By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
These days, the cyberpunk genre is really having a moment: not only has the Cyberpunk 2077 game and Edgerunners anime proven to be major hits, but shows like Altered Carbon and Love, Death & Robots have brought countless new fans to the genre. However, that genre wouldn’t be thriving at all if not for the success of a certain 1982 sci-fi film. That movie is Blade Runner, and you can now watch its Final Cut (the most definitive director’s cut) on Netflix.
Blade Runner: Final Cut On Netflix
If you’ve never seen Blade Runner: Final Cut, then you’re in for a real treat when you stream it on Netflix. At first, this looks like a simple tale of a former cop brought out of retirement to hunt down some runaway androids. Soon, though, the film morphs into a complex tale of humanity, slavery, and free will, and you’ll be thinking about its existential implications long after the credits have rolled.
Blade Runner: Final Cut has a better cast than most sci-fi films (especially on Netflix), starting with lead actor Harrison Ford (still best known for his roles in the Star Wars and Indiana Jones films). The movie also stars Rutger Hauer, best known outside of this film for the impossibly stylish Sin City and the impossibly wild Hobo With a Shotgun. Other actors in this iconic sci-fi film include Daryl Hannah (best known for Wall Street and Kill Bill: Vol. 2) and Edward James Olmos (best known for his leading role in Ronald Moore’s Battlestar Galactica reboot).
While Blade Runner: Final Cut was considered a genre classic long before it landed on Netflix, the original version of the film bewildered its initial audiences. Against a budget of $30 million, the movie earned only $41.8 million at the box office.
It eventually got a sequel, Blade Runner: 2049, which was directed by Denis Villeneuve rather than Ridley Scott. Accordingly, that sequel got several animated spinoffs (three short films and a TV series), and a live-action spinoff show was announced in 2022, but development on this seems to have stalled.
Blade Runner: Final Cut was a more unambiguous hit with critics rather than theatergoers, though. On Rotten Tomatoes, the movie has an 89 percent critical rating, with critics generally praising the film for its slick visuals and ability to tell a profoundly human story despite the ironic focus on runaway robots. Notably, the film also has an audience score of 91 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, proving this is a film beloved by critics and general movie lovers alike.
Even if you watched Blade Runner long ago, it’s worth checking out Final Cut on Netflix because this is notably the only one of the film’s many versions in which superstar director Ridley Scott (who also brought us films like Alien and Gladiator) had complete artistic control. The film that originally hit theaters had some plodding voiceovers from Harrison Ford that were far more likely to put you to sleep than explain the plot. Subsequent cuts of the film removed those voiceovers and made other improvements, and watching the Final Cut is the definitive way to see the film as Scott intended it to be shown.
Will you enjoy Blade Runner: The Final Cut as much as we did when you stream it on Netflix, or is this the kind of movie you’d rather hire a retired cop to hunt down and destroy? You won’t know until you stream it for yourself. Afterward, you may not know whether androids dream of electric sheep, but you’ll most definitely be dreaming about some of the most iconic visuals in sci-fi history.
