Textual Analysis On The Trailer Of Blade Runner Blade runner is a futuristic dystopian film. It is about a man called Rick Deckard who is a police officer long retired from his job as a "Blade Runner”, a blade runner is someone who hunts for rogue replicants. He is called back from retirement to help with 4 replicants heading towards earth. He is almost killed on his mission to destroy these replicants, but he has help from Rachel who seems human but is in fact a replicant, she ends up forming a partnership with Rick. Blade Runner Trailer

Narrative Structure At the beginning of Blade Runner, the first shot is the picture on the left and it said ‘Los Angeles November, 2019’ this is a pastiche in itself of our ideas of the East, West and future. It shows the decline in the world and things starting to come to an end for humanity. This is a genuine fear amongst humans. As the trailer progresses, we start to learn more about the main character Rick. Then the trailer starts to pick up up pace as Rick is trying to find these ‘6 replicants in a city of 106 million people’. He quickly learns that that in fact the replicants are after him and that is where he meets one in the picture below, but he ends up being saved by Rachel who is a replicant. Rachel becomes a helper to Rick in the film which is typical of Dystopian films. Rick Then starts a relationship with Rachel and together they fight against the ‘evil’ replicants.

Character In the trailer we establish that the main character is Rick. Rick is a typical lone anti hero and you can definitely sense it in the trailer. Additionally, Rick comes across as quite a forward thinking man and is very good at his job. On the other hand he can be seen as quite a lonely character at times and that contributes to the fact that he is a anti hero. But Rick himself may be one of the ‘more human than human copies’. Rachel is another important character because she acts as a helper to Rick. She is also a replicant herself but seems to be against the other replicants as she takes a liking to Rick. Without Rachel’s help Rick probably would have died, and in the trailer you can see their relationship grow as the trailer goes on.

Camera The cinematography in the trailer is also very important and helps us with the understanding of the characters. The first couple of shots in the trailer are establishing shots of LA and what it looks like in 2019, for example the two top images on the left. The city LA city in Blade runner is seen as a postmodern city, with huge advertising posters promoting a off world colony for a more attractive world. This is quite hyperreal for the audience watching because we have not discovered what is beyond earth in terms of people living, and it is a question always on peoples mind if there is another life form outside of earth and this film plays on this idea. There are Birdseye view shots of the city, and close ups of the ‘new’ technology. There are also close ups of the main character Rick as we try to figure out more about his character, you never know whether Rick is one of the more human than human copies. This is another hyperreality because the film deals with the concept of human manufacturing, programming emotions and how we cope in a world where the image overrides the individual. In the trailer there is never a clear daylight close up of Rick and that adds to the mystery of his character.

Titles And Sound The titles appear at the end of the trailer but they fit into the theme of the trailer very well. They appear in bold red writing towards the end of the trailer and that gives the trailer a sense of mystery. The fact they come in red, gives it a sense of thriller. Blade Runner is a Sci Fi Thriller film which is a mixture of two genres. This comes across very well in the trailer, because some parts are of the futuristic city, new gadgets and so on, but it also has a sense of thriller throughout the trailer from when Rick discovers the replicants are after him to the bold red title at the end. The Sound in the trailer begins with the sound of a futuristic vehicle, like the one in the picture on the right. The Soundtrack starts when Rick gets told that he is needed back. Additionally there is a voiceover explaining what a blade runner is. It then goes onto a voiceover of Rick trying to find these replicants. When Rachel saves Rick in the trailer, a different soundtrack starts as he notices its her and then it follows their relationship. Then the tempo of the music picks up towards the end as it comes to an end and the title Blade Runner appears in bold rec writing.