Pick one moment in Blade Runner that helps to define some complex and conflicted relationship between humans (or a particular human) and replicants. Why did you choose this moment? Don’t pick a moment that simply expresses hatred. Those are obvious but also not that common in the film. Think about more complicated kinds of feeling and interaction.
5 thoughts on “Blade Runner–Group 2”
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What to make of the unicorn? Deckard falls asleep at his piano which is littered with photographs, similar to the photograph Rachael shows him, and presumably there is a tie between photographs and memories. He dreams of a unicorn running in the forest with mystical music in the background. The first time I watched the movie I was a bit intrigued by the intention of this scene and scoured the internet for interpretations. That happened a few years ago. I decided to focus on this scene again despite the fact that it does not really showcase an interaction between humans and replicants. The scene references – to me at least – this theme of ‘more human than human’ in the movie. An article on ScreenRant ventures that the unicorn sequence implicates Deckard is a replicant (unbeknownst to him) who subconsciously dreams of freedom. I’ve seen this discussed on forums before. Whether this is true or even plausible doesn’t matter so much but it is symbolically significant. Replicants supposedly do not emote the same way humans do, and the VK test is meant to underline that, but it actually makes no sense (not that I can see) – as the slides say it’s pseudo-science. So the question of what makes a human is present and this subverts our understanding of control and ownership. But that is one of many interpretations. Others I have seen reference the unicorn as a mythical creature meant to represent Rachael’s purity and similar ideas along those lines.
I was struck by the scene where Deckard and Rachel embrace after she tries to flee from his apartment. The sexual tension between the two characters reaches its breaking point, and as Deckard clutches her before she can make her escape, Rachel seems to both want and not want Deckard’s advances. On one hand, as a replicant, Rachel is unable to experience emotion in the same way a human can, and this incapacity may explain her rejection of Deckard. Yet as an experimental model, she is programmed with memories that make her seemingly more feeling than the other androids, as seen when she is moved to tears in a previous scene. Therefore, it is unclear whether Rachel is even capable of sharing the same human love that Deckard appears to express (if he isn’t a replicant himself), or, if she able, whether she actually feels it. When she says that she wants him, it is only after Deckard commands her to repeat his words; she seems powerless to resist, and may realize she has to obey Deckard if she wants to preserve her safety from him as a blade runner.
From Deckard’s point of view, him commanding her to say she loves him and then to kiss him illustrates the master/slave relationship inherent in how humans and replicants interact. Deckard holds total power over her since he decides her fate as a blade runner and the only one assisting her in her defection from Tyrell. Why he makes her repeat his words is unclear to me, yet I would venture that part of it is him asserting his dominance over her in relation to her being an android, as well as a woman. Deckard shows little emotion throughout the film, and so I am not sure why he does fall in love (or at least feel lust towards) Rachel. If he is a replicant, it could be his feeling an innate association with her confinement in society; as a blade runner, it could be his way of rebelling against the social order he is forced to serve, or conversely is a reaffirmation of his dominance over android people.
I want to focus on one of the last scenes of the movie, the fight between Batty and Decker. Obviously, at first Batty is portrayed animal like with his howling and sheer power during the fight. However, when Batty is poised to win the fight and watch Decker fall to his death. Batty surprises us and saves Decker. I chose this scene because it shows two possible relationships between replicants and humans, both of which are in stark contrast of the other. The first relationship is shown during the fight scene while Batty is acting similar to an unstoppable monster. Here replicants and humans seem nothing alike and replicants really seem inhuman and terrifying. Decker spends most of the fight running for his life terrified of what Batty could do. On the other end of the spectrum at the end of the fight Batty saves Decker’s life, by catching Decker as he falls. The first important thing to point out is that Decker would not have done the same for Batty. Additionally, Batty’s speech focuses on the similarities between humans and replicants. My interpretation of Batty’s speech is the notion that both humans and replicants will die at some point and when they do their memories will fade as well. Betty is just as afraid of death as his human counterparts. This is what also makes humans and replicants so similar at the end of the day they all will die, but they’ll try to avoid death for as long as possible.
I chose one of the final scenes in the movie to focus on for this post, where Batty has Decker over the side of a building and appears poised to kill him. I found this scene to be particularly complex as the scene appears to be simply expressing hatred, but in reality it is not.
Batty, rather than flinging Decker over the side of the building, shows compassion, and lifts decker back above the ledge, and then proceeds to deliver a powerful speech.
Batty is a special replicant, who was designed for combat rather than for slave labor. He is also special in that he was given a larger amount of human memories than some of the other replicants, which gives him a greater level of consciousness than some of the others.
His speech is beautiful at the end of the film because in and of itself, it summarizes the relationship between the humans and the replicants. I believe that Batty ultimately gains consciousness in the moment where he discloses that his memories will be “lost like tears in the rain”. His phrasing here acknowledges that his memories likely aren’t real, and that in time they will just die with him. Batty, in saying this, both draws a distinction between himself and the humans, but also, if one considers the bigger picture, unifies humans and the replicants.
On the one hand, as previously said, I feel as though this speech acknowledges the fact that he is merely a replicant with planted memories, which will be lost when he dies. On the other hand, in certain ways, one could say that the experiences and memories of an human individual are lost in a similar fashion to this upon death.
Ultimately, I think Batty unifies humans and replicants in that both groups die, and both group’s memories will be washed away within the complexity of life in due time. In reality, he is basically saying that the only difference between himself and humans is that his memories have been implanted, whereas human memories are created. His speech however demonstrates the equal fragilities of both sets of beings relative to the universe.
Throughout this movie, there were many complex and complicated moments between the humans and the replicants. One example is Tyrell and Roy. When Roy goes with Sebastian to Tyrell’s home/office, Tyrell is very happy that his “prodigal son” has arrived. Roy is definitely the best of the bunch, and him and “his dad” (Tyrell) share a touching moment before Roy kills him. This is a very complex scene because Roy is begging Tyrell to extend his lifespan beyond four years, which Tyrell says is impossible to do once the replicants are made. This obviously angers Roy, but Tyrell proceeds to say “The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long, and you have burnt very, very brightly, Roy”. This is a crucial quote, because he is signifying that as the prodigal son, his lifespan will actually be shorter, not longer since he is the “flame that burns the brightest”.
I chose this moment because there is a clear barrier between the humans and replicants that can’t be broken. While Roy wants to feel loved by “his father”, Tyrell can not physically or emotionally give him that love. Even though they share a brief kiss/peck and tears are shed, it is not sustainable in their relationship. This will always make humans humans and replicants replicants, and never allow for there to be any prolonged emotional interaction between them. This creates that strain that causes Roy to kill Tyrell. Roy wants to be loved, but Tyrell knows that he can never love a replicant.