Ridley Scott Hints at Plots for Prometheus and Blade Runner Sequels

Ridley Scott, director of classic science fiction heavyweights Alien and Blade Runner, has this week been hinting at possible plot points for the expected sequels to both Blade Runner and Prometheus, the ‘not a prequel’ prequel to Alien, released earlier this year. Scott has also stirred up quite a bit of speculation amongst hardcore Blade Runner fans, as he briefly touched on one of the hottest issues in the sci-fi canon (warning: may contain spoilers!).

Speaking to The Metro newspaper, Scott said of Prometheus:

“…When it comes to the Alien world, no one else had addressed the origin question and I thought that was interesting to tackle. Prometheus evolved into a whole other universe. You’ve got a person (Elizabeth Shaw, played by Noomi Rapace) with a head in a bag (that of morally questionable android David, played by Michael Fassbender) that functions and has an IQ of 350. It can explain to her how to put the head back on the body and she’s gonna think about that long and hard because, once the head is back on his body, he’s dangerous…They’re going off to Paradise, but it could be the most savage, horrible place.”

Knowing Ridley Scott, his version of Paradise is hardly likely to be all rainbows and lollipops. Scott also discussed his decision to shoot Prometheus in 3D, saying “I may as well join the club, you know?” He also talked about the fact that Celluloid film is “disappearing” to be replaced by an entirely digital process, saying “I would never use film again”.

When asked about the rumour that he will be making a Blade Runner sequel, Scott confirmed once and for all:

“It’s not a rumour – it’s happening. With Harrison Ford? I don’t know yet. Is he too old? Well, he was a Nexus-6 so we don’t know how long he can live (laughs). And that’s all I’m going to say at this stage.”

With this cryptic sentence, Scott is either confirming what some sci-fi fans and film theorists have thought for years (that Harrison Ford’s character Deckard was in fact one of the very robots he was tasked with hunting down in Blade Runner), or merely jokingly referring to a well-known cinematic conspiracy theory. If Deckard was a Nexus-6, would we really want it confirmed? After all, not knowing for sure is half the fun…