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pon its initial release in 1982, Ridley Scott’s “Blade Runner” was a critical and commercial disappointment. Over time the film amassed a devoted cult following, and in 1992, upon the release of Scott’s director’s cut, Times film critic Kenneth Turan wrote a deep dive into the making of the film and its rediscovery. Twenty-five years later a sequel, “Blade Runner 2049,” will open in theaters nationwide. This article was originally published on Sept. 13, 1992.
Elegant cars gliding through a decaying infrastructure, the dispossessed huddling in the shadow of bright skyscrapers, the sensation of a dystopian, multiethnic civilization that has managed to simultaneously advance and regress these are scenes of modern urban decline, and if they make you think of a movie, and chances are they will, it can have only one name: “Blade Runner.”