Ridley Scott's Blade Runner is now widely recognised as a masterwork of science fiction cinema, and one of the most influential of any films released in the last twenty-five years. In Studying Blade Runner, Sean Redmond uses the key concepts of media and film studies-film language, representation, institutions, and audiences-to explore the significance of the film: its breakthrough use of special effects as a narrative tool; the film's revolutionary representation of the future city; its treatment of racial and sexual politics; its unique status as a text whose meaning was fundamentally altered in its rereleased "Director's Cut" form-and what this means in an institutional context.