One Of Ridley Scott’s Favorite Movies Of All Time Was Directed By Himself

No one has ever accused Sir Ridley Scott of being shy with his feelings, but when Letterboxd asked the director for his four favorite films at the premiere of “Alien: Romulus,” he still managed to be a bit surprising by naming one of his own. To be fair, he also named Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey,” George Lucas’ “Star Wars: A New Hope,” and Jean-Jacques Annaud’s “Quest for Fire” alongside his own “Blade Runner,” so he had some pretty fantastic picks to offer in addition to showing his 1982 cyberpunk opus a little love. There’s definitely a bit of a science fiction thread through his four favorites, and each one is a look at humanity through a slightly tilted lens, but let’s talk a bit more about “Blade Runner” and why it deserves just as much if not more love than Scott’s more popular sci-fi film, “Alien.” 

I’ll be totally transparent here: “Blade Runner” is one of my favorite movies of all time. It was the first movie I ever watched with letterboxing and it made such an impression on me that I have an origami unicorn tattoo on my leg. The story of Harrison Ford’s Rick Deckard, tasked with hunting down rogue replicants, was one that shattered my young movie-watching mind due to a combination of the story itself, the performances of the replicants (especially Rutger Hauer), and the absolutely stunning visuals. So it’s no surprise to me that Scott would claim such a brilliant film as one of his favorites, but let’s look into why it means so much to him personally. 

“Blade Runner” wasn’t received particularly well when it debuted back in 1982, and notoriously flopped at the box office. It has had plenty of detractors over the years, and though Scott gave them all a characteristically crass “go f*** yourself,” it’s clear that he has a lot of love for the movie and that criticism has to hurt. When naming his favorite films, he said that “Blade Runner” helped “set the pace for many, many, many, many things,” and he’s not wrong. He’s gone back to the film several times, releasing multiple endings over the years in an attempt to get the most perfect version of his beloved film onscreen. (In this house, we watch the “Director’s Cut.”)

While naming one’s own film as one of their four favorites might seem a little egotistical, Scott’s connection to “Blade Runner” and the film’s legacy both make his decision a totally justifiable one. Though “Blade Runner” didn’t make a ton of box office cash, it did end up inspiring numerous other cyberpunk projects, including the heartbreakingly beautiful sequel “Blade Runner 2049,” directed by Denis Villeneuve. There are elements of “Blade Runner” in everything from “The Terminator” to “The Matrix,” and its impact on science fiction cinema is incredible. Not only that but “Blade Runner” was a deeply personal project for Scott, who used the film as a way to process his grief over the death of his older brother, Frank. 

Though Scott has said that “Blade Runner” was the “hardest thing he’s ever done,” he’s also said that the movie is his most personal, as he was dealing with the death of his older brother Frank during filming, and his grief is tangible in every frame. “Blade Runner” is a story about mortality at its core, as the replicants seek to extend their four-year lifespans and get around the ticking death clock put in them by their human makers. The most famous part of the film is Hauer’s speech as his replicant character Roy Batty, where he compares their lives to “tears in rain,” before simply accepting his fate and telling Deckard “time to die” before expiring. Each character seems to be dealing with their own mortality in some way, as Deckard begins to ponder if he himself is a replicant. Does it even really matter, anyway, if we all die in the end? 

It’s understandable that “Blade Runner” wasn’t a massive crowd-pleaser because it’s honestly an existential bummer, but it’s one of the greatest and most influential movies ever made and it deserves to be appreciated as such. Here’s to “Blade Runner,” and to Sir Ridley Scott for not only making it but having the guts to name it among his favorite work.