Vision of the Future

I found the end of Blade Runner very interesting. The way that Ridley Scott directed the end of the movie made me feel that Rick Deckard was a replicant. Yet in the book I felt that Deckard was actually a human being. However, based on an interview I read, both Ridley Scott, the director, and Harrison Ford, the actor, seemed confused as to whether Rick Deckard was truly a replicant or a human. I believe Ridley Scott purposefully allowed the viewers play with the idea of Rick’s identity in the director’s cut. I read five other reviews that give different points of view as to how the audience can digest whether Rick and Rachael are replicants. When I watched the film, I chose the idea that Rick was indeed a replicant. The reason I felt that Deckard was a replicant was in the way that he entered his apartment after the scene with Roy. In this scene, Deckard treats Racheal as if she were his wife even thought he knew that she was a replicant. In Chris Murray’s synopsis of Blade Runner, he says, “A unicorn has long been the symbol of virginity and purity (being white), which ties in with Rachael's status.” That is, Rick looks at Racheal as if she was pure, and for the first time, he considers the possibility of her humanity. Rick now feels a strong need to protect Rachael’s purity by keeping her away from Gaff. Based on the above, one can come to the conclusion that Racheal could in fact be classified as a unicorn; a unique creature that is different from everyone else. However, no matter how far Rachael and Rick run, Gaff continues to chase them because he knows that Racheal is a replicant. But Gaff lets Racheal live because he knows that Rachel only has a four-year life expectancy. From The Journal of Religion and Film, Kyle Keefer says, “Death for Deckard simply means termination.” So no matter how far Deckard runs, he will never escape the final outcome of his termination. Gaff knows that Racheal and Deckard are replicants but he’s not so sure about Rick. This begs the question, why did Gaff let Rick go and retire all of the other replicants in the movie instead of retiring Rick?

In another review, David Ryan viewed the ending of the movie as Deckard’s need to live up to his human potential. From David Ryan’s Dream of Postmodernism and Thoughts of Mortality: A Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Retrospective of Blade Runner, he makes a firm assertion that, Deckard’s fall symbolizes “humanity’s fall” and in “Deckard’s effort to save Rachael, Deckard’s growth, in a larger sense, allows for the redemptive nature of humans. In this context, Blade Runner seems to be arguing that mankind needs artificial assistance to realize its full human potential.” Ryan’s assumption forms a foundation for why Deckard dreams about unicorns. Deckard dreams about unicorns to solidify his own humanity. Also, Deckard keeps Racheal around to make him feel as though he has a clear understanding of his human nature.

Tama Leaver’s view of the final scene in the movie is in sharp contrast to Ryan’s view. Leaver says, “The dream is immediately striking because it is the only place ‘natural’ images of trees and greens are found in the entire movie, Deckard seemingly dreaming of a lost Eden. Moreover, at the movies end, Gaff, a new Blade Runner, leaves an origami unicorn, a symbol that Gaff knew Deckard would have had that dream because Deckard must be a Replicant, and Gaff must have read his file." Looking at the final scene from this vantage point, it seems logical that this is the only natural part of the movie. This is true because when Deckard wakes up from the dream about the unicorn, he does not seem to give it any thought as to why he had this precarious dream. Which makes Leaver’s analysis about Gaff true, in that Gaff must have known this from reading Rick’s personal file.

Tinku Sanini, a scholar who wrote the article, Eye disbelieve, gives further proof that Deckard must also be a replicant. Sanini says, “It is unclear whether he applies those words to his own situation – i.e., he realizes that he may also be a replicant with implanted memories or to the human condition in general … Indeed, in a milder sense, we all have implanted memories. Media daily filters the input of the ‘real world’ and decide for us what is worthy of reaching the masses.” This assumption could explain why Deckard has these dreams about unicorns. He could be over exposed to what’s in the media, and he may not be able to differentiate fact from fiction.