Blade Runner Film Analysis

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Film Analysis: Blade Runner (The Final Cut)

Are Replicants Human?

Introduction

The replicants in Blade Runner (The Final Cut) are synthetic and biorobotic beings that

have para-physical capabilities which have been designed in such a way that they resemble human

beings. In this film, they are made by the Tyrell Corporation for use as human servants. The

replicants, just like normal humans, have complex emotions and feelings. The replicants have a

lifespan of four years. This shows that they are human because they, just like human beings, do

not live forever. The replicants do not age physically but just become weak as their date of

termination nears. The main purpose of this film analysis is to show that replicants are human.

There are many evidences from the film that show that replicants are indeed human. They

share in many of the characteristics of normal human beings. For instance, they are aware of their

existential status. The physical appearance of the replicants in Blade Runner (The Final Cut) is

similar to that of real human beings such that one cannot tell a replicant from a human being by

just looking at how they appear physically. They include Roy, Rachael and Mercy among others.

They behave and sound like the real human beings, showing that they are human. In addition, just

like the real human beings, the replicants, they have genetic material and blood.

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Although there could be differences between the real human beings and replicants, they

are not significant because they do not point to the inherent characteristics of the replicants. The

fact that that the replicants are made by private corporations, for example, does not render them

inhuman as it is not an inherent character of the replicants. The replicants have intellectual

capabilities like those of real human beings which is enough evidence to show that they are human.

They are also able to carry out tasks like real human beings (Scott, Ridley).

Furthermore, the replicants possess the biological characteristics that are possessed by real

human beings which include. They are able to give birth to children. For example, one of the

replicants, Rachael, gets married and bears a child (Scott, Ridley). The posture of a replicant and

the external structure of the body is just like that of a real human beings. The physical appearance,

combined with the abilities and bodily functions of the replicants make it difficult to distinguish

them from real human beings and therefore it can be correctly deduced that they are human.

There is ambiguity in the replicants’ real nature in Blade Burner. The science behind the

design of replicants has not been made clear and it is not known how their internal structure is. We

also do not know their behaviors when young. It may seem that the replicants have no machinery

inside them since, just like the other human beings, they can cry, bleed or sweat (Scott, Ridley).

Although the death of Pris may seem robot-like, there is no machinery noticed when Zhora is

killed. We see blood and flesh instead. It is possible that they develop their full sense late in their

lives (Scott, Ridley). In early life, they are emotionally neutral and subservient because they have

not yet had many experiences. The replicants that are seen in Blade Burner are emotional. In the

case of Rachael, they are developed in such a way that their emotions cannot be distinguished from

the emotions we as humans feel (Scott, Ridley).

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The replicants have human feelings and also possess the instinct of self-preservation

inherent in human beings in that they feel obligated to protect their lives. This causes them to kill

the people they feel are a threat to their lives and existence. Just like human beings, they have

aspirations. For instance, in the greater part of this movie, Roy Batty who is a replicant strives to

reach Tyrell his creator. Finally, Roy manages to reach Tyrell. However, Tyrell tells him that he

is not able to solve his problem. Disappointed by this, Roy kills Tyrell together with Sebastian

(Scott, Ridley).

As the move comes to a close, batty shows that he is human when he saves Deckard from

falling off the building (Scott, Ridley). In doing this, he shows that he has human feelings, even

more than Deckard who kills the replicants mercilessly. When this is compared to the way Batty

kills Tyrell and Sebastian, one can see that Batty has human feelings because he is able to

distinguish situations to know when he should kill and when to preserve life.

In their struggle to live, it is shown in this film that the replicants are more human than the

people who kill them in cold blood. As the movie comes to an end, at the point where Roy Batty

saves Deckard when he is almost falling from the building (Scott, Ridley), the humanity that Roy

shows to Batty is of a nature Deckard would not have shown him as he was on a mission to kill

him (Scott, Ridley). As for Roy Batty, when he sees that there is no longer any obstacle that

separates him from Deckard, he lays down his sword and instead decides to save him.

The name Blade Runner: The Final Cut is an awkward title. The film looks like a sci-fi

masterpiece. The clumsy thing about this film is that the subtitle is intended as a promise and not

as a recommendation. The film is a genuine masterpiece that deserves to be shelled out for

repeatedly. It seems that his flawless sense of taste is one of the greatest strengths of Scott as a

filmmaker. He does not use the film as an excuse for indulgent and pointless reintroduction of

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scenes that have been binned deservedly. This latest production is to be thought of as a loving and

meticulous restoration and not a new cut. Scott polishes, burnishes and primps up a very fine film.

There is not much that needs fixing after all. The director has only made minor changes which

have been so skillfully added to the print that one may question whether these moments which one

has seen many times before are new. Most of them assume the form of purging and tidying up the

irritants. Emmet Walsh the Police Chief is conjured from his grave to make a correction of himself

and announce correctly that the number of loose skin jobs id four and not five. When Deckard

guns down Zhora and sends her flying through plate-glass windows in a see-through PVC

Macintosh, which is a greatest sex and violence amalgamation in the history of cinema, the digital

technology makes sure that at this time, she does not wear five stone or change into a stuntman

who is lumbering (Scott, Ridley).

The most interesting part of the film is where Scott takes violence in the film to another

level where Batty kills Tyrell his maker(Scott, Ridley). The increased graphic of the screen

violence improves this scene as well as those that follow. This is because this film is centered on

eyes, as it begins with a brief shot of one. The peepers it is they who reveal the true nature of the

replicants. In the death speech of Batty, the eyes are the organs through which Batty sees the attack-

ships on fire (Scott, Ridley). The increased emphasis on the point of attack of Batty reinforces the

oedipal echoes of the film non-coincidentally.

More movie changes have been wrought by time passing than the loving tinkering of Scott.

Sci-fi movies are more vulnerable to the ageing signs than all other genres. Innovations thought of

by the makers of film do not really happen while inventions that are unheard of become the order

of the day. The zooming in on a photograph’s details by Deckard in 1982 was a leap of imagination

in technology.

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Work Cited

Scott, Ridley. Blade Runner (The Final Cut). Los Angeles: Warner Bros. Pictures, 1982. Film.

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