and created orltered the overall look

    of the picture... even Syd

    Meads work had to pass

    through Ridleys creative

    radar... it was really Ridley

    Scott who designd Blade

    Runner.10

    producer Mi chae l Dee l ey

    2 . G iger s des i gn fo r the a l i en

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    Angeles to start the lm, called me, we had a meeting and I

    was hired on the spot. He had a very denite vision of how

    he wanted the lm to look from the start.11

    Syd Mead

    The work of Syd Mead has particular relevance to a discussion

    of the Blade Runner architecture as he designed many of the ini-

    tial concepts for buildings and the city. Director Scott charged

    him with the task of visualizing a unied metropolis that drew

    on references as varied as William Hogarths engravings of

    London, New Yorks Lower East Side, and Jean Moebius

    Girauds illustrations from the magazine Heavy Metal.11 In the

    planning stages of lm production Mead, credited as Visual

    Futurist, worked with people such as Laurence G. Paull, Da-

    vid Snyder, and Mentor Huebner to propose the future L.A.

    I took the two world trade towers in New York City and

    the New York street proportions as a today model, and

    expanded everything vertically about two and a half times.

    This inspired me to make the bases of the buildings slop-

    ing to cover about six city blocks, on the premise that you

    needed more ground access to the building mass.13

    Syd Mead

    The lm speculates that by the year 2019, Los Angeles will

    be a technopolis of 90 million people, constantly under

    the shadow of acid rain clouds and pervasive police surveil-

    lance. Furthering a sense of decay the upper classes have

    ed the earth for the off world leaving the city populated

    by a mainly ethnic underclass. Whereas both contemporary

    architectural thought and popular science ction envisioned

    an austere, sterile urban future, Blade Runner was ahead of its

    time in predicting a future of dismal urban decay.14

    3 . concep t a r t by Syd Mead

    4 ,5 . mono ra i l - the fu tu re

    o f LA as s een i n the 60 s

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    What resulted from the efforts of Ridley Scott and his team was

    a dystopic vision of an uncertain future not too far hence. The

    story line was based on but was not a literal re-telling of Philip

    K. Dicks Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. The lm tells of a

    world that has been partially abandoned for the off world by

    those seeking to leave behind the crime ridden, polluted cities

    and ecological devastation. In this context, global corporate

    power dominates the sprawling metropolis now populated by

    a multi-ethnic lower class. The technology of genetic manipula-

    tion has been developed by the Tyrell Corporation to the point

    where humanoid creations are virtually indistinguishable

    from humans and at least as intelligent. Widespread fear of the

    replicants after violent mutinies has lead to a ban, punishable

    by death, on their presence on earth. The main character Rick

    Deckard is a former Blade Runner (replicant hunter) forced back

    into duty to hunt four replicants who have inltrated earth in a

    desperate attempt to have their four year life span prolonged.

    future noir: 20 years of interpretation

    The initial audience reaction to Blade Runner upon its

    release in 1982 was decidedly cool, and it became an

    unequivocal op at the box ofce. Even prior to the

    release, disastrous sneak previews prompted Tandem Produc-

    tions to pressure Ridley Scott into adding an unambiguously

    happy ending and a voice-over by the main character to clarify

    the sometimes difcult to follow events.15

    This did not, however, prevent the lm from becoming a cult

    classic, and well regarded among lm, culture and architecture

    theorists. This fact allows us to begin to understand why Blade

    Runner has prompted such a vast amount of critical thought.

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    The lm makes reference to Fritz Langs seminal workMe-

    tropolis, thereby rmly rooting it the world of art lm. Many

    parallels exist in the setting of Blade Runner. Architecturally

    and urbanistically, the city of both lms is organized around

    a central, dominating tower: the New Tower of Babel of

    Metropolis and the massive Tyrrel Corporation headquarters

    of Los Angeles. Both lms reveal class structure in terms of

    height; those at the top of the towers enjoy an elevated social

    status. In these speculations about the future city, homage is

    still paid to the buildings from history: the cathedrals and cata-

    combs inMetropolis and the Bradbury Building, Union Station,

    and the Yukon Hotel in Blade Runners Los Angeles. Within

    this framework both lms ask questions about the morality of

    slavery as a central mad scientist gure has developed the

    means, essentially, of creating life.16

    The lm is widely identied as an exemplary image of the

    postmodern condition for its cinematic combination of science

    ction and lm noir genres - Ridley Scott states that it was a

    lm set forty years hence, made in the style of forty years

    ago.17 Blade Runner and protagonist Deckard very much

    display the noir qualities of a traditional, gritty private eye

    story. Interestingly, some of the scenes were shot on the New

    York street set that had been used years earlier in a number of

    Humphrey Bogart and James Cagney movies.18

    But a postmodern comparison goes beyond the mixing of

    genre. In its densely textured imagery and its ambiguous,

    shifting understanding of reality, simulation, memory and his-

    tory,19 critics have commented on much that identies the lm

    with postmodern thought. The quintessentially postmodern

    term pastiche, a composition of pieces from various sources,

    6 . the tower i n Met ropo l i s

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    is often used to describe Blade Runner. In her inuential essay,

    Ramble City: Postmodernism and Blade Runner, Giulliana Bruno

    details extensively the lms postmodern characteristics:

    The lm does not take place in a spaceship or space station,

    but in a city, Los Angeles, in the year 2019, a step away

    from the development of contemporary society. The line be-

    tween postmodernism and late capitalism is highlighted in

    the lms representation of postindustrial decay. The future

    does not realize an idealized aseptic technological order,

    but is seen simply as the development of the present state of

    the city and of the social order of late capitalism. The city

    of Blade Runner is not the ultramodern, but the postmodern

    city.20

    G. Bruno , Ramble C i ty : Po s tmodern i sm and B lade Runner

    In discussing the lm, Bruno touches on the theme of waste

    and recycling and how it pervades the lm and contrasts

    any high tech intents. For example, the street outside J.F.

    Sebastians apartment is strewn with garbage, and he inhabits

    the disintegrating shell of the Bradbury Building. She states

    Postindustrialism recycles; therefore it needs its waste21, con-

    necting the imagery to a larger sense of the late capitalistic

    forces at work in the future. To her, the Sebastian character

    exemplies a schizophrenic temporality, in his accelerated

    decrepitude.22 Indeed the four year life span of the replicants,

    themselves a reection of humanity, heralds a breakdown of

    the conventional notion of time and history. Pastiche composi-tion extends to the class of diverse mix of Asian, Spanish,

    merchants and punks that populate the streets of the city. Vast

    immigration tells of a postmodern loss of any sense of place:

    Deckard eating at the noodle stand could in fact be anywhere

    from New York to Tokyo. The omnipresent oating advertis- 8. omnipresent advertis ing bl imp

    7. s t r ee t chase s cene

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    ing by Japanese corporations, to Bruno, emphasizes that one

    travels without moving in this version of L.A. The Los Angeles

    ofBlade Runner is China(in)town.23

    It was Ridley Scotts intention to create this kind of chaoticimage of L.A.; it followed from his theories about cultural de-

    velopment and his informed condence no doubt aided in

    producing a convincing vision:

    I think the inuence in L.A. will be very Spanish, with a big

    cross-inuence of Oriental... I think various groups are de-

    veloping today - faction groups which are religious, social,

    whatever - and punk... some louts... who developed their

    own little culture of protest... they will harden up, so that

    there will be religious, political, social, and just nut-case

    factions. And I think the police force will become a kind of

    paramilitary, which they nearly are now. Were just one

    step away.24

    Rid l ey S co t t

    The uncertain but major presence of articial life, replicants,

    is a central theme in the lm. These doubles or Doppelgnger

    make reference to similar mythical gures in literature (vam-

    pires, werewolves, angels, ghosts, etc.), who are a reection of

    humanity yet are endowed with remarkable intelligence and

    power. The battle between Deckard and the replicant leader

    Batty displays the characteristics of a rivalry between twins:

    they battle intensely for the right to exist, however, a certain

    amount of empathy exists between them.25 It is, after all, Batty

    who saves Deckards life. Similarly, Deckard feels a sense of

    almost spiritual loss after years of exterminating his (and

    humanitys) twin. The meaning of a replicant has been ltered

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    through postmodern sensibilities; their short but intense life

    span reects the accelerated experience of life central to post-

    modernism.

    The pastiche nature of the nal execution was also a by-prod-uct of a tight shooting schedule and Scotts perfectionism. He

    drew on his background in graphic design to produce sketches

    and drawing for the designers to work towards. Crews were

    often left scrambling to scavenge material from other sets to

    achieve the density of Scotts vision.

    It was a mishmash, I would go everywhere, we went to ev-

    ery prop house, we went to electronics stores, we literally

    went everywhere.26

    L inda DeS cenna - Se t Deco ra to r

    Recycling was more than a conceptual theme for the movie.

    In a literal sense many props from previous productions were

    re-used in Blade Runner. Some of the graphics for computer

    screens and even the ambient hum of Deckards apartment

    had already been used in Scotts previous lm Alien. More

    famously, the partially complete model of the Star Wars space-

    shipMillennium Falcon became a building in the set model for

    the landing sequence at the police station.27

    Subtle cues are used constantly throughout the movie, perhaps

    to emphasize a sense of uncertainty in the subconscious of the

    audience. For instance the newspaper that Deckard reads on

    the street reappears lining a drawer in the hotel room of one of

    the replicants. Notably these cues extend beyond visuals; the

    audio track of the movie at times becomes a non linear collage

    of sound. For example, during the street scene where Deckard

    shoots Zhora the ambient murmurs begin to subtly repeat.

    The words of Leon just before he shoots Holden, that Deckard

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    recalls in his mind differ slightly from what was actually said

    at the beginning of the movie. Deckard can be faintly heard

    talking of a spider with orange body, green legs (during

    a dissolve to indicate the passage of time) during Rachels

    Voight Kampf test. Later Rachel reveals that she has a child-

    hood memory of such a spider while she comes to the realiza-

    tion that her memory has been implanted.28 These triggers

    were no doubt deliberate and add to a postmodern reading of

    Blade Runner.

    We might characterize Blade Runner as an ideal subject

    for study because it assembles a particularly diverse grab-

    bag of fashionable ideas for theorists to sift through; seen

    this way, Blade Runners sometimes incoherent eclecticism

    becomes part of its attraction.29

    Stephen Rowley -The Least Scary Option: Blade Runner and the Future City

    the city: collage and contradiction

    The architecture ofBlade Runner shows no less deliber-

    ate effort than any other aspect of the lm The atten-

    tion paid to its level of detail perhaps reveals Ridley

    Scotts familiarity and preference for working with visuals.

    The proposition for the city of Los Angeles is the most striking

    element of the movie; while many lm critics despised the

    movie, almost all were in agreement about the credible ambi-

    tion of Scotts urban vision. Examining the architecture of this

    lm allows us a view into the possibilities of contemporary

    architectural theory.

    Many identify the architecture ofBlade Runner as an expression

    of postmodern thought. According to Frederick Jameson, ar-

    chitecture is the best means for deriving a theory of postmod-

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    ernism as it most reects changes in aesthetic production.30 Ac-

    cording to Bruno, It is in the architectural layout of Blade Runner

    that pastiche is most dramatically visible and where the connection

    of postmodernism to postindustrialism is evident.31

    There is much evidence indicating the architectures postmod-

    ern tendencies. Brunos identication of recycling as a post-

    modern concept nds expression in the architectural re-use of

    many old buildings. Ridley Scott himself tied the presence of

    old buildings in the future to a prediction about the economic

    state under late capitalism:

    We re in a city which is in a state of overkill, of snarled up

    energy, where you can no longer remove a building be-

    cause it costs far more than constructing one in place. So

    the whole economic process is slowed down.32

    Rid l ey S co t t

    Scotts theory was brought to life by Syd Meads conceptual

    renderings and matte paintings. What resulted was an ap-

    parent sense of a layered city, where new use has grown over

    and subsumed L.A.s architectural artefacts. New structural

    elements extend through old buildings to support new con-

    struction above while ducts and service pipes run, tendril like,

    over the old faades.

    I borrowed shape cues from Byzantine (the thick, twisted

    columns) deco, temporary scaffolding, and certainly the

    curious slanted sidewalls of Mayan architecture. It was all

    forced together to create the look of the Blade Runner

    world.32

    Syd Mead

    9 . c i ty s cape f rom B lade Runner

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    Perhaps what most identies the architecture of Blade Runner

    with the postmodern movement is its pastiche of architec-

    tural elements. Postmodern architecture attempts a collage

    of quoted styles and ideas from history. The lm incorporates

    an incredible variety of visual references. Classical columns

    and pineapple motifs are sprinkled throughout the street

    scenes while Tyrells ofce presents a hyperbolized collec-

    tion of Egyptian elements. The massive Tyrrel Corporation

    headquarters draw obviously from Mayan temples yet Tyrells

    bedroom, according to the set designers, was modelled on the

    popes bedroom. Frank Lloyd Wrights Ennis Brown House,

    itself a highly unique object that references Mayan motifs, is

    processed and replicated to form Deckards apartment build-

    ing of at least one hundred storeys. Ephemeral video screens at

    the scale of building elevation contrast obvious new construc-

    tion made from stone. Bruno states: Pastiche, as an aesthetic of

    quotation, incorporates dead styles; it attempts a recollection of the

    past, of memory, and of history.33

    The architecture of Blade Runner can be interpreted as a prod-

    uct of the lms obvious attempt to convey the postmodern

    aesthetic but some critics nd this reading unconvincing. For

    Stephen Rowley the siting of the lm in Los Angeles has little

    evidence beyond the declaration of the title screen. 34 What

    begins to explain this uncertainty are the changes in location

    in the planning stages of the movie.

    The futuristic site was originally to be San Angeles, an 800

    mile swath of urban sprawl on the coast of California. In order

    to rationalize the ever present gloom and rain the setting was

    switched to the New York - Chicago corridor. Changed again,

    the setting came to be identied as Los Angeles, as William M.

    Kolb theorizes, to explain the heavy oriental inuence and to

    10 . Deckard s apar tmen t

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    account for the obvious L.A. landmarks.35 What resulted was

    a contradictory city that only can be positively identied as

    L.A. in the opening shot of the post industrial sprawl and in

    the shots of the expansive Tyrell headquarters rising above

    the surrounding fabric. The quintessential features of L.A.

    landscape: the beaches, foothills, valley, and freeways have

    inexplicably disappeared despite Scotts foreseeing of a future

    layered on the past.36

    Obvious urban cues tie the setting strongly to New York, most

    notably the vertiginous height of the buildings surrounding

    dark, densely populated streets. These streets have become alive

    with vendors, restaurants, and bustling crowds in the absence

    of high speed automobile trafc - an identiably cosmopolitan

    urban core that has the feel of New York. The presence of large

    scale electronic media refer to present day advertising in Times

    Square. Stephen Rowley sees these references to undeniably

    modern New York as crucial to understanding the architecture

    and urbanism in terms of modernism, not postmodernism.

    The urban character, while it contrasts Le Corbusiers utopian

    vision of healthy garden cities, nonetheless has the quality of a

    vibrant modernist experience of the city.37

    private eyes: the foundation myth of L.A.

    Recalling Ridley Scotts desire to create a lm about the

    future using the noir style of the past, the link to mod-

    ernism is reinforced by theme, as well as architecture.

    Blade Runner is primarily a retelling of a classic detective story

    and Scotts conception of Deckard is that of the private eye. He

    makes particular reference to Phillip Marlowe, the protagonist

    in many of Raymond Chandlers classic private eye stories.38

    11 . open ing l ands cap e

    12 . T imes Square

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    of many American cities, suffered and decayed after the ight

    of the middle class to the utopian suburbs, L.A. is left to suffer

    the same fate.41 Knowing this, the New York allusions reinforce

    the fact that L.A. could become an urban nightmare rather than

    calling into question the actual setting ofBlade Runner.

    blade runner:lasting relevance

    Oddly enough, what I think Blade Runner really did - and

    I can only talk about it now because I did the lm so long

    ago - but today I see a curve in serious architecture which

    I think started with Blade Runner. So we didnt just inu-

    ence lms, we inuenced certain types of architecture. And

    that inuence has become very sophisticated. Blade Runner

    spawned a very specic type of industrial beauty.42

    Rid l ey S co t t

    Despite its obvious weaknesses, Blade Runner has had and

    continues to have relevance to artistic, cultural, and architec-

    tural discussion. One must realize that this rst and foremost

    a Hollywood production. However, within the framework of

    commercial movie making the lm displays admirable ambi-

    tion to be a cultural statement.

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    endnotes(1) Blade Runner, The Directors Cut, directed Ridley Scott, A Ladd Company Release inAssocitation with Sir Run Run Shaw thru Warner Bros. 1982/1992.

    (2) Rowley, Stephen. The Least Scary Option: Blade Runner and the Future City.http://home.mira.net/~satadaca/bladrunn.htm, 1999.

    (3) Kissell, Gerry. BladeZones Interview with Syd Mead, Futurist for Blade Runner.http://www.bladezone.com/contents/lm/interviews/syd-mead/interview.html, 2000

    (4) Rowley, Stephen. The Least Scary Option: Blade Runner and the Future City.

    (5) Sammon, Paul M. Ridley Scott. New York: Thunders Mouth Press, 1999.

    (6) Sammon, Paul M. Ridley Scott.

    (7) Gold, Matthew K. Movie Review of Alien. http://www.guidetocinema.com/alien.html, 1999.

    (8) Sammon, Paul M. Ridley Scott.(9) Ofcial Site of Syd Mead. http://www.sydmead.com.

    (10) Sammon, Paul M. Ridley Scott.

    (11) Kissell, Gerry. BladeZones Interview with Syd Mead, Futurist for Blade Runner.

    (12) Neumann, Dietrich. Film Architecture: Set Design from Metropolis to Blade Runner.New York: Prestel, 1999.

    (13) Kissell, Gerry. BladeZones Interview with Syd Mead, Futurist for Blade Runner.

    (14) Rowley, Stephen. The Least Scary Option: Blade Runner and the Future City.

    (15) Sammon, Paul M. Ridley Scott.

    (16) Neumann, Dietrich. Film Architecture: Set Design from Metropolis to Blade Runner.

    (17) Neumann, Dietrich. Film Architecture: Set Design from Metropolis to Blade Runner.

    (18) Bruno, Giulianna. Ramble City: Postmodernism and Blade Runner. October, No. 41.pp. 61-74. 1987. p66

    (19) Doel, Marcus A. & David B. Clarke. From Pastiche City to the Screening of Eye? Or,Geographies of Diegesis: Postmodernism, Hyperspace and Simulation in the Screening of

    Blade Runner. Leeds, England: School of Geography, University of Leeds, 1993.

    (20) Bruno, Giulianna. Ramble City: Postmodernism and Blade Runner. p63

    (21) Bruno, Giulianna. Ramble City: Postmodernism and Blade Runner. p64

    (22) Bruno, Giulianna. Ramble City: Postmodernism and Blade Runner. p65

    (23) Bruno, Giulianna. Ramble City: Postmodernism and Blade Runner. p66

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    (24) Kolb, William M. Script to Screen: Blade Runner in Perspective. in Retrotting BladeRunner. Kerman, Judith B. ed. Ohio: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1991.

    (25) Francavilla, Joseph. The Android as Doppelgnger. in Retrotting Blade Runner. Ker-man, Judith B. ed. Ohio: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1991.

    (26) Dressing Blade Runner: A Candid Interview with Linda DeScenna, Blade Runners SetDecorator. http://www.bladezone.com/contents/lm/production/Linda-DeScenna/, 2001

    (27) Fusion Anomaly. Blade Runner.http://www.dromo.com/fusionanomaly/bladerunner.html, 2002.

    (28) Fusion Anomaly. Blade Runner.

    (29) Rowley, Stephen. The Least Scary Option: Blade Runner and the Future City.

    (30) Bruno, Giulianna. Ramble City: Postmodernism and Blade Runner. p62

    (31) Bruno, Giulianna. Ramble City: Postmodernism and Blade Runner. p62

    (32) Kissell, Gerry. BladeZones Interview with Syd Mead, Futurist for Blade Runner.

    (33) Bruno, Giulianna. Ramble City: Postmodernism and Blade Runner. p67

    (34) Rowley, Stephen. The Least Scary Option: Blade Runner and the Future City.

    (35) Kolb, William M. Script to Screen: Blade Runner in Perspective.

    (36) Carper, Steve. Subverting the Dissaffected City: Cityscape in Blade Runner. in Retro-tting Blade Runner. Kerman, Judith B. ed. Ohio: Bowling Green State University PopularPress, 1991.

    (37) Rowley, Stephen. The Least Scary Option: Blade Runner and the Future City.

    (38) Carper, Steve. Subverting the Dissaffected City: Cityscape in Blade Runner.

    (39) Ridley Scott in Words: A Short Interview Published in 1982.http://minadream.com/bladerunner/RidleyScottInWords.htm

    (40) Carper, Steve. Subverting the Dissaffected City: Cityscape in Blade Runner.

    (41) Carper, Steve. Subverting the Dissaffected City: Cityscape in Blade Runner.

    (42) Sammon, Paul M. Ridley Scott.

    images(1) Alien Movie Poster. http://www.sfworld.onlinehome.de/alien1.htm.

    (2) Giger Alien Design. http://www.eeb.princeton.edu/~juank/academic.html.

    (3) Syd Mead Conceptual Art for Blade Runner. http://www.culturaspettacolovenezia.it/immagini/blade1.jpg

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    (4),(5) Proposal by the Alweg Monorail Company for LA monorail.http://www.monorails.org/tMspages/LA1963.html

    (6) Tower from Fritz Langs Metropolis. http://stonegarden.brinkster.net/2026/links.html

    (7) Scene from Blade Runner. http://www.stanford.edu/dept/HPS/Bruno/bladerunner.html

    (8),(9),(10),(11) Screen Captures from Blade Runner, The Directors Cut, directed Ridley Scott,A Ladd Company Release in Associtation with Sir Run Run Shaw thru Warner Bros. 1982/1992.

    (12) Times Square. http://www.princenick.cwc.net/travel.htm.

    (13) Screen Capture from Blade Runner, The Directors Cut.

    referencesBruno, Giulianna. Ramble City: Postmodernism and Blade Runner.October, No. 41. pp. 61-74. 1987.

    Carper, Steve. Subverting the Dissaffected City: Cityscape in Blade Runner. in RetrottingBlade Runner. Kerman, Judith B. ed.Ohio: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1991.

    Doel, Marcus A. & David B. Clarke. From Pastiche City to the Screening of Eye? Or, Geog-raphies of Diegesis: Postmodernism, Hyperspace and Simulation in the Screening ofBladeRunner. Leeds, England: School of Geography, University of Leeds, 1993.

    Francavilla, Joseph. The Android as Doppelgnger. in Retrotting Blade Runner. Kerman,Judith B. ed.

    Ohio: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1991.Kolb, William M. Script to Screen: Blade Runner in Perspective. in Retrotting Blade Run-ner. Kerman, Judith B. ed.Ohio: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1991.

    Neumann, Dietrich. Film Architecture: Set Design from Metropolis to Blade Runner.New York: Prestel, 1999.

    Sammon, Paul M. Ridley Scott.New York: Thunders Mouth Press, 1999.

    websitesDressing Blade Runner: A Candid Interview with Linda DeScenna, Blade Runners Set Deco-rator. http://www.bladezone.com/contents/lm/production/Linda-DeScenna/, 2001

    Fusion Anomaly. Blade Runner.http://www.dromo.com/fusionanomaly/bladerunner.html, 2002.

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    Gold, Matthew K. Movie Review of Alien.http://www.guidetocinema.com/alien.html, 1999.

    Interview with Ridley Scott.http://www.brmovie.com/Articles/Empire_RS_2002_Feb.htm, 2002.

    Kissell, Gerry. BladeZones Interview with Syd Mead, Futurist for Blade Runner.http://www.bladezone.com/contents/lm/interviews/syd-mead/interview.html, 2000

    Ofcial Site of Syd Mead.http://www.sydmead.com

    Ridley Scott in Words: A Short Interview Published in 1982.http://minadream.com/bladerunner/RidleyScottInWords.htm

    Rowley, Stephen. The Least Scary Option: Blade Runner and the Future City.http://home.mira.net/~satadaca/bladrunn.htm, 1999.

    lmsBlade Runner, The Directors Cut, directed Ridley Scott, A Ladd Company Release in As-socitation with Sir Run Run Shaw thru Warner Bros. 1982/1992.

    Metropolis, directed Fritz Lang, 1927.