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The original script was to have the film actually ''depict'' the battle. However, this idea was eventually cut for budgetary concerns. The original script even gave a detailed description of the gate. It described it as "a huge wall of metal; an impregnable fortress bristling with futuristic weapons." Some of this scene was completed, and can be briefly viewed in the film's theatrical trailer.
 
The original script was to have the film actually ''depict'' the battle. However, this idea was eventually cut for budgetary concerns. The original script even gave a detailed description of the gate. It described it as "a huge wall of metal; an impregnable fortress bristling with futuristic weapons." Some of this scene was completed, and can be briefly viewed in the film's theatrical trailer.
 
''Hunter Prey''
 
 
 
=== ''Hunter Prey'' ===
 
 
2010 sci-fi film directed by Sandy Collora.
 
2010 sci-fi film directed by Sandy Collora.
   

Revision as of 09:42, 11 May 2011

The Tannhauser Gate is a location originally referred to in dialogue in the 1982 film Blade Runner, and again in the 1998 film Soldier.

Appearances

Blade Runner

File:BR-soldier10.jpg

A possible glimpse of Tannhauser Gate from a deleted scene in Soldier.

In the 1982 film Blade Runner, the replicant Roy Batty (played by Rutger Hauer) refers to the gate while recounting his experiences as an off-world commando:

"I've... seen things you people wouldn't believe; attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion; I've watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate. All those... moments... will be lost... in time, like... tears... in rain."

Given the fact that Earth has off-world colonies in Blade Runner, and the typical functions of devices incorporating the word "gate" in science fiction, fans of the film have suggested that the Tannhauser Gate may be a stargate or similar construct. They speculate that as a stargate, it would provide faster-than-light travel between star systems. Given its name, it would perhaps be located near or in orbit of a colony named Tannhauser.

Soldier

File:BR-soldier5.jpg

A possible view of the Battle of Tannhauser Gate (from a deleted scene from Soldier).

In the 1998 film Soldier, the soldier character Sgt. Todd (played by Kurt Russell) was a veteran of the Battle at the Tannhauser gate. This fact is based on the text displayed momentarilly on a computer screen near the beginning of the film. The screen displays a list of battles that the character has fought in, and the awards that he has earned in these battles. Tannhauser Gate is also tatooed on Todd's arm, along with the other battles that he was a veteran of. Later on in the film, when Sandra notices the names tattooed on his arm and mentions it to Mace, it is explained by Mace that "Tannhauser Gate was a battle."

The original script was to have the film actually depict the battle. However, this idea was eventually cut for budgetary concerns. The original script even gave a detailed description of the gate. It described it as "a huge wall of metal; an impregnable fortress bristling with futuristic weapons." Some of this scene was completed, and can be briefly viewed in the film's theatrical trailer. Hunter Prey 2010 sci-fi film directed by Sandy Collora.

Origin

The Gate's name comes from a poetic piece written by Rutger Hauer, prior to the filming of his famous monologue in Blade Runner. Segments of this were then used in the scene.

Out-of-universe references

  • Perhaps in a reference to Blade Runner, or through an independent resource, the Japanese animation series Gunbuster created by Gainax also makes several references to space travel through a Tannhauser Gate.
  • The Heavy Gear series of games and fiction also make use of the term to describe "a fault in the space-time continuum where two normally distant points of space touch one another."
  • In the computer game Homeworld, the player must save the Bentusi from Taiidan forces at a place called Tenhauser Gate.
  • Tannhauser Gate is also the name of a Poland-based games design and development studio.[1]
  • Tannhauser Gate is also the title of a song by The Electric Hellfire Club on the album Electronomicon.
  • Tannhauser Gate is also the title of a Demoscene demo by the group Cubicle, which features a few Blade Runner inspired 3D scenes

See also