Curiously Simple: Every Last Special Effect in Blade Runner

Blade Runner is known as one of the best-loved sci-fi movies of all time. It’s launched life-long love affairs with sci-fi for countless numbers of fans, and it continues to draw new fans even nearly 20 years after its release. But for all its science fiction cred, the movie didn’t really employ too many special effects or high-tech trickery. There was no CGI back then; the futuristic world in the film was made using miniatures and good old low-tech deceptive camera angles.

And for all of the dazzling depth of the dystopian city in the movie, there weren’t actually many special effects used overall. This video compiles them all into a compact (and more or less chronological) five minutes of pure sci-fi bliss. It is rather surprising that there aren’t more effects, but maybe that’s the mark of a great sci-fi epic: you don’t need a lot of flash when you’ve got a killer story.

submit to reddit
See more in Vintage Videos or under Vintage & Retro. September, 2010.