Workprint prototype (1982) The
workprint version (1982, 113 minutes) was shown to test audiences in Denver and Dallas in March 1982. It was also seen in 1990 and 1991 in Los Angeles and San Francisco as an ''Original Director's Cut'' without the approval of director
Ridley Scott. Negative responses to the test previews led to the modifications resulting in the American theatrical version, while positive response to the showings in 1990 and 1991 pushed the studio to approve work on an official director's cut. This version was re-released as part of the five-disc Ultimate Edition in 2007 with a new transfer of the last known print in existence, with the picture and sound quality restored as much as possible but the result was still rough.
San Diego sneak preview (1982) A San Diego sneak preview shown only once in May 1982. This version is nearly identical to the 1982 American theatrical, except that it included three scenes not shown before or since. The scenes were not part of the Final Cut version (2007) and include a scene introducing Batty in a VidPhon booth, a shot of Deckard reloading his gun after Batty broke his fingers and a scene where Deckard and Rachael ride into the sunset.
American theatrical release (1982) The 1982 American theatrical released by the studio included the "happy ending" as well as the addition of Harrison Ford's
voiceover. Ford said in 1999, "I contested it mightily at the time. It was not an organic part of the film". It has been suggested that Ford intentionally performed the voice-over badly, in the hope it would not be used. The "Happy Ending" refers to the scene after Deckard and Rachael leave the apartment. Gaff spares Rachael's life, allowing her and Deckard to escape the nauseating confines of Los Angeles. They drive away into a natural landscape, and Deckard's voice-over narrative explains that Gaff's words ("It's too bad she won't live. But then again who does?") do not ring true, since Rachael does not have the four-year limit of the other replicants. The film's narration was captioned as an
internal monologue in
the 1982 comic adaptation written by
Archie Goodwin and published by
Marvel Comics.
International theatrical (1982) The International Cut (1982, 117 minutes)—also known as the "Criterion Edition" or unrated version—included three more violent action scenes than the American theatrical. It was distributed in Europe, Australia, and Asia via theatrical and local
Warner Home Video releases. It was later released on
VHS and
The Criterion Collection laserdisc in North America and re-released in 1992 as a "10th-Anniversary Edition".
The ''Director's Cut'' (1992) The Ridley Scott-approved Director's Cut (1992, 116 minutes) was prompted by the unauthorized 1990 and 1991 theatrical release of the workprint version of the movie. The Director's Cut contained significant changes from the theatrical workprint version. Scott provided extensive notes and consultation to
Warner Bros. Pictures, although
film preservationist/
restorer Michael Arick was put in charge of creating the Director's Cut. In October 1989, Arick discovered a
70 mm print of
Blade Runner at the
Todd-AO vaults while searching for soundtrack masters for other films. Some time later, the print was rediscovered by two film collectors at the same vault while searching for footage from
The Alamo. When the Cineplex Odeon Fairfax Theater in Los Angeles learned of this discovery, the theater management got permission from Warner Bros. to screen the print for a film festival set for May 1990. Until the screening, no one had been aware that this print was the workprint version. Owing to this surprise, Warner Bros. booked more screenings of the advertised "Director's Cut" of
Blade Runner in 15 US cities. In 2021, Ridley Scott said on
Marc Maron's
podcast that the main incentive to alter the film was an idea for the sequel, which would reframe protagonist
Rick Deckard as a replicant capable of reproducing.
The Final Cut (2007) Ridley Scott's
Final Cut (2007, 117 minutes) or the
25th-Anniversary Edition, briefly released by
Warner Bros. Pictures theatrically on October 5, 2007 and then released on DVD, HD DVD, and
Blu-ray in December 2007 (UK December 3; US December 18) is the only version over which Ridley Scott had artistic control, as the ''Director's Cut'' production did not place Scott in charge. Scott found time in mid-2000 to help assemble a final and definitive version of the film with restoration producer
Charles de Lauzirika, which was only partially completed in mid-2001 before legal and financial problems forced a halt to the work. After several years of legal disputes, Warner Bros. announced in 2006 that it had finally secured full distribution rights to the film, and that there would be a three-stage release of the film: • A digitally remastered single-disc re-release of the 1992 director's cut was released on September 5, 2006, in the United States, on October 9, 2006, in Ireland and the UK, and in the following months in continental Europe. It contained a trailer for the final cut. • A multi-disc box set was released on the DVD,
HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc formats. The five-disc set was released in Europe on December 3, 2007, and in the US on December 18, 2007. Two-disc and four-disc sets were also released, containing some of the features of the five-disc set. On November 10, 2008,
The Final Cut premiered on
Syfy. A DVD featurette titled
All Our Variant Futures profiled the making of the
Final Cut version, including behind-the-scenes footage of Harrison Ford's son, Ben Ford, and the filming of new scenes for the
Final Cut. According to the documentary,
Joanna Cassidy made the suggestion to re-film Zhora's death scene while being interviewed for the
Dangerous Days: Making Blade Runner documentary, and footage of her making this suggestion is inter-cut with footage of her attending the later digital recording session.
The Final Cut contains the original full-length version of the unicorn dream, which had never been in any version, and has been restored. All of the additional violence and alternative edits from the international cut have been inserted.
The Final Cut was re-released on
Ultra HD Blu-ray on September 5, 2017, (one month prior to the theatrical release of
Blade Runner 2049). This release includes standard Blu-ray editions of
The Final Cut along with the
Dangerous Days documentary on DVD. ==See also==