Scott captures this tradition in a revolutionary way. His colorful fluorescent signs, light from passing blimps in the sky and, my favorite, umbrellas with lighted handles. Fun fact, those umbrellas were constructed out of fluorescent light bulbs, and they had cords to power them. The actors who carried them in the street shots were tethered to power outlets. So stunning was Scott’s vision of future LA that his style has been copied perhaps a thousand times over at this point.

The brooding and mysterious Deckard (Harrison Ford) is the quintessential noir hero. Constantly questioning his own judgement/sanity, displaying a weakness for doe-eyed women who wander into his life asking for help and an inevitable turning point where he goes “rogue” from the department. What makes Deckard so interesting is that his story is left so open ended that the audience is not sure what to make of him by the end of the film. The villain, Batty, isn’t so mysterious. From the very beginning of the film we know exactly what Batty is; an artificial intelligence fighting for his freedom. It is little twists like this that make an otherwise formulaic storyline completely new and engaging.