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The title cards in Blade Runner are amazing

402 points · 196 comments · ExMachina73

  1. schoen · · focus · HN ↗
    With the em dashes and the conclusion "This was not called execution. It was called retirement." I expect a lot of people would believe today that these title cards were written by an LLM.
    1. roughly · · focus · HN ↗
      What’s sort of funny about that is there’s a normal thing whenever anyone who hasn’t seen it watches Blade Runner for the first time - often they come out feeling it’s kind of derivative, when the truth is that it feels that way because everything after Blade Runner copied Blade Runner.

      Add the initial title cards to that list too now, I guess.

      1. mindcrime · · focus · HN ↗
        It's been reported that William Gibson saw Blade Runner before releasing Neuromancer and was worried that people would think he stole ideas from Blade Runner, as the aesthetic of Blade Runner was so close to the way he imagined the Neuromancer world. Now in turn people are worried that the Apple TV adaptation of Neuromancer will feel derivative because so many subsequent works are its hereditary kin.

        What can ya do?

        1. chipotle_coyote · · focus · HN ↗
          I've seen a few people complain that the first trailer for the Neuromancer TV show looks "too bright" or "too clean." I think the real difference is that they're consciously trying to avoid that Blade Runner aesthetic, which includes avoiding the "never get brighter than dusk" trope.
          1. the_af · · focus · HN ↗
            Very likely.

            However, I see two problems with this: one, I think people are going to make comparisons to Matrix rather than Blade Runner, and judging from the trailer it looks a lot like a modern Matrix (understandably!). Second, Neuromancer starts with "the sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel" so the grey/"not sunny" look is kinda baked in and hard to avoid ;)

          2. roughly · · focus · HN ↗
            As a note on this, I just reread Neuromancer, and the bulk majority of it takes place in places that are not “high tech/low life” locales. People remember Chiba City, but that’s chapter one, there’s a whole rest of the book after that.
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