Pressured by Police to Come Back to Hunt Down the Rogue Replicants. He Is Reluctant To

Blade Runner Notes

Characters

Deckard

Pressured by police to come back to hunt down the rogue Replicants. He is reluctant to do it shown by:

· He tries to ignore policeman (Gaff) who meets up with him at the food stall. Keeps his back to him and keeps on eating. Pretends he doesn’t understand, so the stallholder translates for him.

· Gaff arrests him and he takes his food with him to show he is not taking it seriously.

· When he gets to the station and talks to the police chief he suggests another blade runner should do it.

He eventually takes the job because:

· The other blade runner has been killed

· The chief says this is a serious threat and Deckard is the “best”

· Gaff makes an origami figure of a chicken suggesting Deckard is cowardly if he doesn’t do it

· The chief says, “If your not a cop your little people”, meaning being a cop gives him status - could also be a veiled threat that without the protection of being a cop, he can be treated like the ordinary people whom the police obviously treat with contempt

Gives the impression of getting older

· Is lonely / loner: Always by himself - At the start eating at the street stall alone - Seems to have no friends - Does not seems to like or get on with other police - Has photographs but they all look quite old (perhaps suggesting he liked the past better than the present)

· Drinks a lot: Seems to need alcohol for support or when not wanting to face up to his task, eg. In the bar to which he has traced Zhora to, he gets drunk. - Drinks again when he takes Rachel to his apartment.

· Has problems relating to Rachel: He seems to be forcing her to submit to him in his apartment and making her respond to him in the way that he wants. He only seems able to show her tenderness at the very end as though he has had to learn to show caring and fell able to make himself vulnerable to another person.

Deckard’s feelings change towards Replicants after he has met Rachel. Rachel asks him if he has ever killed a human by mistake and he says “No”. After he has killed Zhora he is sitting drinking looking remorseful – possibly he feels as though he has killed a human. After he has just shot Zhora (in the back), who was running away from him, his facial expression looks perturbed (disturbed) rather than satisfied at having retired on of the Replicants.

When Rachel asks if he would track her if she went north, he says he would not because “I owe you one” (for saving his life earlier). Here he is treating Rachel like a human. At the end he treats her like a human when he is tender to her (touches her gently as she sleeps) and asks her if she loves and trusts him. This contrasts with him earlier instructing her on what to say to him as though he is trying to programme her. His decision to go away with her also shows this.

An earlier occasion which shows he was influenced by Rachel emotionally was when he proved to Rachel she was a Replicant by describing her memories. She us upset and crying and he tells her to go home and that he made it all up.

The second origami figure, a man with an erection – is used by Gaff to comment on Deckard’s attraction to Rachel.

The last origami figure is the Unicorn, which Deckard finds outside his apartment, when he and Rachel are leaving to go away together. As he looks at it he hears the words Gaff said to him just after Roy died, “It’s to bad he won’t live, but then again who does?” Earlier Deckard had had a day-dream of a Unicorn as he was playing the piano.

This last part can be interpreted as Gaff letting Deckard know he is also a Replicant, as how could Gaff know about the Unicorn Dream in Deckard’s mind?

Therefore Deckard realizes that the last part of what Gaff says “But then again, who does?” applies to him. This might also explain Deckard’s earlier problems relating to Rachel and the way his emotions develop towards the end through experience, just as Roy’s did.

Zhora

· Dances, plays with and gets pleasure from a snake in a bar (its her job)

· Killed by Deckard – shot in the back while trying to escape

· Murder model replicant, tries to kill Deckard by strangling him

· No romantic emotions (like Pris & Roy), little involvement in plot, possibly the lest important replicant

· Found in photo by Deckard, she is lying on the bed. Deckard takes the photo of Leon’s and examines it on the TV

Leon

· Violent, very malicious

· Blames everyone (he killed the interviewer because he asked him about his mother)

· Sensitive to being a replicant

· He wants to make humans feel the same fear he feels

· A very loyal follower of the other Replicants, especially Roy

· Wants to make humans feel afraid “now you can feel the same way I feel”

· Seems to be bent on revenge, rather than finding out his expiry date

· He has developed emotions he can’t handle

· Attempts to be human by having photos, he goes to the hotel to get them back

· Killed by Rachel when he attacks Deckard, (he attacks Deckard to get revenge for Zhora)

Pris

· Intelligent – She manipulates Sebastian and gets him to take her into his home

She quotes Descartes, a famous philosopher, “I think, therefore I am” to make the point that she should be treated on the same level as a human being created naturally.

· She knows how to manipulate Sebastian into taking her into his home. She pretends to be frightened of Sebastian when he finds her outside his building, supposedly sleeping in the garbage.

· Emotional – She has a close relationship with Roy.

· Strong – She is very acrobatic – doing flips, she strangles Deckard with her legs and beats him up

· Conscious of Appearance and the effect it will have on Sebastian– When she puts her makeup on, she looks at herself and smiles

· Despairing -she says to Roy, “We’re stupid and we’ll die”

Rachel

· Strong & assertive with Deckard before and during the replicant test

Challenges Deckard’s expertise and the test itself, “Have you ever retired a human by mistake?”

· Intelligent. Tyrell points out it took a lot more questions than usual to identify her as a replicant. He also says he thinks she is beginning to suspect the truth.

· Shows emotion when Deckard tells her about her implanted memories.

· Lets Her Hair Down: When playing the piano. She looks at the photos and she sees a photo of a lady with her hair down. She copies the photo (suggesting that she wants to be human). At the start of the film she has machine like perfection in how she looks with he tight hair style and clothes, also perfect makeup. Later on when she lets her hair down and doesn’t have makeup on she seems less perfect but also more vulnerable. She doesn’t like being lied to, she runs away from Tyrell because he didn’t tell her she was a replicant.

· Shoots Leon

· Wants to stay alive as long as possible

· TYRELL

· Dies when Roy kills him by squeezing his head and poking his eyes out

· Is the creator of the Replicants

· Head of Tyrell Corporation

· Is a Genius

· Rich – He lives in a huge building where the fittings are expensive. Has a Replicant Owl which is priceless and one of a kind. His house is very spacious where as the rest of the city is very cramped in comparison.

· Plays Chess

· He is possibly medically unwell because he is still on Earth

· Is good friends with Sebastian (they play chess together)

· Proud of his creations – thinks of them as children, “my prodigal son returns” (he says to Roy)

· He has the emotion detecting machine which does the ‘Voight-Kampf’ test for Replicants

· He says to Roy, “The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long – and you have burned so very, very brightly Roy”

Sebastian

· Ages quickly – Looks old but is still young (25 years old)

· Looks like a loner, his only friends are the toys he makes

· He was rejected from going off world, because he didn’t pass the medical

· Plays chess with Tyrell

· Fond of Pris

· Makes toys

Roy

· Incept Date – January 2016

· Function – Combat, Colonization

· Obviously designed to be strong, able to deal with situations as they arise

· Bryant says he is believed to be the leader of the Replicants

· He seems to be in command – takes Leon with him to interrogate the eye ‘engineer’ Chew

· He obviously sends Pris to make friends with Sebastian

· Heis intelligent – He is able to gain access to Tyrell by the chess moves he gives Sebastian against Tyrell who Sebastian says is “a genius”

· Roy displays his intelligence also in the discussion with Tyrell where he shows knowledge and understanding of the technical processes used to create the Nexus 6 Replicants.

· He also displays a reflective intelligence in his response to experiences he has had off-world. “I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe, Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion, I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near Tan Hauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time like tears in the rain”

· His rich vocabulary, lyrical use of language and use of double meanings also demonstrates his intelligence

· He says to Chew, “Chew if only you could see what I’ve seen with your eyes”. Here he makes a reference to Chew having made his eyes, but another meaning is that he has seen and experienced more things than the limited human has.

· Roy is self-aware and sees himself as a person, not a thing, he says “ Sebastian we’re not machines we’re physical”, this is when Sebastian asks Roy and Pris to show him something when he realizes they are Replicants

· Roy breaks Deckard’s fingers in revenge for Deckard killing the other Replicants, “This is for Zhora…………This is for Pris”. Roy obviously sees them as people being killed and not Replicants being ‘retired’

· He has a zest for life and a determination to go on living. He tells Tyrell, “I want more life”

· He says a passage with a child-like rhyme structure, “Four, Five, how to stay alive”

· At the end of the chase Roy shows his appreciation of life by giving life to his enemy, even as he himself dies

· Though the film Roy begins to develop a sense of morality

· When he meets Tyrell he shows an awareness of good and evil. It is almost as though he is asks for forgiveness for what he has done.

· He says, “I’ve done some questionable things”. Ironically he seems to have stronger moral values than Tyrell who brushes what Roy says aside, “Also extraordinary things” Roy replies, “Nothing that the god of biomechanics won’t let you heaven for”

· Roy also develops a capacity for empathy – another human characteristic. This comes through in the chase scene when he shows understanding of how Deckard is feeling and tries to get Deckard to understand what life has been like for the Replicants. Roy says to Deckard while Deckard is hanging onto the edge, “Quite an experience to live in fear isn’t it? That’s what it is to be a slave”

· Roy pulls Deckard up as he loses his grip and calls out “kinship”

· At the end he obviously feels empathy for Deckard

· Roy dies with dignity showing more humanity in his dieing moments than any of the humans in the film

Setting

Los Angels 2019

· Huge (tall) buildings everywhere

· Most buildings seem to be corporate buildings eg. Tyrell corporation

· No Natural vegetation (stark)

· Artificial light is everywhere – needed as it is very dark, from the pollution and constant rain

· Huge advertising bill boards – these are talking billboards which move around the city. They are easily heard over the noise of the city

· The dominant culture seems to be Asian – reflected in the population and street stalls – although there also seems to be a Spanish influence

· Gaff seems to be a mix of these two cultures

· English is still spoken but there is another language which Gaff speaks, at the start. It is a mix of Spanish and words/elements taken from most Asian languages

· It is really crowded and busy all the time

· There also seems to be variation of humanity – as though perhaps there have been mutations

· From the conservation between Pris and Sebastian, we learn that many of the large buildings have been abandoned

· Also that Sebastian is not able to go off-world because he is medically unfit (he is ageing abnormally)

· This creates the feeling that, just as their environment is decaying around them, so are the people who are left on earth and that the ones who could, have gone off world

· Most animal life also seems to have either died out or become very rare

· Deckard asks Zhora if her snake is real and she says that if she could afford a real snake she wouldn’t be earning her living in a bar

· The only other animal life we see in the film is Tyrell’s replicant Owl and the dove which Roy cradles as he dies

· It is still a consumer driven society

· The aspects shown also highlight the way sex/pornography has continued and developed, but is now more public

· Even Deckard, who seems hardened, can’t bear to watch Zhora act. This suggests a moral decay as well as the physical decay, of this environment

· The Technology is similar in some ways to 20th/21st century, but in other ways it seems more advanced eg. To get into Sebastian’s apartment Deckard has to identify himself over an automatic intercom

· The police have flying cars called spinners

· There are also stallholders who can identify and source objects or parts of them with there machines – one is able to tell Deckard the scale he found in Leon’s apartment is from a snake, give him the serial number and tell him where it was created