Journal #3

Blade Runner was made in 1982 based in Los Angeles 2019. The story line is based around “a semi-retired cop known as a blade runner, attempts to track down a foursome of renegade slave cyborgs known as replicants” (Schager). The film is based on Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, with many modifications. This film introduced the world to a future that would not be a bright and happy change, rather a dark and dirty world where fear and non-human creatures called “replicants” exist and are rampant throughout Los Angeles.
With this large amount of people, technology has grown and “replicants” have taken over the labor work. Science has taken a giant leap forward since the modern times where genetics are just beginning to be understood. The “Tyrell Corporation” is the company responsible for creating the “replicants” and have to make them as full grown adults, seeing has how each part must be non-organically. Having pioneered such a feat, the Tyrell Corporation is reaping the benefits of creating mechanized slave labor, however, they can also be destroying the world that made them so wealthy.
Within the capitalist society we have today, advertisements are everywhere we look; on busses, internet ads, magazines, billboards, etc. Blade Runner paints us a picture of what we, as Americans, have to look forward to: “mass advertisements littering every inch of any wall of every building” (Varun). Aside from the advertisements, nightlife is just as busy as daytime, a constant buzz of people buying and moving all around. Night is no long night, the neon lights flood the streets where sunshine sat hours earlier. Schager describes it best as a, “multicultural techno-grunge hellhole drenched in rain, infested with advertising and shrouded in mist.”
The concept of creating this dark, gloomy future, may be more realistic than we want to believe. Large corporations run the world with the large sums of money they come to terms with. In Blade Runner, it is suggested the Tyrell Corporation may have played a role in creating a devastating environment. “…Nuclear, chemical and biological wars, grand-scale terrorism, global warming, merciless exploitation, excessive pollution, exhaustive over-population; probably a combination of them all. The way the Tyrell Corporation and other commercial enterprises are presented in the movie suggests the mega-corporations are to blame” (Hermansson). All aspects of a change in weather throughout the film are gone, the only time it is not raining and dark is within Tyrell’s own office when, “ Only in his office do we see any essence of the sun and a calm space” (Skaar). This is to suggest that, as Skaar states, Tyrell has a “God-like presence” being the principal power within the society.
The environment we all see and take for granted today is seen as a massive overhaul of advertisements and acid rain, as represented in Blade Runner. The large corporations are blamed for such a catastrophe and have more power than can be imagined. Evidence of such an event can be seen today if one looks close enough, for instance companies like Wal-Mart are buying up large areas of land are have made billions of dollars, Microsoft has made billions for creating Windows(PBS). Large corporations can control much of the planet and if we are not careful, the grim future that is portrayed in Blade Runner, may be our reality.
Works Cited
"Frontline: Is Wal-Mart good for America?." Secrets of Wal-Mart's Success. 2005. PBS. 1 Oct 2008 .
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Hermansson, Niclas. "The World 2019: A Worn-Down Hell." Blade Runner Insight 17 Dec. 2005. 27 Sept 2008 .

Schager, Nick. "Blade Runner: The Final Cut." Slant Magazine Film Review: Blade Runner 25 Sept 2007. 27 Sep 2008 .

Skaar, Tor Inge. "How Science Became God In Blade Runner." Blade Runner Insight 7 Aug 2006. 27 Sep 2008 .

Varun, Begley. "Blade Runner and the Postmodern: A Reconsideration." Literature Film Quarterly 2004. 29 Sep 2008 .