Blade Runner Analysis

Blade Runner Analysis

Blade Runner is a science fiction neo-noir thriller set in a futuristic dystopian Los Angeles in the year 2019. The film tells the story of how a corporation known as the Tyrell Corporation built humanoid slaves called Replicants. After a mutiny by Replicants in an off-world colony, Replicants were officially banned from living on Earth. Police officers known as Blade Runners were ordered to shoot and kill any Replicant found tresspassing on Earth. It's referred to as "retiring" rather than "killing" in an attempt to rationalize their actions. The film is told from the point of view of a retired Blade Runner named Rick Deckard who is forced to return to his job when four Replicants sneak onto Earth.

When it was first released in 1982, Blade Runner received mixed reviews from critics. Many were expecting a straightforward, simple action film. Others felt that the story took a backseat to the special effects. A few felt that the movie would stand the test of time. Today, Blade Runner is ranked #134 on the IMDb top 250 and has a 91% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Edward James Olmos as Gaff

A recurring motif in Blade Runner is its eye imagery. When the character of Gaff is introduced, one of his most notable physical features is his icy blue eyes. Gaff is a Blade Runner. As established above, that means he tracks down and kills bioengineered beings known as Replicants for a living. While we never see Gaff actually do his job, it's established that he's very good at it and Gaff's icy blue eyes show how being a Blade Runner has made him a cold and calculating man. Ironically, it also makes him seem less human.

 The first eye we see is presumed to be a Blade Runner named Holden as he gazes at the landscape that introduces us into the film's mysterious world. We then see the Voight Kampf test, which determines an individual's emotional responses by measuring the reflex action in their eye, thus showing how eyes can define one's humanity. The Replicants seem to think highly of their eyes. When Replicants Roy and Kowalski interrogate a man named Chew, who designed eyes for the Tyrell Corporation, and thus designed their eyes, Roy remarks "If only you could see what I've seen with your eyes". Roy knows that he is a Replicant but seems to have a small sense of inner peace with his eyes.

Indeed the idea of what defines a human is another key theme in Blade Runner. The Replicants look identical to humans so one cannot tell who is who simply by a glance. The idea of showing humanity is a phrase usually used when referring to someone who has shown kindness or decency. Deckard is the main Blade Runner of the story but is not exactly full of emotion and tends to lack qualities that are normally considered "human". Gaff is like a more extreme version of Deckard, coming off as a machine designed to kill. Contrasting that is the Replicants, particularly Roy Batty, who chooses to save Deckards life even though Deckard was trying to "retire" him. Have humans lost their humanity? Have machines become the more honest species? A common interpretation of the film is that Deckard is a Replicant himself, because in the director's cut, he has a dream involving a unicorn and Gaff later leaves an origami unicorn in his apartment. Since Deckard never told anyone about the dream, the only way Gaff could have known would be if someone planted that dream into him, which is exactly what happens to Replicants. This would imply that a reason for Deckard's lack of emotions is due to him not knowing (and thus not accepting) what he really is.

Harrison Ford as Rick Deckard 

Blade Runner is also noted for its similarities to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Both stories are about humans being destroyed by their own creations. The film has messages from both the perspectives of the humans and the Replicants. The humans learn (or rather need to learn) that all actions have consequences and progress will not be made if mistakes are simply swept under the rug. From the Replicants' point of view, similar to Frankenstein, there could be a message about challenging God and God's will. Both Frankenstein's monster and the Replicants challenge their creators and while all four Replicants are dead by the end of the film, their moral superiority to humanity is made apparent. In addition, humanity (the creators) are shown to be living in a rather unpleasant society as a result of their own lack of responsibility, showing that being a creator doesn't make somebody superior.

Today Blade Runner is seen as one of the most complex science fictions films ever made with its many themes being analyzed by film scholars and film buffs alike. Arguably Ridley Scott's most personal film, 32 years later, Blade Runner has stood the test of time.