The ultimate Blade Runner Quiz

1. When he signed on to direct Blade Runner, Ridley Scott was fresh from another big-budget sci-fi movie. Which one?

   1. Outland

   2. Saturn 3

   3. Alien

   4. Star Trek: The Motion Picture

2. Name the Philip K Dick novel that was the inspiration for Blade Runner.

   1. The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch

   2. We Can Remember it For You Wholesale

   3. Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said

   4. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

3. The title Blade Runner was in fact taken from a film proposal penned by which notorious American author?

   1. Thomas Pynchon

   2. William S Burroughs

   3. Terry Southern

   4. Stephen King

4. Which singer was originally approached for the role of Pris, the replicant ultimately played by Daryl Hannah?

   1. Debbie Harry

   2. Siouxsie Sioux

   3. Madonna

   4. Nico

5. During shooting, how did the American crew express their dislike of whip-cracking British director Ridley Scott?

   1. They refused to look him in the eye

   2. They purposefully sabotaged the special effects

   3. They made insulting T-shirts and wore them on set

   4. They referred to him as Diddley-squat

6. 

   What model of replicants are the runaway androids seen in the film?

   1. Plexus-7

   2. Nexus-6

   3. Hyper-9

   4. Robo-X

7. Name the test used by android-hunter Rick Deckard to differentiate a replicant from a human.

   1. Voight-Kampff

   2. Hoyt-Cruyff

   3. Wight-Stamford

   4. Scott-Ford

8. 

   Complete the memorable line delivered by replicant Leon Kowalski as he beats seven shades out of Deckard: “Wake up …

   1. … Time to sleep!

   2. … You son of a bitch!

   3. … And smell the future!

   4. … Time to die!

9. What species of artificial bird does Rachel keep as a pet?

   1. Eagle

   2. Albatross

   3. Buzzard

   4. Owl

10. What is the motto of the Tyrell Corporation, creators of the film’s replicants?

    1. Building the Future

    2. More Human Than Human

    3. Our Machines Never Rust

    4. Androids R Us

11. Who wrote most of the iconic “I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe …” speech given by replicant Roy Batty at the end of the film?

    1. Ridley Scott

    2. Philip K Dick

    3. Harrison Ford

    4. Rutger Hauer

12. Which European electro pioneer wrote the film’s indelible synthesiser soundtrack?

    1. Jean-Michel Jarre

    2. Giorgio Moroder

    3. Ralf Hütter

    4. Vangelis

13. The much-lauded 1991 “director’s cut” of Blade Runner, which removed the cheesy voiceover and happy ending forced on Scott by the studio, also features a key scene in which Deckard dreams about which mythical creature?

    1. A dragon

    2. A unicorn

    3. A griffon

    4. A minotaur

14. The discordant happy ending that was tacked on to the original cut of Blade Runner utilised footage of the Rocky Mountains that was originally shot for which classic movie?

    1. Raiders of the Lost Ark

    2. Downhill Racer

    3. The Shining

    4. The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams

15. According to Ridley Scott, is Rick Deckard a replicant?

    1. Definitely no

    2. Definitely yes

    3. Definitely maybe

    4. It depends on the viewer’s interpretation

Solutions

1:C - Ridley Scott’s second film had been a smash success three years before Blade Runner was released., 2:D - Troubled genius and sci-fi maestro Dick had a penchant for labyrinthine book titles., 3:B - The film bears no resemblance to Burroughs’s treatment, which was for another story entirely. Director Ridley Scott just thought it was a great title, and promptly bought the rights to use it., 4:A - The Blondie singer says her “biggest regret” was turning down the chance to play Pris., 5:C - The crew wore T-shirts with the slogan “Yes Guv’nor, My Ass”. Scott responded with his own T-shirt: “Xenophobia sucks”., 6:B - The Nexus-6 is the most advanced replicant built by the Tyrell Corporation, with intelligence, reflexes and physical strength far superior to a human., 7:A - The test works like a polygraph lie detector, measuring perspiration, heart rate and the “blush response”., 8:D - Blade Runner’s screenplay went through countless iterations over 14 years – the final result was credited to Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, the latter of whom would go on to write Unforgiven and Twelve Monkeys., 9:D - In both Dick’s book and Scott’s film most animal species have become extinct, so perfect robotic replicas have been created., 10:B - One of the key themes in Blade Runner is what it means to be human – if an android thinks, feels and remembers, is it still just a machine?, 11:D - Actor Hauer allegedly improvised much of the classic speech, including adding its most famous line: “All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.”, 12:D - The composer had just scored a huge hit with the theme from Chariots of Fire when he wrote the much darker music for Blade Runner., 13:B - A scene featuring a white unicorn galloping through an imaginary forest was the only completely new scene added to the new version., 14:C - Helicopter footage from the opening of Stanley Kubrick's horror classic was used to make it look as though Deckard and Rachel had escaped into the wilderness., 15:B - Despite the answer being ambiguous in both the original film and its sequel, Scott is 100% convinced that Deckard is an artificial creation.

Scores

1. 11 and above.

   Amazing! Are you sure you’re not a replicant?

2. 0 and above.

   Uh-oh. Back to the workshop – you’re in need of a few repairs.

3. 6 and above.

   Not bad, for a human.

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