Blade Runner

Blade Runner is a 1982 American neo-noir science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott, and starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, and Edward James Olmos. The screenplay, written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, is a modified film adaptation of the 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick.

The film depicts a dystopian Los Angeles in which genetically engineered replicants, which are visually indistinguishable from adult humans, are manufactured by the powerful Tyrell Corporation. The use of replicants on Earth is banned and they are exclusively utilized for dangerous or menial work on off-world colonies. Replicants who defy the ban and return to Earth are hunted down and killed ("retired") by special police operatives known as "Blade Runners". The plot focuses on a group of recently escaped replicants hiding in L.A. and the burnt-out expert Blade Runner, Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), who reluctantly agrees to take on one more assignment to hunt them down.

Ridley Scott

Sir Ridley Scott (born 30 November 1937) is an English film director and producer. Following his commercial breakthrough with the science-fiction horror film Alien (1979), his better-known works are the neo-noir dystopian science fiction film Blade Runner (1982), crime drama Thelma & Louise (1991), historical drama and Best Picture Oscar winner Gladiator (2000), war film Black Hawk Down (2001), crime thriller Hannibal (2001), biographical film American Gangster (2007), and science fiction films Prometheus (2012) and The Martian (2015).

Scott is known for his atmospheric, highly concentrated visual style. Though his films range widely in setting and period, they frequently showcase memorable imagery of urban environments, whether 2nd century Rome (Gladiator), 12th century Jerusalem (Kingdom of Heaven), medieval England (Robin Hood), contemporary Mogadishu (Black Hawk Down), or the future cityscapes of Blade Runner. Scott has been nominated for three Academy Awards for Directing (for Thelma and Louise, Gladiator and Black Hawk Down). In 1995, both Ridley and his brother Tony received the BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Contribution To Cinema. In 2003, Scott was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace for his "services to the British film industry". In 2015, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Royal College of Art in London.

Hampton Fancher

Hampton Lansden Fancher (born July 18, 1938) is an American actor who became a producer and screenwriter in the late 1970s.

Life and career

Fancher was born to a Mexican/Danish mother and an American father, a physician, in East Los Angeles, California, USA. At 15, he ran away to Spain to become a flamenco dancer and renamed himself Mario Montejo. He was married briefly to Sue Lyon of Lolita fame. Fancher lives in New York City.

In 1959, Fancher appeared in the episode "Misfits" of the ABC western television series, The Rebel. In the story line, Fancher using the name "Bull" with Malcolm Cassell as Billy the Kid and Hal Stalmaster as "Skinny" plot to rob a bank so that they can live thereafter without working. The "Misfits" enlist the help of The Rebel (Nick Adams) in carrying out their doomed scheme.

Fancher then played Deputy Lon Gillis in seven episodes of the ABC western, Black Saddle, with Peter Breck. He guest starred on other westerns, Have Gun, Will Travel, Tate, Stagecoach West, Cheyenne (1961 episode "Incident at Dawson Flats"), Outlaws, Maverick, and Lawman, and Temple Houston. He was cast as Larry Wilson in the 1963 episode "Little Richard" of the CBS anthology series, GE True, hosted by Jack Webb. In 1965, he played the role of Hamp Fisher, a close resemblance of his own name, in the Perry Mason episode "The Case of the Silent Six."

Harrison Ford

Harrison Ford (born July 13, 1942) is an American actor and film producer. He gained worldwide fame for his starring roles as Han Solo in the original Star Wars epic space opera trilogy and the title character of the Indiana Jones film series. Ford is also known for his roles as Rick Deckard in the 1982 neo-noir dystopian science fiction film Blade Runner, John Book in the 1985 thriller Witness, and Jack Ryan in the action films Patriot Games (1992) and Clear and Present Danger (1994). Most recently, Ford reprised his role of Han Solo in Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015).

His career has spanned six decades and includes roles in several Hollywood blockbusters; including the epic war film Apocalypse Now (1979), the legal drama Presumed Innocent (1990), the action film The Fugitive (1993), the political action thriller Air Force One (1997) and the psychological thriller What Lies Beneath (2000). Seven of his films have been inducted into the National Film Registry: American Graffiti (1973), The Conversation (1974), Star Wars (1977), Apocalypse Now, The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and Blade Runner.

Blade

A blade is the portion of a tool, weapon, or machine with an edge that is designed to cut and/or puncture, stab, slash, chop, slice, thrust, or scrape surfaces or materials. A blade may be made from a flaking stone, such as flint, metal (usually steel), ceramic, or other material. Blades are one of humanity's oldest tools, and continue to be used for combat, food preparation, and other purposes.

Uses

During food preparation, knives are mainly used for slicing, chopping, and piercing.

In combat, a blade may be used to slash or puncture, and may also be thrown or otherwise propelled. The function is to sever a nerve, muscle or tendon fibers, or blood vessel to disable or kill the adversary. Severing a major blood vessel typically leads to death due to exsanguination. Shrapnel wounds via the fragments' blade-like nature.

Blades may be used to scrape, moving the blade sideways across a surface, as in an ink eraser, rather than along or through a surface.

Physics

A simple blade intended for cutting has two faces that meet at an edge. Ideally this edge would have no roundness but in practice all edges can be seen to be rounded to some degree under magnification either optically or with an electron microscope. Force is applied to the blade, either from the handle or pressing on the back of the blade. The handle or back of the blade has a large area compared to the fine edge. This concentration of applied force onto the small edge area increases the pressure exerted by the edge. It is this high pressure that allows a blade to cut through a material by breaking the bonds between the molecules/crystals/fibres/etc. in the material. This necessitates the blade being strong enough to resist breaking before the other material gives way.