Sci-fi movie plot line maps are the hardest ones I draw, because science fiction keeps moving the ground under the drawing. A discography has dates and a running order. A time travel film has two of everything, and a replicant film has a hero who may not be who the audience assumes. The Sci-Fi Movie Plot Line Maps collection holds two of them so far: Blade Runner and Back to the Future.
Each print draws the characters as named lines and the key scenes as stations, in the visual language of a classic London Underground map. Sizes are A2 (420 x 594mm) and A1 (594 x 841mm), from £42, printed as Giclée art prints, with an optional black wood frame.
Ridley Scott's film came out in 1982 and Robert Zemeckis's in 1985, three years apart, and they could not be less alike on paper. Drawn as networks they turn out to have opposite faults, which is the useful thing to know before you buy one.
Blade Runner Plot Lines Map Art Print
Scott's 1982 film drawn as a route, from the Voight-Kampff test to the rooftop.
Explore These Art PrintsTwo Sci-Fi Plot Line Maps, and the Opposite Problems They Solve
Blade Runner is a film people love and cannot recount. Back to the Future is a film people can recount perfectly and have never seen laid flat.
That difference decides which print suits which person, so this table is built from the scene by scene passes I made for each map rather than from a synopsis.
| Blade Runner (1982) | Back to the Future (1985) | |
|---|---|---|
| What the map is fixing | A plot that is felt rather than followed | Two dates running at once, never seen side by side |
| The line that runs throughout | Deckard, from the noodle bar to the lift doors | Marty, the only character present in both years |
| The line that surprises people | Gaff, who appears at both ends and barely between | Doc Brown, drawn twice at two ages |
| Where the map changes shape | Roy reaches Tyrell and the chase inverts | The DeLorean hits 88mph and the whole network shifts era |
| Named stations on the print | The Voight-Kampff test, Chew's eye works, the Bradbury rooftop | The mall car park, the Enchantment Under the Sea dance, the clock tower |
| The viewer it suits | The one who owns three cuts and argues about the ending | The one who quotes it and would enjoy seeing the machinery |
| Reading distance | Close up, because the lines cross often | Works across a room, because the two eras separate cleanly |
If both films get quoted in the same house, the pair hangs well together. Same format, same paper, same sizes, and the contrast between a map that tangles and a map that splits into two halves is worth seeing on one wall.
One Station on the Back to the Future Map Changes Its Name
Marty leaves 1985 from the car park of the Twin Pines Mall. He arrives in 1955, flattens one of Old Man Peabody's two pine saplings with the DeLorean, and when he gets home the sign reads Lone Pine Mall.
That is the same location at the same coordinates with a different name, which is a problem no discography has ever handed me. On the print it appears as one station carrying both names, because the film insists on both.
It is a small joke Zemeckis buries in the background of a single shot. Plotted as a network it stops being a joke and becomes the clearest evidence on the map that the ending is not the beginning.
Doc Brown Is the Only Line Drawn Twice, Thirty Years Apart
Every other character on the Back to the Future plot map belongs to one era or the other. George, Lorraine and Biff exist as teenagers in 1955 and as adults in 1985, but the film treats those as separate people with separate scenes.
Doc is different, because he is in on it. The 1955 Doc learns what the 1985 Doc already knows, which means his line is the only one carrying information across the gap in both directions.
The letter is the physical proof of it. Marty writes a warning in 1955, Doc tears it up, then tapes it back together and keeps it for thirty years, and the map has to show a route that a piece of paper travels and a person does not.
Deckard Retires Two of the Four, and the Map Shows Who Does the Rest
Deckard is handed four replicants: Roy Batty, Leon, Zhora and Pris. Watch the film and you carry away the impression of a man working through a list.
Plot it and the arithmetic does not agree with the impression. Deckard retires Zhora and Pris. Rachael shoots Leon, saving Deckard's life, and Roy dies of his own expiry date on the rooftop with nobody's hand on him.
So the blade runner accounts for half his own case, and the film's most famous death is not a retirement at all. That is the finding people stand in front of the print and check.
Roy Batty's Line Only Ever Travels Upwards
Roy is not wandering. He goes to Chew, who made the eyes, then to J.F. Sebastian, who has access to the building, then to Tyrell himself at the top of the pyramid.
Three stops, each one a rung, each one a person used to reach the next. Drawn as a transit line it is the most purposeful route on either of these two prints.
Deckard's line by contrast doubles back constantly, between his flat, the Bradbury, the street market and the police station. One character is climbing and the other is circling, and the drawing makes that plain before you read a single station name.
Gaff Appears at Both Ends and Almost Nowhere Between
Edward James Olmos's Gaff collects Deckard at the noodle bar in the opening minutes and is waiting in the corridor at the end. In between he surfaces rarely, and leaves folded paper where he has been.
On a network map that shape is unmistakable. His line is a bracket around the film rather than a route through it, and it is the one people notice last and then cannot stop looking at.
The origami is the reason his few appearances matter more than their length. A character who barely travels can still be the one holding the ends together.
Back to the Future Plot Lines Map Art Print
Zemeckis's 1985 film drawn as a route, with 1955 and 1985 as two connected halves.
Explore These Art PrintsThe Clock Tower Is a Station Twice, Which No Other Map of Mine Does
Jennifer hands Marty a Save the Clock Tower flyer in the opening act of 1985. The tower is struck by lightning at 10:04pm on 12 November 1955, and that flyer becomes the timetable Doc works from.
The map therefore has to mark the tower in 1985 as a piece of civic fundraising and in 1955 as a power supply. Same building, two functions, two stations.
Einstein makes the first jump, one minute into the future, and gets a very short line of his own. Nobody expects a dog to have a route until they see it drawn.
Which Cut of Blade Runner the Map Follows
Blade Runner exists in more versions than almost any film of its era, and they end differently. That is not an academic point when you are drawing a route, because the last station is decided by which cut you are watching.
I plotted the Final Cut, the 2007 version Ridley Scott signed off. No voiceover, no drive into the countryside, and the unicorn stays in.
If the person you are buying for is loyal to the 1982 theatrical release with Harrison Ford's narration, tell them before it goes on the wall. Blade Runner fans hold these positions firmly and I would rather they knew.
How a Scene Earns a Station and a Character Earns a Line
A film has several hundred shots. A map holding all of them would be a wall of type instead of something readable from a metre away, so there is a threshold.
A scene becomes a station when it moves the story or brings a character into it or out of it. A character becomes a line when they run through the film rather than cross one shot.
Sequels are not on either print. Back to the Future maps the 1985 film only, with nothing from 1989 or 1990, and Blade Runner maps Scott's film with no 2049.
Choosing One as a Gift: Film First, Then Size
Pick Blade Runner for the viewer who has owned the film on three formats and can hold an argument about Deckard for an hour. Pick Back to the Future for the one who quotes it constantly and has never once seen 1955 and 1985 drawn as neighbours.
On size, A2 (420 x 594mm) suits a hallway, a landing or a wall above a desk, and it reads as an object from across a room. A1 (594 x 841mm) is for someone who will stand close and trace Roy's climb or Doc's double line, because the station names sit comfortably at that size.
Prices start at £42, every print is a Giclée on archival paper, and the black wood frame is optional. For a fortieth or a fiftieth I would go A1 and framed, since Blade Runner turned forty in 2022 and Back to the Future in 2025.
Questions People Send Me Before Buying a Sci-Fi Plot Map
Why are there only two maps in this collection? Because I have only plotted two properly. More science fiction titles are in research, and I would rather add one map a season that I have watched with a notebook than fill the collection with films I have not sat down and drawn.
What is deliberately not on these prints? Minor scenes, walk on parts and anything from a sequel. The same discipline runs through my music maps in a different form, where the prints plot the studio albums in order and leave live records, compilations and soundtracks out by editorial rule.
Do they give the endings away? They name key scenes, so yes, to anyone who has not seen the film. That is rarely the situation with these two, but it matters if the print is going up in a shared room.
Is Back to the Future readable if you have never seen it? More readable than most, because the two eras separate visually. Blade Runner is the opposite and rewards knowing the film first.
Can a film map hang next to a discography map? Yes, they share the drawing language, the paper and the sizes, so a plot map and a music map sit together without competing.
What if the science fiction film they love is not here? Send me the title. Every one of these starts the same way, with a notebook and a very slow rewatch.
Start Here
Both prints sit in the Sci-Fi Movie Plot Line Maps collection, and if the household leans darker, the horror plot maps, The Shining and Jaws, are drawn the same way.
If it is the format rather than the film that appeals, the Music Wall Art Prints collection applies the same drawing to discographies, and my guide to reading one of these maps covers how lines and stations work.
Still deciding? Ask them whether they would rather see a film explained or a film they already know taken apart. Blade Runner is the first answer and Back to the Future is the second.
