Los Angeles – 2019

How prophetic did it turn out to be that the opening sequence of Blade Runner (the 1st one) identifies the soggy, fiery landscape on the edge of a stunning man-made Hell to be the megacity of Los Angeles in 2019? Rutger Hauer’s synthetic human announces it is “time to die” the same year as the brilliant actor’s passing.

It was my friend and BR producer, Katy Haber, who convinced Ridley Scott to cast Rutger Hauer. Not a hard sell after she showed the director three of his past films, including Turkish Delight. But, when they first met in the flesh, Rutger appeared in bright pink pants and a knit sweater with a fox’s head on it. To Katy’s relief, Yorkshire men understand taking the piss.

Today, Rutger Hauer’s final monologue in BR is the stuff of movie legend. “I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe…” Indeed. The actor wrote his character’s swan song himself, which is clear evidence for the power of an actor’s input on a shooting script.

Blade Runner is, to this day, the seminal work that made me need to become a writer. It is arguably in the top 10 of finest films ever made. I owe a great debt to Mr. Hauer. His personification of Roy Batty really did inspire me to keep asking what it means to be human.