An evening at Secret Cinema: Blade Runner (Things to do in London)

Photo credit: Secret Cinema

Secret Cinema rarely does things wrong. Here I was, off to participate in their version of a film I’d never seen, but I didn’t even care because having attended various other iterations, including Back to the Future and Star Wars, I felt confident it would a fun evening regardless. The film in question: Blade Runner. For the evening, I was to be Evelyn Zwiller, a Utopia Entertainment Performer, the role which had been assigned to me a week or so before the event.

As such, I dressed accordingly – bright trousers, a sparkly shirt, jangly bracelets and earrings, and a green bandana. Plus, of course, the items we were required to bring – a transparent umbrella and some goggles. I’d gone Steampunk like, reflective so no one could see my eyes or reveal my secrets… Sure, we probably looked very weird getting on the Tube in our getups, but that’s half the fun!

Arriving at Canning Town station, we were clearly in amongst our ilk, in the midst of a sea of people dressed like me, some as investigators in suits and trench coats, and some in boiler suits as technicians. The commonality? We all had umbrellas and visible excitement. We were directed by ‘LAPD officers’ across the street to what looked like an old warehouse with the words ‘World Terminus’ printed on the side. How ominous.

Showing our tickets, the games really began, and we joined a queue to be checked by LAPD officers and assigned a coloured wristband once we’d shown our Secret Cinema ID. Evelyn Zwiller got purple – what could it mean? Walking past LAPD Teslas (cool) we were ushered inside, into a completely different world. Entering through the black curtain, I was transported to China Town, at this time of night not too busy as we were one of the earlier ones to arrive. Around a central plaza lay a number of stalls selling food ranging from noodles and hot dogs to waffles and Japanese style sweets.

Clearly we looked lost, and were swiftly approached by a colourful lady who introduced herself as Luna, asking if we’d ever been ‘off world’ and who we were looking for. I’d been told at the entrance to look for someone called Felix, so this was my request, and she pointed us to a man with a tyre-track tattoo on his head standing by a closed door. He in turn took us into a smokey neon filled bar called the snakepit, where many similar dressed people milled around. Here, it was difficult to tell who was actor and who was attendee.

And so the show continued. We tried to help Felix steal something from someone’s stall in exchange for information, got caught up with the scavengers who were planning a ‘blackout’ to stop the upcoming replicant (ie android) ban, as why should human and robot not live together? It turned out wristbands unlocked different activities, as the scavengers all had white wristbands (I’m not sure we were supposed to be there!) and my purple wristband made me eligible for the Voight-Kampff test, where it was revealed that I myself was a replicant. How the plot thickens!

And the best bit? It rained – inside. Torrentially. The plaza interestingly had a grid floor which made sense as we stepped onto it into the midst of this rainstorm, swiftly putting up our umbrellas. How cool! At various times throughout the night this area turned into a sea of umbrellas as any activity where everyone congregated around didn’t mean that the rain had to stop!  

We headed upstairs to what I believe was Utopia, which housed the LAPD office, Dr Voight’s office, an icy cold laboratory, and Sebastian’s apartment; many of which it was revealed would be relevant to the movie later, but perhaps would have made more sense had I seen the film beforehand. Nevertheless, I certainly had fun!

However, after about an hour and a half of wandering around, we felt like we had seen and done all that there was to do, having visited the different locations and gone on various quests for the characters. This resulted in standing around not doing much for a while, but thankfully a scene started to play out in the plaza where the scavengers encouraged everyone to fight against the replicant ban, climbing an electricity pole and causing the blackout, much to the concern of the villain character who perched on top of one of the buildings, and who I would later find out was Batty.

At around twenty past eight, we were told to follow the actors who took us into the screening rooms. From our wandering around earlier, I had decided which of the three screens would be best and positioned myself close to where I thought the entrance might be, meaning that we were one of the first to get seats when we walked in. The first few rows had plush chairs and lots of legroom for those who had presumably paid much more than us, so we took the first available row behind. Unfortunately, the seats weren’t terribly comfortable, and legroom was not a thing, with my knees jammed in painfully in front of me. Not what you want for the next two hours.

And so the film began, interspersed every five minutes or so with characters actually playing out the scene in tandem with what was happening on the screen behind them. All of the main characters were represented by very good lookalikes, and I particularly enjoyed Sebastian’s toys who amusingly followed him around. All the key scenes were fun to watch both on the screen and in real life, and add to the magical nature of Secret Cinema.

As for the film itself, I thought it was a good choice being a cult classic. Although sceptical at first, the special effects in the film were very decent given the time so it didn’t seem ‘old’ or ‘outdated’, although I enjoyed the fact that the film was set in November 2019 and yet on a world very far removed from the one in which we currently live. Perhaps that’s for the best. I can’t say I fully understood the film at the time, but in retrospect it makes more sense to me the more I think about it. It’s very unique compared to anything else I’ve seen, and a great choice for this years Secret Cinema. I can safely say I’ll be back again to one of their next showings!

I hope you enjoyed today’s blog of something interesting to do in London. Have you been to Secret Cinema, or would like to go? Leave me a message in the comments below, or on Twitter @CiarasCountry. Thanks for reading!