Chess and Blade Runner

Blade Runner is my all-time favorite movie, and one of the comments on agadmator's chess channel on YouTube (highly recommend, by the way!) alerted me to something I'd never realized: In the scene where Roy Batty, the main antagonist, is reciting chess moves, he's using the winning combination from the 1851 "Immortal Game" between Adolf Anderssen and Lionel Kieseritzky. And that got me thinking...

The whole movie is about a group of androids ("replicants") who are trying to find a way to exceed their built-in four-year lifespans. They've come to Earth illegally to speak to the president of the Tyrrell Corporation, the company that built them. (MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD.) When the scene takes place, Batty, the main replicant, is getting that meeting with Eldon Tyrrell by providing the winning combination to an ongoing chess game Tyrrell is playing with a low-level researcher. Three of his friends have died to get him here.

In the immortal game, Anderssen sacrifices his bishop, two rooks, and his queen to achieve checkmate. In Blade Runner, Batty gives up two heavies and his love interest (and blackmails the researcher) to get to the "king", who he kills - to become "immortal".

Mind. Blown.

Love the movie and the post -- very insightful.

Way cool.