Blade Runner
Welcome to the June issue of Hacker Chronicles!
This month’s feature is a review of Blade Runner which is my all-time favorite movie. I’ve watched it twice in a movie theater, and in its original cut, director’s cut, and final cut at home. It’s the ultimate cyberpunk visual and it has the best soundtrack of any movie, composed by Vangelis.
Enjoy!
Regards, John
Writing Update
Believe it or not, but I’ve written the sequel to Identified to the end, through the climax and epilogue. That’s immensely satisfying. Took me a year and a half. Last issue of my newsletter, I wrote that this would constitute Draft 0, which is wrong. This is Draft -1 and only after I’ve addressed all TODOs will I be at Draft 0.
I’ve gotten through quite a few of those TODOs already, including watching a Russian movie that was hard to get hold of. But plenty of work remains. I will probably get to 90k words when I’m done.
This is where I am right now:
Review of Blade Runner
Blade Runner was directed by Ridley Scott and released in 1982. It is based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick. Loosely based on I’d say, even though certain parts are directly from the book. I won’t be reviewing the novel in parallel here. I read it years ago and I rarely re-read books. By the way, Dick also wrote Minority Report which I reviewed earlier.
Blade Runner isn’t a hacker movie per-se, so I won’t give it a hacker rating. But it relates directly to last month’s topic “The Turing Test and Our Fear of Humanoids.”
The Premise
The story takes place in Los Angeles 2019, obviously told as a futuristic tale almost 40 years into the future.
In this future, humans have not just explored space but moved into colonies in the “Off-world.” Humans who can’t afford moving to the colonies are stuck in grimy, dystopian cities and the constant rain in L.A. tells us that the climate has changed too.
The Tyrell Corporation has created humanoids who work as slaves in the space colonies. They’re called Replicants and are made to replicate humans as far as possible but are also granted superhuman capabilities based on what they are supposed to do. There are military Replicants, super strong industrial worker Replicants, and escort Replicants called “pleasure units.” This whole development is called the Nexus phase in robotics.
Some Replicants revolted in a violent manner and after that, Replicants were declared illegal on Earth – under penalty of death.
A special police force with so called Blade Runners is tasked with seeking out any Replicants who make it to Earth, and kill them. Since Replicants aren’t human, that’s not called an execution, but a retirement.
Thoughts
Computers have often been referred to as the slaves of our times. That diminishes the horrible crime of actual slavery, but the comparison would become relevant if AI develops emotions and becomes self-aware. There is already an active discussion on when and how AI could get certain rights under existing laws and amended laws.
There is also something telling in our desire to create human-like robots. It probably helps us live with them but also seems like self-indulgence. We’re so great that of course machines should be like us. There are examples where this is not true, like The Matrix where the machines are not human-like.
Opening Scene – Testing Leon
In the opening scene, we get to see the fabulous Voight-Kampff test rig. It has an accordion-like lung, a photo lens on an extension arm, and a small TV screen for its camera feed.
The subject under test is a nervous man by the name Leon (Brion James). He is tested by a man called Holden (Morgan Paull).
– Reaction time is a factor, so please pay attention, Holden says. You’re in a desert, walking along the sand, when …
– Is this the test now? Leon asks abruptly.
– Yes. You’re in a desert, walking along the sand, when all of a sudden you look down …
– What one?
– What?
– What desert?
– Doesn’t make any difference. It’s completely hypothetical.
– But how come I’d be there?
– Maybe you’re fed up. Maybe you wanna be by yourself. Who knows? You look down and you see a tortoise, Leon. It’s crawling towards you …
Leon is getting nervous. We hear his heart pounding.
– The tortoise lays on its back, its belly baking in the hot sun, beating its legs, trying to turn itself over, but it can’t, not without your help.
We see flecks of light or reflections in Leon’s pupils.
– What do you mean I’m not helping?
– I mean, you’re not helping. Why is that, Leon?
Leon shifts in his chair and doesn’t answer. The test proceeds.
– Describe in single words only the good things that come into your mind about your mother.
– My mother?
– Yeah.
– Let me tell you about my mother.
Leon shoots Holden.
Thoughts
The Voight-Kampff empathy test is designed to be able to tell humans and Replicants apart. It’s a Turing test of sorts. The implication is that Replicants are emotionally underdeveloped and that that can be detected.
There’s nothing in the test questions that give Leon reason to shoot Holden. Unless he is a Replicant and the test is triggering some horrible bug in him. We get a sense that Leon is nervous about being tested.
Voight-Kampff is reminiscent of the polygraph test, or lie detector. That makes you feel like Leon is guilty of something.
Deckard Pulled Back Into the Force
Cut to a fascinating city landscape with occasional flying cars. The scope closes in on a rainy city street full of people, neon lights, and hovering billboards advertising the Off-world.
Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) sits down by a street side noodle bar and orders food. Two men show up behind him and tell him he is under arrest because some Bryant wants him. We learn that Deckard is a Blade Runner. He says he’s retired but reluctantly follows along to the police station.
After being threatened by police chief Bryant (M. Emmet Walsh) and hearing that his successor Holden has been shot, he accepts the assignment to retire four Replicants Nexus model 6 who recently made it to Earth.
Bryant shows Deckard the video of Leon’s test.
Bryant says the escaped replicants tried to break into the Tyrell Corporation three days ago. He then gives a short briefing on the four Replicants at large.
- Leon. Nuclear fission loader. Can lift 400-pound loads all night.
- Roy Batty. Combat model. Optimum self-sufficiency. Probably the leader.
- Zhora. Off-world kick murder squad.
- Pris. Basic pleasure model. Standard item for military clubs.
Bryant turns to Deckard and says:
– They were designed to copy humans in every way except their emotions. The designer reckons that after a few years they might develop their own emotional responses. Hate, love, fear, anger, envy. So they built in a fail-safe device.
– Which is what?
– Four-year life span.
Thoughts
The retired policeman who is asked or forced back because he’s simply the best is a trope. Luckily, it has very limited impact on the plot.
A capped life span is effectively a limit on input. If we assume that emotions and self-awareness develop through life experience and human interactions, this makes sense but is cruel. It’s also special that these Replicants are “incepted” as adults. They don’t get to develop like humans.
My recent review of 2001: A Space Odyssey covered how the remaining human on the ship disconnected the intelligent computer Hal’s mind, slowly degrading his memory and capabilities. There’s an underlying “You must never challenge us, only serve us” theme in both these movies.
Rachel
Bryant is worried that the Voight-Kampff test isn’t effective on Nexus 6 Replicants. There’s a Nexus 6 at the Tyrell Corporation headquarters and Bryant tells Deckard to go there and run the test on it.
Deckard goes to Tyrell Corp and is greeted by a young, beautiful woman named Rachel (Sean Young). There’s a tame owl there and she asks Deckard if he likes it. He inquires if it’s artificial. “Of course it is,” she replies. The owl has the same flecks of light in its pupils as we saw Leon have in the opening scene.
She then asks him if he has ever retired a human by mistake. She insists that making such a gruesome mistake must be a risk in his job.
Dr. Eldon Tyrell (Joe Turkel) shows up.
– Is this supposed to be an empathy test? he asks Deckard. Capillary dilation of the so-called blush response? Fluctuation of the pupil? Involuntary dilation of the iris.
– We call it Voight-Kampff for short, Deckard responds.
– I wanna see a negative before I provide you with a positive.
Tyrell wants Deckard to test Rachel first, to show that Voight-Kampff doesn’t mis-classify humans.
It takes a long time to test Rachel and we see flecks of light in her eyes.
When Deckard is done with the test, he and Tyrell talk alone. Deckard says Rachel is a Replicant. Tyrell is impressed and admits she is. He says she’s a new, experimental model. They’ve given her a past as an emotional cushion because it makes Replicants more stable. Deckard realizes that they’ve injected memories into her brain and that she doesn’t know she’s a Replicant.
Thoughts
Let’s first break down what Tyrell says about the Voight-Kampff test.
A capillary is a small blood vessel, 5 to 10 micrometers in diameter. Capillary dilation is widening of such a small vessel and allows for more blood flow. A blush is a reddening of the cheeks and forehead through such capillary dilation. So that’s the blush response Tyrell is talking about.
Spontaneous fluctuations in pupil diameter track changes in alertness, attention and mental effort (ref). A widening of the pupil can indicate arousal, uncertainty, decision conflict, errors, physical activity or increasing cognitive load or demand (ref). I think Tyrell means the same thing with “dilation of the iris.”
This means that the Voight-Kampff test is able to detect and classify blushes and pupil widening as emotional responses. The questions during the test are meant to invoke certain responses and Replicants don’t show the same responses as humans.
Tyrell boasts about his humanoid creations when he says “More human than human, that’s our motto.” That and the fact that it’s very hard for Deckard to detect that Rachel is a Replicant suggests that the difference in emotional response is not intentional to help humans classify Replicants. Tyrell is trying to make Replicants indistinguishable from humans.
Tyrell is obviously aware that the Voight-Kampff test exists since he asks about it in a detailed fashion. But he is unsure if it can correctly classify Rachel. To me that indicates that Voight-Kampff machines are tightly controlled by the police and Tyrell has not been able to lay his hands on one.
Next, I’d like to point out that Deckard doesn’t seem familiar with Rachel, not surprised to meet her, and not concerned about her before he understands that she has memories and doesn’t know she’s a Replicant. I will pick this thread up further down.
Rachel’s question about retiring a human by mistake is wonderfully deep. First, it wouldn’t be called retirement if it was a human but she suggests that humans and Replicants should be treated as equal. She believes that she is human herself which is why she’d be worried by such mistakes. Maybe Tyrell has told her he will ask Deckard to test her and she worries that she’ll be mis-classified as a Replicant and … retired by mistake.
Deckard’s reaction to Rachel’s injected memories and lack of self-awareness as a Replicant is interesting in itself. He seems to think that it’s immoral to give Replicants a past and not tell them what they are. But you can also view it from the opposite angle — maybe he reacts that way because it makes him realize that he, or anyone, could now be a Replicant. The lack of a past and having been told you’re a Replicant are no longer guaranteed.
The tame owl is a nice homage to the original novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? in which humans long for animals in a dystopian future where real animals are all but extinct. In fact, Deckard in the novel takes the assignment to retire the Nexus 6 Replicants to hopefully get enough bounty money to buy a live animal.
The Hunt Begins
Deckard starts his investigation at the hotel where Leon stayed before he shot Holden. He finds a shimmering, drop-shaped scale in the bathtub and a stack of Polaroid photos.
Cut. We see Roy Batty for the first time. His hand is getting stiff and he curses it. Leon joins him and Roy asks if he got back his precious photos. He didn’t. Policemen have been in his hotel room.
Roy and Leon go to an eye scientist in a freezing cold lab. Being Replicants, they are not bothered by the low temperature whereas the scientist is wearing a thick costume inflated with warm air.
Roy asks the scientist about Replicants’ longevity and incept dates. The scientist says he just does genetic design of eyes. When threatened, he says Tyrell knows everything and that a certain J.F. Sebastian can take them to Tyrell.
Thoughts
Genetic design sounds interesting but it’s a bit weird that eyes are created separately. I mean, each individual only has one DNA. But maybe genetic design means a Replicant gets a DNA blueprint and designers generate/produce body parts that match, such as a pair of eyes.
Rachel Gets Wise
Deckard comes home after work. The elevator to his apartment authenticates him via voice and he goes to floor 97. As soon as the elevator doors open, he draws a gun and we see Rachel standing there.
She says Tyrell refuses to talk to her and that what he told Deckard isn’t true. Deckard reluctantly lets her in to his apartment.
– You think I’m a Replicant, don’t you? she says. She shows him a photo. Look. It’s me with my mother.
– Yeah? Remember when you were six? You and your brother snuck into an empty building through a basement window. You were gonna play doctor? He showed you his and when it got to be your turn, you chickened out and ran. Remember that? Did you ever tell anybody that? Your mother, Tyrell, anybody, huh? You remember the spider that lived in the bush outside your window? Orange body, green legs? Watched her build a web all summer? Then one day, there’s a big egg in it. The egg hatched …
– The egg hatched … Rachel says with sorrow.
– And?
– And a hundred baby spiders came out. And they ate her.
– Implants. Those aren’t your memories, they’re somebody else’s. They’re Tyrell’s niece’s.
Rachel gets misty-eyed.
– Okay. Bad joke. I made a bad joke. You’re not a Replicant. Go home. Okay?
Rachel lingers for a bit, contemplating what Deckard said, then dashes out and leaves her photo behind.
Deckard looks at the photo. It comes alive, as if he’s re-living the moment.
Thoughts
It’s inconclusive in the movie if Deckard knows these things about Rachel’s memories because he’s seen her files or if he has memories of his own being with her as a child. The photo coming alive points toward the latter. This is an example of the beautiful subtlety in Ridley Scott’s work.
Rachel exists in the novel too, as Rachel Rosen. But there she knows she’s a Replicant.
Pris
Pris is walking the streets and goes to sleep under some trash and newspapers. A man parks his car in the street and walks close to where she’s laying. He accidentally wakes her up and she tries to run away. She forgets her bag though, and the man gives it back. They introduce themselves, he is J.F. Sebastian.
Sebastian welcomes Pris in to his apartment to eat something. He lives alone in a huge, deserted, and crumbling building. His comments about it suggest that everyone who can afford it has moved to the Off-world.
Pris asks if he gets lonely. He says he makes friends. Toys. “I’m a genetic designer.”
Pris says she has to find her friends.
Thoughts
We know Roy and Leon are looking for J.F. Sebastian so it feels like an act of God (Deus ex machina) when Pris just happens to find him in a mega city like Los Angeles. The movie’s weakest spot.
Sebastian is the second genetic designer we get to see, supposedly close to Eldon Tyrell. He is based on a character in the book called John R. Isidore but Isidore is quite different and no genetic designer, rather an intellectually below-average person, living alone.
We learn here that Pris doesn’t know where Roy, Leon, or Zhora are.
Zhora
Back in Deckard’s apartment. In the final cut of the movie, there’s a dream scene here with a unicorn galloping in a forest, supposedly a memory of Deckard’s.
Deckard inserts one of Leon’s photos into a computer with a CRT screen. He talks to the computer to analyze the photo in depth. Pans, zooms, and enhances. He finds a woman laying on a bed, obscured if it wasn’t for his computer’s ability to enhance the photo. He connects her outfit to the scale he found in the bathtub and prints a grainy hardcopy of the woman.
A street vendor helps Deckard magnify the scale. She says it’s top workmanship and manufactured locally. There’s a serial number imprinted at micro scale – 9906947-XB71. “Not fish. Snake scale,” she concludes. “Try Abdul Ben Hassan. He make this snake.”
Deckard seeks out Abdul who says a Taffey Lewis bought it. She’s in Chinatown. Deckard looks for her in a crowded bar with exotic dancers. While drinking, he calls Rachel on a public video phone but she doesn’t want to join him — “That’s not my kind of place.”
Miss Salome and the Snake are presented on stage. Deckard waits for Salome backstage and tells her he’s there to check if she’s been taken advantage of. He checks her dressing room for peepholes while she showers.
– Is this a real snake? he asks her.
– Of course it’s not real. Think I’d be working in a place like this if I could afford a real snake?
Deckard finds a matching scale from her dress.
Salome asks Deckard to dry her back, only to strike him down. She’s interrupted when she tries to strangle him and flees.
Deckard pursues, gun drawn. The streets are crowded but he eventually gets a clear shot. Sad music plays as we see her in slow motion struggle to get back on her feet but shot twice again. She is a Replicant – Zhora. And now retired.
Bryant seeks Deckard out to thank him for his first kill. “Four to go,” he says. Deckard insists it’s three. Bryant tells him that Rachel has escaped and she is the fourth. “Didn’t even know she was a Replicant. Something to do with a brain implant, says Tyrell.”
Thoughts
I remember the photo enhancing scene as one of my favorites. It was so imaginative that a computer could do that. Now we’re pretty close to that reality. I wouldn’t be surprised if we will soon be able to reveal obscured objects on old photos through a combination of reflections/shadows in the photo and machine learning.
The Polaroid photos in the movie seem connected to Replicants’ injected memories. Leon probably has a past inserted which is why his stack of photos are so precious to him. So it could be that Zhora and he share some memories and that’s why she’s in one of them. Or it could be that the photo is much more recent.
Deckard doesn’t exercise a Voight-Kampff test on Zhora, he goes on instinct, the scale, and the fact that Taffey flees. Bleak as a reason to kill someone.
The fake snake is another homage to the novel, this one more naturally a part of the plot than the owl.
The twist that Deckard is expected to kill Rachel is a gut punch, both for him and the audience.
Leon is Retired
As Bryant and his assistant Gaff (Edward James Olmos) leave, Deckard sees Rachel in the crowd across the street. He tries to go to her but runs into Leon. Leon asks “How old am I?” Deckard hits him but Leon doesn’t care. Instead he starts beating Deckard up as he continues to ask about himself.
– My birthday is April 10, 2017. How long do I live?
– Four years.
– More than you. Painful to live in fear, isn’t it?
Deckard pulls his gun but Leon knocks it out of his hand and it skids away. Leon yells and starts to push his fingers into Deckard’s eye sockets.
A bullet goes through Leon’s head. It’s Rachel who has picked up Deckard’s gun. A second Replicant is retired.
Thoughts
This is the point where we start to learn what the Replicants on Earth are after. They are concerned with their limited life span.
Memories of Love
Deckard and Rachel go to Deckard’s apartment to drink after the intense scene with Leon.
– Shakes? Me too. I get them bad. It’s part of the business, Deckard says.
– I’m not in the business. I am the business.
Deckard removes his shirt and washes off blood from the beating.
– What if I go north? Disappear? Would you come after me? Hunt me? Rachel inquires.
– No. No, I wouldn’t. I owe you one. But somebody would.
We see the flecks of light in Rachel’s eyes, then in Deckard’s eyes.
– Deckard. You know those files on me? The incept date. The longevity. Those things. You saw them?
– They’re … classified.
– But you’re a policeman.
– I … didn’t look at them.
– You know that Voight-Kampff test of yours. Did you ever take that test yourself?
Deckard doesn’t reply, instead lays down and dozes off.
Rachel sits down at Deckard’s piano and plays the notes on the sheet music that’s open. Also on the piano are framed photos and she looks at a photo of a young woman and changes her hair to look like her.
Deckard wakes up.
– I dreamt music, he says, sitting down beside Rachel.
– I didn’t know if I could play. She plays again. I remember lessons. I don’t know if it’s me or Tyrell’s niece.
They look at each other.
– You play beautifully.
Deckard tries to kiss her. She flees. He stops her and demands he kisses him and that she says “Kiss me.”
Thoughts
This scene is full of mystery and suggestions. When Deckard says he gets the shakes and they are “part of the business” he is comparing himself to Rachel, who is a Replicant.
Rachel’s question on whether Deckard has taken the test himself is almost on the nose but there is a hint of her still questioning the test’s accuracy.
The flecks of light in both of their eyes.
And finally, the shared memories and Deckard’s demand that Rachel play her part in a lost romance.
All of this suggests that Deckard is a Replicant. Let’s see what such an assumption leads to. Shouldn’t he have superhuman powers or is he an early model without? Why is he allowed to live on Earth – as the ultimate Blade Runner? Is he also on a four-year life cap? Since he has memories shared with Rachel, is that a play from Tyrell? If so, then Tyrell knew that when he asked Deckard to test Rachel, but as I pointed out, Deckard didn’t react much to seeing Rachel back then.
Fans of the movie have debated whether or not Deckard is a Replicant for four decades. According to an article on CNET, director Ridley Scott says yes while main actor Harrison Ford says no.
I personally love that this is left ambiguous and I’m working on my own writing to be better at leaving some things that matter up to the reader. It’s magic when you get those things right in storytelling.
I will say that the tail end of this love scene where Deckard forces Rachel to kiss him is over the line. It probably wasn’t at the time, but we have since learned things about consent, as a society. You could view this as yet another Replicants-as-slaves point.
Demanding a Life Hack
We’re back at Sebastian’s place where Pris is praising him. We see Roy Batty get to the apartment floor they’re at. Roy enters and kisses Pris which makes Sebastian uncomfortable.
Pris and Roy talk. Roy is sad that Leon and Zhora are dead.
– Then we’re stupid and we’ll die, Pris says.
– No, we won’t.
Sebastian says breakfast is ready.
– Why are you staring at us, Sebastian? Roy asks.
– Because you’re so different. You’re perfect. What generation are you?
– Nexus 6.
Sebastian says he works for Tyrell Corp and that he’s helped design them. He wants them to do something, show their skills. Roy says they’re no computers, they’re “physical.”
Roy tells Sebastian that Pris doesn’t have long to live. “We can’t allow that.” Pris and Roy convince Sebastian to take Roy to Eldon Tyrell.
They trick their way to Tyrell’s residence. Roy demands more life from his maker. Tyrell says the coding sequence cannot be changed once it’s been established. It’s a fact of life.
– Why not?
– Because by the second day of incubation, any cells that have undergone reversion mutations give rise to revertant colonies like rats leaving a sinking ship.
– What about EMS recombination?
– We’ve already tried it. Ethyl methane sulfonate is an alkylating agent and a potent mutagen. It created a virus so lethal the subject was dead before he left the table.
– Then a repressor protein that blocks the operating cells.
– Wouldn’t obstruct the replication, but it does give rise to an error in replication so that the newly formed DNA strand carries a mutation and you’ve got a virus again. But, uh, this, all of this, is … academic. You were made as well as we could make you.
– But not to last.
– The light that burns twice as bright, burns half as long. And you have burned so very, very brightly, Roy.
Tyrell sits down beside Roy and strokes his hair paternalistically.
Roy kisses Tyrell, then crushes his maker’s skull by pressing Tyrell’s temples, and pushes his thumbs through Tyrell’s eye sockets.
Thoughts
Roy asks the scientist Tyrell to hack his own being in order to prolong his life. He even suggests two different, involved approaches himself. Tyrell says they’ve tried them. This means they have either had reason to want to extend the life of a Replicant before, or they have done security testing to make sure none of these hacks would work.
It’s strange to me that mutations caused by such hacks would create viruses. An interesting thought though, is if these are more like computer viruses than biological ones. But the references to molecules and DNA suggests not.
This is of course an eternal question for humans too — extending our lives through various hacks. Or even being revived after death.
The End of the Hunt
Bryant calls Deckard and says Tyrell and Sebastian have been found dead. He tells Deckard to check Sebastian’s place.
Pris hides as one of Sebastian’s toys and surprises Deckard. She tries to kill him but he manages to shoot her. A third Replicant retired.
Roy shows up and is heartbroken to find Pris dead. He knows Deckard is there, hiding, and taunts him. Deckard tries to shoot Roy but misses over and over.
Roy seizes Deckard’s wrist by punching through a wall and grabbing it. He breaks two of Deckard’s fingers, one for Zhora and one for Pris, then gives Deckard a head start to escape.
After a brief countdown, Roy starts hunting Deckard. His hands are getting stiffer and he tells his hand “Not yet” before driving a nail through it to get it working again.
Deckard ends up outside a window and sees the street below. The rain is pouring in L.A. Deckard climbs onto the roof and jumps to the next building to get away but misses and hangs on to a ledge.
Roy jumps after and watches Deckard struggle.
– Quite an experience living in fear, isn’t it? That’s what it is to be a slave.
Deckard loses his grip. Roy saves him and pulls him up.
The last of the escaped Replicants from the Off-world sits down, his body quickly getting stiffer. Deckard watches in fear as Roy starts a short monologue.
– I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire on the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate. All those moments will be lost … in time … like … tears … in rain. Time to die.
Roy hangs his head and dies.
Thoughts
Rutger Hauer has rightfully been praised for this scene. He even rewrote the monologue to the classic we now know as “Tears In Rain.”
The most profound thing here is Roy’s deeply human desire to tell his story to someone the last thing he does. He didn’t want to die. He didn’t even want to kill. He just wanted more than four years to live and to hold on to his experiences and memories.
Deckard Retires
Gaff shows up in a hovering police car and asks Deckard if he’s done. Deckard says he’s finished. Gaff throws him his gun before he shouts:
– It’s too bad she won’t live. But then again, who does?
Deckard goes back to his apartment to look for Rachel. He finds her sleeping under a blanket.
They get ready to flee. On their way to the elevator, Rachel steps on an aluminum foil figurine of a unicorn. Deckard understands that Gaff has been there and knows. Gaff creates such figurines.
Deckard and Rachel go into the elevator and the movie ends.
Thoughts
The foil unicorn only becomes a strong signal together with the unicorn scene earlier which was added in the final cut. Ridley Scott always wanted the dream scene there but the producers didn’t.
This is yet another indication that Deckard is a Replicant. But more interesting is that Gaff let’s him flee with Rachel. They get a chance to be together, with whatever time she has left on her four-year clock. Maybe it’s a thank you from the police?
Final Remarks
This movie has stood the test of time in almost all ways. The scenes are convincing, the mood is still dystopian, and the plot touches you.
The older I’ve become, the more I’ve started to appreciate the humanity parts of the movie, whereas when I first saw it, it was all about the cyberpunk and that photo enhance scene.
Last but not least, Vangelis’s Blade Runner soundtrack is the best. The. Best.
Currently Reading
I’m still reading Four Battlegrounds: Power in the Age of Artificial Intelligence and frankly haven’t made much progress. It’s been intense at work and my family has been out for a couple of weeks which always affects me in strange ways. I’ve had to focus on keeping my spirit up and have done a bunch of manual labor around the house.
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