Tannhauser Gate

The Tannhäuser Gate is a fictitious location originally referred to in dialogue in the 1982 film "Blade Runner", and again in the 1998 film "Soldier," as well as in allusions in other places referring back to Blade Runner.

"Blade Runner"

In the 1982 film "Blade Runner", the replicant Roy Batty (played by Rutger Hauer) refers to the gate while recounting his experiences as an off-world commando:

In the Channel 4 documentary "On the Edge of Blade Runner," Hauer, director Ridley Scott, and screenwriter David Peoples all assert that Hauer himself wrote the speech that includes this line, although the basics of the speech already existed in Peoples' various drafts. [http://www.brmovie.com/Downloads/Docs/BR_Script_1981.txt] In his 2007 autobiography "All Those Moments", Hauer confirms that he merely cut the original scripted speech by several lines, and only added the line, "All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain." ["All Those Moments, Stories of Heroes, Villains, Replicants and Blade Runners", by Rutger Hauer with Patrick Quinlan, HarperEntertainment, 2007]

The Tannhäuser Gate does not have its source in science fiction, but instead, in ancient German legend. The Tannhäuser Gate is, in fact, a reference to the German tale of Tannhäuser, the knight that spent a year worshipping Venus in her impossibly well-hidden lair deep beneath the earth.

"Soldier"

In the 1998 film "Soldier", the soldier character Sgt. Todd (played by Kurt Russell) is a veteran of the Battle at Tannhäuser Gate. This fact is based on the text displayed momentarily on a computer screen near the beginning of the film. The screen displays a list of battles that the character has fought in, and the awards that he has earned in these battles. Tannhäuser Gate is also tattooed on Todd's arm, along with the other battles of which he is a veteran. Later on in the film, when Sandra notices the names tattooed on his arm and mentions it to Mace, it is explained by Mace that "Tannhäuser Gate was a battle."

The original script was to have the film actually "depict" the battle. However, this idea was eventually cut for budgetary concerns. The original script even gave a detailed description of the gate. It described it as "a huge wall of metal; an impregnable fortress bristling with futuristic weapons." Some of this scene was completed, and can be briefly viewed in the film's theatrical trailer.

References in popular culture

Due to the influence of "Blade Runner", a number of popular culture sources have made references to Tannhäuser Gate, perhaps in homage.

Several works use the term Tannhäuser Gate as a method for interstellar travel. The Japanese animation series "Gunbuster" also makes several references to space travel through a Tannhäuser Gate. The show offers an explanation of the Tannhäuser Gate during one of the many "lesson" scenes. There, the Gate is described as the point between two relatively close black hole event horizons. The massive gravitational pull would accelerate a traveler linearly, allowing them to approach the speed of light. The "Heavy Gear" series of games and fiction also make use of the term to describe "a fault in the space-time continuum where two normally distant points of space touch one another." In the "Heavy Gear" universe, Tannhauser Gates can be "opened" by bombardment with a precisely modulated stream of anti-matter, and are indeed used as a method for achieving faster-than-light travel (between specific star systems). The FunOrb space strategy game [http://www.funorb.com/info.ws?game=shatteredplans Shattered Plans] allows players to research and deploy the Tannhäuser Project, which creates a temporary wormhole between otherwise unlinked systems.

The term also has been used to describe a place or location. In the computer game "Homeworld", the player must save the Bentusi from enemy forces at a place called Tenhauser Gate. The anime "Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny" features two weapons known as "Tannhäuser" and "Lohengrin," which are used as the main guns of the "Minerva" and "Archangel", respectively. One episode features a so-called "Lohengrin Gate," which is a Lohengrin modified for use as a land-based defense gun and used to defend a critical pass. As both weapons are practically identical in construction and purpose, this is most likely a hidden joke.

In real life, the term has been used in a variety of works. [http://www.thgate.com Tannhauser Gate] is also the name of a Poland-based games design and development studio. It is also the title of a song by The Electric Hellfire Club on the album "Electronomicon". The UK alternative metal band Fightstar have a track titled "Tannhäuser Gate" on their second album "One Day Son, This Will All Be Yours". The title of a Demoscene demo by the group Cubicle, which features a few "Blade Runner" inspired 3D scenes is also called "Tannhäuser Gate". The English electronic rock band Tan-Hauser Gate is yet another reference.

Owen Wilson, as Drillbit Taylor in the movie of the same name quotes the line "I've watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser gate" when asked, "What have you seen?" during his interview for the position of body guard to three bullied freshman.

References

External links

Rutger Hauer's citation as [http://www.kk3d.de/wikipedia/tannhauser_gate.mp3 audio file]

See also

*Tannhäuser is the name of a mythical German knight, and the title of an opera by Richard Wagner.