Ridley Scott Has One Big Regret About His '80s Sci-Fi Classic Blade Runner

Ridley Scott's straight-talking, endearingly grumpy manner gives the impression that he doesn't really go in for regret. The man who, in a "Blade Runner" featurette, said. "I don't like discussion. I know exactly what I want [...] that's the director's job," doesn't seem like he'd be one for reminiscing or getting lost in any nostalgic reverie. But even he has regrets, and it seems one in particular has to do with not taking home a piece of cinematic history after shooting "Blade Runner."

Scott's actual biggest regret involves two legendary sci-fi franchises in "Alien" and "Blade Runner." Put simply, the director never secured the rights to either and has struggled to retain any kind of ownership over the direction of both franchises ever since, even though he did executive produce Denis Villeneuve's 2017 sequel "Blade Runner 2049" (a magnificent follow-up that also served as a cautionary box office tale). He also directed two "Alien" prequels with 2012's "Prometheus" and 2017's "Alien: Covenant," and helped guide the occasionally effective but safe sequel "Alien: Romulus" as a producer in 2024, but otherwise has had to relinquish creative control of the two franchises, and that has clearly bothered him throughout the years. As the director told The Hollywood Reporter, "I should have locked [the 'Alien' and 'Blade Runner' franchises] up, as [Steven] Spielberg did with 'Jurassic,' and everything he does, and James Cameron has done with what he has." 

But this isn't the only revelation that struck Scott in the years since he made two of the greatest sci-fi movies in the history of cinema. In 2025, he revealed that, aside from wishing he retained some ownership of the IP he helped establish, he also wishes he literally owned parts of his earlier films. Specifically, he regrets not stealing the Voight-Kampff machine from the "Blade Runner" set.

In "Blade Runner," the titular bounty hunters use a Voight-Kampff test to determine whether an individual is a replicant or not. It involves asking a series of questions and measuring responses in the individual, from respiration and heart rate to blushing and pupillary dilation. It was essentially a futuristic form of lie detector, and actually first appeared in the novel on which "Blade Runner" is loosely based, Philip K. Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" Built by visual effects veteran Michael Fink, the actual movie machine appears during the incredible opening scene and shows up again in various moments, including Rick Deckard's interview with Rachael (Sean Young). It was a retrofuturist marvel featuring a series of CRT screens and meters alongside a pump (for some reason) and a retinal scanner that rises up from the body of the machine. It's not all that surprising, then, that Ridley Scott is mad he didn't take home such a beloved piece of sci-fi movie history.

In an interview with The Guardian, Scott was asked if he took the Voight-Kampff diagnostic empathy test from the "Blade Runner" set, and revealed that missing out on snagging that particular prop was one of his biggest regrets. "Isn't that machine great?" He said. "Some bastard stole it from the set. When it appears on the market, I'm going to go after them like a rat up a drainpipe." According to the director, he never used to take souvenirs from the sets of his films, preferring to keep looking forward. "I'd think: 'I'm done, move on,'" he explained. But it seems as time went on, Scott recognized the value of taking certain props when he could. "Now, I realize I should, because they go into storerooms and get lost forever," he added, before providing a full rundown of the things he's managed to secure. He continued:

"I get permission to take things and put space suits from movies in my vineyard in France. I've got a space suit from 'The Martian.' I've got an original space suit from 'Alien.' Can you imagine what that's worth? Two from 'Prometheus.' They're all in my barrel room, which has 12,000 sq feet of barrels. It's the perfect temperature for the wine. It's also a perfect place for a museum. Go down to Avignon — the vineyard is 20 minutes from my house — and have a look. It's fantastic."