Question concerning Blade Runner

[Master Blaster]

I think if Ridley Scott says Deckard was a replicant, than Deckards a replicant. He probably told Harrison Ford the character wasnt a replicant because Ford's character doesnt know. Or maybe he's just f-king with Ford. I'd have never picked up on that, or even questioned it had I not heard it elswhere though. I don't get the unicorn scene however. I like the directors cut, but injecting a unicorn all the sudden to suggest someone is really synthetic?? WTF?? Too artsy for me to pick up on. "hmm, unicorn, dream, hmm OH MY GOD DECKARD IS A REPLICANT!!!" If I was going to give a synthetic guy memories to make him think he's human, I sure as hell wouldnt give him memories of mythological creatures. It either went over my head or under my butt.

[trekgeezer]

Other than the premise of the replicants and Deckard's job, there isn't much similarity.

[Zapranoth]

The part that seriously raises questions, in my mind, is the part when Gaff brings out an origami unicorn.  Gaff is the scarred, stony-looking cop who is always folding little origami animals.

How would he know to give Deckard an origami unicorn, unless it were a scripted memory in a repicant's mind, that Gaff had been briefed about somehow?

[ToyMan]

this was always my understanding - that we were supposed to realize that deckard was a replicant because he had the same memories and dreams as other replicants.

[Derf]

Zapranoth wrote:

> The part that seriously raises questions, in my mind, is the
> part when Gaff brings out an origami unicorn.

I'll admit that could be a clue. Gaff could know that the memory was implanted, but how would he know that Deckard had dreamed about the unicorn? I have all sorts of memories, but I never know what I'm going to dream about. Granted, a replicant's memory base would be a bit more limited than a "real" person's, but the mind is so complex that there would be no way to guarantee any specific memory would crop up and make an appropriate origami animal to mark the occasion. I know, I know, this is fiction. But there is a difference between subtle clues and obscure ones. And that strikes me as a bit on the obscure side. Or were all of Gaff's origami creations somehow significant in Deckard's life? Now I'll have to go and check that out.

As if I don't have enough other movies to watch. . .

[AndyC]

It's been a while since I read the book, but I'm trying to remember if Deckard actually used an empathy box. I kind of think he did, although I don't think he liked it.

That was another major element of the book that was dropped from the movie - the religion of Mercerism. Basically, you grab the handles on the box, and it puts you into a VR representation of an old man climbing a mountain while rocks get chucked at him. The point is that you share his pain. Replicants, having no ability to empathize, can't do it. So, their master plan revolves around discrediting the religion that so many people cling to. Of course, when they do, it doesn't make a damn bit of difference, because they underestimated the tenacity with which humans will hold onto their beliefs.

Anyway, if Deckard had ever used an empathy box, he wasn't a replicant.

I do vaguely recall the part where he is arrested and taken to a phony police station and they try to make him think he's a replicant, but I think that was a trick.

I wish this book was fresher in my memory, but I'm pretty sure he was human.

[anica]

I never once got the slightest hint that Deckard was a replicant, not even after watching the director's cut.  Although I have to say that it would make for a very interesting storyline.  Maybe Ridley Scott was trying to say that it would take a replicant to kill a replicant but maybe they couldn't make him too powerful or he would start to put it together like Rachel did.  But that's just an opinion.  And like the rest of you, I also wondered how a dream of a unicorn was supposed to tip off that he's a replicant?

[Zapranoth]

That's interesting... but the movie is not the book.

[AndyC]

Obviously. What's your point?

[odinn7]

"Obviously. What's your point?"

We may never know.

[ulthar]

odinn7 wrote:

> "Obviously. What's your point?"
>
> We may never know.
>

"She often has no point. It's part of her charm."

--A Few Good Men.  Sorry, I couldn't resist.

[Writer]

I've seen the director's cut myself, and what I can say for it is that while the end might suggest that Deckard is a replicant, it might also be making the slightly different point that humans are becoming so much like the replicants there really is no meaningful difference between humans and replicants anymore. As Gaffe tells Deckard near the end, "It's too bad she won't live. But then again, who does?" In other words, replicant or not, what makes you any less robotic than the replicants you're hunting?

[Zapranoth]

Andy:  My comment was just supposed to mean that because the book and movie differ quite a bit, I don't think you can necessarily draw clues on the question we're debating (ie, in the *movie* is Deckard a replicant?) from themes in the *book.*

Anica:  the hint we're talking about is that in the director's cut (only), Deckard has a brief dream about a unicorn.  Periodically in the film (either version), a cop called Gaff sets down origami animals, but late in the film he brings out a unicorn --  making us wonder if this is a hint that Deckard is a machine, that his memories are a script, and that Gaff knows this.

There are certainly other possible meanings, and I think it's an interesting ambiguity.  I agree that it's not provable either way.  The point about humans losing some essential quality of their human-ness, though, is certainly what I get from most of the rest of the movie.

-  Z

"HE say rrrryou brrrade runnah!"

[AndyC]

Well, I was trying to answer the question of whether the Deckard-as-replicant idea came from the book or not. Seems you missed that part of the discussion. Even if the question wasn't explicitly asked, it is worthwhile to look at whether this idea was, in fact, Dick's original intent, or whether it was something that came along later. Some of us like to look a little deeper.

[Zapranoth]

No need to condescend.

- Z