Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner contains several secret connections to two other sci-fi franchises. At the time it was released in 1986, Scott’s dystopian film noir continued the director’s streak of intriguing world-building within the genre as it followed blade runner Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) hunting down synthetic humanoids known as replicants. While it wasn’t appreciated for being groundbreaking in the same way Scott’s Alien was, it was connected to the director’s 1979 opus that changed the sci-fi and horror genres.
Along with sharing connections to Alien, Blade Runner was also connected to a film released over a decade later called Soldier. Released in 1998 and directed by Paul W. S. Anderson, it starred Kurt Russell as a genetically altered super soldier abandoned on an inhospitable planet and forced to survive before his younger and more relentless replacement arrives to finish him off. Written by David Peoples, who co-wrote Blade Runner, it didn’t just feature Easter eggs and references but more direct tie-ins that place it, along with Alien, into the same universe.
How Blade Runner Is Connected To 1998’s Soldier
Soldier takes place in 2036, 15 years after the events of Blade Runner, yet Todd’s combat record lists the “Shoulder of Orion” battle that is mentioned after Roy Batty saves Deckard. Given that Batty only has a 6-year life span, the battle would have happened in 2015 or so, when Todd was around 20 years old and in peak fighting condition to test the ruthlessness of the military training program he entered as an orphan in 1996. It’s possible that Tyrell Corporation was endeavoring to see whether combat replicants like Batty were superior to genetically modified soldiers like Todd.
It’s telling that both Batty and Todd are abandoned by their creators when they’ve outlived their usefulness. When Todd is made irrelevant with the creation of a superior model of soldier, he’s sent to an inhospitable planet to die, and while encountering a colony of refugee citizens, a defunct Blade Runner spinner, one of the coolest flying cars in sci-fi movies, can be seen nearby. Just like Batty, Todd has to learn how to be human when all he’s known is following a strict military program devoid of empathy or compassion.
Blade Runner & Alien Are In The Same Universe
Alien and Blade Runner’s shared universe was confirmed in the ’90s as far as fans of the Alien vs Predator comics are concerned, but there are more concrete cinematic signs in the movies themselves. Blade Runner begins with Officer Gaff getting into his spinner and starting the engines while a blue screen turns into a red “purge” screen, just like the one seen when Lt. Ripley gets into the escape pod at the end of Alien. Blade Runner is set in 2019 and Alien takes place in 2122, indicating that the In-Universe explanation for this connection is the Nostromo’s advanced technological age.
One of the most evident examples of their interconnection can be found in the ship’s dossier, accessible as an extra feature on the 20th anniversary Alien DVD from 1999, which includes the files of all the crew, and mentions Dallas performing duties for the Tyrell Corporation. It’s tempting to dismiss this as an Easter egg without contemplating the core ways the two largest megacorps in the films share similarities. It makes sense that Tyrell Corporation, involved with the evolution of technology and genetics, would still be active in the same universe (and partner) with Weyland Yutani Corporation, which specializes in ship manufacturing and synthetic life forms.
How Canon Soldier & Alien Really Are In Blade Runner’s Universe
Given the fact that both Weyland Yutani has a bioweapons division, the fact that Tyrell Corporation made combat models of its synthetics, and the fact that both specialize in the advancement of technology and genetic mutation, it’s not difficult to see how Soldier and Alien fit into Blade Runner’s universe from a narrative point of view. Weyland Yutani had several industrial clients, perhaps even Tyrell Corp, and combat replicants like Roy Batty could have been created to fight in battles like the Shoulder of Orion alongside genetically modified soldiers like Todd who, in Soldier, is proficient with the Colonial marines smartgun seen in Aliens.
Both Ridley Scott and Paul W. S. Anderson chose to tackle concepts of artificial intelligence and how its advancement will affect what it means to be human. The universe they share are gritty, compassionless places that highlight the dangers of creation, as well as the impunity of huge companies like Weyland Yutani and Tyrell Corporation that conflate the advancements of the industrial complex with the progress of humankind. It’s appropriate then that Blade Runner, released between Alien and Soldier, acts as both a connective tether and an indication of the callousness of humanity’s future when empathy is sacrificed for profit.
