Blade Runner Final Cut 25th Anniversary After Party Gift Umbrella

Upon the conclusion of the Blade Runner DVD After Party, when exiting the Bradbury Building we were all handed a black Blade Runner bag with the Final Cut Graphics on the exterior and on the interior of the bag was the long waited for 4 DVD set and Spinner key chain stapled to the side. Also handed to all guests was a long triangular box containing a black umbrella that would illuminate when a button on the handle is pressed. 

Click below picture for full sized images

Upon further examination of the umbrella box I was struck with the exceptional graphics that covered all sides of the gold and black cardboard and the clear thick acetate windows. The box obviously was created to echo the Tyrell Corp building. On the front of the box was the familiar Blade Runner font. Under the Blade Runner lettering in a smaller font was “THE FINAL CUT 25TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION ON DVD HI-DEF DECEMBER 18, 2007. Manuel Donayre, the Creative Director of A.D.D. Marketing and Advertising, has been working with Warner Bros. on promotion of the Final Cut DVD since Comic-Con and created the graphics for this umbrella box. Some of the lettering and graphics are obvious, like the end caps representing the Tyrell Pyramid, the checkerboard pattern from the rear of the spinner, the slanted stripes from the side of the spinner, the Tyrell window graphics printed on acetate on the back side on the box.

 In a telephone conversation Manuel said ” The film deeply affected my thoughts on the world as a young man, as it did so many. It was an honor to create something that feels as if it has a real place in Blade Runner’s time and space”. He also let me in on some of the many secrets incorporated into the box graphics he created. On the back left end cap on the lower edge is a circuit board, a motherboard. The computer motherboard spells out “Mary”. In early drafts of the script Mary was the missing Replicant, that Deckard killed hiding in a closet. Mary was to be the motherly Replicant hence Motherboard. Above the circuit board are the letters OHTMRE 6 which Manuel has left as a mystery. Next to that is 1STTODIE meaning first to die. On the front lower corner under the Blade Runner lettering is ATMWBLITIR 2020 4 meaning “All those moments will be lost in time like tears in rain”, 2020 (when the adventure was to originally occur) and 4 again for the 4 Replicants.

On the bottom of the box we find 1PDK for Phil K. Dick.  Approved Sector 16, the Warner Bros. logo, the bird, the reflection of the 4 living, and 1 dead Replicants.
On the right back cap in a black sunburst is the number 375, which is the number of lighted umbrellas created. On the end are letters and numbers D4A1D4O15E5S19 would you have gotten the clue? “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep” the numbers mean nothing.

Manuel has left some of the graphics on the box as a mystery a bit of a brainteaser.
I love that idea, a kind of mindset I had with secret decoder rings of the 1950’s.

As a side note, a bit of irony on 12-18-2007, the street date of the release for the FINAL CUT heavy rain and dark skies in LA.

Also many stores have sold out of their limited numbered briefcases and I hear that Amazon are sold out of the hi-def briefcases.

I would like to thank Warner Bros., David Gassman and Manuel Donayre of A.D.D. Marketing and Advertising, Charles de Lauzirika and Paul Prischman.

Written by Gary Willoughby, Edited by Gary Carden