Unavailable for theatrical exhibition for a number of years due to protracted legal issues, Ridley Scott’s legendary Blade Runner, based on a novel by sci-fi author Philip K. Dick, returns to the IFI’s big screen on 14th December at 18.30 for this one-off preview in advance of a full scale re-release in April 2015. This is Ridley Scott’s final and definitive edit of the film, the only version over which he had complete artistic control.
Harrison Ford is Rick Deckard, hired to locate and destroy ‘replicants’, bioengineered humans who have come to Earth illegally. Superficially indistinguishable from humans, Deckard must be sure who is and who is not a replicant before they are ‘retired’ while the replicants themselves are engaged on a mission to validate the authenticity of and extend their lives. A claustrophobic and dystopian vision of the near future, this visually stunning sci-fi noir asks big questions about death, corporate power and artificial life.
Regularly talked of as one of the great sci-fi’s and, indeed, great films of all time, Blade Runner’s questions and anxieties about the direction only seem to become more relevant the closer we get to 2019, the year in which the film is set.
Tickets for the Blade Runner: The Final Cut are available now at the IFI Box Office on 01 679 3477 or www.ifi.ie.