Based on Philip K. Dick’s book, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (1968), Blade Runner takes us into a world where humans have created sentient beings almost identical to humans. The film, just like the book, asks the age old question of what it is to be human. If our own emotional responses and feelings can be replicated to an identical accuracy to ourselves, what is really left to separate us from our creations? Almost lavishly the film throws out many answers towards the apparent humanity or inhumanity of the replicants and the portrayed humans, however many are unsubstantial and should be treated more as an attempt by the narrative of the film and indeed the book to probe around the problem space. It is, however, this probing that makes it possible for us to understand the questions, even if the answers are unobtainable.
The quest for life by the replicants is centred mainly on the problem of longevity. In the logical minds of Roy, Pris and the other replicants running from the Blade Runners out to “retire” them, the four year life span engrained into their bodies is the only obstacle. The superhuman qualities of the replicants highlight their superiority, after all, “…‘More human, Than Human’ is our motto…” (Blade Runner, 1982) says Tyrell after Rachel’s Voight-Kampff test. This is discussed by Nietzsche in his book Thus Spook Zarathustra (1885), where he describes the goal of the Superman or Overman to transcend man, to become stronger, to overcome. The perfection of the replicants, however, alienates the viewer instead of reinforcing their right to be human. Ridley Scott describes: “A replicant is essentially a human being, an all-flesh culture, that is very advanced and highly perfected. That’s the odd dichotomy of the whole story.” (Sammon, 1999) This is again seen in the seeming inhumanity towards Sebastian by Roy and Pris. The alienation of Sebastian and the calculated deception of the replicants doubts their so called perfection and questions their ‘humanity’. Philip. K. Dick writes, “Evidently the humanoid robot constituted a solitary predator. Rick liked to think of them like that; it made his job palatable” (1968, p. 28) . The portrayal of the replicants as independent, selfish, sentient beings is discussed by Dick; “Empathy, evidently, existed only within the human community….”, going on to say, “ ….the empathic faculty probably required an unimpaired group instinct…” (1968, p. 28). However, throughout the film, the replicants show a stronger sense of community than the humans. Deckard is a solitary man; disillusioned and anti-social. The encounters of other humans by Deckard are all brash and cold which reinforces the dystopian environment, arcing back to film genre, ‘film noir’ and its comment on the present society of 1950s urban America. When looking at this theme, specifically, violence plays an important role in Blade Runner, as it is mainly perpetrated against ‘non-human’ characters, that of the replicants. The dilemma here is the apparent suffering of those who are incapable of suffering and lacking the human status that would make violence inflicted upon them a moral crime. This is exemplified by Roy and Pris; “We’re not computers Sebastian, we’re physical”(Blade Runner, 1982). We gain sympathy for the replicants due to the violence inflicted upon them as in most cases it matches a human response. Again, however, the pendulum swings the other way. Deckard’s second shot at Pris is, obviously, to put her out of her ‘misery’, which in itself is exaggerated to the point of disbelief. Here Deckard shows an empathic reaction, even for someone who has been “retiring” replicants for so long.
A strong theme running throughout the book, and to a degree in the film, is that of the contrast between the way that the humanity portrayed within the story treats animals created by themselves and how humanity treats replicants, machines created in the image of man to do the lesser tasks for human progression. The stigma surrounding the world of animals and the apparent obsession of Deckard on the matter, portrayed mainly in Dick’s book, directly contrasts that of mans inhumanity towards the replicants. “Nothing would be more impolite. To say ‘Is your sheep genuine?’ would be a worse breach of manners than to inquire whether a citizen’s teeth, hair or internal organs would test out authentic” (1968, p. 11). Comparisons can be made to the social environment birthed after the Second World War and still relevant to todays society. Man’s inhumanity toward his fellow man was experienced in societal form with the rise of the Nazi Party and their policies and judgements on who had the right to humanity. Due simply to religious and philosophical belief and historical stigma, entire populations where exterminated on an industrial scale. Deckard and the rest of the Blade Runners use a unsubstantiated and controversial test, the Voight-Kampff test to prove whether or not the subject is a replicant. How is this test accurate when Inspector Byrant himself mentions the fact that Dr. Kampff was well aware of a small minority of human beings incapable to passing the Voight-Kampff test? Are they now not just making decisions based on human judgement which we know is inaccurate and troublesome due to our nature? This is seen in Tyrell’s pursuit for perfection in his replicants and Sebastian’s frailty in succumbing to the power of the replicants. Dick’s book, The Man in the High Castle (1962) deals with this issue directly, and in response to my comparison with Nazi Germany, literally. The book takes place in a world where the Axis powers have won the Second World War. Dick makes comparisons and satirizes the actual climate after the war, but most interesting is his look at the fundamental change in the ideals of humanity. Ethnic prejudice is demonstrated by Dick to be pointless through referencing his book within the context of the story. The character of Tagomi, a successful Japanese businessman, journeys into a world, through the fictional novel The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, where the Allies have won the war, a world where the Japanese people are the victims of prejudice. This shows that the only difference between races is who is in power at the time. In the book Tagomi rebels against judgement based on reputation and buys jewelry made buy a Native American. This is similar to the rebellion of the replicants, and specifically Roy, in Blade Runner. The power is religiously personified by Tyrell, playing the ‘creator’. “It’s not an easy thing to meet your maker” (Blade Runner, 1982) is whispered by Roy as he draws closer. The frustration of the realisation that Roy is unable to extend his life allows Roy to break from his forced conformity and accept his full potential of what his reality is to him.This is in contrast to Deckard’s journey in the film and book, which sees his reality crumble away in front of his own eyes. His own perception of the prejudice inflicted on the replicants is changed with the near fatal encounters with Zora and Leon and having his own life saved by Rachel leading to him falling in love with her, however he continues to hunt down and kill the remaining replicants, only at the end realising the power and ‘humanity’ of the Nexus-6 replicant, Roy in the final scene. “..all those… moments, will be lost, in time, like tears… in… rain. Time… to die.” (Blade Runner, 1982) Roy teaches Deckard that even though it’s manufactured, it is a life that has lived, that has experienced, a life that has every right to be classed human.
To conclude, the journey of the characters within the book and the film is ultimately similar whether they are human or not. Speculation aside as to whether or not Deckard is a replicant, the search for identity in this man made dystopia is what links Deckard and Roy and the other replicants. If prejudice because of social indoctrination is the reason for the inhumanity towards the replicants, then control is the goal of society. Control over the lower class of people due to a greed for self justification and dominance. This is justified by the weakness of the Voight-Kampff test as an accurate indicator of whether or not a sentient being is human or not. A trivial physical defect is simply not enough to justify the classification of someone (something) as ‘non-human’. It’s no wonder Ridley Scott pushed to portray Deckard as a replicant instead of a human; simply put, there is practically no difference between the two.