WAS DECK4RD A REPLICANT

I'm sure there are people 10 years younger than me to whom it feels stupid that Han Solo would have shot first instead of Greedo.

Maybe EVERYONE in the movie is a replicant. Rachel, Deckard, Gaff, Tyrell, Sebastian, the lot of them. Makes u think.

That point is lost if Deckard is a replicant too.

Not at all. He's just experiencing the same sort of panic. Am I human? Am I a replicant? Have I been killing my own kind all this time? Or, just as bad, have I been killing people who are as close to my own kind as possible, indistinguishable from me? It's one of those "what does it mean to be human" themes.

Hence rescuing Rachel, who might as well be a unicorn. Is he protecting her? Or merely running off with her?

maybe theres no such thing as replicants

maybe the replicant exists in each of our hearts

If a replicant is a replicant of a replicant, is he a replicant or just replicated?

Maybe Santa Claus is a replicant.

according to sean young, harrison ford was very replicanty to her. i guess it does kind of come through in his performance.

Have I been killing my own kind all this time? Or, just as bad, have I been killing people who are as close to my own kind as possible, indistinguishable from me? It's one of those "what does it mean to be human" themes.

But these same points are ones that a human Deckard probably considers too; he's already fallen in love with one replicant and seen the human kindness in another one. The "Deckard is a replicant" explanation doesn't add anything to the "what does it mean to be a human?" theme that wasn't there already in the original cut. Like I said, it just a pointless "ISN'T IT IRONIC?" moment tacked to the end.

there's a lot more consonance in the movie, given harrison's cold performance, if you go with deckard being a replicant. him being a human would really be the twist ending.

Ford's coldness is exactly why I think the juxtaposition between the human-but-detached Deckard and synthetic-but-burning-with-life replicants works. The director's cut takes that away, and if it makes viewers think "AHA! He was replicant all along, that's why he was so cold!", then that's kinda detrimental to the movies basic themes.

there's never any m.night reveal, just a continuous stream of nudges that something is off about Deckard. i don't see how that's detrimental to the themes, since the themes mostly boil down to paranoia.

you know what i totally saw the directors cut in the theater i take it all back

My made-up theory/backstory is that Deckard is an advanced prototype replicant based off of that blade runner who gets blown away by Leon in the opening of the movie. He is being used to retire these runaway replicants as an experiment.

Ford even resembles the other actor, sort of.

Like, he's basically an experimental "back-up" blade runner always ready to come out of retirement should he be needed.

When I first saw BR I was under the impression the whole plot of the movie was based around him being a replicant hiding his identity under the guise of a replicant hunter, so I was kind of disappointed at the lack of appropriate twists. I don't know where I got that idea to begin with, though, I might have just been transposing The Fugitive onto BR.

He's searching for the one-armed mandroid

depends, what version u watchin doggie

theatrical: maybe
director's/final cut: almost certainly (unicorn dream)

― Cruller, Cobbler, Poffert, Pie (latebloomer), Saturday, March 3, 2012 5:23 AM (10 hours ago)

I only watch the international version, it's more violent plus it flashes the message "deckard est un humain" at the end

Director's Cut ending is so boss, elevator doors shut IT'S OVER

BRYANT: There was an escape from the off-world colonies two weeks ago. Six replicants, three male, three female. They slaughtered twenty-three people and jumped a shuttle. An aerial patrol spotted the ship off the coast. No crew, no sight of them. Three nights ago they tried to break into Tyrell Corporation. One of them got fried running through an electrical field. We lost the others. On the possibility they might try to infiltrate his employees, I had Holden go over and run Voight-Kampff tests on the new workers. Looks like he got himself one.

three females: pris, zhora, "the one that got fried" OR rachael

three males: roy, leon, deckard

Except that...

In 2007, Ridley Scott released "Blade Runner: The Final Cut", digitally remastered with improved visual and sound effects, and with numerous revisions to the 1992 Director's Cut. The more noticeable differences between The Director's Cut and The Final Cut include:

Bryant says that "2" replicants were fried in the electrical field (as opposed to the theatrical release and Director's Cut, where he says only 1 was killed).

So apparently the discrepancy between the numbers was a production mistake, not a hint at Deckard being a replicant. (Maybe there was supposed to be one more replicant character that was cut from the movie?)

ORIGAZMI UNIKORN ftw

M4YB3 he was, maybe he wasn't. That's the whole point of most of PKD's work: what is human, what does it mean to be human? Would we be able to tell if we weren't? (oh, and how sexy are brown haired girls?)

Pretty sure Deckard was rotoscoped future Keanu in disguise.

I'm just saying that it's a stupid decision, which undermines a central point in the movie just to add a "DO YOU SEE? HOW IRONIC!" ending to it, an ending that doesn't really thematically add anything to BR that wasn't already there.

― Tuomas, Saturday, March 3, 2012 10:22 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

i too saw the original version long before i saw the director's cut, and i struggled with the same thing while watching the latter. i'd already mulled over the idea that deckard might be a replicant, as there are several clues in the original: the mysterious sixth replicant mentioned by bryant, the reflective eyes, rachel's question to deckard about whether he's taken the voight-kampff test, the fact that he collects old family photos. besides, the question's been a part of the film's fan culture since its initial release. it's always seemed to me that the puzzle is more enjoyable when it doesn't have an obvious solution. this encourages you to concentrate not on whether or not deckard is a literal replicant, but on how little difference there is between the film's "real" and "fake" characters. the story works equally well with or without the twist, and the film's examination of human nature is more interesting as a theme than a game. still, i do prefer the director's cut. it's wonderful to finally see the film without ford's narcoleptic voiceover, and the "happy ending" always bothered me. plus it's not like the remix is at all heavy-handed about the new clues it provides. if you weren't aware going in that deckard might be a replicant, you could easily miss the suggestion.

i have all the versions which one should i watch if i wanna watch it again

I guess watch the fancy shmancy new version

the director's schmancy cut?

workprint (1982)
theatrical cut (1982)
international theatrical cut (1982)
director's cut (1992)
final cut (2007)

go w/ final cut I guess

You don't even like the music

then go with the workprint

Edward likes the Brett Ratner version with Yakety Sax soundtrack

nah wish it was popol vuh, tho yakety sax does improve any moving image

maybe I'll just take the aquirre soundtrack and mux it to br

Y U BRAEK HEART

workprint [all characters speak in cantonese] (1982)
theatrical cut (1982)
french cut [with added replicant T&A] (1982)
"top gun" cut [more sunglasses] (1986)
tarantino cut [chronology reordered, harrison ford replaced with samuel l. jackson] (1995)
tony scott cut [added crane shots, explosions, and jay-z theme song, "blade runna (99 problems but a voight-kampff test ain't one)] (2005)
final cut [main characters can fly through space, courtesy motion-capture technology] (2007)

archivists still searching for abandoned 1985 cut with deckard sidekick long duck dong

donger got a better fate in 16 candles than this guy, just saying:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSQdEkcm6zs

http://yourtattoosucks.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/real-men-love-unicorns.jpg

lol

Well, that settles it.

what the

didn't know ridley scott got ink did you

OK SO:

There a dozens or hundreds of reasons for a simpleton to believe that Deckard is NOT a replicant, such as:

1. That he hunts other replicants to kill them, almost but not quite remorselessly.
2. That none of the people who make replicants for a living seem to know what he is.
3. That few or none of the people who hunt replicants for a living seem to know what he is.
4. That few or none of the other replicants recognize him as one of them.
5. That he lives like a schmuck, unaware of his replicant capabilites.

But there is also at least one very good reason for a smart person to believe that Deckard is NOT a replicant:

6. That the story is not quite as heavy if he is a replicant because if he is a human that makes the story way heavy at the end where Roy is Jesus.

HOWEVER.

I am privileged to know EXACTLY how all of the enumerated elements above COMBINE to FORM a VOLTRON TRUTH of Deckard's replicantness, and I will reveal to you now:

1. There is/was a government program to build replicants outside of the auspices of the Tyrell Corporation, specifically to ensure a control function over corporate military replicants in case they go rogue.
2. Some of these government black bag replicants are implanted into police forces around the world for exactly this purpose, used as Blade Runners only on occasions where a replicant or two defeats the usual guns and dogs approach.
3. Tyrell has no clue that these replicants exist; in fact, when the Corporation puts questions to the government about the manufacture of excessive synthetic people pieces, the excuse given is that this is for the repair and maintenance of human combat veterans, injured police and firefighters, and who can argue with that?
4. Roy and Rachel are the first Tyrell replicants able to discern Deckard's origin.
5. This revelation leads both of them to interesting narrative decisions.
6. Gaff knows all of this shit all along but god knows he's not allowed to be anything but obtuse about it unless he wants his entire family shipped off to some mining colony in the middle of shitspace.

TRACKING?

ok my 1-6 FOR does not quite map to my 1-6 AGAINST but fuck everyone

also add

7. Clearly Deckard is a goddamn replicant, he gets the living shit beat out of him my merciless superhumans and gets back up like AW MAN MY FINGER

huh

what is more likely that deckard is not a replicant or that they will release a cg effects version showing that zhora shot first

El Tomboto, I enjoy your theorem immensely

also re: #1-5 has it ever occurred to you that it is all an elaborate psyop in the style of hard boiled

b-b-b-but THE ORIGAMI UNICORN