Of course, if you want some disappointment at the time, look no further than Ridley Scott. A director who was obsessed with getting the mood and atmosphere perfect, was asked and pretty much made to change the ending of one of his greatest films of all-time. Artistic style clearly misunderstood by a bully studio at the time.
And it was misunderstood by all the people in the world who simply cannot grasp how great this film really is underneath.
So, let’s not misunderstand each other in this review, there’s a lot to this film that needs to be explained.
Retiring a Film
Deckard is a blade runner. His job is to find rogue replicants (androids) and retire them (kill them). He doesn’t particularly enjoy his job, so much so that he’s quit it. When the cops in L.A. need him to track down four rogue replicants, he is forced back to work. The replicants are looking for answers to their longevity. Replicants have a pre-dated death when they’re made and one that can (or can’t?) be changed by their creator, Tyrell at the Tyrell Corporation. The replicants can only sustain life for four-years. After such a time they cease to function or live. Deckard must get to Tyrell before the replicants do and put an end to their plight. The question is, should he?
Mortality is a question that is brought into Blade Runner over and over again. To put it in film terms, it’s the motif. As an audience member you feel bad for the replicants, of course after you see the havoc they bring down in the movie you might struggle with that feeling. They are four beings put together to serve a purpose and all they want to do is live, but regretfully these beings can’t. It’s a concept that has been brought up in many movies after this one. If you look at the movie Terminator you’ll find that technology that was brought together through genius minds seems to get to a point where it will eventually not need its master any longer. Thus you have skynet turning on the military. The concept is similar to what we have in Blade Runner where you have these androids specifically created to perform tasks on an off-world colony, comeback to avoid dying so that they can live again. It’s quite sad, but it says a lot about how a chance to live breathes new life into people and they’ll do anything to maintain that.
Of course, outside of the mortality of the replicants, you’ve also got the question of Deckard’s own mortality. In the movie the Tyrell Corporation convinces replicants that they’ve lived a long life by implanting memories into a newly formed replicant. Rachel, a replicant secretary for Tyrell, doesn’t know that she’s an android. She assumes through various pictures and memories that she carries around that she had a good childhood and did many things to achieve her current status in life. When Deckard reveals to her that this isn’t the case and starts rambling off memories, she becomes visibly upset. After leaving his apartment, he picks up her pictures and notices many similarities that he hadn’t noticed before. Moving pictures and unicorn dreams get him to think of his own mortality and the possibility that he himself is a replicant. So the question then comes up who has truly lived their life and who hasn’t?
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