<P>Ridley Scott's <i>Blade Runner</i> is now widely recognised as a masterwork of science fiction cinema, and one of the most influential of any films released in the last twenty-five years. In <i>Studying Blade Runner</i>, Sean Redmond uses the key concepts of Media and Film Studies?Film Language, Representation, Institutions and Audiences?to explore the many significances of the film: Its breakthrough use of special effects as a narrative tool; the film's revolutionary representation of the future city; its treatment of racial and sexual politics; iIts unique status as a text whose meaning was fundamentally altered in its re-released 'Director's Cut' form?and what this means in an institutional context.</P>