The Blade Runner script went through years of creation and recreation. Hampton Fancher wrote the first draft in 1978. It was 1980 by the time Ridley Scott was signed up to the picture and he wanted a different flavour to the film. Some hard work later and Fancher got to the point where he said no more changes. Scott promptly hired David Peoples to make further changes, (though Peoples thought the script was already great). Still, changes were made as the filming deadline rapidly approached.

During filming, more changes were made, because of budget constraints, because of normal filming changes (when you get on set and actually do it, there often have to be adjustments). Then there are directorial changes and suggestions from actors, etc. etc. A few script changes had to be made by a writer and Peoples was no longer available, so Fancher came back to do those.

In the Original Version, a voice-over was pushed on the film and that was written by Roland Kibbee. I will not comment further on that.

The two commonly available scripts are as at 24th July 1980 (by Fancher) and as at 23rd February 1981 (the Fancher and Peoples version). It is fascinating to read through and see the considerable changes the script went through in these 8 months.

Both of these are available now for download.

To download to your own computer, right click on the link and choose "Save Link As..." or "Save Target As..." choosing the location you wish to save the file.

Blade Runner Script - 1980

Blade Runner Script - 1981

Of course that is not the end of the story. The final shooting script was put together from several of the preceding versions of the sceenplay and then was changed during filming itself. There have been several attempts at a reverse-engineered script, but even the best of them are lacking. So I have created my own, which I guarantee is the most accurate available. And what is more, it is the Multi-Script - it contains dialogue and main actions from the three main versions of the film, WP, OV and DC. It is available in either Word or Text format:

Multi-Script by Netrunner - Word

Multi-Script by Netrunner - Text

Added February 2004 - the Blade Runner story, completely transcribed in e-book form and fully illustrated with quality stills from the DVD. This is the wonderful work of Michael D. Radencich who has done "a man's job" on it!

This is a fan creation for other BR fans and is not intended for sale. It is in pdf format and is offered for free download from BRmovie.com only. The usual overriding copyright considerations are in effect, i.e. that all ownership rights to Blade Runner are Copyright © 1982, 1991 by the Blade Runner Partnership and/or The Ladd Company and Warner Bros. where applicable and no infringement is intended. All original design and creation work on this project is Copyright © 2004 Michael D. Radencich and the files may not be published elsewhere in any medium or format without his permission.

Blade Runner Transcription: