Blade Runner

No film has managed to so successfully navigate two separate genres at the same time as Blade Runner. Based on a Philip K Dick novel, Blade Runner is both a science fiction masterpiece and a film noir magnum opus. With themes ranging from the illusion of memory, the questioning of identity, and basic human mortality, director Ridley Scott took a script that passed through more hands than the Hope diamond and created a legendary work of cinema. Harrison Ford plays Rick Deckard, a bounty hunter sent to capture four replicants: androids created to work off-world with an extremely limited lifespan. The amazing story flows back and forth between dazzling science fiction setting mired in grime and neon, and gritty future noir slickness that feels as if it's pulling viewers forward against their will. Every performance is incredibly well-measured, especially Rutger Hauer as Roy Batty, the android who is desperate to find a way to live just a little longer. Why it's on top of the listAn amazing script, gorgeous art direction, flawless cinematography, and the single best monologue in the history of film from Hauer make this an easy number one.