Blade Runner: The Ultimate Cut
So I had this crazy dream last night in which I was taking a friend to see Blade Runner: The Final Cut. But it was completely different than the version I or anybody else had seen. Now I am not sure where this dream sprang from. I swear that earlier in the day I had thought about cutting a version of Blade Runner to only show Deckard or Batty’s point of view. I was thinking about the logistics of it and if the film would still make any sense without the other scenes. The thing is though, that may have just been in my dream as well. I can’t really remember.
The details of the version of the film that I saw in my mind are still very blurry. I don’t remember much besides the fact that it followed Deckard only and hardly any of the scenes were the same. In fact, I think the whole story was different. The film climaxed with Deckard fighting somebody on the side of the Tyrell pyramid. And opposed to most of film it was daylight out. But it wasn’t the daylight of our time. It was the golden tinged, hazy, suffocating daylight of the film’s universe. The movie ended and I suddenly realized I hadn’t recognized any of the it. Where was the Batty death scene? Not only was there no “happy ending” there wasn’t even a Deckard and Rachael walk into the elevator. It was just Deckard standing on the side of this pyramid. I was so excited to tell everybody about what I had just witnessed.
Maybe this dream came out of my own expectations for a massive change in the Final Cut version of the film. Not that this version is bad. In fact, it is great! I think they made the right changes in all the right places. But over all there are no “new” scenes and I think that is what I had expected going in.
I guess I had just hoped to see this cut piece of the film. This photo appears on so much of the Blade Runner merchandise I was sure they were going to add it back in. But alas they did not. Even more to my surprise, it does not exist on the cut scenes/alternate take roll that the film’s extra discs contain. Maybe this photo was simply for publicity alone? After all there are photosgraphers on sets all the time taking photos just like this . Yet, I have scene footage of Ford running, jumping, and slipping on the hood of cars.
Considering there won’t be another version of this film coming out for at least another 20 years when they find the footage of the lost replicant Mary dying or the REAL Tyrell locked away in a cryogenic chamber (which wont happen) I guess I will just have to deal with what I have got and keep dreaming my own alternate versions.