Original subtitles

After his first line on camera...

Room 607.

...to his first features.

Come on and ride with me.

Worship the man.

I thought he was so sexy, and he was so handsome.

Like a god.

Han Solo.

She may not look like much--

Harrison Ford was now a star.

It was "Star Wars."

It was "The Empire Strikes Back,"

and it was "Raiders of Lost Ark."

Those three just were

launching him in a big way.

But complacency can land an actor in the scrap heap.

A breakaway from Lucasfilm

was now essential.

I didn't want to do the same thing over and over again.

So Harrison Ford

walked into a bar.

You got the wrong guy, pal.

He wasn't as nice as he could have been to me.

And a nightmare.

Harrison had to perform on an empty stage.

The book, that wasn't. The book that was.

I'm a writer and I don't like people rewriting me.

The movie that was eventually...

They were running out of money from the very beginning.

...a budget disaster.

There was a lot of animosity that was building up.

And a director who clashed with everyone.

He and Harrison seemed to have a lot of angry exchanges.

Harrison came and he said,

"Why are you making her do this so many times?"

Causing turmoil on set.

We did go through a lot of crew.

They fired everybody except me.

And F bombs.

What the is he doing?

And suddenly, "Blade Runner" was in deep trouble.

How did a catastrophic production...

She was crazy.

...turn into a cult classic with a sequel,

three shorts, an anime, and countless fans?

Names, now.

When it came out, it sort of bombed.

At the screening, I felt like I was giving birth in public.

What the is happening to my movie?

Like many great films,

Harrison Ford's first real venture outside Lucasfilm

began with words on a page.

Intriguingly, not the words in this book,

the words in this one.

Science fiction author Philip K. Dick's

"Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"

It came out in '68.

Famed visionary author behind books

that would go on to be adapted into films

like "Total Recall," "Minority Report"

and "A Scanner Darkly."

How did I get here?

22 dystopian chapters

of an android infested, but sheepless future

at a time when science fiction cinema

had open minds.

Open the pod bay doors, Hal.

Although not the pod bay doors.

I'm afraid I can't do that.

Herb Jaffe wanted to option the book,

but immediately turned it into a shoot-him-up with robots

and Phil hated it.

And the project stalled.

CBS was going to do it as a made for TV movie.

Even Martin Scorsese and Jay Cocks tried to option it.

Actor turned writer Hampton Fancher

came into a large sum of money.

Someone gave me $10,000

and I knew it was the only time I'd ever have $10,000

in my life.

I decided that I should option a book.

I called a friend of mine.

That friend was actress Barbara Hershey.

- Come on in. - Who starred

in '70's hits

like, "The Baby Maker."

...who said, "You could try

"'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?'

"By Philip K. Dick."

Well, there you are.

Surely Hampton would be on the same page

as the eccentric Philip K. Dick.

I don't think he liked me.

I think he thought I was some producer type guy

from Hollywood come to get his wares

and take him away for my own use.

Leaving empty handed,

Hampton quickly got in touch with

"Flipper" star Brian Kelly.

Hi, Flipper.

Brian Kelly was a best friend of mine, an actor.

Brian moved into producing

and after teaming up with Hampton,

managed to talk Philip K. Dick over the line.

He succeeded.

He came to me and said, "That novel, I optioned it."

I said, "For how much?"

He said $2,000 or whatever it was.

A laughable sum,

but it got the ball rolling.

Although Hampton wasn't keen to write the treatment

for "Electric Sheep."

That's not my cup of tea.

I said, "I don't do that."

He let himself be convinced.

Finally, I said, "If you pay my rent

"for three months, I'll try."

It was a good try because Brian Kelly

sent it straight to a very big name in Hollywood.

Michael Deeley, who was a friend of his,

the producer who had just won the Academy Award

for "Deer Hunter."

And Michael said, "Maybe there's something here."

He immediately loved it

and decided he was gonna produce that.

He called me up and he said, "We are doing a movie."

Big Money followed Lee

with Filmways investing $13 million.

And then big names like Robert Mulligan

who directed "To Kill a Mockingbird,"

who wasn't quite dystopian enough.

That's when Michael Deeley wanted to hire Ridley Scott.

If anyone could bust out dystopian moves,

it was Ridley.

Ridley had ceased his involvement with "Dune"

after losing his big brother Frank to cancer.

"Alien" producer and fellow Englishman Ivor Powell saw a way

for his old friend to process the grief.

Ivor brings "Blade Runner" to him

and Ridley goes, "Hmm, I will do this."

And immediately starts to darken

what is already a very dark story.

If only Harrison knew

what was around the corner, he might have stayed

chilling out in the Hoth system

because Hampton and Ridley were now butting heads

over a script with the working title of "Dangerous Days."

Ridley wanted changes and Hampton liked

what he'd already written.

They should be paying attention to me,

about what I want.

I wasn't getting my way.

So I got frustrated and I said,

"So what the is happening to my movie?"

He said, "That's called writing a script, Hampton.

"This is called making a movie."

Being the one who optioned "Electric Sheep,"

Hampton was the executive producer.

If he couldn't be fired, he could be undermined

by an unknown writer brought in by Ridley Scott

behind his back.

Michael sent this script over to me.

This was Hampton's draft and it was so god damn good

it broke my heart.

And I said, "It's terrific,

"I wouldn't touch a thing in it.

"I wouldn't know what to do to improve it."

But David became intrigued

with the script's theme of genetics

and started modifications.

- Hello. - - After finding someone

genetically similar, he unwittingly created

a brand new word.

I called my daughter Risa,

who was doing chemistry at UCLA at the time.

And I said, "What is all this stuff about genes

"and what they do and stuff?"

And in the course of the conversation she mentioned

that the genes replicate.

Out of that conversation came the word "replicant."

Earning David and his daughter

their place in movie history.

But who came up with the film's eventual title?

"Blade Runner" the book was written

by a science fiction writer.

With no connection to "Electric Sheep"

or Hampton's screenplay.

The plot is about doctors smuggling in medical equipment,

including scalpels.

Hence the term "Blade Runner."

The novel was adapted into a film treatment by one

William S. Burroughs, then published as a paperback.

It was Ridley who said to me,

"What the hell does this guy do?

"We gotta have a name for that."

He's a blade runner.

That's somebody who runs along the knife edge of danger.

I need the old Blade Runner. I need your magic.

Michael said, "He's a Blade Runner.

"Why not call it 'Blade Runner?'"

And we all just went pow.

To avoid being accused of theft,

Michael Deeley bought the rights for the "Blade Runner" title.

Now all they needed was a Blade Runner.

I'd written it with Robert Mitchum

who I was thinking of for the protagonist.

Would you like me to tell you the little story

of right hand, left hand?

But the studio needed someone more bankable.

Hey, I'm walking here.

Dustin Hoffman was approached and was interested.

Dustin may have been interested,

but nobody else was.

Why Dustin Hoffman?

I'd be doing both of you a favor.

Brilliant actor, but he was not right

for Michael Deeley's vision.

Once again, Barbara Hershey played matchmaker,

bringing the big guns to "Blade Runner."

Barbara was friends with Spielberg

and he was telling her how great Harrison was.

You could see that there's no problem

with the financing or anything

if he's gonna be a huge star.

Not wanting to take Spielberg's word for it,

they flew to London to meet their prospective leading man.

Ridley always said "Blade Runner"

was the film noir set 40 years in the future,

and you'll have the trench coat,

you'll have the snapper and fedora

and all that kind of stuff.

Harrison shows up in the meeting in the Indy costume

with the fedora on.

And Ridley's going, oh, sh--.

Says, "I lost my fedora."

And Ridley said, "That's it.

"I have my Deckard."

And Deckard, well Harrison,

had his first leading role in something

a little less cartoony.

What was it about "Blade Runner" that got Harrison hooked?

He was intrigued by "Blade Runner"

because it was different enough from the previous films, but

it was still something the audiences seemed

to be really excited about,

was science fiction in the future.

He said, "I really thought the Deckard character was interesting."

I thought it was someone who was possibly alcoholic,

burned out, completely lost touch with the society

around him and then more than anything else,

someone who had to manufacture the emotions

and the relationship with an artificial human.

Harrison Ford was now fully invested

in "Blade Runner."

I'm Deckard, Blade Runner.

As was Filmways until they weren't.

Now at the same time they were doing "Blade Runner,"

they were doing a movie with John Travolta

called "Blow Out."

Filmways was putting all their eggs in that basket.

Boom, it bombs.

And then Filmways is really starting to totter.

Not for the first time art was imitating life. What's the line?

Somebody who runs along the knife edge of danger.

To become a prophecy of doom.

And suddenly "Blade Runner" was in deep trouble.

In late December of 1980,

Harrison Ford was preparing his role

for director Ridley Scott to roll cameras.

At the same time, "Blade Runner's" financier Filmways

was releasing a John Travolta movie

they'd bet the house on.

Boom, it bombs and the writing was on the wall.

We were in pre-production

and Filmways went bankrupt.

So they were scurrying around to try

to get somebody else to fund it.

They were already building sets.

They were doing some script rewrites.

But those constant rewrites,

courtesy of Ridley Scott were putting off

prospective new investors who needed to see

a definitive master script.

Ridley and Michael pasted together a script

from both Hampton's and my work.

And somehow using that script,

they were able to get the film refinanced.

Michael, in his amazing way, put together the financing

in a matter of days.

In 10 days, Michael Deeley

secured 21.5 million in a three way deal

with three new investor groups, including--

Alan Ladd, Jr. of the Ladd Company.

Ladd invested 7.5 million.

And so did another investor.

Sir Run Run Shaw, the famous Chinese producer

and entrepreneur. Then they go to Tandem Productions.

That group had done "All In The Family," "Sanford and Son."

Tandem would match the 7.5

put up by the Ladd company.

But Tandem's Jerry Perenchio and Bud Yorkin's investment

had a major string attached.

They would be bond guarantors

in case the movie went over budget.

Completion bond guarantors are essentially insurers

who say, okay, we'll put in this amount of money.

But the deal is that if you go over a certain percentage

or a certain amount of time, you've defaulted on our loan

and then we take control of the property.

Genius.

Well, evil genius.

Does the word asshole come into mind?

Come back to that.

Because now with coffers refilled, it was all systems go,

including more script updates

from an unorthodox Ridley Scott.

And I'd run over where he was on the set

and give him the pages and he'd be dismissive.

He was no longer interested in the pages

because he'd had another idea since then.

There wasn't time for David

and Ridley's rewrites to be approved by Hampton Fancher,

who now had the nickname Happen Faster.

He would find out about them at a very awkward time.

It was Christmas and I was invited over to Ivor's house

and then Ivor laid a script in front of my empty plate

and I said, "What the is this?"

And he said, "That's the new script."

And I said, "Who wrote this?"

He said, "A good writer."

Sorry.

And I said, " you

"and everybody else in the world."

But even with the writer locked in...

you.

...make that two writers,

there was still a matter of locking in the rest of the cast.

I introduced Ridley to Rutger Hauer

by showing him three of his films.

Rutger Hauer had recently starred opposite

Stallone and Billy Dee Williams in "Nighthawks."

Ridley cast him sight unseen.

That was irrational of you.

Rutger is extremely large.

Gosh, he's a very wide man.

With a huge butt.

It just made his character so imposing.

Yet they were still on the lookout

for a female lead.

Maybe Hampton's friend Barbara.

I did write that character with Barbara in mind.

Barbara Hershey.

She was too old for the part, but not much.

It's terrible how women get categorized, but there you go.

Could TV actress Nina Axelrod

create the subtle mystery Ridley Scott wanted?

You know, Mr. Deckard, there's two reasons

a man rejects help.

It was a no for Nina.

How was Ridley going to find his Rachel?

She was a general casting call.

I got the call, I got really kind of depressed

because I was a little scared

'cause when things become real you gotta actually show up

and you gotta do a good job.

And I was pretty inexperienced at that time.

Other actors like Daryl Hannah

came fully formed with physical ability.

She really owned it.

Meanwhile, actress Joanna Cassidy

would use the family pet to her advantage.

How do you mean exploited?

That was her snake.

- Oh, yeah? - Yeah.

Yeah, that's her pet snake.

Appropriately named Darling.

I think I'm the only actress in town

that has a snake.

Talk about beauty and the beast.

And he is very good too.

He's very talented.

Adding another dimension

to the "Blade Runner" world was Eddie Olmos

and his made up language of Cityspeak.

A mishmash of Japanese, Spanish, German,

what have you.

There was Cityspeak in the script

before Edward Olmos came along.

He is the one who finished it off

and made it work the way it did

With the ensemble complete,

Sean Young was invited into Harrison's personal trailer

where she immediately felt uncomfortable.

I went to meet him.

I'm Rachel.

Deckard.

He had a present from Steven Spielberg,

which was a long

pole that had a drip on it

like when you go into the hospital.

He said, "Well, Steven gave it to me

"for my drug problem."

Quite an eyeopener for a 19-year-old,

2000 miles from home in Louisville, Kentucky.

I mean, I think it was a joke, although in 1980,

it's probably not that much of a joke.

But he wasn't as nice as he could have been to me.

And he wasn't interested in babysitting.

And I might have required or desired

a little bit of hand-holding.

But he was not gonna have any of that.

Sean was in for more than a hand-holding.

When she was asked to go and pick up her director

from his house to deliver them both to a Filmex event.

Knock on Ridley's door, lets me in.

Have some champagne.

And then he kinda grabs my ass.

I'm like

I said, "Oh my God, would you stop it?"

In 1981, during the production

of "Blade Runner," a young Sean Young found herself alone

with Director Ridley Scott.

Ridley kinda grabs my ass

and I'm pissed.

After Sean's rejection,

Ridley went in another direction.

You know, he gets together with Joanna

and I'm thinking,

Big relief. And good for her.

If she loves him, likes him, whatever, it's good for her.

I'm happy.

She'd escaped being alone with Ridley,

only to face a different kind of loneliness.

He put her way on the other side

of the lot, away from everyone else, in a tiny little cubicle.

The reasoning he gave to people was that he wanted me

to be like an Android and a replicant

and not have much experience.

But if that were really true, then my performance

wouldn't have been led into such a human direction, right?

Those aren't your memories. They're somebody else's.

Keeping Sean cooped up wasn't going to work.

She soon started making her own friends.

There were people on "Blade Runner"

who loved Sean. Charles Knode, for example,

the costume designer. They were great friends.

He was one of my main sources of laughter

through that show because it was kind of a lonely show

for me so he used to make me laugh.

Charles would come over

and he would show me Harrison's coat.

And there were these little vials,

empty vials of what had coke in them.

I'm presuming.

I think Harry has probably cleaned up his act

a lot since then.

But the fun atmosphere

of the costume department wouldn't be replicated

in the art department.

That was Ridley's domain.

It was challenging for a lot of the crew

because he had such a vision.

Ridley's a little bit of a, what's the word?

An artist.

He's a designer.

Um...

What would be the nice way to put it?

After the first day, everyone was afraid.

What's he not gonna like?

Ridley's a little bit of a perfectionist.

Those famously elaborate sets

where Harrison Ford and the cast would work their magic

were being created by Neo Futurist, Syd Mead

and art director Larry Paull, who enlisted David Snyder.

Larry brought me into his office and said,

"Ridley, this is David Snyder.

"He's gonna be the art director."

And he smiled and stood up and shook my hand

and he said, "Too bad for you, mate."

The prop department was spending $5,000 in cash

every day because Ridley had to approve every coffee cup,

every pen, every glass.

And all this with an already tight budget.

I don't know if he can ever get everything

he wants 'cause he's so brilliant.

The people that really got his aesthetic and got him,

there was never a problem.

But if you didn't get his brain, forget it.

Not seeing what Ridley saw was a problem.

But when it came to the camera, Ridley couldn't see

what the DP saw and that would be an even bigger problem.

Up until this point, Ridley on all the films

that he directed in the UK was also the cameraman.

Here in Hollywood, the unions do not allow the director

to operate the camera.

So Ridley was in a very difficult situation

of not being able to direct through the eye of the camera.

But on day one of shooting,

it didn't take a lens for Ridley to notice a flaw.

The first day of shooting finally arrived.

The floors were polished like glass

and the columns were there.

When he came in and he said,

"I think the columns would look better"

"if we turned them upside down."

In the interviews, Ridley has said they should have known

because that was the way it was drawn.

Well, I disagree.

The very first thing I had to do on "Blade Runner" was

walk onto the set and say, "Do you like our owl?"

Do you like our owl?

Harrison was ambivalent.

- It's artificial? - But Ridley wasn't.

Sean had to do a few takes to master that word.

Yeah, 26 times. Ridley didn't like

that I was going "owl."

Do you like our owl?

Sean faced another challenge.

Walking properly.

Her walk had to be perfect.

I kept looking down to know where to stop.

They kept telling me, don't look down.

I think by day three, we had only captured

half of the first day's scheduled work.

Ridley had no compassion

about what he was putting them through.

And a lot of people were very offended

by Ridley's language and treatment of them.

And there was a great deal of animosity

in the crew against Ridley.

And he had first class people.

And the head of the class was Harrison.

He and Harrison seemed to have a lot of conflicts,

a lot of angry exchanges.

An actor who wanted to be more

than just an actor.

Ridley, I heard him say it multiple times to Harrison,

"Mate, I hired you because you're good at what you do.

"Just go do it." And then he'd walk away.

Harrison's not like that. He's a collaborator.

He wanted to talk about the character.

And on one major plot point,

the star almost imploded.

There was tension, no doubt about Deckard

being a replicant.

And Harrison violently pushed back against it.

He sensed that he was being angled as a replicant.

He fought tooth and nail.

And the unforgiving atmosphere

only dragged spirits lower.

50 night shoots really had a toll on everyone.

Anytime you have to work in wet with sprayers on top

of you, is gonna be not that much fun.

Smoke all the time, everywhere, everywhere.

Smoke the stage, smoke the stage.

It was very thick, very harsh.

The icy conditions on set

and glacial pace of shooting

was leading to a famously chilly interaction.

I didn't love that day.

I remember being pushed.

I think Ridley went over to Harrison

and said, "Push her against the wall."

It was a realization that he liked her,

loved her at that point.

And it was--

And I remember Harrison kind of with my hair.

It wasn't meant to be that forceful.

I remember being in tears afterwards.

I remember that.

But Harrison knew

just how he'd diffuse the situation.

He turned around and he mooned me.

He mooned me.

I have no idea why he did that. I really don't.

I couldn't tell you.

I just thought it was like

he was trying to distract me

from crying or I really don't know.

Or maybe he felt bad that I was crying. I'm not sure.

I was glad the day was over,

I gotta say I was definitely glad the day was over.

But would an impromptu budget update

with Tandem's Bud Yorkin and Jerry Perenchio...

The most money oriented of money man.

...be the final straw

for an exasperated Ridley Scott?

Ridley was unable to structure any sentence

without an F in it.

He hated every American.

A lot of the problem was because it was an American crew

and they didn't know what they were doing.

He was beet red.

He was just furious.

By May of 1981,

an unhappy crew on "Blade Runner"

is calling it "Blood Runner."

It was unpleasant.

There was a lot of animosity that was building up.

Thanks to increasing demands

from an unimpressed director.

I think a lot of the crew felt

that Ridley would lose his temper unjustifiably

and that he was wasting time.

He would get there and all of a sudden sit around for five

or six or seven hours.

You stepped on that set visually,

you went, "Holy mother of God."

Atmospherically, you stepped on it

and went, "Holy shit."

But when production moved to Los Angeles,

the cast and crew would be pushed even further.

And Daryl Hannah wasn't exempt.

My first meeting with her is covering her with garbage.

She got up and ran and when she hit the taxi,

her hand went through and she actually cut herself.

Hey!

'Cause it wasn't breakaway glass

because it wasn't expected.

I think she was in a phase of drug use at the time.

I'm lost.

That was draining her.

And then the sitting around

and not doing anything

for long periods of time.

She did a lot of acting out.

She danced around the set,

talked like a child, just like she was crazy.

It wasn't just the cast feeling the pressure,

because when filming moved back to LA

at the famous Bradbury Building,

We got to the Bradbury Building.

We had made a deal to rent the sets

from "Hello, Dolly!"

We'll pretend we're rich

that way we won't have to spend anything.

The art department had to make a quick pivot

when Fox backed out of a deal.

"You can't have the sets."

So what am I gonna do now?

In the nick of time,

a search of Warner's backlot found a substitute.

The interior of Sebastian's apartment

was built from the sets of "My Fair Lady."

And it was here

where the fun began for Ridley Scott's set decorators.

Well, I had a bunch of animatronics in there.

Home again, home again, diggity dig.

Little things that moved and flute players.

And then Ridley wanted more things to move.

So he would set up a shot

and then he would say, "I need more motion."

Some of the grips would run in, spin them, run outta camera.

And then he'd say, "Okay, roll."

Ridley chose this moment to go

and say this to a visiting British journalist.

He much preferred working with an English crew

and he could talk to them in shorthand.

"Yes, governor, we know what you want."

And they called him "governor."

T-shirts were printed that said "Yes, gov, my ass,"

which I refused to wear.

With a potential transatlantic mutiny looming.

It felt to me like there was the American faction

and the British faction.

With tensions running high on the set,

the ticking clock on the Los Angeles shoot

threatened to send the budget spiraling

even further out of control.

You have this many days and that's it.

The exterior

of the Bradbury Building would now have to be built

on a stage.

Everything from the Bradbury Building, railings,

wrought iron, all had to be reproduced.

When he goes through the ceiling of that,

that cut is where he's on top of my roof.

You can't cut holes in the roofs of locations.

The beauty of a stage

is a controlled environment.

Unless there's pigeons.

Pigeons kept flying away.

So they got some boards

and nailed them over the broken windows.

But the pigeons were still getting out.

We took a cutting torch

and we cut out a section of the property fence.

The next day we had to take the fence

before anyone got there and take it back.

And we had to weld it back in place.

But surely all this manual labor

and ingenuity would lead to a big budget savings.

We went over by about seven weeks.

Is that so bad?

Must be expensive.

Very.

That overage was about to come

to Tandem's attention.

Endless arguments over how the money was being spent

and what they were getting for the money.

Bud Yorkin was a very bottom line kind of mentality.

Jerry Perenchio was a billionaire entrepreneur.

In the TV world, Tandem was used

to profitable productions like "All In The Family."

How much money is that?

To go from that to a dark artfully created world,

it was probably just too much for them to take.

They probably short-circuited when they saw all this stuff.

Tandem stepped in.

Must-have scenes would be has-been scenes,

like the one Joanna Phillips was looking forward

to performing with her pet snake.

Darling, the snake was going to meet me

and I would begin the dance.

Legend has it,

the scene was cut.

It wasn't cut.

It never got shot.

They were running out of money.

I didn't come on until the end of the movie.

It's just unfortunate.

What would end up getting shot

was Joanna's character, Zhora

with a strangely accented Harrison.

Excuse me, Ms. Salome, can I talk to you for a minute?

Harrison's silly-- that voice that he--

I'm from the confidential committee on moral abuses.

I think I went to Ridley

and I said, "What the is he doing?"

Well, you'd be surprised what a guy would go through

to get a glimpse of a beautiful body.

Do I seduce this guy?

Or he is such a nerd, I don't want anything to do with him.

Are you for real?

The awkward reaction was as real as Joanna's distress

before her character's final, glorious death.

Joanna Cassidy runs through the shopping mall storefront.

I must have slid on all these rubber mats

before I got to the glass.

I was doing it so many times and Harrison came on

and he said, "Why are you making her do this

"so many times?"

But the tension on set

was only on track to get higher.

There was a Director's Guild strike looming.

Michael Deeley decided that we would shoot two weeks

in one week, around the clock.

As "Blade Runner's" production neared completion,

the threat of a strike drove its director

to push the crew even harder.

Ridley said that he would continue working.

His thought was that everybody would continue working.

That created more animosity with the crew.

- Harrison... - Hiya, Deck.

...said there was no way

if they went on strike that he was crossing the picket line.

No choice, huh?

No choice, pal.

Guarantors, Tandem, came forth with a swift

and decisive response.

Bud Yorkin had indicated that if we had to shut down,

that they would just take what they had

and see what they could do with making the movie,

which didn't make Ridley happy at all.

Or producer Michael Deeley

who knew what was going to happen

if shooting wasn't completed.

And that's when Michael took control

and said, "We are gonna shoot two weeks in one week

"and we're gonna shoot around the clock."

And that decision cost the production $5 million.

Everyone was exhausted, just exhausted.

And that's when the completion bond guarantors took over.

They came on the set, told Ridley that tomorrow

was going to be the last day of shooting.

Whatever he didn't get, he didn't get.

Three crews went to work at 6:00 AM

that last day and we worked about 36 hours.

The only way to finish was to continue shooting

'cause once you cut the camera,

then obviously that was gonna be it.

They weren't gonna let you come back another day.

With Deckard's desperate final scenes

still to capture, art director David Snyder

started pulling out all the stops.

Harrison and I would get on the lift and we'd go up

and I'd say, "Okay, reach out here as far as you can."

And he did. And I'd take a piece of chalk

and I'd make a mark there.

I'd make another mark all the way to the top.

One of my carpenters cut holes in there.

And then I got black rubber tubing like for a hose

and wrapped each hole.

So him climbing there looks pretty damn good

and there's no evidence of that.

While Harrison was getting a handle

on David's handles, Rutger Hauer's stunt double

was telling David to take a running jump.

He can't jump that far, it's too far.

So he said, "Move the set."

So I got the teamsters out there and forklifts

and everything and we're moving this building.

Ridley shows up and he said, "What are you doing?"

"The stunt guy says he can't make the jump."

And Rutger comes over to me and says, "What's going on?"

And he said, "I'll do it."

Harrison Ford's double, he did the jump first

and when he jumped and his body hit the wall,

it sounded like a giant drum.

He just made it.

Then it was time for Rutger to make the jump.

I had to leave the set. I was terrified.

He ran along the roof.

I couldn't believe it.

When you see that jump, it's all him 'cause he is athletic.

Filming outside on the Warner Bros. lot

when the sun started rising, the men with briefcases

began arriving ready to shut "Blade Runner" down.

We were on the roof outside,

it's starting to be daylight and they needed night.

And the suits were all there.

Michael Deeley said to me, "We're not finished.

"What can you do?" The chainsaws came out.

We literally cut the set off and put it on a tractor.

Moving the set indoors to a sound stage.

Moved the rooftop onto a stage.

So all of a sudden the golf cart rolls up

and the studio guy is yelling at me

and he said, "Da--, Da-- what are you doing?

"You can't do that."

We close the doors and they lit it

and we shot the end of the movie on that stage.

And I think I was there from 5:00 or 6:00

the day before till 1:30 the next day.

I've seen things you people

wouldn't believe.

He sure had.

Nonetheless, Harrison watched on with admiration

as Rutger began delivering his famous final monologue.

All those moments

will be lost in time,

like tears

in rain.

Rutger wrote it and brought it to the set

and told Ridley about it.

And Ridley said, "Action."

Much like his co-writer,

David wasn't thrilled about people riffing on his work.

At the time it ruffled my feathers because I'm a writer

and I don't like people rewriting me.

But as time went by and I suddenly saw the wisdom of it

and realized, oh, I was wrong there.

It's a beautiful line.

And the idea of the dove being released?

Was Rutger's idea.

Batty holds a dove and he dies as he lets it go

like it's his soul.

A beautiful contribution that is now an iconic moment.

And like a dove taking flight,

peace was about to break out in more ways than one.

Somehow a dinner was arranged at the Rangoon Racket Club

to meet this guy, Hampton Fancher.

And Hampton stood up and embraced me immediately.

And I fell in love with him.

And he was the warmest,

sweetest human being I'd ever run into.

And he's been a good friend of mine ever since.

New friends aside,

production had now gone over budget

triggering Tandem's guarantor bond agreement.

"Blade Runner" was now legally their picture.

Bud Yorkin and Jerry Perenchio became the producers

and fired everybody, except me.

I don't work here anymore.

Ridley and Michael Deeley, you're fired.

You went over the budget. So now it's our film.

And the simple firing wouldn't keep Ridley

from staying involved.

They were absolutely enraged,

but it didn't change anything.

I mean they kept working.

But with the new leadership in place,

it fell to Katy to bring Tandem, Scott and Deeley

to the table.

I was able to facilitate the completion of the film

by acting as a collaborator.

She made this thing not break

and there was a lot of reasons for it to break.

With the budget ballooning and leadership

in flux, one thing remained uncertain,

what would audiences think?

I was devastated.

Post-production duties on "Blade Runner"

would be shared by two rival factions,

Tandem's Bud Yorkin and Jerry Perenchio...

I think Bud Yorkin and Jerry Perenchio

were expecting "Star Wars."

Never.

...and producer/director team

Michael Deeley and Ridley Scott.

The notes are, this movie's terrible, it's slow.

We need a narration, this narration's no good.

And Ridley, who had been resistant up to that point,

he was so worn down that he tried to accommodate them.

...that accommodation was executing a note

to create a happy ending.

I didn't know how long we'd have together.

That was the last shot I would ever have to

deal with Harrison at all.

Just before I left I was like--

May I ask you a personal question?

Sure.

Why didn't you like me?

Or what the hell?

And he was very cryptic and he said, "I have no regrets."

What the does that mean?

But the bigger question on everyone's minds was

would audiences like "Blade Runner"

when it hit theaters in the summer of 1982?

When it came out, it sort of bombed.

I mean people didn't really understand it.

At the screening I felt like I was giving birth in public.

The summer of '82 saw a bumper crop of blockbusters

making big profits, but not "Blade Runner,"

a critical disappointment.

It barely generated a profit of 32 million

from a $28 million budget.

I guess you're through, huh?

Finished.

Along came the miracle of home video.

It started to gain traction.

But it was an accidental screening in 1990

that would give "Blade Runner" the kiss of life.

The 70 millimeter film festival put it on.

And they have no idea that what they have is the work print.

It's not this crazy alternative version,

it's the rough cut, essentially.

That blew people's minds.

And it goes to the Nuart over in Santa Monica.

And it sold out.

It started the ball rolling.

And did that ball roll,

replicating itself into four iterations.

The US theatrical cut, which comes out in June.

Then eventually you had the international cut,

but then because the work print leaked out,

it caused such excitement that Warner Bros. decided,

well, let's put out a director's cut.

But Ridley was busy so he gave the general note

of take out the voice-over, take off the happy ending

and put in this unicorn dream sequence that I wanted

to put in that suggests that Deckard might be a replicant.

They put that out in 1992 as the director's cut.

But 10 years later we began doing the true final definitive

director's cut of the film.

It had over a hundred picture changes,

some subtle, some sledgehammer.

When he lets the dove go,

it cuts from rainy moody Noir "Blade Runner" world

to bright blue sky and it just does not make any sense.

So we thought, well let's try to do a more

"Blade Runner"-ized version of that angle.

The final cut's my favorite.

I mean it's Ridley's cut.

The only movie of "Blade Runner" is the final cut.

Everything else to me is a work print.

Despite its now cult status,

was it all worth it?

I said if you had three words,

how would you describe your experience on "Blade Runner?"

Harrison Ford said, "a total bitch."

But not bad enough for Harrison

to reprise his role 35 years and many great movies later.

I know.

How did that movie so fraught, that movie should have

had a nervous breakdown every minute of its life.

But you take Harrison out of the equation,

the painting is gone.

You take Ridley out, of course, it's not even there.

Harrison is indivisible with "Blade Runner."

And it wasn't Harrison Ford, movie hero.

It was-- Rick Deckard is a character

that's very different than Indiana Jones or Han Solo.

It was good to prove that he had a range

beyond those types of movies.

At age 40, Harrison already had

an impressive back catalog, from the 1950s

to a galaxy far, far away.

But while Ford's star was far from top,

after venturing into the future,

his next role would pull him back into the past.

This movie's very dark

and I've got exhibitors are calling

saying kids are peeing in their seats.

Harrison's insistence on doing his own stunts

- his own way... - He hurt himself to the point

where he was really in pain.

...would bring him down to earth with a bump.

The bad news is he needs until August 8th

to get back into shape.