Blade Runner: the franchise

[Christopher]

I liked 2049, but I don't think it's going to be terribly relevant in predicting or assessing 2099, which is coming from a different group of people.

Okay, that's reassuring to know. Although Blade Runner sequels in general have been hit-or-miss. I think I only liked one of the short films they made to lead into 2049, and I found the Black Lotus animated series mediocre (with surprisingly bad CGI for something so recent) and gave up on it after the first episode.

My concern is Ridley Scott's level of involvement, given how unimpressed I was by Prometheus and Covenant.

I'm not sure he's ever really done a good film other than Alien and Blade Runner.


As for why replicant hunters are called blade runners, I always just figured it was a slang term for an assassin, someone who runs down and kills their prey. Perhaps it comes from the Japanese influence on BR culture. One of the Japanese words for "assassin," shikaku (刺客), literally means "stabbing/pricking visitor," which comes close to the sense of "blade runner." Maybe the "runner" is phonetically influenced by ronin, literally a wanderer or drifter, a masterless samurai working as a blade for hire.

 

[Set Harth]

I think I only liked one of the short films they made to lead into 2049

Which one?

 

[Christopher]

Which one?

The anime, Black Out 2022.

 

[Set Harth]

I was thinking that would be the one.
The Bautista one was ok. I think the one I disliked most was the Jared Leto one. Partly because the audio seemed awful.

 

[Steve Roby]

As for why replicant hunters are called blade runners, I always just figured it was a slang term for an assassin, someone who runs down and kills their prey. Perhaps it comes from the Japanese influence on BR culture. One of the Japanese words for "assassin," shikaku (刺客), literally means "stabbing/pricking visitor," which comes close to the sense of "blade runner." Maybe the "runner" is phonetically influenced by ronin, literally a wanderer or drifter, a masterless samurai working as a blade for hire.

Except that blade runners are not masterless, they work for the police department.

I've never bothered trying to come up with an in-universe reason for the name. Hell, maybe the in-universe reason is the same as the real world version: someone saw a copy of the Nourse or Burroughs books and thought, yeah, blade runner, don't know what that means but it sounds badass, I'm using that.

 

[Christopher]

Except that blade runners are not masterless, they work for the police department.

As I said, I figured it was a vernacular term for an assassin that became a nickname for replicant hunters. It's obviously metaphorical, since they don't actually use blades.

 

[Tosk]

I think it's pretty obvious that the name comes from a government agency trying to force words to make an acronym that they already had in mind.

Bioengineered
Lifeform
Assesment
Detection and
Elimination

I'm too lazy to try and think of what runner might stand for so that part is just a word.

B.L.A.D.E. Runner. Boom. Sorted.

 

[Christopher]

I think it's pretty obvious that the name comes from a government agency trying to force words to make an acronym that they already had in mind.

Bioengineered
Lifeform
Assesment
Detection and
Elimination

I'm too lazy to try and think of what runner might stand for so that part is just a word.

B.L.A.D.E. Runner. Boom. Sorted.

Okay, that's clever. Although "Bioengineered Lifeform" for "replicant" is a sign that, to paraphrase Agents of SHIELD, someone really wanted their name to spell "BLADE." I guess they figured "Rade Runner" wouldn't mean anything, except perhaps to Scooby-Doo.

They're runners because they're field agents, the ones who go out and run down the quarry.

 

[Set Harth]

Assessment

(though Assesment is intriguing in its own way)