Spinner (Blade Runner)
Fictional flying car from the film Blade Runner.
The spinner is the generic term for the fictional flying cars used in the film Blade Runner. Designed by Syd Mead, the vehicle can be driven on the ground, take off vertically, hover, and cruise via jet propulsion, functioning as a Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) aircraft. In the film, spinners are used extensively by police for patrol and surveillance, though wealthy individuals can also acquire licenses to operate them.
Quick Facts
- Designer
- Syd Mead
- First appearance
- Blade Runner (1982)
- Type
- Flying car (aerodyne)
- Propulsion
- Conventional internal combustion
- jet
- and anti-gravity engines
- Exhibit
- Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame
- Seattle
- WA
Facts from the source article.
List of appearances
Spinners appear prominently in Blade Runner (1982), where Deckard and Gaff ride in police spinners and other spinners are flown by the general public and VIPs. In Trancers (1985), the sedan used by Deckard is visible in a repair shop. A repainted police spinner appears in Solar Crisis (1990). In Soldier (1998), a spinner is seen in a pile of wrecked vehicles.
In Blade Runner 2049 (2017), Officer K and other LAPD members ride in police spinners, while spinners are also used by the general public, VIPs, and members of the Wallace Corporation; the spinner flown by Officer K was branded as a Peugeot as part of a marketing deal that later led to a lawsuit between Peugeot and Alcon Entertainment. A spinner and Deckard's sedan appear in the music video for Earth, Wind & Fire's song "Magnetic." The video game Snatcher, influenced by Blade Runner, features "turbocycles" similar to spinners.
In Back to the Future Part II, a garishly repainted spinner is parked on a street. The Star Wars films The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones include tributes to the Blade Runner spinner, partly due to similarities between Blade Runner's Los Angeles and the ecumenopolis planet Coruscant.
More in Story & Timeline
Elsewhere in Blade Runner
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