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Blade Runner: The Version You've Never Seen Before (Update: Beta Released)

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 (Edited)

EDITED MAY 8: Beta version available now!

This is something I started working on ever since the 5-disk boxset came out. What it is is not a special cut to make the film better, not simply an extended version that incorperates deleted scenes, but the most thoroughly different version of the film possible that makes use of all the diferent versions and unseen footage to create a cut of the film as drastically different as can be had. It incorperates sections of the workprint and all of the deleted and alternate scenes, plus elements taken from the raw dailies. There is voice-over throughout, but it is the original, unused recordings, creating a more noir-ish storyline.


The theatrical version being worked from is the 1992 Director’s Cut. I’ve also not mentioned it in the change listing, but none of the dailies had corresponding soundtracks, so in some cases I have had to add my own recordings while also cheating overlays from elsewhere in the film (for instance, Batty shocking himself with the live wire). This was sometimes a bit of challenge considering I am editing in Womble which only has two audio tracks, although the results are fairly effective.

I’ve done some mild colour correction to the new footage, but only select shots (due to re-encoding concerns), usually transitional ones that connect to theatrical footage; both the deleted scenes and raw dailies tend to be red-faded, milky and oversaturated compared to the final grading, and some of them are much dimmer too. None of the footage truely matches perfectly, especially with occassional print damage and softer image with lower bitrate, but hopefully the contrast is much less than it would be without any treatment.

<span style=“text-decoration: underline;”>Complete List of Changes According to Scene</span>:

-Opens with workprint (WP) Ladd company logo on white background.

-Titles: titles taken from WP, with audio re-edited so that the text syncs better with the visuals.

-Opening cityscape montage: taken from WP, with spinner radio chatter, no eyeball or Holden intercuts, and no push in on the window.

-Leon-Holden scene: has one alternate take plus two new angles for Leon’s entrance, from the dailies. The rest of the scene is from the WP (minus one deleted shot), with no music sting and an extra long shot of Holden’s body.

-Deckard introduction: taken from alternate version with new narration.

-Flight to police station: has alternate take of Deckard eating noodles as he looks out the window, plus WP audio with Gaff speaking citi-speak. The shot of the geisha billboard is shorter by a few frames.

-Intro to police station: taken from the alternate scene, with new narration about Gaff.

-Intro to Bryant: removes one line as per WP editing.

-Video room: Features new introduction from alternate scene with new narration. Then continues with theatrical scene, with the replicant bios cut out.

-Holden in Hospital: This deleted scene then follows.

-Flight to Tyrell pyramid: taken from the alternate scene with new narration.

-Intro to Rachel: has an extra shot of a replicant owl and a shot of a replicant dog, from the dailies. One shot of Deckard has been trimmed by a few frames.

-Rachel’s VK: taken from the alternate version with new narration. This continues into the theatrical version with Deckard and Tyrell’s conversation.

-Flight from Tyrell pyramid: taken from the alternate scene with new narration.

-Leon’s apartment: taken from alternate scene.

-Intro to Batty: taken from the alternate scene.

-Chew’s Lab: has a new shot of Batty and Leon entering, from the dailies. Batty’s last line is taken out, as per the WP editing.

-Drive to Deckard’s apartment: taken from the alternate scene with new narration.

-Rachel and Deckard in the apartment: no change.

-Intro to Pris: taken from the alternate scene with new narration. Continues into the theatrical version of the end of the scene.

-Intro to Bradburry building: no change.

-Deckard and the Esper: Begins with the theatrical dolly across the piano photos but cuts before we see Deckard. No unicorn dream. The alternate scene with Deckard inspecting photographs and then working at the esper follows. The scene ends with the theatrical version where Deckard examins the photograph and the scale, with an extra line from the WP.

-Deckard at the noodle bar: this deleted scene then follows.

-Animoid row: taken from the alternate scene with new narration.

-Outside Taffy’s bar: taken from the alternate scene new narration.

-Taffy’s bar: alternate scene continues inside, but includes the dialogue scene between Deckard and Taffy. Then continues with alternate scene where Deckard phones Rachel, broken up with the dialogue exchange in the theatrical version.

-Deckard and the bartender: This deleted scene then follows.

-Deckard and Zhora: taken from the alternate scene with new narration. Rather than cutting to her death as the alternate scene does, it cuts mid-way into the scene. The effeminate character Deckard plays has been removed, and so has much of the dialogue.

-Zhora chase: features one new shot of Deckard on top of a car and two new crowd shots, from the dailies. A section of approximately ten seconds has been trimmed from the part where Deckard is riding the tram car, plus one shot is missing from the early part of the chase.

-Zhora’s death: taken from the alternate scene with new narration, up until the scene where Deckard buys a drink.

-Deckard and Bryant: no change.

-Deckard and Leon: new angle of Leon slapping the gun and a new shot of Rachel firing the gun, from the dailies. Omits Leon’s reaction to being shot, but keeps the shot of him slumping to the ground.

-Deckard’s apartment: begins with the scene of him washing, taken from alternate scene with new narration; this version omits the introductory section of Deckard drinking while Rachel cries. The theatrical version follows, with Rachel talking to him in the kitchen. The deleted scene of Rachel removing Deckard’s shotglass then follows.

-Love scene: contains the extended footage from the deleted scene. Ends with an unused shot of the cityscape.

-Bryant and Gaff watching Deckard and Holden: this deleted scene then follows.

-Sebastian’s apartment: contains a shot of Pris with mice, from the dailies. Cuts out the second shot of her looking at her makeup in the mirror.

-Batty joins Sebastian and Pris: no change.

-Elevator to Tyrell pyramid: taken from the alternate scene.

-Tyrell’s death: New shot of Sebastian opening door, from the dailies. Features alternate line reading and less violence in the shorter director’s cut.

-Batty in the elevator: taken from the deleted scene.

-Deckard stakes out Bradburry building: taken from the alternate scene with new narration.

-Deckard in the Bradburry: new long tracking shot from the second floor of Deckard entering, from the dailies. Snipped off about ten seconds from his ascent up the stairs. WP temp music used in this part. New panning shot of Pris with mannequins, which replaces a section of another shot of Deckard entering.

-Deckard and Pris: Re-edits the shots after he kills her of him composing himself. New shot of Deckard wandering to the hallway, seeing Batty come out of the elevator and then retreat back inside. Dialogue of Batty taken from elsewhere in the film (“Deckard!”). Deletes one shot of Deckard running away.

-Deckard and Batty: scene of Batty pulling Deckard through the wall and breaking his fingers taken from WP; audio is from WP with temp music.

-Batty chases Deckard: has a longer shot of Batty howling after smearing Pris’ blood on himself and a different angle as Deckard re-sets his broken fingers, both from the WP (some temp music). New shot of Deckard pulling at boards on windows, from the dailies. Deckard in the bathroom features shot of a mannequin in the bathtub with a shortened wide shot of him sitting on the tub’s edge. Two shots deleted from before Batty puts the nail in; nail going in from the director’s cut. Two new shots of Batty electrocuting himself, from the dailies, with a re-used shot of Deckard on the ledge breaking them up.

-The rooftop: shortens one shot of Deckard on the roof. New shot of Batty emerging from the hole. Deckard hanging features slightly different editing and a new shot from the dailies. Batty catching Deckard’s arm features slightly different shot order and a new angle from the dailies.

-Batty’s death: first part from theatrical version, with the alternate version of the ending, with narration. Gaff’s exchange with Deckard follows, from the theatrical version.

-Deckard finds Rachel: no change.

-ride into the sunset: includes both alternate endings, beginning with the dialogue version and seguing into the montage version with new narration, which fades to black.

-end credits: no end credits. Includes “The End” from WP, but without music.

There are a couple dailies shots in the film that cut somewhat poorly, but I’m only going to take them out if there are comments about them. Right now I don’t have end credits–I think the film works well without them, and I don’t have opening credits either (other than Harrison Ford) so it doesn’t seem so out of place.

On the final DVD, maybe a week or two after the beta is online, as an extra I might do a montage of every outtake from the dailies–there is footage for virtually every scene. The problem is most of it isn’t useable in the edit itself, either because they simply don’t cut with the footage available in the final film, or in the case of dialogue scenes because most of them don’t have sound. But it would be neat to see them all in a row, like going through the Warners archives and looking through all the Blade Runner camera reels. Would be a pretty big job though but something I would like to try.

Expect this available <span style=“text-decoration: line-through;”>in February or March.</span>  in late April 2011.

EDIT APRIL 16: Have updated the list of changes.

Available now is a 15 minute preview of the early part of the film, as it exists in my rough cut so far. The sound editing and mix are not final, but the picture will probably remain the same, beyond mild finessing of the cuts if need be.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsG39SG55Pw

Also thinking of an alternate title; suggestions? “The Lost Cut?”

EDIT MAY 8: The beta release is available via Demonoid. Anamorphic widescreen, 2.0 sound, 4.59 GB. Have not shrunk it to fit on single-layer disc, use DVD Shrink to do so. Future version will have 5.1 upmix, additional audio and video tweaks, and real menus. The running time is 117 minutes, ironically making it the exact same time as the original versions, despite the fact that the film only contains about 50% theatrical footage.

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Sounds good. (And like a fair bit of work. )

Two minor suggestions (and they're almost certainly things you're doing anyway, but I thought I'd mention 'em) ...

1. Seeing as Leon will still be in his room in this cut, there is a nice alternate take of the 'looking down at Deckard and Gaff' shot which clearly shows that we are with someone looking at them out of the window. This would be cool, as it would be Leon seeing them coming, who quickly hides.

2. Lady in the water. Are you going to use the alternate angle on Deck when he enters the bathroom? I'm not sure the woman in the tub makes a lot of sense, but it's certainly different.



One other thing that I've been thinking about, any thoughts on possibly putting the bathroom confrontation back into it's originally shot continuity? ie; Batty doesn't put the nail through his hand until he's already scared Deck out the window. (There's also an odd bit of business in the dailies, where Roy pulls some wiring out of the wall and gives himself a jolt by stuffing the live end into his mouth.)
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This is a great project idea!


Norwegian subtitles translate "Sushi That's what my ex-wife called me. Cold Fish." into "Sushi, my wife, used to call me a cold fish."

“First feel fear, then get angry. Then go with your life into the fight.” - Bill Mollison

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i hoped that the 5 DVD set would spark this type of fanediting!

sounds like a real interesting project
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This is great. Just a couple minor suggestions.

It would be cool if you included the shots that UA mentioned (Roy putting the live end in his mouth), and that shot of the woman in the bath would be really neat too.

The other thing I have to say is that I really don't think you should use the Goldsmith temp track for the end fight. I know its really different, but it takes me out of the movie, it just doesn't work as well as the Vangelis score. Just my opinion though.
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This sounds like a great idea - I'd love to see this when it's done.

And I have to second OLK here - I hate that temp track at the end even more than the voiceover.
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Batty's death scene will still have the Vangelis score. The Bradbury sequence--the chase--has the temp music, which is inferior but not to the point of ruining the scenes since its pretty subtle anyway, but once we get to the roof Vangelis comes back when Batty appears, which works quite effectively. I'm planning to include the workprint version of the scene from this point to the end of his death as an extra (here I felt the temp music was not only inferior but took away much of the emotion--luckily the alternate edit of the scene includes the Vangelis score, so I can still keep it; as I said, I'm looking more to present a different version rather than a "better" version but luckily things work out here).
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Wow, I'm sooo glad you're doing this...I was considering it myself....
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I'm really looking forward to seeing this. I just finished watching Dangerous Days, and damn, was that great. I'm re-watching the 1982 theatrical cut for the first time in a while before I watch the deleted/alternate scenes. Can't wait to dive into that stuff.

It sounds like this edit of the flick will be a lot of fun to watch, almost like the lost cut of Star Wars.

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Hi everybody. You’re all awesome. Keep up the good work.

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I just finished watching the deleted/alternate scenes, and I can't wait to see this edit put together. I have two pie-in-the-sky sort of requests, which I entirely expect you to ignore, because this is your edit and you're taking the time to make it, it's just a couple things that I would do if I had the time/energy/skill to do the same:

1) Include some of the second alternate ending dialogue, particularly the line "You and I were made for each other." I could accept the "happy" ending as a real ending if that were the final line of the film.

2) Maybe try doing just an alternate sound mix for the edit without the narration? A lot of the stuff (I think taken from the first voiceover sessions?) is downright insulting to the viewer in how much it explains.

I used to be very active on this forum. I’m not really anymore. Sometimes, people still want to get in touch with me about something, and that is great! If that describes you, please email me at [my username]ATgmailDOTcom.

Hi everybody. You’re all awesome. Keep up the good work.

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My 2 cents of a suggestion.

What if you made the "Into the Sunset Ending" a type of waking dream sequence in the middle of the film? Something like the Unicorn Scene. Yes, I know that was a memory, not a dream. But what about placing the "Into the Sunset" as a waking type dream (with "We where made for each other" line but not the voice over) when Harrison Ford is sitting alone in his car in the acid rain. Place it just before the cop car comes by and asks him what he is doing there. The Cop car arriving can snap him out of his deep thoughts of him and Rachel driving into a sunset together. Then you can place the call from his boss after the cop flies away, then cut to the group of street people outside in the rain walking towards Ford's car. Then cut back into the car when Ford makes the vid-phone call and Pris hangs up on him. I think it would work. It would be like he is just day dreaming that the earth was a better place then it truly is, and he and Rachel could somehow have a future together and not be so different from one another. He is after all falling deep in love with Rachel by this point in the story, and people do daydream about having a perfect future with their new found lover. Just another way to use the existing footage, but not place it as a happy ending...

FF

“First feel fear, then get angry. Then go with your life into the fight.” - Bill Mollison

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I think that's a really good idea. Nice work, FF.

I used to be very active on this forum. I’m not really anymore. Sometimes, people still want to get in touch with me about something, and that is great! If that describes you, please email me at [my username]ATgmailDOTcom.

Hi everybody. You’re all awesome. Keep up the good work.

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Zombie I really like this idea

I have two suggestions though

Could you reorder the Post-Zhora scenes, so they are in the scripted order (always wanted to see this):
i.e.
(1) Zhora dies
(2) Deckard spots Rachael in the crowd, and follows her
(3) Deckard is caught and beaten up by Leon, but saved by Rachael
(4) Deckard goes to buy some liquor
(5) Deckard goes to talk with Bryant in the spinner

The original film sequence being 1,4,5,2,3 of course

Also the "nail through the hand" scene, should be placed after the "head through the bathroom wall" scene, for similar reasons. He gets the nail in the bathroom for one reason

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Make sure you go through ALL the extra disks...there are little gems of stuff hidden everywhere in the special features....
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Originally posted by: LeoneNut
Zombie I really like this idea

I have two suggestions though

Could you reorder the Post-Zhora scenes, so they are in the scripted order (always wanted to see this):
i.e.
(1) Zhora dies
(2) Deckard spots Rachael in the crowd, and follows her
(3) Deckard is caught and beaten up by Leon, but saved by Rachael
(4) Deckard goes to buy some liquor
(5) Deckard goes to talk with Bryant in the spinner

The original film sequence being 1,4,5,2,3 of course

Also the "nail through the hand" scene, should be placed after the "head through the bathroom wall" scene, for similar reasons. He gets the nail in the bathroom for one reason


I hadn't thought of the whole Zhora/Leon thing, but that sounds like a good idea. One problem might be that the alternate edit of the sequence is not cut that way and might be tricky to lift the V.O--but I'll see how it goes.
One thing that this will do is make a very major and obvious continuity error--the number of replicants. Bryant says that including Rachel there is four--but theres only Pris and Batty left. I know some people might say "Deckards the fourth replicant!" but that makes no sense considering the context of that dialog (ie Deckard should be aware of the discrepancy). Did they accidentally film such a giantly obvious mistake like that and then the re-edit of the sequence order ended up correcting everything by accident? This whole thing is hard to make sense of.

As to the whole "dream" thing with the car, thats a pretty good idea actually, but I want to stick to the original intentions of the footage and not get too creative with my own interpretations. I might play around with the two alternate endings and see if I can combine them; I'm inclined to simply use the first one and just leave the second one as a DVD extra simply because I felt that the dialog-based one was the lesser of the two (well, they are both pretty bad, but the lesser of two evils to put it another way).
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To Zombie 84: First of all, this edit sound absolutely terrific. I wish I had to knowledge to do things like this...going through all the documentaries on the boxset and seeing all these alternate stuff, I can only dream of something like this so thanks for all your effort. Of course, being a die-hard fan, here’s my two cents too for what it’s worth;-)

You mention you are going to us the WP music for the Bradbury ending sequence. If you intend to make your edit as different as possible, it is of course ideal to put it in. The way I see it though, is that it is not music intended for Blade Runner and it doesn’t really work here.

Having said that, I do have to admit that I kinda like the alternate ‘tears in rain’ rooftop scene with the alternate narration and the John Williams score from the Workprint. The score that is used in the Bradbury-chase in the WP is however degrading the movie I think.

When watching the WP the other day with a friend of mine (who wasn’t familiar with the WP bootleg and isn’t a BR die-hard), he turned to me midway through the Bradbury chase asking 'what this 3rd rate horror movie music was doing here.' Well, that was rather roughly spoken, but I’m afraid I have to agree with him that is it out of place here.

I don’t know if there is a way to work around this music by keeping the alternate WP scenes in and use Vangelis score of the theatrical version, but I would love to hear your thoughts on this anyway and I look forward to your work….whatever way it turns out!!
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Originally posted by: zombie84

I hadn't thought of the whole Zhora/Leon thing, but that sounds like a good idea. One problem might be that the alternate edit of the sequence is not cut that way and might be tricky to lift the V.O--but I'll see how it goes.
One thing that this will do is make a very major and obvious continuity error--the number of replicants. Bryant says that including Rachel there is four--but theres only Pris and Batty left. I know some people might say "Deckards the fourth replicant!" but that makes no sense considering the context of that dialog (ie Deckard should be aware of the discrepancy). Did they accidentally film such a giantly obvious mistake like that and then the re-edit of the sequence order ended up correcting everything by accident? This whole thing is hard to make sense of.


Yeah they fixed the continuity error in the editing originally, but causes Deckard to have cuts on his face from the Leon encounter during the scene with Bryant. These have been removed digitally for the Final Cut though. It's talked about in the book Future Noir (see below):


Just before he's attacked by Leon, Deckard buys a bottle of Tsing-Tao (a Chinese alcoholic beverage) from a sidewalk bar. For some time, a cut on Ford's right cheekbone is clearly visible. Yet during Deckard's fight with Leon in the alley, this cut disappears (so does the bottle of Tsing-Tao). Moments later, however, both items are visible again!
....
What's the story behind Deckard's on-again, off-again wound? According to BR editor Terry Rawlings, this disappearing cut was a result of a post-production editorial decision. "The way that sequence was originally edited," Rawlings explains "it ran like this:
Deckard kills Zhora. He spots Rachael in the crowd and follows her. Leon pulls him into the alley, where Deckard receives his cut. Then Rachael kills Leon, and Deckard and Rachael walk back to the bar. Deckard buys his bottle of liquor. Gaff and Bryant appear, and they talk while Rachael waits on the other side of the street. Then they leave and Rachael starts walking away. Deckard follows her on the other side of the street.
"Now we decided part of that didn't make sense. Because after Deckard gets his drink and after the other two policemen leave, here he is walking down one side of the street while she's walking down the opposite one. Why wasn't she with him? Gaff and Bryant had left, so she should have come over. After all, she'd just saved Deckard's life.
"So all the reshuffling was done because it seemed more logical for Rachael to save Deckard's life and for Deckard to take her home with him. Ridley and I also felt for Deckard to go back and buy that bottle after Leon's death and to talk to the two policemen and chase after Rachael again really stopped the story. It played a little dull in the original cut, frankly"
...
"Re-editing this scene also saved us an embarrasing continuity error," Rawlings adds. "Because if we'd left Bryant saying there were four more replicants for Deckard to get, after he'd killed Leon, that wouldn't have made sense. Because there would have been only three to go--Batty, Pris and Rachael. I think that 'four to go' line was a hold-over referring to Mary, whose part had already been written out by the time we shot the alley fight. But by having Bryant say 'four to go' before he killed Leon, things made sense again. But none of us caught this error at the time--we were just lucky that we re-edited this scene for the reasons I've already stated."


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LeoneNut: Thanks! I have Future Noir of course but I hadn't realised that the continuity was saved by complete accident. Of course Rawlings is right, the original order is awful and grinds the narrative to a halt.

Barnephiliac: The way I look at it, even though the temp music was never meant to remain in the film, it still represents the wishes and intentions of the filmmakers as a sort of "alternate version" of what was intended to be there, sort of a music equivalent of an animatic for unfinished VFX. I do agree that it seems jarring because the whole film is Vangelis and all of a sudden this comes in--though there is temp music in the love scene as well and alternate source music in the street scenes. I might change my mind when I actually put it all together--removing it isn't too difficult, at least for most of it, and I will be doing picture chopping anyways--but right now I'm inclined to just leave it in.

Anyways, it will be a long while before I even start doing anything since I basically have to rip the entire 5 disks to my drive.

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Thanks for your answer. As said, however the edit turns out, I'm very interested to see it. The idea to make it as different as possible from the exisiting versions is very appealing (to me at least) and I hope it all works out. Thanks for your effort and good luck!

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Wow! This is going to be incredible. Zombie seems to know his stuff when it comes to film, I expect great things. It'll be really cool having an alternative version of the film to watch.

"Every time Warb sighs, an angel falls into a vat of mapel syrup." - Gaffer Tape

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This is some br artwork I made a couple of years back...it's about dvd proportions if anybody wants to use it to create a cover for this cut (I know that's aways off, but here it is anyways....)

http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/7446/brjkartworkvd1.jpg



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I was considering my own EE, but this sounds fantastic. I agree with FF's suggestion of placing the "happy ending" as another dream sequence as opposed to the ending of the film. I've always liked the voiceovers but not the happy ending.
I am fluent in over six million forms of procrastination.
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ADM, i'd really be interested in your new BR project! wasn't BR your first edit? (it is the first i remember, anyways )
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BR was my very first edit, done on VHS. All it was was cutting off the happy ending from the International Cut. Now that we have a lot more to work with, there is much more to be done. Zombie's map sounds so good though that I may as well wait for it. Depending on the ETA, of course. ;-)
I am fluent in over six million forms of procrastination.