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Tyrellbuilding

Tyrell's headquarters

"More human than human."

Company slogan[src]

The Tyrell Corporation was a high-tech firm primarily focused on the production of androids known as replicants. It was based in Los Angeles and named after its founder Eldon Tyrell.

History[]

As of 2019, the corporation was headquartered in two large, pyramid-like structures on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Inclinators ran along the outside of the massive structures. In November, Blade Runner Rick Deckard visited the Tyrell Corporation to administer a Voight-Kampff test to Rachael, an experimental replicant and Tyrell's assistant. Tyrell's massive office, where Deckard administered the test had a large automatic shade which lowered with the push of a button. This room also housed an animoid pet owl.[1]

Roy Batty, the leader of a group of escaped replicants, later convinced J.F. Sebastian, a genetic engineer with the company, to bring him to Tyrell's quarters at the top of the building, on the pretense of a chess move in an ongoing game between him and Tyrell. It was there that Batty killed Tyrell after he said he had no way to extend his life.[1] Eldon Tyrell's niece, Lilith Tyrell, inherited the company following his death.[2]

In 2020, the Tyrell Corporation developed the Nexus-8 line of replicants, who possessed lifespans equal to that of human beings. Because of this, humanity declared the replicants a threat to its existence and started hunting them down en masse.[3]

An underground replicant freedom movement hatched a plot to destroy Tyrell's database of registered replicants so that the genocide of replicants could be stopped. Two Nexus-8 replicants, Iggy Cygnus and Trixie, carried out this operation.[4]

Tyrell technician Ren Dus sympathized with replicants and redirected a test missile to detonate over Los Angeles, causing a massive blackout. Meanwhile, Iggy and Trixie destroyed Tyrell's servers with a hijacked fuel truck. Trixie was killed in a scuffle with security.[4]

Tyrell HQ remains

The dilapidated headquarters in 2026

After the Blackout and subsequent prohibition of replicants,[2] the corporation went bankrupt and its assets were purchased by the Canaan Corporation.[5] By 2026, the abandoned headquarters was occupied by squatters and scientist Fost, who apparently still believed the company to be operational.[6]

In 2028,[7] the remains of the company were purchased by the Wallace Corporation, who then resumed work on the replicants.[3] By October 2032, the headquarters' structures had been rebuilt[8] after falling into a state of ruin by the mid-2020s.[6]

Behind the scenes[]

The Tyrell Corporation is based upon the Rosen Association in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

In a draft for Blade Runner, dated December 22, 1980, the corporation was instead named the Nekko Corporation.[9] The Nekko name was later used for a corporation in Blade Runner: The Roleplaying Game.

On the building's structure, special effects photographic supervisor Douglas Trumbull, in the 1982 Official souvenir magazine, stated,

"I can't remember exactly, but I think the pyramid was a composite of my own ideas and Director Ridley Scott's. Originally the Tyrell building was going to be right in town, it was going to be a massive building right inside the city. We decided it would be much more visual and stark to place it way outside the town, so that it really rose above the horizon
"The pyramid was the first miniature we built. Across its base it was probably eight feet by eight feet. The top was probably two feet square. It was built prior to principal photography, because the first scene shot was the interior of Tyrell's office, and we had to have process plates of the other pyramid outside the window. So we had to build the pyramid, photograph it, prepare the plates and do front projection on that set." (Souvenir magazine, pg. 7.)

Production Designer Lawrence G. Paull said of the room: "We dressed Tyrell's room to look like the Pope's bedroom, very elaborate, very eclectic decor. The headboard was a $25,000 Chinese screen and the bed was two kingsize beds put together. There were big concrete columns which were 4-foot square and rose 25 feet in the air. Instead of just using raw concrete, we took material and actually draped the column so it had a very religious kind of overtone to it." (Souvenir magazine, p. 50.)

The comic book adaptation identifies Dr. Herman Schlect as the vice president of the Tyrell Corporation, while the novelization simply refers to him as in charge of Tyrell's security.

It is notable that in the film, the only time the sun is shown is in the Tyrell Corporation's building, when Deckard is interrogating Rachael.

References[]

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