His name was Rick Deckard, you dolt!
The Bladerunning
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has long claimed to be obsessed with science fiction. From reusable rockets to dreams of making humanity live on Mars, the mercurial CEO has made the genre his entire business model, for better or for worse.
But when it comes to his knowledge of some of the more seminal pieces of science fiction, the cracks — or panel gaps, if you will — quickly start to show.
In a recent tweet, Musk promised that his EV maker's upcoming Cybertruck will be an "armored personnel carrier from the future — what Bladerunner would have driven."
Unfortunately for him, there never was a character named "Bladerunner" — or "Blade Runner," for that matter — in the iconic franchise of that name.
Electric Dreams
Ridley Scott's 1982 cyberpunk film, which is loosely based on Philip K. Dick's 1968 novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?", tells the story of a former police officer named Rick Deckard, played by Harrison Ford, tasked with hunting down and "retiring" androids known as "replicants."
His title? A "blade runner." In other words, there simply isn't a character named "Bladerunner" that could've driven a Cybertruck. It's more of a job description.
The slip-up highlights Musk's original intention with the pickup, a highly divisive design that harkens back to 1980s sci-fi, an era of books and movies Musk grew up reading and watching.
But whether it'll live up to the dreams of Tesla's loyal fanbase remains to be seen. We've already seen plenty of instances of janky fit and finish, broken-down trucks that can't charge their batteries, and plenty of scuffs, grime, fingerprints, and even bullet holes.
Then again, those qualities may not be so out-of-place in the grimy dystopian future portrayed in "Blade Runner." The film is set in the year 2019 in Los Angeles, after all — the same time and place as Musk's initial unveiling of the truck.
More on the truck: Joe Rogan Shoots Cybertruck With Bow and Arrow, Possibly Mistaking It for Metal Mammoth
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