Tears in rain soliloquy
The Tannhäuser Gate is a fictional place that was first mentioned in 1982 in the movie Blade Runner and then repeatedly used in other contexts. In the English original is the name of Tannhauser Gate, which was translated according to the German version of the film. Due to the strong influence of the cult film Blade Runner, mainly due to the cyberpunk, the outstanding position of the quotation and the poignant recitation in the film, the term has more widespread, especially among science fiction fans, found.
The Tannhäuser Gate in Blade Runner
First mentioned is the place in the film Blade Runner. There is chasing the end of the film, the replicant Roy Batty (played by Rutger Hauer ) misconduct Rick Deckard (played by Harrison Ford). Once he has this saved on the roof of a skyscraper in the rain life, he reported in the consciousness of his approaching death ( replicants is granted only four years life time) on Deckard turned away from experiences during his extraterrestrial combat missions:
" I've seen things you people would not believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C -beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time like tears in rain. [Pause ] Time to die. "
"I 've seen things you people would not believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. And I watched C - beams seen glittering in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in the rain. [Pause ] Time to die. "
After these words Batty dies. In the Channel 4 documentary On the Edge of Blade Runner director Ridley Scott confirmed, screenwriter David Peoples and Rutger Hauer that the latter even wrote these lines, although a basic idea already 'stand design in Peoples. In a later interview Hauer said that the first sentences were in the draft and he added the last two sentences.
The Tannhäuser Gate appeared in the film only in the quotation above. Only in the comic to the movie by Marvel Comics, it is mentioned without any explanation again ( " He'd flown with the Russian gypsy ships at Tannhauser Gate ..."). In the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Philip K. thickness, on which the film is based, it is not contained at all. Thus is not determined what it is doing.
Origin of the name
The name Tannhäuser has its origin in the legend of the eponymous minstrel. This comes by on the way to a singing contest at the Mount of Venus, which lures him with her charms. Then the knight stays with her and enjoying the pleasures. After a year of Knight regret his decision, and wants to leave. She lets him just go with the promise to return when he finds no mercy. Then go Tannhäuser to the Pope. The denied him the grace with the words: " So little of this barren staff sprout leaves and green is ever again and can, nor can you hope that you ever me grace and pardon may be granted by God and and " The Knight returns so to Venus back. After three days, the staff of the Pope begins to green. The knight Tannhäuser was never seen again.
Tannhäuser is also the name of an opera by Richard Wagner.
Exemplary references
Several musical artists made reference to the Tannhauser gate. Among other things, " Tan -Hauser Gate " is the name of an English rock band and a rock band from Kiel in Schleswig -Holstein. " Tannhauser Gate " is a song title of the group The Electric Hellfire Club on the album Electronomicon, a title the group Fightstar on the album One Day Son, This Will All Be Yours, as well as the title of a demo of the group Cubicle.
The term is used several times in the context of computer games. Tannhauser Gate was the name of a Polish games developer company. In the computer game Homeworld, the player must protect a gate Bentusi against enemy attacks on so-called Tenhauser. In the Heavy Gear series of games, mankind spread over Tannhauser gates on nine other planets. In the computer game Runaway 2 the player gets the ability to specify different destinations for the teleporter in chapter 3. An option is the Tannhäuser Gate, even if you can not travel there there.
In other areas it is used: So, in the film Star Force Soldier who plays in the same movie universe as Blade Runner, the main character Todd (played by Kurt Russell ) on a Battle of Tannhauser Gate part. In the Perry Rhodan universe the Tannhauser Gate is a building on the planet Lepso. In the anime Gunbuster the studio GAINAX is several times by a Tannhauser gate of the question. There it is the only way to fly faster than light.
In the band river of blue fire from the Otherland Tad Williams cycle of a character recites a modified version of the above quotation; the Tannhauser gate does not appear, however, in this version.