Spinner is the generic term for the fictional flying cars used in the film Blade Runner . A Spinner can be driven as a ground-based vehicle, take off vertically, hover, and cruise using jet propulsion much like the Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) aircraft currently in use today. They are used extensively by the police to patrol and survey the population, and it is clear that despite restrictions wealthy people can acquire spinner licenses. The vehicle was conceived and designed by Syd Mead and has been "replicated" in subsequent films such as Back to the Future Part II , The Fifth Element , and the Star Wars prequel trilogy. These films have the popular vision of flying cars, and people use spinners like traditional cars; in Blade Runner, the flying cars substitute for helicopters and very light jets.
Designer Mead has described the spinner as an aerodyne – a vehicle which directs air downward to create lift, though press kits for the film stated that the spinner was propelled by three engines: "conventional internal combustion, jet and anti-gravity".
A Spinner is currently on permanent exhibit at the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame in Seattle, WA. [1]
Blade Runner is a 1982 science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott from a screenplay by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples. Starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, and Edward James Olmos, it is an adaptation of Philip K. Dick's 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? The film is set in a dystopian future Los Angeles of 2019, in which synthetic humans known as replicants are bio-engineered by the powerful Tyrell Corporation to work on space colonies. When a fugitive group of advanced replicants led by Roy Batty (Hauer) escapes back to Earth, burnt-out cop Rick Deckard (Ford) reluctantly agrees to hunt them down.
Blade Runner 3: Replicant Night is a science fiction novel by an American writer K. W. Jeter, first published in 1996. It is a continuation of Jeter's novel Blade Runner 2: The Edge of Human, which was itself a sequel to both the film Blade Runner and the novel upon which the film was based, Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Blade Runner 2: The Edge of Human (1995) is a science fiction novel by American writer K. W. Jeter. It is a continuation of both the film Blade Runner and the novel upon which the film was based, Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
A flying car or roadable aircraft is a type of vehicle which can function both as a road vehicle and as an aircraft. As used here, this includes vehicles which drive as motorcycles when on the road. The term "flying car" is also sometimes used to include hovercars and/or VTOL personal air vehicles. Many prototypes have been built since the early 20th century, using a variety of flight technologies. Most have been designed to take off and land conventionally using a runway. Although VTOL projects are increasing, none has yet been built in more than a handful of numbers.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is a 1968 dystopian science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick. It is set in a post-apocalyptic San Francisco, where Earth's life has been greatly damaged by a nuclear global war, leaving most animal species endangered or extinct. The main plot follows Rick Deckard, a bounty hunter who has to "retire" six escaped Nexus-6 model androids, while a secondary plot follows John Isidore, a man of sub-par IQ who aids the fugitive androids.
A replicant is a fictional bioengineered humanoid featured in the 1982 film Blade Runner and the 2017 sequel Blade Runner 2049 which is physically indistinguishable from an adult human and often possesses superhuman strength and intelligence. A replicant can be detected by means of the fictional Voight-Kampff test in which emotional responses are provoked; a replicant's nonverbal responses differ from those of a human. Failing the test leads to execution, which is euphemistically referred to as "retiring".
Blade Runner is a point-and-click adventure game developed by Westwood Studios and published by Virgin Interactive for Microsoft Windows, released in November 1997. The game is not a direct adaptation of the 1982 Ridley Scott film Blade Runner but is instead a "sidequel", telling an original story, which runs parallel to the film's plot, occasionally intersecting with it.
Sydney Jay Mead was an American industrial designer and neo-futurist concept artist. He made designs for science-fiction films such as Blade Runner, Aliens and Tron. Mead has been described as "the artist who illustrates the future" and "one of the most influential concept artists and industrial designers of our time."
The Batmobile is the car driven by the superhero Batman. Housed in the Batcave, which it accesses through a hidden entrance, the Batmobile is both a heavily armored tactical assault vehicle and a personalized custom-built pursuit and capture vehicle that is used by Batman in his fight against crime. Using the latest civilian performance technology, coupled with prototype military-grade hardware—most of which was developed by Wayne Enterprises—Batman creates an imposing hybrid monster car to prowl the streets of Gotham City.
The Ecto-1 is a fictional vehicle from the Ghostbusters franchise. It appears in the films Ghostbusters (1984), Ghostbusters II (1989), Ghostbusters (2016), Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021), Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024), in the animated television series: The Real Ghostbusters and Extreme Ghostbusters, and in the video games Ghostbusters: The Video Game and Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed.
A hover car is a personal vehicle that flies at a constant altitude of up to a few meters (yards) above the ground and used for personal transportation in the same way a modern automobile is employed. The concept usually appears in science fiction.
Despite the initial appearance of an action film, Blade Runner operates on an unusually rich number of dramatic levels. As with much of the cyberpunk genre, it owes a large debt to film noir, containing and exploring such conventions as the femme fatale, a Chandleresque first-person narration in the Theatrical Version, the questionable moral outlook of the hero—extended here to include even the literal humanity of the hero, as well as the usual dark and shadowy cinematography.
"Tears in rain" is a 42-word monologue, consisting of the last words of character Roy Batty in the 1982 Ridley Scott film Blade Runner. Written by David Peoples and altered by Hauer, the monologue is frequently quoted. Critic Mark Rowlands described it as "perhaps the most moving death soliloquy in cinematic history", and it is commonly viewed as the defining moment of Hauer's acting career.
Rick Deckard is a fictional character and the protagonist of Philip K. Dick's 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. Harrison Ford portrayed the character in the 1982 film adaptation, Blade Runner, and reprised his role in the 2017 sequel, Blade Runner 2049. James Purefoy voiced the character in the 2014 BBC Radio 4 adaptation.
Blade Runner is a 1982 science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott.
A hoverbike is a vehicle that can hover, resembling a flying motorbike, having at least two propulsive portions—one in front of and one behind the driver. It is often used as a staple vehicle in science fiction and near future settings, but since the early 2010s some attempts have been made at developing a functional, practical hoverbike.
Blade Runner is a 1985 shoot 'em up game loosely inspired by the 1982 film Blade Runner. The game was published in 1985 by CRL Group PLC for Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, and Amstrad CPC. Reviews of the game were mostly negative.
Blade Runner 2049 is a 2017 American epic neo-noir science fiction film directed by Denis Villeneuve from a screenplay by Hampton Fancher and Michael Green, based on a story by Fancher. A sequel to Blade Runner (1982), the film stars Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford, with Ana de Armas, Sylvia Hoeks, Robin Wright, Mackenzie Davis, Dave Bautista, and Jared Leto in supporting roles. Ford and Edward James Olmos reprise their roles from the previous film as Rick Deckard and Gaff, respectively. Gosling plays K, a "blade runner" who uncovers a secret that threatens to destabilize society and the course of civilization.
Blade Runner is an American science fiction media franchise originating from the 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick, about the character of Rick Deckard. The book has been adapted into several media, including films, comics, a stage play, and a radio serial. The first film adaptation was Blade Runner, directed by Ridley Scott in 1982. Although the film initially underperformed at the American box office, it became a cult classic, and has had a significant influence on science fiction. A novelization and a comic adaptation of the film were released in the same year. From 1995 to 2000, three novels serving as sequels to both Blade Runner and the original novel were written by K. W. Jeter, a friend of Dick's. A film sequel to Blade Runner, Blade Runner 2049, was released in 2017. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Blade Runner in 2012, a short film was released, and in the lead up to the release of Blade Runner 2049, several more short films detailing events that occurred between 2019 and 2049 were released. The influence of the franchise has helped spawn the cyberpunk genre.