In 1982, Ridley Scott’s tech-noir classic Blade Runner was met with skeptical audiences and empty theaters, thanks in part to a series of slapdash changes made after low test screening scores panicked the studio. But now alternative versions of the movie — more in line with the director’s original vision — are widely available to curious viewers. As a result, the film’s popularity has risen steadily over the years, along with a lot of burning questions. Blade Runner depicts a near future in which androids — known as replicants — are so advanced that they’re virtually indistinguishable from the real thing. And most of the debate surrounding the film centers on whether its hero Rick Deckard, played by Harrison Ford, is a human or a replicant. Let’s try to make some sense of it all…

[Looper]