Final Fantasy and Blade Runner

[Mr. Gorilla]

Oh yeah, spoilers. Read at your own risk.

Some of the later Final Fantasy games owe so much to Blade Runner they could be considered partial adaptations of the film. First and foremost, compare:

Why does this sound so familiar? Oh, right:

And what do Aerith and Tifa's themes sound like?

Finally, compare these two opening scenes.

Now let's take a further look at Final Fantasy VII and how it compares to Blade Runner.

-Both feature giant dystopian cities where the dirty stinking rich live atop wonderous upper layers on SUPER-SIZED ARCOLOGICAL BUILDINGS that float above dirt-poor numbered sectors.
-Both feature silver-haired PRODUCTS OF SCIENCE as villains who track down their indirect creators (Tyrell, Shinra) and kill them atop the aforementioned giant buildings.
-Both feature protagonists whose identities are at question (The bit about whether or not Cloud was a Sephiroth "clone," whether or not Deckard is a replicant).

There's also Final Fantasy IX. The whole plot involving the Black Mages, their short lifespans, and their development of emotions? Fucking replicants. Genomes? Fucking replicants. Zidane? Fucking replicant. Heck, the parallels are pretty clear: Zidane = Deckard, Vivi = Rachel, Kuja = Roy Batty.

Fuck, there are replicants throughout the entire series. Sephiroth's a replicant. Cloud is a semi-replicant. Fucking Tidus is a replicant.

They're all replicants. I just blew all of your minds.

 

[Dionysos]

That’s a very, very, very interesting comparison.

Perhaps in researching science fiction for the writing of FFVII (it was the FF series’ most science-fiction inspired story to date), Blade Runner was viewed, and several aspects inspired some of the Midgar sequences. You’re right that Midgar does look very much like the city in Blade Runner, especially the industrial chimneys with flame bursting out of them.

Blade Runner did have a massive cultural impact on science fiction in terms of cinema, and is regarded by a lot of people as the best, most thought-provoking, science fiction film of all time. It certainly deals with existential issues which are also dealt with in Final Fantasy (albeit less powerfully than Roy Batty’s ‘Tears in the Rain’ scene in Blade Runner – that scene was very poetic and well executed).

On reflection, I guess Cait Sith is almost comparable to the little toy men (the drummer-boy dwarves etc) in Blade Runner. They were also very human like, and you were meant to question whether they too had souls. I know that Cait Sith is essentially a puppet of Reeve, but their speech is entirely different, and also their personalities. Therefore, and it is never covered in the game, does Cait Sith himself have a soul of sorts? Is he alive? Does Reeve merely command him or lead him / set tasks for him? When the original Cait Sith is destroyed in the Temple of the Ancients, is the second Cait Sith a new soul too, or the same Cait Sith in a new body? If the former, did Cait Sith really die then? Does anybody care, since Cait Sith is essentially regarded as a toy? This is similar, I think, to the evidently human-like toys that eternally roam around that genetic designer's apartment.

When the second Cait Sith introduces himself (if I recall correctly), he introduces himself as Cait Sith Mark II, which implies that Cait Sith could be replicated fairly easily, but also that each Cait Sith might be different from the last… Don’t get me wrong, they are identical, but not necessarily the same soul, if they do indeed have them.

Other science fiction films / science fiction in general could be found in FFVII too, though perhaps not as strongly as the Blade Runner comparison… Perhaps Jenova being discovered in the snowy Northern Crater could be compared to The Thing (though I have not seen this movie, in honesty, but only know what I think I know about it from hearing about it / seeing clips), and we could compare it with how Jenova, an alien, infected and corrupted many people and led to some turning into freaky alien-hybrids.

 

[Jack's Smirking Revenge]

similar music and using the idea of clones/created life doesn't really make them that closely related. star wars even explored this with the clone and droid armies, and the rumours are that george lucas had all six episodes of star wars written in his teenage years.

dystopia isn't exactly an original theme. a clockwork orange was written in the early 60s - well before blade runner. so perhaps that idea was borrowed from that instead?

if i was going to compare final fantasy to any sort of film series, particularly 7, it seems to borrow a lot more heavily from star wars than anything else

 

[Mr. Gorilla]

similar music and using the idea of clones/created life doesn't really make them that closely related.

It isn't as simple as "clones and created life;" it's the manner in which the existentialism/philosophy of created life (What makes us "human") is explored within these stories. FFVII is quite similar to Blade Runner in this regard, and FFIX moreso (The plight of the Nexus 6 replicants is virtually identical to that of Kuja, as well as the Black Mages).

Also, the similar music, remarkably similar aesthetics and visual style, and themes of economic disparity and corporatism further cement the comparison.

star wars even explored this with the clone and droid armies, and the rumours are that george lucas had all six episodes of star wars written in his teenage years.

Rumours aren't credible information. There is just as much informations suggesting that Lucas made it up as he went along (I believe he's on record as having said this in the past).

Furthermore, the clones were a plot device, not a central theme.

dystopia isn't exactly an original theme. a clockwork orange was written in the early 60s - well before blade runner. so perhaps that idea was borrowed from that instead?

A Clockwork Orange is an entirely different scenario altogether.

Blade Runner codified the modern cyberpunk aesthetic, and has had a persistent impact on future noir and cyberpunk media ever since it originally appeared.

Midgar has far more in common with the giant pyramid-like buildings, arcological, layered city, and extreme corporatism of Blade Runner's L.A. than with A Clockwork Orange.

if i was going to compare final fantasy to any sort of film series, particularly 7, it seems to borrow a lot more heavily from star wars than anything else

It hardly borrows anything from Star Wars at all.

Final Fantasy XII and II borrow alot from Star Wars, though.