to the mind of the book's author, Philip K. Dick, the real question was whether Rachel was really a human who lacked empathy, not whether Deckard was an android

It's worth noting that Decard wants the bounty money to buy the real live sheep he has always dreamed of owning (which explains the title of the book).

You get a like just for saying Deckard isn't a Replicant just because Ridley says so, good sir.

You know what's one thing that stuck out to me about this comparison? The movie is much more black and white than the book. Don't get me wrong, the film is far from simplistic, but it's more focused on the question of what makes someone "human" and tries to put the viewer in an almost dream-like state of questioning reality. Kind of like the Voight-Kampff test itself. It's kind of the grandfather to Inception that way. Nevertheless, the replicants are depicted as being tragic monsters at worse and retiring them is meant to be viewed as unambiguously wrong unless they are directly attacking you. (Even then, that's more out of self-defense.) Whereas in the book, humans and Andies both seem to have a kind of saving grace and damning vice. The humans are now societally much more peaceful and gentle to their neighboring life forms, but the religion emphasizes that LIFE is precious and anything imitating life is a perversion or simply worthless by comparison. So the andies are ostracized by a society that, otherwise, is quite harmonious. On the flip side, the andies are indeed a persecuted sub-species that simply want their freedom and not to be owned or hunted. Which is understandable and sympathetic. However, they are, by their nature, complete sociopaths that are incapable of empathy as illustrated by the mutilation of a spider. (Something that, as established before, a human being in this world would consider a heinous and unforgivable act. Hell I think that's pretty fucked up just as a present day animal lover.) Overall, good comparison The Dom and it definitely illustrated that both versions are complex works on their own. Neither could be called an unintelligent piece but they do say different things.

Vangelis, that's the name of the Greek movie score composer of Bladerunner. Fun Fact: He is also the one who did the iconic movie song, Chariots of Fire.

I like what Dom said at the end: "Most directors want to inherit the fan base of a book to boost box office sales but don't want to be held accountable for creating a faithful adaptation." So true. I think the same extends to remakes, re-imaginings and reboots. If we just remember that these studios are just trying to financially strip mine preexisting fans maybe we'd stop being fooled by them or feel like our childhood was raped.

PKD had some extraordinary experiences. I read where: He was home listening to the Beatles (Strawberry Fields) and a voice said to him, "Your son's life is in danger. The hydroseal has popped in his scrotum, and if you don't take him to the hospital now, he'll die." He listened to the voice. His son lived. Fascinating.

10:27 Wait, you're saying I can literally inject determination into things? Does it work on flowers?

Blade runner probably holds up better than most because it wasn't trying to be a faithful adaptation. It stands on it's own merits, which must have made it pretty fun to compare against the book.

"Apparently, comparing Ridley Scott to Micheal Bay can bring about the apocalypse." Not just that, but apparently it's the Drakengard Ending C _Dragon_ apocalypse. Who knew?

That's weird, the Rose company becoming the Tyrell company when in Game of Thrones the Tyrell's symbol is a rose 👀

Isodore didn't have healing powers taken away by the government. That was Mercer, the messiah of the new religion. Isodore was a chickenhead, a human so mutated that he wasn't allowed to "start a new life in the off-world colonies" for fear of infecting the healthy population with his degenerate genes. Therefore he was forced to be left behind on a empty Earth slowly dying from the after-effects of world war whatever and people leaving the scarred planet behind for less irradiated planets, hence living in an abandoned appartment building

"Most directors want to inherit the fan base of a book to boost box office sales but don't want to be held accountable for creating a faithful adaptation" *AHEM! Death note...*

That Make-A-Drug thing would result in Rapture from Bioshock.

As someone who has read the book and watched the movie I say both works compliment each other without trying to step on each others toes. Dicks writing is still ahead of its time while Ridleys film laid the ground work for sci fi visuals to follow. If only Cyberpunk 2077 can be released already!

Using a different name for the movie was definitely the right choice. Someone who had read the book wouldn't expect the movie to be an adaptation and judge it by that standard. In contrast, I was excited to see the "Starship Troopers" movie because I had read the book. I was very disappointed with the major changes, including complete lack of powered armor. I probably could have enjoyed the movie if it had been called anything else. BTW, I recently listened to the audio book of "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep." I enjoyed it, but was very annoyed that the publisher gave it the name "Blade Runner," despite the phrase never appearing in the story.

more people should watch theses, i dont think there are many people doing videos of Book vs movie like this. sure there are written stuff, but ah its different

I admit, I was a bit skeptical seeing this come up in my feed, and possibly still am. I believe this film even opes with "Inspired By" instead of "based on" which is an important distinction to make. It was also something that impressed me, as films are often touting based on when they are literally in name only. I hadn't thought of director's doing this for a hijacked boosted fanbase, but that isn't a bad theory.

I'm watching on a Mac and my heart still froze when I saw the Blue Screen of Death.

Fun fact: a lot of the extra elements from the book like everyone's desire to own an animal (and the market for artificial animals that creates) and the radioactive fallout from the war and even the kipple are included in Westwood's 90s adventure game based on the movie... though mostly in passing reference only.

Wow, how the heck did I miss this one? It's like finding an extra christmas present... five years later. ^_^

That's a pretty good ratio of people of who read the book and saw the film. Don't think I remember it being that close before.

Back in high school I convinced my English teacher to add sci-fi to the list of acceptable genres for an essay assignment just so I could do mine on this book. Dick's works were definitely different than what I'd ever seen before, but I liked Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep for its look at humans and empathy. I actually think I give more of a shit about the book characters than the movie to be honest (especially Isidore and the real cat at the end :O ), but then again I'm not really one for 80's films.

One I've been wanting you to do for some time. =) Phillip K. Dick is my favourite classic sci-fi author, and admittedly the first time I saw this movie... I hated it. I felt bad becuase my wife had talked about it for EONS (It's her favourite movie) and my reaction was more or less "Dafuq did they do to the book? It looked nice and I want the soundtrack... but seriously WTF.." but I found myself compelled to see it again and it rather grew on me. I feel that, in the end, it is a great movie. There's no denying it's well made and well acted, not to mention ambitious as hell. But I still feel that Dick has rarely been done justice on screen. Minority Report got it... fairly right, some frustrating changes not withstanding and A Scanner Darkly was actually relatively accurate.

They might have changed it to "Tyrell" to avoid the potential for an anti-Semitic reading...

Thank you very much, Mr The Dom. Because of you, I not only bought the book you reviewed in this video, but also started hunting books that might be good to read. I thank you again for all these videos you have done (my wallet on the other hand does not :D ). I have found a new interesting world.

00:00 I've seen things, I've seen them with my eyes, I've seen things, they're often in disguise.

Sir, those 7 first words, those first 44 characters , with the music ,gave me goosebumps. Thanks for that

Another great video, The Dom! I really liked your point about how Scott didn't try to inherit the fan base with his unfaithful adaptation, and I think that's exactly why movies like Golden Compass, Percy Jackson, and ESPECIALLY The Last Airbender were so despised. Speaking of which, is there any chance of you doing a LiA for that last one? I know it was a TV show and not a book but it could still work.

This was Ridley Scott's vision, and had an ascetic influence like very few films. The future is not new, but old,dark and rainy. It is the film that created technoir.

The whole mood drug thing is actually a very big plot thread in the syfy miniseries Alice

Well, that was your best opening yet. Also, good review, convinced me to track down the novel, and I am now seriously considering Mercerism.

You know, it would‘ve been funny if Blade runner got the „In name only“ clause, seeing it doesn‘t even share the name.

Only recently read the book, but I absolutely loved it. And you weren't kidding about the spider scene. I thought I was starting to see the side of the Andies and voice my concern for their lack of rights and then...yeah, empathy is kinda necessary after all. Kinda scary though, to think that people with mental illnesses could just as easily be ousted and killed for having similar thought patterns to Andies. When you get around to "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale" it should be a pretty short episode considering the length of the story. And also perhaps the first instance where the movie has more added in than taken out.

I have never seen / read this, but have heard a lot of critique. I think yours is very comprehensive. Well done.

in the novel it set san francisco in the year 1992 then later editions in the year 2021. in the film it set in los angeles in the year 2019.

My dad was a huge fan of the film, and hearing that Vangelis soundtrack was like a time machine transporting me back to about 1988

I like how by distancing Blade Runner from the book means you can enjoy both without being critical on what was changed. Sadly the book doesn't feature a soundtrack by Vangelis. Have you considered doing 2001: A Space Odyssey?

When it comes to this film, I really enjoyed the performance of Rutdger Hauer (Whose name I still misspell more often than not and likely did so here) especially, even over others, although I think this movie had a great cast who gave it their all from what I remember. I've only seen the film once, but it was Hauer's portrayal of his character and his believability during his monologue towards the end. I get the feeling that his character isn't truly a villain, only labeled as one. Whether it's accurate or not for me to say so, I like to think that it was the society he found himself in that drove him into an antagonistic role as to how he would go about achieving his own ends. Sure, he wasn't spotless, but I think it's fair to say that his goal, that being a desire to live more than just a few years after all of his suffering and turmoil that he experienced at the hands of his creators. The ends don't always justify the means, but I like to look at it this way: If you were living on borrowed time in a world where you have been kicked around and abused, spit upon, and just all around treated as less than even a beast of burden with no real value, wouldn't you want to be the master of your own fate? Is there anything wrong with wanting to have the right to live? I don't excuse how his character would use others for his purposes, but I can understand why he did it. If there is one thing I can appreciate about Hauer's character even though I only saw the movie once and I have yet to read the book, it's that he really seemed to have an appreciation for life, maybe even more so than some of the regular humans in the film did. I like to think he probably saw life as a beautiful thing to be cherished, even in the wake of the society that cast him down from day one. You could argue that perhaps he more so feared for his life and was frightened of mortality, and maybe that's true. Something about his final monologue indicated sorrow and yet also the aforementioned appreciation for the life he fought to extend more so than fear of dying to my mind anyway. In my opinion, I feel that Decker and Hauer's character (I can't remember his character's actual name sadly) are in some ways parallels of one another, and not just by way of one being a naturally-born human and the other a Replicant. Decker is feeling depressed, he drinks heavily, and he lacks motivation to do much in the film. Also he doesn't seem to be in his physical prime, quite possibly to his life choices. (i.e. the drinking) He probably has succumb at least somewhat to the harshness of his environment. At this point, he seems to be in a low place and probably didn't see a way out, settling for simply continuing to exist and ride it out so to speak. Then there is Hauer. He has spent so long being used as a forced laborer because he was viewed as a tool to be used until it is broken, only to be replaced shortly thereafter with no thought to it otherwise. Despite that as well as his short lifespan and the precious little time he has left, he is vastly physically superior to many humans, and performs in peak condition, as well as being fiercely intelligent, even showing clear signs of possessing a healthy amount of guile from time to time. In the end, he has hopes for a better, longer, and more prosperous future, choosing to see life as something to be valued and held close to one's heart, metaphorically speaking. In the end, his goal was noble, but his methods were far less so, and I think that by the end, even he knew that.

So when I read this book the mood organ, I read that as an actual organ type of devise that uses frequencies to adjust your mood. Maybe I imagined that... but I don't think it was a pill dispenser. When he dials for the both of them, I think he used a remote to adjust the devise. ALSO Mercer comes up in the other books as like a weird hive mind parasitic coding that takes of ones consciousness.

It's good to see The Dom in my sub box

I got to check the book out now sounds like a good read

That machine that programs the moods of people could be seen as showing how humans have become far more machine like. They can be re-written and coded to do things, while the machines wish to have free will.

So the whole power to bring animals back from the dead was when he was merged with Mercer while holding the empathy box, he was reliving Mercer’s “life”

I absolutely love the original book. I'm not sure it's truly adaptable since the part about Mercerism and it's VR 'bible' being pretty central to the plot. It felt a lot more complex than the movie and talked a lot about the nature of empathy and cruelty. It was interesting how a culture technically centered around empathy could be cruel and how a being without empathy could still deserve to live. As an autistic person and person who works with children with disabilities, I feel we need to see more that a sentient being can be upsettingly alien to some in its values and manner can still deserve to live and be treated with respect and dignity. In the book, you could actually tell *why* the government would be afraid of rogue andies. But I also read the book first.

I don't know why, but the opening monologue seemed really epic.

+The Dom for a 50th or 100 episode special, you should review Gone with the Wind or to kill a mocking bird

I read the book and I've seen the movie - here's the thing. I can't for the life of me remember half the stuff in the book, but I remember all the different cuts of the film. That movie is memorable, even the changes are memorable. The book... yeah, it's gone from my head completely.

Do I have to do another brony costume sacrifice for the Last Unicorn review? While we're on the subject, what do I have to do for you to review The Howling?

I first saw Blade Runner when I was about eighteen years old, then read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep a couple of years later when I was in college. Strangely, reading the novel was my first really big step out of my fucked up fundamentalist upbringing.

I'm so used to the newer, more soothing delivery of the newer episodes that going back to the more enthusiastic and energetic deliver of the older videos is both endearing and jarring

Huh, well that's neat that Ridley Scott did his own thing with an adaptation but was entirely up-front about it and also made a really good story, wish that'd happen more often. Not sure if I'll try the book now, but I really should re-watch the film sometime...

Any chance of you doing A Clockwork Orange?

i read the book first, the movie adaptations bring it to life. its the harrison ford character realising he is also a replicant. i'm watching again on a wet cold bank holiday monday

Your comparison left out one of most striking aspects of the movie: the homage to film noir.

You should also at least mention William S. Burroughs' 1979 book "Blade Runner (a movie)", for the title (which makes no sense for the film). In Burroughs' book, because of institutionalized healthcare, doctors are restricted in performing their profession, and if they are caught with tools of their trade they are prosecuted. So they have "blade runners" who carry their scalpels and other medical instruments for them.

Both are classics for different reasons, and I respect that

I just power read Alex Garland's "THE BEACH" on a plane home from jersey. walked in my front door, set my bag down and Netflix-ed the film with Tilda and Leo. This is a must do! book film combo. the book and film both have their own interesting merits and faults, as well as being a quick read and relatively short/watchable film. Love to see you do this one.

I laughed at the screaming goat joke way to hard lol

Yes! DADOES is my all time favourite book. A lot of the technology is vaguely described at best but I don't recall any implication that the mood organ dispensed pills. They just said they would dial it to such n such to feel whatever emotion until a certain time like Iran feeling newfound hope after setting it to depression for several hours. I always assumed it was some kind of brain implant so one could set a schedule then go about their day. It's all part of the general irony that empathy is a religion and they see the androids as lesser beings for not being able to feel it but the humans don't really display it to each other either, except for J.R. Isadore who is also treated like a second class citizen for being mildly brain damaged from radiation poisoning so treats people, animals and androids with equal care.

7:21 If by "Ridley Scott creativity" you mean "he happened to see AKIRA one day and decided to throw this into the movie", then yes, that is "creative".

I liked this movie but what always made me chuckle was the elaborate test to deduct if someone was an android. This is all nice and dandy except for the fact that the android eyes seem to be glowing in a creepy way that human eyes don't. So, Deckerd would just need to check if the eyes are glowing. If so, congratulations, you found an android!

An ex-boyfriend of mine actually had a university class that was largely about book-to-movie adaptations. However, he didn't want to read the books, so he'd just ask me about them. I really wish your show had been around then. It would have saved me a lot of time.

watching this again in the hype of Blade Runner 2049. You know, that movie is good and all, but I actually think that it'd be cool if someone made an adaptation of Dick's novel extremely close to the text

wow 7 cuts. imagine if they did a delux box set which included all the different versions, plus the makings they still have (maybe some extra commentarys for the versions that dnt have exsisting ones, even if they are just spot the difference), plus maybe a digital copy of the original book. would be amazing, bet would sell to.

One of my all time favorite books and movies, even if they're worlds apart.

Apparently Ridley Scott never finished reading "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" and Philip K. Dick never bothered to see "Blade Runner". Makes sense.

Also, in the book it's Toads that are holiest and not Owls. There's a bit of weird symbolism where he thinks he's found one and it gives him a real boost in faith and confidence but by the time it's pointed out he's just got a really good replicant he's already questioning reality. Like I say, weird symbolism.

Loved the book, loved the movie. Nailed it.

I'm really, really loving these videos. This is my favorite movie, and the book is one of my favorites, too. This is a really fantastic comparison of the two, and the videos in general seem to be getting better and better! Thank you so much for making this series!

Your LIA series just gets better and better. I share them with people that were either soured by the film or the book. I can tell at some point you may end up pissing off some peoples cherished memories, just stay honest and keep telling it like it is. Cheers.

Another great episode Dom. I especially liked what you had to say at the end regarding Ridley admitting he was only basing the story he wished to tell off the book. Hmm, you know who else does that? Fanfiction writers. So, does that make Blade Runner a fanfiction? Oh dear, I do believe it does. In any case, keep up the good work and remember: Stephan King, IT.

4:30 My professor in my science fiction literature class told me that the reason for changing the company's name from Rosen to Tyrell was to avoid antisematic criticism.

Got to agree about the soundtrack. Superb.

You are one of my favourite KZfaqrs I cant wait til you have a massive collection of vids like teh Nostalgia Critic and I can watch them all the time

One thing left out... Blade Runner snagged the legal rights to use a title from a completely unrelated book. The original blade runners were smugglers of medical supplies to illegal street medics. I will be forever salty that Blade Runner (a movie) by William Burroughs didn't get a movie, and the title got stuck on something else.

As a Canadian, the thought of having a Deity called Mercer is especially funny and scary. That's a Ric move Dick.

This movie is one of my absolute favorites. It got me to read sci-fi that wasn't Azimov or Niven. But, I don't remember about half the stuff you mention being not in the movie. Actually wondering if my copy was abridged. So, I'm getting a new copy and rereading it. Still going to put Vangelis on my headphones when reading though.

YES, I love both these things! Thanks, Dom!

I can hardly wait till you get around to doing some other PKD-based movies.

Loved the book. Loved the movie. Didnt mind at all the changes they made. Theyre both cool.

Great job, Dom! looking forward to many more!

awesome coat! Looking forward to Total Recall and Minority Report!

do you know what these chinese characters behind you mean in your intro? 蟲草 (冬虫夏草) Fungi zombiefied larvae. LOL, kinda appropriate. Wonder if you chose them intentionally. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophiocordyceps_sinensis

Roy killing Sebastien also kills the movie. Like why should I care about Roy and his pretentious speech about tears in the rain. What about Sebastien's tears in the rain?......you know the innocent man you manipulated then killed out of spite.

great video as usual, I must say I prefer the book by a bit though, it's just more my thing I guess

I read the abbreviated novel before watching the movie. And I agree that the novel contain too many ideas and surrealism make it confusing at times.

Now I really wanna see you do "The Adjustment Bureau"! as yet another adapt loosely-based on Dick's "Adjustment Team"

Hey Dom, can you do a video on the book, and film, Holes. I love the film but i havent read the book.

I thought that the ability to resurrect animals described through Isidore's perspective was part of the lore of Wilbur Mercer...

I literally had to finish watching and reading this for a class and your video helped me to do so ❤️. Great jokes xD

Apparently, a good number of people actually read the book! That’s amazing!

You have to wonder if Denis Villeneuve will recycle some of Dick's ideas from the novel for the sequel. Dechard out in the wilderness goes mad and adheres to Mercerism... That would be fascinating.

Hey Dom! I think you should pull the Total Recall episode next! We need a break from the fantasies.

Fantastic work Dom! Another quality video from you. It's well edited, superbly written, thoroughly researched, and very entertaining. I'm positive we will see you climb to the top of popularity at Channel Awesome due to all this quality and effort and love put into all your videos. Keep up the great videos. Also, the channel could use some new series, just to spice things up every now and again, maybe some more stuff on videogames? Not just reviews on them, the great thing about this series is that it is more than just a review, and brings new ideas to the table, which always makes it more interesting to watch. No pressure though, loving the series, keep it up.

The movie and book started my love for the 80's in their music, alternative fashion, the dark and punk movement. The movie is absolutely crazy violent, but it has some kind of magic... Also, the worst scene is when Rachel yeets his new goat off a building, imagine that... And second that with him bonking Rachel in the book

When I read it I thought the novel was about humans being less human than androids, and the emotion drugs were there to emphasize how we program ourselves.

Been waiting a long time for this one. It didn't disappoint. Cap doffed, Dom.

I struggle so much to understand whats going on in Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep and why. Half-way through I thought you explanations were going to make it finally clear to me at last - and then we got to the end and the story was just as random, disjointed and confusing as it always is when I try and read it. Don't take that as a diss, I only mean that I temporarily believed you may have superhuman powers of explanation then to discover that you're also merely mortal. Maybe one day I'll dream I understand the book

There's second book that wasn't written by Philip K. Dick. I only read it once but what I remember is it was mostly a sequel to the movie and less the book.