Ridley Scott's Blade Runner Was Taken Away and Reassembled Twice

Ridley Scott was not in the editing room when the 1982 theatrical version of Blade Runner was finalized. He had moved on to a project in London, and the studio, the Ladd Company distributing through Warner Bros., made two significant changes without his approval: they added a hard-boiled voice-over narration delivered by Harrison Ford, and they replaced the film's final scene with stock helicopter footage from the opening of The Shining — unused material that Stanley Kubrick had given to Warners — to suggest a happy ending with open sky.

Ford recorded the narration under protest. In interviews given for decades afterward, he described it as the worst narration he had ever performed, delivered badly on purpose to signal his displeasure.

The film performed modestly at the box office in 1982 and then became a cult object on cable and home video. In 1990, a workprint — an unfinished version closer to Scott's cut, with no narration and no happy ending — was shown at science fiction conventions in San Jose and Los Angeles. The audience response was strong enough that Warner Bros. agreed to a restoration. In 1992, the Director's Cut was released theatrically: no narration, no helicopter ending, and the addition of a unicorn dream sequence that made Harrison Ford's character possibly a replicant.

Scott was still not fully satisfied. In 2007, he oversaw a comprehensive restoration from original camera negatives for the 25th anniversary. He called this version the Final Cut — the only version over which he had complete control. Seven distinct versions of the film now exist in archival record.