Retrofitting Blade Runner

This book of essays looks at the multitude of texts and influences which converge in Ridley Scott’s film Blade Runner, especially the film’s relationship to its source novel, Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Essays consider political, moral and technological issues raised by the film, as well as literary, filmic, technical and aesthetic questions. Contributors discuss the film’s psychological and mythic patterns, importance political issues and the roots of the film in Paradise Lost, Frankenstein, detective fiction, and previous science fiction cinema.

From dust jacket: Blade Runner's richness and fundamental integrity will continue to fascinate viewers for years to come. Its implications as a thought experiment provide a starting point for urgently important thinking about the moral issues implicit in a hypertechnological society. Yet its importance in the history of science fiction and science fiction film rests equally on its mythically and psychologically resonant creation of compelling characters and an exciting story within a credible science fiction setting.