Blade Runner
Above the neon of a rain-soaked future city, a lone synthesizer trembles as if breathing, weeping for the brief lives of beings more human than human.
At a glance 🔭💭
Some coordinates adapted from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0) · Pleiades (CC BY 3.0)
The people behind it ⏳🌊
- ComposerVangelis
A Greek-born synthesist who created the film's music by improvising while watching the screen.
- DirectorRidley Scott
Entrusted the film's music to Vangelis.
- ScreenplayHampton Fancher
Began the work of adapting Philip K. Dick's novel for the screen, and shares screenwriting credit with David Peoples.
- Lead roleHarrison Ford
Played Deckard, the blade runner who hunts replicants.
- Lead roleRutger Hauer
Played Roy Batty, leader of the replicants, and reworked the lines of the rooftop monologue himself.
- Lead roleSean Young
Played Rachael, who comes to doubt her own memories.
I. After “Chariots of Fire”
(The film) “Blade Runner” is a film directed by Ridley Scott and released in the United States in the summer of 1982. Hampton Fancher and David Peoples adapted it from Philip K. Dick's novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” Set in the Los Angeles of 2019, it tells the story of Deckard, a detective who hunts down and retires replicants, artificial humans made to be identical to people. (The composer) The music was entrusted to Vangelis, Greek by birth, whose real name was Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou. In the late 1960s he played keyboards in the group Aphrodite's Child, and afterward became a musician who worked alone in Nemo, his own studio in London. He was known for a method of finishing pieces by playing and recording at once, hardly writing anything down as a score. (Background) When he took on this film, his name was riding high on “Chariots of Fire.” In the spring of 1982 he had just won the Academy Award for Best Original Score for that music. Scott is said to have wanted, in place of a traditional orchestra, a sound as electronic and as desolate as the world of the film. (Method) Vangelis made the music by playing edited scenes on video and improvising as he watched the screen. His central instrument was a synthesizer, the Yamaha CS-80. To it he added real instruments such as gamelan, gongs and tubular bells. (Lineage) Ryuichi Sakamoto of “The Last Emperor,” discussed earlier in this series, was likewise a composer who began with the synthesizer. This film stands near the front of the 1980s current in which electronic sound entered the mainstream of film music.
II. The city of rising flames
(Overture) The film opens on the night vista of an industrial city stretching without end. Pillars of fire shoot up from every smokestack, and flying cars pass between them. In this scene the music builds space before it builds melody. A low, resonant drumbeat and long, drawn-out synthesizer tones convey at once the scale of the city and the loneliness within it. (Brass) At the heart of “Main Titles” is a brass-like timbre made on the CS-80. Vangelis used the instrument's ribbon controller to push the pitch upward in a glide. So the sound is majestic as a trumpet, yet trembles like a person sighing. (The test) Soon the story moves into an interrogation room inside the Tyrell Corporation building. The Voight-Kampff test, which sorts humans from replicants, gets under way, and only a low mechanical hum flows between question and answer. The title of the official album track “Blush Response” comes from the facial flushing this test measures. (The assignment) Deckard, a retired blade runner, is called back. His orders are to find four replicants who have slipped onto Earth. Rain always falls on the streets he walks, under a blanket of noise from advertising blimps and a jumble of languages. (Sound) In this film the line between music and sound effects often blurs. Rain, sirens and distant machinery mingle with Vangelis's synthesizer, and the audience cannot easily tell where the music ends. That is the way this city breathes.
Flowing over the night vista of 2019 Los Angeles, where pillars of fire rise, this is the piece that first lets us hear the city's size and its loneliness.
- The low, dull drumbeats at the opening sound like the heartbeat of a distant machine. Before any melody arrives, they build the space of the city.
- The brass-like timbre was made on the Yamaha CS-80 synthesizer. The notes are pushed upward with a device on which a finger rubs along a bar-shaped strip to make the pitch glide (a ribbon controller), giving them a tremor like a human sigh.
- In 2021 the music magazine Computer Music named the sound of this piece the greatest synthesizer sound in history.
- On the official album, dialogue from the film is layered over the recording. It is Vangelis's own edit, meant to let the music and the story be heard together.
III. Memories in photographs
(Rachael) At the Tyrell Corporation, Deckard meets Rachael. Through the test he learns that she is a replicant, and that she herself does not know it. The childhood memories she carries were implanted from someone else. (Photographs) As proof that she is human, Rachael holds out a photograph of herself with her mother. In this film, photographs are a substitute for memory. The replicants collect them, and on Deckard's piano, too, sit faded family pictures. (Piano) “Memories of Green” is said to play around the moment when Rachael first visits Deckard's apartment. Vangelis had first released this piano piece on his 1980 album “See You Later.” It was not written for this film, but its longing for things gone by fit the scene exactly. (The hunt) Meanwhile Deckard feeds a photograph found in the replicant Leon's room into the Esper, an enhancement device, and by voice command peers into every corner of the image. “Leo's Room,” included in the 2007 25th-anniversary edition, is tied to this investigation. Rather than tension, the music drifts like fog, creating the sense that Deckard is walking into the photograph. (The question) If a memory was manufactured, who is the person who holds it? The film does not ask this question aloud. Instead the music lingers long over the photographs and hands the question to the audience.
It is said to accompany Rachael's first visit to Deckard's apartment. A single piano carries the feeling of implanted memories and old photographs.
- The piece originally appeared on the 1980 album “See You Later.” Recorded two years before the film, it came to speak in its place of a future city's longing.
- At its center is a forlorn piano melody. Behind it, siren-like electronic tones and the sound of wind overlap, reminding us that beyond the stillness of the room the city is still moving.
- The piano was deliberately recorded blurred and distorted, so it sounds with smeared edges, like an old memory.
- The choice of the piano connects to the piano actually standing in Deckard's room, and to the family photographs on top of it.
IV. A night of saxophone
(Turning point) The hunt draws blood. Deckard chases down a replicant in the street and kills her, and is then cornered himself, surviving only thanks to Rachael. From here on, Rachael is both someone he must pursue and someone he must protect. (Stillness) Back at the apartment, few words pass between them. Rachael sits at the piano, lets down her hair, presses the keys, and asks whether her memory of learning the piano is real. Even if the memory is not hers, her fingers know the piece. (Love) The scene that follows is scored with “Love Theme.” Unlike the other pieces, woven almost entirely from synthesizers, this one has its melody led by the tenor saxophone of the English jazz musician Dick Morrissey. An instrument that carries human breath directly is placed here because it is the moment when warmth first passes between the two beings. (Film noir) The saxophone's tone also calls up the night streets of 1940s detective films. Even as it pictures the future, this film borrows the frame of noir: the detective, the rain-soaked city, the mysterious woman. Vangelis's music, too, layers the electronic sound of the future and the jazz of the past within a single scene. (Voice) In “Rachel's Song” on the official album, a wordless female voice sings the melody. A song without words resembles the plight of Rachael, who cannot be sure even of her own name.
On the night when warmth first passes between Deckard and Rachael, a saxophone carrying human breath leads the melody in place of electronic sound.
- The tenor saxophone was played by the English jazz musician Dick Morrissey. In music made mostly with synthesizers, the very appearance of an instrument sounded by breath is an event in itself.
- The slowly swaying accompaniment chords recall the night streets of 1940s detective films. They lay the shadow of a past genre over a story of the future.
- The melody draws out long notes and then moves on to the next a little late. That is why hesitation and approach are heard together.
- It has become a piece loved well beyond this film, enough that many performers and orchestras have recorded it on their own.
A song sung by a wordless voice for Rachael, who does not know whose memories she holds.
- A female voice sings the melody without words, on vowels alone. A character who cannot be sure of her name or her past is given, in effect, a song without words.
- In the official album's credits, the Welsh singer Mary Hopkin is listed as the owner of this voice.
- On the official album, this piece is attached without a break to the end of a four-track sequence that begins with “Main Titles.” It sounds like a flow narrowing from the noise of the city into one person's inner life.
- The synthesizer chord laid in the background holds as a single mass for a long time, giving the feeling that time has stopped.
V. A rooftop in the rain
(Roy) Roy Batty, leader of the replicants, sets out to find the man who made them. Their lifespan is fixed at four years, and what Roy wants is more time to live. With the engineer Sebastian leading the way, he climbs all the way to his creator's chamber. (The showdown) The final confrontation takes place inside a decrepit building. As hunter and hunted chase each other through dark, leaking rooms, the music all but sets melody aside and builds terror from low rumbles and percussive shocks. “Deckard and Roy's Duel,” included in the 2007 edition, is tied to this long pursuit. (Reversal) Here the places of pursuer and pursued are exchanged. Deckard goes from hunter to prey, and Roy drives him on as if at play. But on reaching the rooftop, the air of the film suddenly changes. (Monologue) On the rooftop, in pouring rain, Roy speaks briefly about the things he has seen. As Hauer himself stated many times, this monologue is the script's original text, trimmed and reworked just before filming by Rutger Hauer, who played Roy. The end of that story will not be told here in advance. (The music) What can be said is what the music does in that moment. The sounds that had been building tension until then fall away, and broad, slow synthesizer chords spread beneath the sound of the rain. The music turns not toward who wins the fight, but toward the weight of the memories one being has carried.
At the moment Roy, on the rain-swept rooftop, speaks of the things he has seen, the music stops fighting and enfolds one being's memories.
- The tense sounds that have run until now fall away, and broad, slow chords spread out beneath the rain. Without spelling out the ending, the music tells us what the scene is really about.
- The words of the monologue were cut and reworked from the original script by Rutger Hauer, who played Roy, just before filming, as Hauer himself recounted many times. The music fills the silence that follows those few words.
- The official album version includes the film's dialogue.
- The score for the 2017 sequel contains a track that remakes this piece, serving as a bridge between the two films.
VI. After the door closes
(Return) When everything is over, Deckard goes back to Rachael. No one knows how long she has left to live. In the final scene, as the two leave the apartment, Deckard notices a small object lying on the floor. (Space) What this object means lands differently in each version of the film, and interpretations have long been divided. To hand that answer to a first-time viewer in advance would be a discourtesy to this film. The music holds its breath and waits until the question settles in the viewer's mind. (March) Then, as the door closes, “Blade Runner (End Titles)” bursts forth. Over an even, unbroken electronic rhythm, a brass-like synthesizer melody unfurls on a grand scale. The most direct and forceful piece in the film is placed, of all places, right after its most ambiguous question. (Legacy) The score was nominated in 1983 for a British Academy Film Award and for the Golden Globe for Best Original Score. It went on to become a benchmark for electronic musicians and film composers alike, and in 2019 Pitchfork named it the greatest film score of all time. (Succession) For the 2017 sequel “Blade Runner 2049,” Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch tracked down the same Yamaha CS-80 to preserve the continuity of the sound. Their score also includes a remake of “Tears in Rain.”
At the moment the door closes on the most ambiguous of questions, the film's most forceful and direct piece bursts forth.
- An evenly repeating electronic rhythm drives the entire piece. It is a repeated figure (ostinato), a pattern played over and over to create a sense of forward motion.
- Above it, a brass-like synthesizer melody unfurls on a grand scale. Its timbre belongs to the same family as the “Main Titles” of the opening scene, so the film's beginning and end lock together in sound.
- Opinions differ on why such direct music follows so ambiguous an ending. Some hear it as liberation; others hear it as a march that buries the answer.
- Outside the film, this piece became the work's signature, the one most often performed and quoted.
Lesser-known stories
In 1982, the year the film was released, no soundtrack album by Vangelis himself appeared. What reached the market that year was a record by the New American Orchestra, which had rearranged the music in an orchestral and jazz style, and Vangelis and Scott did not endorse it. As a result, for a long time many people first encountered this music through a record that sounded different from what they had heard in the theater. Vangelis's official album did not appear until 1994, twelve years later. In the liner notes he wrote only that he had been unable to release the recording until then. Bootlegs filled the gap. “Off World Music,” released in 1993 in a limited run of 2,000 copies, contained more of the film's music than the official release, and fan compilations such as the “Esper Edition” followed. It is a rare case in which the reception history of a film score was written first by unofficial records rather than official ones. Even the 1994 official release did not reproduce the music as used in the film. Many of the film's cues were left out, pieces not used in the film were added instead, and film dialogue was layered over some tracks. The 2007 25th-anniversary edition added unreleased cues, but it, too, is not a complete record of the score. A preview cut from the editing stage even used the Ink Spots' 1939 song “If I Didn't Care.” It was dropped from the final cut, but the first bootleg included it. Demis Roussos, credited as the vocalist on “Love Theme,” was Vangelis's former bandmate from their days together in Aphrodite's Child.
Glossary notes 📚🔎
Synthesizer
(Meaning) The English word synthesize means to combine several elements into one. The synthesizer is named as an instrument that combines and shapes electrical signals to produce sound. (In film·musical theater music) An electronic instrument in which pressing a key sets an electrical circuit producing sound; a single instrument can imitate brass, strings, wind, even mechanical noise, or create entirely new sounds. It came into serious use in film scores in the 1980s, and “Blade Runner” is the defining example. Just as in a game you build a new character by choosing the hair, clothes and colors one by one, a synthesizer builds a new sound by adjusting its pitch·brightness·length of resonance one knob at a time. (Elsewhere) In biology or chemistry, synthesis refers to combining several substances to make a new one.
Bending the pitch (pitch bend)
(Meaning) In English, pitch means how high or low a note is, and bend means to curve. The term means curving the pitch. (In film·musical theater music) A technique of smoothly sliding the pitch up or down while a single note is sounding. A piano cannot do this, since each key has a fixed pitch, but a synthesizer can, using a wheel- or strip-shaped device. Think of a siren wailing up and down, or the way a note creeps upward when you play a recorder and open a hole just slightly. Vangelis used this technique to give the synthesizer's sound a tremor like a human sigh. (Elsewhere) In baseball, a pitch is a ball thrown by the pitcher, and in business, a pitch is a short presentation of an idea to investors.
Ribbon controller
(In film·musical theater music) A long, thin strip-shaped device on a synthesizer whose pitch changes as you rest a finger on it and slide. Because the pitch changes continuously rather than step by step as on a keyboard, it can glide between notes the way a violin or a human voice does. Think of the bar on a smartphone screen that you swipe to turn the volume up or down. The trembling in the majestic brass sound heard in the opening scene of “Blade Runner” came from this device on the Yamaha CS-80. (Elsewhere) Controller more commonly refers to the handheld device used to move characters in a game.
Cue
(Meaning) The English word cue comes from a theater term for the signal given to an actor to begin a line. (In film·musical theater music) A cue is a single stretch of music that starts and stops in sync with a particular scene in a film. A single film has dozens of cues, some lasting a few seconds, others several minutes. Tracks on an album are made by stringing several cues together or re-recording them, so they are not necessarily the same as the cues in the film. In a school play, when the curtain rises or the lead makes an entrance, the stretch of music the sound person starts and stops at exactly the right moment is a cue. (Elsewhere) In billiards, the stick used to strike the ball is called a cue, and in everyday speech the word means a signal to begin something.
Bootleg
(Meaning) The English word bootleg comes from the practice of hiding bottles of liquor in the leg of a boot to sell them secretly, and came to mean goods made and distributed without permission. (In film·musical theater music) An unofficial record made and circulated without the permission of an official label. Because the composer's official album for “Blade Runner” did not appear for twelve years, bootlegs compiled by fans who extracted the music from the film filled the void. It is similar to classmates secretly recording a favorite song and passing it around, but because it disregards copyright, it is not a legal record. (Elsewhere) During Prohibition in the United States, liquor made and sold illicitly was called bootleg.
Repeated figure (ostinato)
(Meaning) The Italian word ostinato means stubborn. The name comes from the idea of stubbornly repeating the same figure. (In film·musical theater music) A technique of repeating a short rhythm or melodic fragment throughout a piece as a foundation. Even as other melodies change above it, the repeated figure keeps going, so the listener feels pulled forward. It is like jumping rope: as long as the rope keeps slapping the ground with a steady thwack, thwack, the beat holds firm even when friends sing over it. The even electronic rhythm of “Blade Runner (End Titles)” plays exactly that role.
Film noir
(Meaning) In French, film means film and noir means black. Meaning a dark film, it is the name French critics gave to American crime films of the 1940s. (In film·musical theater music) A film style marked by rain-soaked streets at night, weary detectives, inscrutable women and screens thick with shadow. Musically, slow jazz and the saxophone were common. “Blade Runner” is a story of the future, but it borrows this framework, and the saxophone of “Love Theme” carries on that atmosphere. Think of the low, lonely jazz that plays as you wander dark alleys gathering clues in a detective game.