WAS DECK4RD A REPLICANT

Except there is no reason to even think that the latter ever took place, whereas there are several examples throughout the film of implanted memories.

Well, it wasn't originally in the film.

I've never been particularly bothered about the 'happy ending' the way a lot of BR fans are. It's obvious that Deckard and Rachel get away, and Gaff indicates that he's not coming after them, so the addition of a few shots of them in a car isn't enough to get worked up over.

The happy ending is not just them getting away, it's Deckard's monologue during the car ride that Tyrell gave Rachael a normal human lifespan instead of 4 years.

(xxx-post)

Well, it wasn't originally in the film.

What, the unicorn stuff?

Because clearly it was made, and it's in the director's cut from a director who otherwise has disavowed the "director's cut" idea, a director who also has stated outright that he made the movie with the idea that Deckard is a replicant.

The unicorn dream got added in the Director's Cut.

"Added." But it was obviously originally shot before Scott lost control of the film.

And he obviously wanted it in there.

xpost Where do you get this "Deckard is less human than Batty" theme from?

Deckard kills sentient beings for living. In the end Batty decides not to kill him, even though he'd have every reason to do so. (In general, Batty seems to care much more about life and living than him, which is kinda understandable given his shorter existence.) So Batty certainly comes off as more human than Deckard.

The theme is not that Batty is more human but that Batty is as human. It is an important distinction.

Dekert was a Demicrant, not a Replicant

Batty kills Tyrell, possibly Sebastian and Chew. May or may not have been involved in killing the passengers and crew of the shuttle, depending on whether or not you believe Bryant's briefing.

None of the main characters come across as particularly human apart from Rachel.

what if the whole thing was a unicorns dream

Batty kills lots of people in cold blood because he is going nuts with panic. I always thought it characterization was kind of one of almost childish impulsiveness as he's confronted with his premature mortality.

what if the whole thing was a unicorns dream

"Legend" is Ridley Scott's unicorn dream.

http://aj.firefish.org/images/reviewfiles/legendcouple.jpg

ok but what if it was someone elses unicorn

C'mon, it's Tom Cruise's unicorn.

Anyway, I'm not arguing that Scott didn't mean the unicorn to imply Deckard is a replicant; he probably did. (My alternate theory was basically just a way to get around that directorial intent.) 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.

That's a different argument: does it work? But does the film indicate he's a replicant? Yes.

THAT DRAEM MEAND DERKER IS A REPLICUNT CUZ OF EDWARD JAMES ALMOST MAKING TEH ORIGASMI UNIKORN AT TEH END HE KNOWS HIS D

is what I've always thought

Also his eyes does the glowy thing once in a way that had to have been intentional. Someone may have already said that. I didn't read the whole thread.

eyes DO not does

have you guys seen the sequel

blade runner 2 electric sheepaloo?

Blade Runners?

is the directors cut good i dont think ive seen it

Batty kills lots of people in cold blood because he is going nuts with panic. I always thought it characterization was kind of one of almost childish impulsiveness as he's confronted with his premature mortality.

Yep, this. Batty kills in order to survive, and because he's (justifiably) angry at Tyrell for having such a short life. Deckard is much more detached, he doesn't seem to care about anything. IMO that's the whole point of the ending for Deckard; he realizes that a replicant, a being he used to "retire" for living, can be more alive than him, a human. That point is lost if Deckard is a replicant too.

i think i fell asleep watching it once

Blade Runner 2: Run Sharper

Cool Blade Runnings?

i think i fell asleep watching it once

― lag∞n, Saturday, March 3, 2012 6:27 PM (1 minute ago)

Did you dream about a unicorn?
Tell me in single words only the good things that come to mind... about your mother.

i draemd of electric sheep no doubt

That's a different argument: does it work?

I think there might be some difference here between people who saw the original cut first, and those who saw director's cut first. I saw the OG cut (and read the book) long before watching the director's cut, and IMO the juxtaposition between the "human" Deckard and "artificial" replicants worked very well in that version, so the unicorn stuff in the director's cut felt like a pointless way of changing that. But maybe it's different if you're a bit younger and grew up with the director's cut?

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.

like a trusty old axe

would read tom's fanfic

1. That he hunts other replicants to kill them, almost but not quite remorselessly.

replicants are programmed for certain functions, deckard's is to take out other replicants. bryant tells us the replicants were designed to develop their own emotional responses. deckard has evolved to the point where some part of him regrets what he does.

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.

tyrell tells us replicants who don't know their origins are easier to control. psyops 101 = it's easiest to manipulate those who think they aren't being manipulated. everybody knows, but they're all keeping mum, like tyrell does with rachel.

4. That few or none of the other replicants recognize him as one of them.

replicants can't recognize other replicants, any more than humans can.

5. That he lives like a schmuck, unaware of his replicant capabilites.

see #2-3

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.

well yeah

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?

this is like saying the US govt could secretly develop an ipad that could beat apple's ipad. you know if they tried it would be a sub-leon ipad.

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.

if roy knew deckard was a replicant he would tell him just to fuck with his head. also he wouldn't make great tanhauser gate death soliloquies that start with "I've seen things you people wouldn't believe". rachel may suspect but she doesn't go there beyond asking him if he's ever taken the test.

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.

or maybe HE'S a replicant.

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

zhora could've killed him but got interrupted. leon almost ended him but rachel saved him. pris is a pleasure unit so her battle skills aren't advanced - she has to kill him with aerobics. roy toys with him, hurting him but not incapacitating him, and his fear keeps him going. but if deckard is a replicant he's an advanced model like rachel - more human because he's not superhuman, subject to the aches and pains of normal beings. he needs to crash after his night out w/ zhora and leon.

I just noticed that this poll closes in 7 years

plenty of time to think baout things

― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, March 6, 2012 12:20 AM

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/BladeRunnerOpeningTitles.png

more human because he's not superhuman

If the police force want to use replicants to kill other replicants, why send one "human" replicant against four superhuman ones; wouldn't it make more sense to send several superhuman ones?

maybe tom is right, maybe deckard is just a shitty government-produced ipad.

look, we spent the money on this thing, so you're going to use it... no, you can't have 4 battle replicants, have you seen your overtime budget? maybe if you spent as much time finding replicants as you did making excuses, we'd be getting somewhere.

look, we spent the money on this thing, so you're going to use it... no, you can't have 4 battle replicants, have you seen your overtime budget?

But why would the police force even develop a weak "human" replicant like Deckard in the first place, since they have the option of superhuman replicants?

the same reason they don't send high powered cutting edge teachers into my kid's public school. they're available, you know? don't understand why they just don't send them in there.

oh wait finland

are you a REPLICAN or a REPLICAN'T

irl lols mh

if batty is battle droid, why he look like rutger hauer and not tetsuo iron man?

lol if you read some of the interviews with David Peoples, one of the Blade Runner scriptwriters, the army in his movie Soldier is supposed to be replicants. They never really spell that out in the movie and they just seem like brainwashed military drones, but they reference some of the same battles as Roy Batty and there's a junked BR spinner vehicle in the background on a shot.

technology improvements between 1989 and 2016 obv

xp

"lol if you read some of the interviews with David Peoples, one of the Blade Runner scriptwriters, the army in his movie Soldier is supposed to be replicants"

yikes--reading imdb trivia on soldier:

Among the garbage on the planet is the USS Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the F-117X Remora from Executive Decision, a spinner from Blade Runner, and a piece of the Lewis & Clark from Event Horizon.
*
Todd's service record, displayed on a computer screen, includes the following: - The battles of Tannhauser Gate and Shoulder of Orion (references to Blade Runner) - Receipt of the "Plissken Medal" (reference to Escape from New York and its sequel Escape from L.A.). Receipt of the "O'Neil Ring Award" (reference to Stargate (1994)) - Receipt of the "Cash Medal of Honor" (reference to Tango and Cash (1989)) Receipt of the "Maccready Cross" (reference to The Thing (1982)) - Receipt of the "Capt Ron Trophy" (reference to Captain Ron (1992)) - Receipt of the "McCaffrey Fire Award" (reference to Backdraft (1991)) - Receipt of the "Dexter Riley Award" (reference to The Strongest Man in the World (1975), Now You See Him, Now You Don't (1972), The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (1969)) - Citations for the Nibian Moons Campaign, the Antares Maelstrom War and the War Of Perdition's Flames, locations referred to in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
*
Todd's weapons training record lists the "USMC Smartgun" and "M41A pulse rifle" (references to Aliens) and the "DOOM MKIV BFG" - a reference to the computer game Doom.

Wait we don't have Captain Ron on the comedy poll, do we?!?

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

waht is happening

DEK4R were cancelled just last week. 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿

ooh this is exciting I can't wait to find out

seven long years we've waited

https://i.imgur.com/xrNiUjn.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Tz5ykjis2k

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

worth waiting for

Origasmi?

He knows his D

origasmi unicorn ftw

worth the 7 year wait imo

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

― Matt Armstrong, Saturday, March 3, 2012 9:05 PM (seven years ago)

this is so otm btw, probably one of my favorite movie endings ever

Edward James Almost

laughed too hard at this

glad we've had 2049 since this poll was started to offer the definitive answer on this issue, which is of course 'if you're asking this question you're missing the point you fucking rube'