Blade Runner uses several postmodern elements in its portrayal of a dystopian future Los Angeles in 2019. It employs hyperreality through realistic shots of the city blended with futuristic elements. Consumerism is prominent, as real advertisements like Coca-Cola are shown on skyscrapers, blurring the line between reality and media. The film also explores simulacra through the replicants, which are virtually indistinguishable copies of humans. Additionally, Blade Runner imitates what the director thought LA might become through pastiche. The film exhibits temporal distortion by mixing historical references from different eras that do not logically fit together.

1. Blade runner – Ridley Scott
Postmodern elements

3. Hyperreality
• Blade runner is a great example of hyper reality. This can be
seen in the opening scene where the recognisable city of LA is
shown. Futuristic elements i.e. space crafts and explosions.
These shots of the city create a reality we can easily believe.

4. Consumerism
• Jameson states that there is not clear distinction
between what is real and what is not in the
media. In blade runner, this boundary is blurred,
through the use of real advertisements i.e. coco
cola being advertised on the skyscrapers. This
highlights the fact the world today is so revolved
around advertisements in the media and also
shows that this is potentially down to
consumerism which encourages the purchase of
goods on a large scale i.e. through films, telly,
magazines, music videos etc.

5. Simulacra
• The ‘replicants’ are a perfect example of
simulacra. They are in fact ‘a copy of a copy’
i.e. they are copies of humans. The film is
revolved around killing the replicants and how
hard it is to tell whether they are infact a
replicant or a human.

6. Pastiche
• Blade runner imitates the city of LA in
American and what they feel it may be like in
2019.

7. Temporal distortion
• This is when there are many historical and
cultural references that do not fit. For example
there is a futuristic set, with people dressed in
clothes from the 1940s who have punk rock
hair styles.
• This is also shown through the mix of
languages spoken in the film, for example
English, German, Japanese and Spanish.