"Blade Runner" has been called a "Super Genre" film

'Blade Runner was made in 1982, and was directed by 'Ridley Scott', The story is about Rick Deckard who is a blade runner, he has to find and terminate five replicants who have hijacked a space ship. Typically the film is described as being a science fiction film, though it does contain many other genres, which has lead to it being sometimes described as a "Super Genre" film. The film opens in a similar way to the films in the 'Star wars' series; Text appears on the screen, which explains to the audience, what has already happened.

It explains what replicants are. The text finishes with the caption "Los Angeles, November 2019, as the film is set in the future this is important, as it shows the audience how far in the future the film is set, this is quite common in science fiction films. The screen fades to black, before slowly fading back into a shot of space, in the shot are stars, darkness, and explosions, a lot of science fiction films start in this way, the opening is very similar to star wars.

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An enigma is created, as we are unsure why there are explosions in space.

We then see some space ships fly around, this is very typical of the science fiction genre, space ships are commonly seen. The space ship fly's away from the explosions and creates another enigma, we are not sure if the space ship had been bombing something. From the text that we were previously shown the audience begins to think that it could be the replicants.

The Camera zooms in on space, and we see more and more explosions, as the camera zooms in more, the space is revealed as being a large city, the explosions we see are coming from chimneys.

The city is very large, and futuristic, around the city we see space ships flying, large cities are typical in science fiction, though this one is very dark and is not what is normally expected from a science fiction film. , it sets the scene, and the genre as being science fiction. The camera then cuts to a Smokey dark office; we see a ceiling fan rotating, and a silhouette of a man, smoking, the camera the cuts back to a shot of the city from a birds eye view, it zooms down and pauses over a building, the camera again then cuts back into the building with the man smoking.

The inside of the building does not look very futuristic, there are no bright lights, or futuristic inventions and not typical of science fiction. The office is more typical of film noir, with its shadows, and darkness. The camera zooms in until we can see the man more clearly; his dress is not very typical of science fiction at all, he is dressed in a suit with a shirt and tie, this is not what is expected from a science fiction film. The man signals for another man to sit down, the other man is dressed in a robe, and it is clear that he is different to the other character, at this point the audience is unsure why the man is wearing a robe.

The camera cuts to show a machine with a magnifying glass coming from the top, the camera zooms in on the machine and it becomes clear that this is not something that we have seen before. Futuristic gadgets, and machines are common in science fiction. On the screen of the machine we see a close up of the robed mans eye. We then see a long shot of both the characters sitting at the table opposite each other, it is clear at this point that the robed man is a test patient, and the test is being conducted by the man wearing the suit.

The camera then shows a close up of the machine working before cutting back to a medium shot of the patient. , We see he is sitting in a chair marked "Tyrell Corp" at this point the audience realises that the man being tested, is being tested to see he is a replicant, as in the opening sequence it explains that "Early in the 21st century, The Tyrell Corporation advanced robot evolution into the Nexus phase - a being virtually identical to a human - known as a Replicant"

The audience at this point is not sure if the robed patient is a replicant or not. The patient is asked many questions about the natural world "Your in a desert walking along the sand, you look down and you see a tortoise crawling towards you " It then becomes clear that this character is a replicant when he responds with "what's that", he doesn't know what a tortoise is. The camera cuts between the screens, the man who is conducting the test, and the patient.

As the interviewers voice speeds up trying to confuse the patient, the editing speeds up, and the cuts between the characters get faster and closer to the characters faces showing more of their emotions, allowing the tension to build. At this point the sound of the ceiling fan becomes louder, and faster, sounding like a heart beat. The audience at this point are expecting something to happen, but the sound then stops, the cuts slow down, and we are shown a close up of the interviewer in his chair, he is calm and explains to the patient about the test.

We are then shown a long shot of both the characters sitting at the table; we see them talk to each other, before a very sudden jump shot to a middle shot of the patient and an explosion by his leg, he is jolted back and we are shown a shot of the interviewer being spun around in his chair, clear at this point that the Replicant has just shot the interviewer this is not typical of science fiction, normally we would expect a climax as the tension builds, but in this case the tension builds, fades , and then we see a climax it is. The Camera then cuts to a large screen and a space ship with flashing lights, that looks like a police car fly by.

We then see another shot of the city. It then pans down to a busy street, it is lit with futuristic looking lights, the streets look dirty, and the people on the street are not dressed in typical science fiction clothes, instead they look poor and dirty. In conclusion, though Blade runner is typically a science fiction film, I would agree that it is a "super genre film " it contains many characteristics of film noire. From the dark shadowy setting, to the fact that Deckard is similar to a detective character, which is a typical film noire character, Rachel can be viewed as being a femme fatale. Show preview only