Today’s movie of the day is the science fiction classic Blade Runner. Released in 1982, it was something of a flop during its original theatrical run. Critics were divided over it, and audiences were generally uninterested. However, it gained a cult following once it was released on home video. As a result, both critical and popular opinion has grown more positive. Today, it is considered to be one of the best science fiction films of all time.

The movie is set in the distant future year of 2019. The Tyrell Corporation bio-engineers synthetic human beings with four-year life spans to work and fight in the space colonies. Some of these “replicants” rebel against the corporation and go on the run. Rick Deckard is a “blade runner,” a professional who hunts these renegade replicants down and kills them.

When the movie begins, Deckard is informed that four replicants have made it to Earth illegally, and he is tasked with finding and “retiring” them. As he hunts them down, the replicants are on a hunt of their own: to find the head of the Tyrell Corporation and force him to undo their artificial four-year life spans so that they can live as long as normal humans do. And as they search for a way to reach him, the body count rises. The movie ends with Deckard and Roy, the head replicant, chasing each other through the city, which ends with one of the most famous scenes in sci-fi film history.