I know the fires of the Sun, and in the wonders seen by a child I have touched the face of God.

Rutger Hauer is an astounding actor. I still tear up every time I watch this scene.

Beautiful.

Great space shots and animation, but I'm nnot sure it actually improves the scene. The original focus was on Hauer, and for trhe first time the viewer actually empathized with his character. I think this rather wrecks that.

"I could hear the chant of the Zulu, and joined in the song of our troops, singing 'Men of Harlech' back in challenge. I could smell the powder smoke, and the sweat, and the smoke of the fires. Cleaner it was than the smell of the death all around us. And we rose from behind those musty-sweet mealy bags and put bullet and bayonet into them. The sun was so bright, and my eyes so stung with the sweat, and my muscles ached so they couldn't move, and I moved and fought. There was nothing but fighting. If I didn't fight I was dead. The wounded fought, their blood brighter red than our tunics. The dust from the ground, from the punctured mealy bags, from our weapons choked us. And we won. We beat death that day. And I received a piece of bronze shaped from a gun captured in a long ago war."

"And now death comes to me as the rain patters against the window. The tears of the widows of that battle, streaming down the glass."

"Time to die."

I don't know why, really why, I just wrote that.

That was good.

I've always liked that movie; it rocked my world when I was 14.

I've aged as well as it has.

Blade Runner is one of my favorites. I've never seen the director's cut version, though. Some say it was better without the voice over. I always thought Harrison Ford's voice over was excellent. Once I rented a Director's Cut on VHS, but some snake had sneaked out the Director's cut tape, and replaced it with the regular old brand X version. I was going to gripe about it to the rental place, but I just said screw it, and dropped the tape off.

JWM

That's very interesting. There is still the connection between what we call 'outer space' and what used to be called 'the heavens'. Given that what are images of outer space are analogous to images of heaven, the implication is very clear. I don't know that Philip K. Dick was trying to argue that androids were human... but I'll have to reread the original short story.

My opinion is that the images make the scene far more potent (especially as they are sequenced.) Vangelis' music as well.. very nice!

I always preferred the original version with the Harrison Ford voiceover. It added context that was missing from the director's cut. But to each his own. I agree that Rutger Hauer is a good actor. What's he doing these days anyway? I'm not really a movie guy, so I don't keep up on that sort of thing.

I don´t believe for a second he got far enough away from our galaxy (or close enough to another) to see the entire thing at a glance. And if he did, if mankind had technology and energy sources that good they would not have all the environmental problems depicted in Blade Runner. They certainly wouldn´t have the smokestack industries seen in the opening shots - heck, California doesn´t have much industry left even now.

Alright, I´m being a tad pedantic.

Gordo, I don't think what he saw was possible to have seen with physical eyes. That's the whole point of the scene...

Walt, Rutger Hauer official website.

I'm going to have to agree with Sensing. That scene, with Hauer's quiet delivery of the line, revealed him to be fully human for the first time, capable not only of anger and violence, but also introspection and grace. The impressive visuals of this new version take away from that.