The Clearing of the Mist

 

"Commerce is our goal here at Tyrell. 'More human than human' is our motto."

-- Eldon Tyrell

The movie Blade Runner questions where the line is drawn between what is considered 'life' and what is not. The main conflict of the film is between Deckard, a blade runner, and the replicants whom it is Deckard's job to retire (terminate). The argument that makes this conflict interesting is the possibility that Deckard was that which he had to kill--a replicant. This argument has been looked at numerous times by critics of the film, with no definite conclusions being made, at least not one that has been proven. It was a brilliant move by director Ridley Scott to leave viewers wondering whether or not Deckard is a replicant, even years after the film debuted. Whether Deckard is a replicant or not, as there are clues to both, the message of the film remains intact--that the line between what is human and what is not is becoming less and less distinct.

Captain Bryant brings Deckard in for a briefing and mentions that there was an escape by six replicants from the Off-world colonies two weeks ago, three male, three female. One got fried trying to break into Tyrell. Bryant tells Deckard that he's got four "skin-jobs" walking the streets. Skin-job according to the voice-over in the theater-release is the equivalent of calling someone a nigger. Roy Batty, Leon, Pris, and Zhora comprise four of the replicants, with one fried, which leaves a missing sixth. It doesn't seem likely that the sixth replicant is Rachael, because Tyrell mentions that she is an experiment, the first of her kind. She contains memory implants to cause her to think she has a past and in turn make her feel she is human. This leaves us with the possibility that Deckard is the sixth replicant.

Another push for Deckard not being human is his coldness. He is very emotionless. He has no empathy towards for replicants, except in the case of Rachael. In a voice-over early in the film Deckard himself states, "Sushi, that's what my ex-wife called me. Cold fish." The fact that he mentions an ex-wife does not mean that he is not a replicant, there is a possibility that he has memory implants as well. After killing Zhora the voice-over tells us that Deckard himself is surprised when he feels an emotional reaction.

An interesting fact to note as well is that Deckard seems to have no friends in the movie. He also has no contacts or colleagues, only the two policemen. In the end the person he looks towards for an emotional tie, Rachael, is actually a replicant! This definitely is evidence for Deckard being a replicant. If he is a human why would he even think about having feelings for a replicant? It doesn't make a lot of sense.

One of the biggest arguments toward Deckard being a replicant is found in the director's cut release of the film. It is the dream sequence that Deckard has while sitting at his piano looking at family photos. He daydreams about a unicorn which seems to be totally out of character for him, in fact, the dream is out of character with the whole rest of the film. It shows nature devoid of human intervention, the only scene of its kind. This is for a reason. The dream makes an allusion to the fact that Deckard does have memory implants. At the end of the film as Deckard is leaving with Rachael, he picks up a paper unicorn outside of his apartment. Gaff may have left this there to tell Deckard he knew about the unicorn vision, something he could have known only if Deckard was a replicant and the memory was an implant from someone else.

The second time that Rachael and Deckard are together at his apartment there is a moment which could allude to Deckard's being a replicant. Here Rachael has come to terms with her own identity as a replicant and she asks Deckard if he would come after her if she disappeared north. Suddenly Deckard is out of focus while Rachael is clearly in focus, even though Deckard is speaking. He says, "No. No, I wouldn't. I owe you one. But somebody would." Why is Deckard out of focus? Ridley Scott could be trying to show that while Rachael is finally secure in who she is, Deckard is now doubting about his own identity.

Another argument towards Deckard being a replicant is that perhaps he was a replicant created to retire his own kind. After all, why put a human in a position where he might get killed if a replicant could do the job? Aside from that, a replicant may have been more qualified for the job. The film states in the opening monologue-- "The NEXUS 6 Replicants were superior in strength and agility, and at least equal in intelligence, to the genetic engineers who created them." When Deckard first meets up with Police Captain Bryant, he's asked if he's "man enough for the job." After Roy dies at the end, Gaff congratulates Deckard on doing a "real man's job." If Deckard is a replicant, these take on a double meaning.

Many critics feel that the film would lose its meaning if Deckard was a replicant. There are many explanations to the above arguments towards the end that Deckard is not a replicant. The case of the missing sixth replicant could be explained a couple of ways. First of all, there is the possibility that Rachael (who we know is a replicant), is the sixth replicant. She escaped from the Off-World Colony and now the Tyrell corporation is lying to protect her. This is not very solid, though, because if Tyrell was lying to protect her than why would they tell Deckard, the one whose job is to retire replicants, that Rachael is a replicant? A more easy explanation is noting that Deckard is a retired blade runner at the beginning of the film. If he had just returned to earth with the other five replicants, he would still have memory of this. A final explanation, although less substantial, is that in the original script the sixth replicant died during the shuttle ride to earth as its time ran out. When this scene was cut out of the movie, they forgot to change the line about six replicants having escaped. Or it may have been left in intentionally to add to the ambiguity.

As far as Deckard's lack of emotion, Deckard himself explains this. He states after Rachael has been in his apartment the first time that "replicants weren't supposed to have feelings. Neither were blade runners." It was his job to not have feelings. It was the only way he could perform it effectively. The point of the film may be that a replicant which can develop emotions may be more "human" than a passionless man. After all, the slogan of Tyrell Corporation is "more human than human."

Assuming Deckard is a replicant leaves us with still more questions. The replicants were not allowed to be at-large on earth. Only Rachael was tolerated while she was under the control of the Tyrell Corp., but as soon as she ran away she became a fugitive. Why would a Deckard replicant be tolerated? And why would he stick around to be "re-hired" as a blade runner, knowing what he knows about how replicants are treated, especially by Bryant? He loathed replicants, referring to them as "skin-jobs." Also, Bryant put a lot of faith and trust in Deckard. "I need you, Deck. This is a bad one, the worst yet. I need the old blade runner, I need your magic." It doesn't seem to wash that Bryant would be so behind Deckard unless he was human. Why would they let him retire at the end of the film, in fact, why was he allowed to be retired in the first place? It would not happen.

The memory implantation design was new. Rachael was the first of her kind. Even if this is not implicitly stated, it is strongly suggested by the fact that Deckard himself was completely surprised after Tyrell tells him that Rachael is beginning to suspect that she is a replicant. "Suspect, How can it not know what it is?" Also, Tyrell calls Rachael an "experiment," inferring that she is the first of her kind. In this light it easy to say that Deckard is not a replicant because he has an ex-wife, not just memories of an ex-wife. The last words of the film in the theater-release are from Deckard's voice-over explaining that Rachael had no termination date. Tyrell had told him that she was special, which means that she was "one-of-a-kind." Deckard's last words of the voice-over are, "I didn't know how long we had together, who does?" If Deckard was a replicant he would have had a 4-year life span and the line about not knowing how much time they'd have doesn't make sense.

When Deckard is fighting both Leon and Roy, he has nowhere near the strength that they display. Their artificial strength is obvious, as is Deckard's lack of it. Roy saves Deckard as he raises him up with one arm, holding onto him with the same hand that he just shoved a nail through. Whereas Deckard is whimpering like a baby as his fingers are broken. Deckard also was scared as he faced both Leon and Roy, while neither of them exhibit an ounce of fear at all.

With Deckard as a human, we find him discovering his own humanity at the same time he is required to terminate the existence of creatures just beginning to discover theirs. It must cross his mind, "Am I really just retiring machines, or are they people?" Along comes Rachael, who is as human as anyone he knows, and has the same kind of doubts about herself as he does, only from the opposite side. She thought she was human and discovers she's artificial. He's beginning to wonder if he isn't less human than they are. The symmetry is incredible. But on the other hand, if Deckard is indeed a replicant, the point of the film becomes is also expressed vividly. If all along we think Deckard is a human and then find out that he is not, we realize that the line between human and non-human is less distinct than we thought. The message is that the replicants were in effect becoming indistinguishable from humans. Ridley Scott did an excellent job of creating a film where one is forced to question human right to life and where to draw the line as to who has these rights. In a moment that could clear the mist completely, Rachel asks Deckard if he has ever taken the Voigt-Kampff test himself. He doesn't answer, and in the process leaves us hanging in the balance.

 

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