LESSON 5: BLADE RUNNER BEGINS
Grade: 9-12 (Elective course)
Duration: 54 minutes
Objectives: By the end of the lesson, students will…

• Reflect upon the previous assigned reading.
• Engage with the beginning of Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner.
• Discuss the exposition present in Blade Runner.
• Analyze Blade Runner in terms of visuals.
  • “What imagery suggests the film is a work of dystopian fiction?”
• Discuss the speculative elements of Blade Runner.
  • Guiding questions: “What elements from the world of Blade Runner exist in present-day? What does Blade Runner’s version of 2019 say about the 1982 in which it was made? What can we say about our present society by analyzing the types of futures found in literature/films/television produced today?”

MATERIALS

• Devices (laptops/tablets) for writing
• Slideshow presentation [Click here to access!]
• Blade Runner DVD/Blu-ray
• Viewing Journal #1 [Click here to access!]
• Projector
• Copies of Frankenstein

 PROCEDURE

• Students will begin class by responding to a five-minute quick write: “Choose a passage from last night’s reading of Frankenstein that you found particularly intriguing and describe why. What effect does this passage have on the reader? How does it achieve this effect?”
  • After students have responded, they will be asked to pair up so as to share their writing with a partner.

• The class will then begin its engagement with Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner.
  • Before viewing, each student will be given a handout entitled “Viewing Journal #1 – Visual Exposition.”
    • This handout offers students a chance to take note of the visual cues/signifiers indicating that Blade Runner is a dystopian film. (Attached above.)

• During this initial experience, the class will watch chapters 1-8 on the Blade Runner DVD.
• After viewing the first eight chapters of the DVD, the class will discuss initial reactions to the film, using the Viewing Journal as a springboard for discussion.

HOMEWORK

• Read chapters 14-17 in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein!

[next up: lesson 6]