Seven: Blade Runner

Director: Ridley Scott
Year: 1982
Cast: Harrison Ford, Sean Young, Rutger Hauer, Daryll Hannah


Blade Runner came after Alien by the same director and with this he created a master piece. The movie itself has a philosophical base based on Phillip K Dick’s novel, ‘Do Androids dream of Electric Sheep?’


The movie is set in the future, 2020, where a retired law enforcement officer is brought back to eliminate ‘replicants’. The first scene itself tells you about the dystopian world you are about to enter, its dark, gloomy and filled with all kinds of filth around you. You know that already people who could afford to leave have left for the other planets, what is left is the scum and those who are here to suck the last resource of this earth. Perpetual rain makes it gloomy and depressing.

Replicants are humanoid creatures which are used in dangerous places on other planets where humans can’t work. After a bloody rebellion at one of these colonies they are prohibited to come back to earth. However, some of the replicants have sneaked back and now it’s up to Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) to hunt them down or ‘retire them’. Replicants are manufactured and are so human like that they are given memories and feelings of being a human and hence they forget about their identity too. Replicants have a problem that they would automatically retire after four years, so basically their life span is only four years and here the renegade replicants are seeking to meet their creator to increase their lifespan. The creator is Tyrell Corporation and its eccentric scientist Tyrell.

Deckard, Gaff and their boss Bryant, realise that these replicant are on loose when Holden is killed while he is administrating a Voight-Kamff test which enables human to distinguish Replicants. While visiting Tyrell corporation Deckard finds that Rachael (Sean Young) new model of replicants are far more adaptable. While going through the evidence Deckard finds a picture of Zhora in his works and tracks her down at a strip club. After retiring he is confronted with Leon but he is saved by Rachael. Leon is retired too. In the meantime Roy, the leader of the replicants is trying to get into Tyrell Corporation to meet Tyrell. Here is uses Sebastian a young scientist suffering from aging gene to get inside the Tyrell. Roy and Pris are the only ones left.

When Roy meets his maker he tries to reason with Tyrell for extending his life and when he fails he kills him too. Deckard reaches Sebastian’s apartment and is ambushed by Pris. He is no match to Pris but he is able to fight off and retire her too. Roy comes back and finds Pris lifeless and gets annoyed. He chases Deckard to the roof of the building where Deckard tries to leap of to the other building but falls short and is hanging at the edge. Roy follows him, holds his hands and pulls him up before he delivers his last sentence. “I've seen things you people wouldn't believe: Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion; I've 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." He retires due to aging in just four years.

Deckard goes back home to get Rachael and as they are leaving for their uncertain and short future, he finds an origami unicorn, a sign of Gaff. The ending is open to interpretation on whether Deckard was a replicant too.



Philosophy:
I have always believed that like great literature, great movies also become far more interesting to watch when you start asking the higher questions through them. This movie is full of them. Of course these are my thoughts and things that I have understood and read around it, they are not a philosopher’s interpretation of this movie or these questions.

I saw Blade Runner much after I had seen Matrix. Now I know that when I had seen Matrix-I I wanted it to be Blade Runner and ask all those questions. Let me start by putting some of the questions that this movie puts out, where Matrix was a disspointment.

1. How do you distinguish between a humanoid and a human?

Supposedly a humanoid passes all tests (like Voight-Kamff) then would it be considered a human. It is a very important question in our genetic manipulated world. We all have some fallacies which wouldn’t be part of a perfect human and yet with all our imperfections we are still human, but what makes us human? Or what are the defining traits of being a human.

Let us try to define a person, many greats have tried their hand at it, some even came close to it and they are our only guide, Boethius defines it as an individual with rationality (naturae rationalis individua substantia) with an emphasis on individual. (But that raises an important question would a collective rational organism won’t be a person or persons?), Locke feels that any rational individual should also be able feel happiness and misery with capability of law and then Kant wants the this individual to impose laws to itself.

Now throughout history we have encountered this question in practical circumstances, even as recently as 50 years ago we thought of certain races to be superior and some inferior. Hence this definition is not only a scientific or a philosophical value but has a real meaning on our lives. We still have a debate on abortion and the rights of foetus. We will keep encountering new problems and we would be stretching this envelope to accommodate or reject these new issues.

Two other aspects which make us human are, power to think and learn. But Darwin was able to prove that both thinking, problem solving ability and dreaming is also a part of animals.

Another major issue is what the degree of empathy or emotions will make us human? Is cold blooded murderer considered to be human? Can a person’s level of humanization or dehumanization change over time? So if we consider a person who has committed heinous crime and convict him of capital punishment are we being equally inhuman.

2. What rights do humanoid (or even humans have) have? Or in larger sense what rights would cloned humans or aliens or any kind of intelligent species have in a human dominated environment.

Rights are an issue which society determines on its own and they come from local customs, culture, ability to accept new laws and their impacts. Hence, I think we will move towards a global human value system but it is a slow process.

3. What are real memories? Can they be planted and if you believe in them do they become your version of truth?

One of the very interesting facts is that we have our memories which tells us about our past and makes us a part of the collective history. This in turn enables us to feel alive and connected to the larger humanity. Blade runner raises an important question which asks us to question our memories themselves, can memories be planted and what effect does it have. In the movie Rachael believes that she is a human and not a replicant because she has childhood memories, however what she realises later is that those memories were planted in her to make her more human. Memories are very fickle, they change, even in the court of law the eye witness testimony is not considered always reliable. We are still learning about our memories. There is this very interesting episode from a movie called ‘The man from Earth’, where during a debate the protagonist asks someone to recall their childhood home and then asks her if she went to the same place years later would she recognise it with all the changes. Hence, we build memories in present tense but when encountered the same place again we do not know what will be left the next time around, the old scenes or the new ones will transpose a bit on the new ones damaging the memory.

4. If Deckard thinks he is human and then falls in love with Rachael whom he knows is a Replicant, is it perverse in a sense or morally tolerable.

I have not been able to form an opinion on it, maybe, someone else can throw a light on this issue and make me sway one way or another.

5. What is life?

If we have a machine or a creature which has imagination, problem solving skills, can dream and can learn from its own mistakes then would we consider it to be human. If they have all those abilities then are metaphysically very close to humans. Today we have computers which can do all that but would we call them humans. But normally we consider something with emotions as humans.

Phillip K Dick the author of the novel came upon this idea of humanization while researching an article where is stumbled upon something which SS officers said during the WWII, to quote them,” We are kept awake at night by cries of starving children.” Now we know how inhuman these Nazi officers were, that applying word human would be an insult to humanity. They had no empathy which makes them totally inhuman.

Empathy is a virtue of humans, when we can see someone else’s suffering and feel the same pain we are alive. Empathy is a word which always reminds me of an Urdu writer’s (Saadat Ali Manto) comment on his own work, he said, “If you feel like crying after reading my work then don’t worry, that is because you are alive.” In this movie we are told that empathy is not a virtue that replicants have but right at the end Ray’s saves Deckard and realises the shortness of life for both him and any human. Suddenly just before ‘retiring’, he is more human than human.


My Favourite Quotes:

1. Deckard: Fish? (Showing her a scale that he finds in the toilet)
Lady: (Examining it) I think it was manufactured locally... finest quality... superior workmanship. There is a maker's serial number... 9-9-0-6-9-4-7-X-B-7-1. Interesting, not fish. Snake scale!

2. Tyrell: We began to recognize in them a strange obsession. After all, they are emotionally inexperienced, with only a few years in which to store up the experiences which you and I take for granted. If we gift them with a past, we create a cushion or a pillow for their emotions, and consequently, we can control them better.

3. Deckard: You're reading a magazine. You come across a full-page nude photo of a girl.
Rachael: Is this testing whether I'm a replicant or a lesbian, Mr. Deckard?

4. When Roy meets Tyrell

Tyrell: I'm surprised you didn't come here sooner.
Batty: It's not an easy thing to meet your maker.
Tyrell: What could he do for you?
Batty: Can the maker repair what he makes?
Tyrell: [Tyrell explains to Roy why he can't extend his lifespan] The facts of life... to make an alteration in the evolvement of an organic life system is fatal. A coding sequence cannot be revised once it's been established.
Batty: Why not?
Tyrell: Because by the second day of incubation, any cells that have undergone reversion mutation give rise to revertant colonies, like rats leaving a sinking ship; then the ship... sinks.
Batty: What about EMS-3 recombination?
Tyrell: We've already tried it - ethyl, methane, sulfinate as an alkylating agent and potent mutagen; it created a virus so lethal the subject was dead before it even left the table.
Batty: Then a repressor protein,that would block the operating cells.
Tyrell: Wouldn't obstruct replication; but it does give rise to an error in replication, so that the newly formed DNA strand carries with it a mutation - and you've got a virus again... but this, all of this is academic. You were made as well as we could make you.
Batty: But not to last.
Tyrell: The light that burns twice as bright burns for half as long - and you have burned so very, very brightly, Roy. Look at you: you're the Prodigal Son; you're quite a prize!
Batty: I've done... questionable things.
Tyrell: Also extraordinary things; revel in your time.
Batty: Nothing the God of biomechanics wouldn't let you into heaven for.

5. Deckard: Sushi. That's what my ex-wife called me - cold fish.

6. Roy: Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.


My Favourite Scenes:

1. When Deckard tells Racheal that she is a replicant.
2. The scene when Deckard goes into Sebastian’s apartment and Pris is sitting like a statue.
3. When Roy meets Tyrell and realises he is meeting his creator who can extend his life.
4. Last scene when Roy saves Tyrell.

Disappointments:

1. I don’t like gloomy and settings but that is my personal issue.
2. Sometimes the movie seems slow and you don’t understand where it is headed.
3. There are two versions, with narrative and without it.