When the original Blade Runner came to theaters in 1982 it painted a grim image of 2019, the year in which we now find ourselves. The film’s vision of the future was that of a dystopian wasteland, where most people want to leave Earth to escape the horrors of a dying planet. They didn’t get everything right, though: we still don’t have replicants, and our blimps haven’t really changed all that much. It’s too bad, because as Adam Savage‘s incredibly detailed model version of the iconic one from the movie proves, this year would be a lot cooler if these were really flying around our own skies.In this new video from Tested, Savage shows off the model blimp he and model maker Kayte Sabicer, whom Savage says did “95% of the labor inherent in this,” worked on for months. Working from a base kit, they went way overboard in creating an insanely accurate model that is one-half the size of the model they built for the film. In addition to looking just like the blimp seen flying over the skies of Los Angeles in Blade Runner, it also features original video and sound files from the movie, as well as color-changing fiber optics from a built-in color wheel, the same system the original utilized. And there’s more:
Dystopian ethos or not, we would absolutely hang that in our own home. Not that we’re surprised it’s worthy of display, since this isn’t the first time Adam Savage has recreated a classic Blade Runner prop. He previously built an amazing version of Deckard’s blaster, as well as the binoculars from Blade Runner 2049. For a nightmarish wasteland full of killer replicants, that world sure has lots of cool stuff just lying around.
Featured Image: Tested
