20 reasons why 'Blade Runner' is one of my favorite movies

Blade Runner

As much as I love Blade Runner I am consistently amazed that it was even made. And the fact that it came out in 1982, the year of E.T. and generally more light-hearted fare, makes its unlikely resilience over the years even more impressive. Viewing it today, it's easy to see why it bombed when it was first released and remains largely a cult film today.

It's slow paced. Although it has Harrison Ford in the lead role of Rick Deckard (a 'blade runner' tasked with 'retiring' errant replicants -- an invented term for androids), he's mostly devoid of his usual charisma and he spends most of the film getting beat up by the bad guys, including two women.

The plot is murky and moody, and the movie's finale is dark and mysterious. This is not the stuff of mainstream science fiction blockbusters.

And yet, the movie has endured, partly due to its groundbreaking, and incredibly influential, production design -- but also because the film's slyly complex script continues to raise questions, provoke debate and inspire countless films in its wake.

Even if you haven't seen Blade Runner, I guarantee you've seen a movie that has ripped it off. Arguably no movie has played a bigger role in shaping our perceptions of what the future world might look like.

Each time I see this movie I love it more, which, to me, is always the hallmark of an all-time favorite. It stars two of my favorite actors -- Ford and Rutger Hauer, it's Ridley Scott working at the peak of his powers, and it's that old rarity -- a big budget movie with smart ideas in it. Here are 20 other reasons I adore this movie.

The opening shot

1) The opening shot - From the very first startling image, a flame reflecting in a close-up of an eye, Blade Runner announces itself as something unlike any other sci-fi movie before or since. It's a film interested in arresting, poetic images, as much as it is story and character.

Rutger Hauer in Blade Runner

2) Practical special effects - As my girlfriend and I watched this movie the other night, she kept marveling, and rightfully so, at how phenomenal this movie looks. And what's most incredible about its scope is that it wasn't achieved with computer effects. Most of what you see on the screen was practical, built by hand and in some cases functional. It keeps the film from being dated.

3) Different versions - Personally, I am an aficionado of the 1992 director's cut, but I love it when a movie is so epic that there are various versions that fans can enjoy. There is the much-maligned theatrical version, which features voiceover from Ford. There's the more violent European version. And yet another cut from Scott, deemed the final cut, from 2007.

4) The score - Vangelis, the moody electronic group, will always be most famous for their classic inspirational theme from Chariots of Fire, but their work is equally memorable here. Their score perfectly meshes with the film's smoky, rain drenched visuals. It manages to be both sultry and creepy at the same time. And the final theme, which plays over the end credits, always gets me amped.

5) Unlikely casting coups - Sean Young, infamous for being difficult and quite possibly crazy, is terrific here as a woman who learns rather abruptly that she is a replicant and all her memories are simply "implants". Darryl Hannah has always been a hit or miss actress for me, but in this movie she strikes just the right note as a seemingly innocent "pleasure model" replicant, with a sinister side.

6) Edwards James Olmos - For me, one of the movie's standouts is the always-terrific Edward James Olmos as the mysterious Gaff. He spends most of the movie speaking a strange, indecipherable dialect and yet you can't take your eyes off him. When he finally speaks English, in the next to final scene, he may have the best lines in the movie. And his routine of making little Origami pieces takes on added gravitas with each repeated viewing.

7) Rutger Hauer as Roy Batty - As I've written before, Rutger Hauer is a one of my favorite character actors, and a reliable villain. His menacing and theatrical performance here is arguably his best and most memorable. He has a way of delivering his dialogue; his patience makes him more profound. And the arc of his character is far more surprising than most traditional sci-fi bad guys.

8) Voight-Kampff tests - One of the coolest conceits of this movie (which forms the bedrock for some of it's best scenes) is that a seemingly random question and answer interview can determine whether someone is a replicant or not. The questions seem meaningless, and yet are strangely hostile.

Darryl Hannah in Blade Runner

9) Tyrell - I don't know what the deal is with character actor Joe Turkel, but he projects genuine menace in two of my favorite films, this and The Shining. It's a small but pivotal villain role he plays here -- Tyrell -- creator of the Nexus 6 replicants. He is cold and heartless, but undeniably brilliant and innovative. His dialogue is pitch perfect and his demise is one of the most unforgettable in movie history.

10) Joanna Cassidy - There a lot of very sexy women in Blade Runner, but for me the most alluring is the professional snake charmer (and secret replicant) played by Joanna Cassidy. Her revealing outfit is certainly flattering to the eye, but it's her confidence that make her stand out to me the most.

11) The set design - Part of why the landscape of Blade Runner is so cool and effective is that it looks lived in. Too many futuristic movies before and since look too pristine and/or extreme to be believable. But Ridley Scott and his team made a point to make their world look retrofitted and a plausible extension of the tech-drenched climate of the early-80s. Part of the joy of watching the movie in 2014 is seeing how its predictions of our world today were often quite accurate.

12) The violence - Every once in a while I enjoy a movie that makes violence look pretty (I am thinking of Hard Boiled or The Matrix) but generally speaking I think it should be portrayed how it really is -- brutal and terrifying. Ford's lead character gets hurt badly in this movie and you get a real sense of the strength and power of the replicants in scene after scene. It gives the movie a weight that frothier sci-fi films don't have.

13) The unicorn reverie - So this one is hard to explain without spoiling the movie for you. I'll just say that in the director's cut of this film, Ridley Scott presents the audience with a gorgeous image of a unicorn, which seems totally believable and has huge significance when it comes to the meaning of that version of the film's ending. It's a great touch, which speaks volumes.

14) Flying cars done just right - When we think about the future, we think about flying cars. Blade Runner has them but instead of souped up speedsters, they glide and hover. This may be more a symptom of the limits of 1982 effects and technology but they work like gangbusters.

Edward James Olmos in Blade Runner

15) Life cycles - Another one of the great conceits of this movie is that replicants have a four-year lifespan programmed into their hardware, something they push back against as they grow in consciousness.

16) The silences - This probably turns people off of the movie more than anything else, but I find, as I get older, that too many sci-fi/action spectacles substitute noise and a blaring soundtrack for actual narrative or thoughtfulness. They bombard you with CGI and the whole enterprise becomes forgettable rather quickly. Because Blade Runner takes its time and really lingers on its imagery, you always remember it.

17) The humor - For such a dark film, there are some strange moments of humor that I appreciate more every time I see it. They're not what I call "ha ha" funny scenes, more like throwaway lines. For example, in the final minutes, Roy Batty is pursuing Deckard -- who is pathetically trying to scale a building to get away from him -- and Batty teasingly asks, "Where are you going?"

18) The Deckard-Batty fight - Speaking of which, this is a mano-y-mano battle that in no way matches expectations. It's scary and intense, with Batty basically toying with Deckard until he decides (SPOILER ALERT) to let him live.

19) The Roy Batty monologue - Again, SPOILER ALERT, right before his demise the nominal villain of Blade Runner turns out to be the most humane, soulful 'person' in the movie. Hauer delivers a profound little monologue about his life, and how his memories are lost to him now like "tears in rain." Incredible stuff -- that was largely improvised by Hauer himself.

20) The director's cut ending - Do I need to say it? SPOILER ALERT. Olmos' Gaff delivers that great line "it's too bad she won't live, but then again, who does?" Deckard goes to retrieve Sean Young's character so they can ostensibly run away together. But on the way out the door he finds something, left behind by Gaff, which pretty much confirms that Deckard himself is a replicant. They leave. Cut to black. Mind blown.