60 scientists give list of 10 best SciFi movies

[JohnL]

Count me as one of the ones who never noticed any implications that Deckard was a replicant. The things suggesting he might be one are incredibly circumstantial and there's the fact that replicants are considered to be so dangerous and illegal, there's an entire department of the police force devoted to hunting down and killing them. How would a replicant not only be allowed to join the police, but to carry around a high-powered gun and kill those he believes to be replicants?

[Yaddo42]

I see the circumstancial evidence claim, that's part of why I say the answer is up in the air.

You have to read into things a bit to claim that Deckard was a replicant, seems like. Some claim Deckard was the other member of the group of escaped replicants (the one  reported destroyed) and has been reprogrammed or lied to. The thinking, I guess, is that the replicants are so dangerous that the best one ot hunt them down is another replicant. Also from this line of thinking Deckard may not be a former member of the police, he may just have been reprogrammed to think he was. Deckard's blandness of personality and his confusion at times is supposed to support this, I think. This is all supposed to jibe with the general air of confusion, misdirection, and "your reality isn't what you've been lead to think it is" that is so much a part of PKD's writing. There's a chapter in the book where Deckard is arrested after killing on the replicants, only to find out that the police precinct he's taken to is a fake filled with other escaped replicants hiding in plain sight as police employees. The detective who tells all this to Deckard begins to plant the seed in Deckard's mind that he may be a replicant as well. I've always figured the "reprogrammed replicant" idea was a way of invoking this subplot that was droped for the movie.

It does involve the kind of explaining away things and looking for outside info that goes against the "if it ain't in the film, it ain't there" theory some have. It also reminds me of the kind of explanations that fans of "Signs" had for the holes people like myself who didn't like that film brought up.

Like I said, I prefer the true answer isn't known idea, it's more interesting to me that way, so I'm kind of the wrong person to make and support the "Deckard as replicant" argument wholeheartedly.

You can probably google around and find better explanations and supporting evidence, enough people support the idea that someone must have spelled this out somewhere online. After all, I read a website once filled with seemingly serious essays and evidence claiming that the two halves of the Tyler Durden character in "Fight Club" are really Calvin and Hobbes from the great comic strip all grown up and manifesting as split personalities.

[Mr_Vindictive]

Heh, gonna have to disagree about Tyler/Jack from Fight Club being Calvin & Hobbs.  It's pretty much a metaphor for confused sexuality.


As for the version of Blade Runner floating around the airwaves, it's the original version - not the director's cut.  I caught the end of it recently, since I had never seen the original ending.  Awful.  The director's cut is much much better.

[Dave Munger]

Haha, I just remembered that when my friend wanted to see Fight Club I said that it looked like it was going to just be a series of frustrated gay impulses put on film. Then when we saw it, the very first image on the screen is that guy shoving a gun down the other guy's throat. The rest of the movie was just warmed over Marx though.

[Yaddo42]

I just thought the Fight Club/Calvin and Hobbes idea was so loopy that it was funny to see how far the guy went to argue such a pointless claim.

Didn't want to hijack the thread by mentioning it, just wanted to use it as an example of film theories and explanations floating around online. Google :blade runner deckard replicant theory, and see what turns up.

[rupert delimini]

give me the names and biogrphy of fifteen best scientist of all time.