Blade Runner: Deckard As A Replicant

Interviewer

It is my pleasure to welcome the assistant of Ridley Scott. In Blade Runner, why is Mr Scott creating confusion for the audience over Deckard’s status as a Replicant or a human?

Assistant

In the film, there was a deliberate ambiguity as whether Deckard was a Replicant to enhance the complexity of the plot. From the outset, majority of the audience assumed Deckard was a human given his mission involved killing humans. Ridley desired to create feelings for Replicants amongst the audience; we had many discussions regarding Deckard being a Replicant. We were concerned if Deckard was displayed as a Replicant to the audience in the beginning, then the audience would lack sympathy towards his compelling characterisation. Therefore,

At the inception of the film there is an extreme close up of the eye, covering the entire screen which reflected harmful emissions from factories which were polluting the city. Eyes are a vital and vulnerable aperture in a living organism’s body. They are often described as the window to the soul because they let us experience the colourful beauty of the world. This eye created an image in the audience’s minds about the disastrous situation of the world and Ridley desired to emphasise the purpose of this motif with the Voight-kampff machine. The Voight-kampff machine measured fluctuations in the iris and pupil of the subject during an emotional conversation to distinguish between a Replicant and a human. This motif is present again in Chew’s laboratory, an eye geneticist, during the conversation between Chew and Roy regarding JF Sebastian. During this conversation with Chew, Roy mentions “If only you’ve seen what I’ve seen with your eyes” which acted as powerful symbolism that suggested Roy is developing emotions through Chew’s eyes. This line related with Roy’s words with Deckard on the rooftop, Roy reluctantly mentioned that his memories will be lost like “tears in the rain”. The motif of eyes is continued in the reflective glowing eyes possessed by all the Replicants, separating them from humans and created a sense of artificiality. Tyrell’s death was one of the most memorable in Blade Runner, because this scene correlated with the story between Lucifer and God. Roy is highly intelligent and is provided with many gifts similar to Lucifer. Roy unsatisfied, wanted to be superior and overthrow his creator like Lucifer. In this scene Roy was wearing black clothes which symbolised death and Tyrell was wearing white clothes which symbolised purity. Roy was demanding a longer life which Tyrell said was impossible and advised Roy to seek