Blade Runner written by Ridley Scott is a movie based in the future. It is Scott’s depiction of what is to become of Earth. But technological advances shown in Blade Runner have come to a point where humanity can be questioned. Reality is blurred and the nature of what is human is changing. Replicants appear identical to humans and even have emotions, while the real humans appear cold and unemotional. So who is really human and what does it mean to be humane? Technology is a key part of the movie and its advances are shown through out the movie.
Deckard lives in a world with man made animals, flying cars, off world colonies and more importantly manufactured humans called replicants. The fact that the replicants are equal to humans physically and even mentally is troubling and brings forward major questions. But with all these advancements Los Angeles is portrayed by Scott as a dark and gloomy wasteland of mostly empty high rise buildings and full of dark alleys and dirty streets. It is not a nice looking place and is without trees and animals, left is only the formidable skyscrapers and manufactured animals.
It seems to have consumed everything as no attempt is made to show elsewhere. With the off world colonies to go to, Earth has been abandoned and all thats left is a polluted wasteland for the rejects and lowlifes. The humans inhabiting Earth are shown to be cold, brutal and lacking any compassion. There are the cops like Bryant and Gaff who appear gloomy and unemotional just doing there jobs and having little regard for the replicants or “skin jobs” as Bryant called them. Asians are shown frequently the movie and make up the bulk of people on the street.
This makes the city look like a big China town with the Asians selling anything from take away food to manufactured animals. These people must not be important enough to go to the off world colonies or don’t want to go. The rest of people shown are street scums, cripples, midgets and sick people like J. R Sebastion who has a life shortening disease. Lastly there is Tyrell who is the powerful god like figure who seems to rule and dominate the city with the towering buildings.
The replicants in Blade Runners are almost identical to humans, as they physically look exactly identical to normal people. They even make there own decisions, have emotions and Roy even shows compassion at the end. Bauldy, Zhora and Pris just want to survive and do not have or show developed emotions. Rachael differs to them as we see her find out she is a replicant. She is nieve was unaware of what she was. But Rachael shows emotions and reveals her personal side later on.
Roy Batty is the leader of the rouge replicants and is shown as a prodigal son returning to his maker. He is the Nexus 6 model replicant and shows superior strength and intelligence and returns to Tyrell hi maker. Roy is a designed as a killing machine but he shows more than that. At the end he shows compassion and pity for Deckard and saves him, then dies with dignity. The technology of Earth has come to a point where the replicants which, are not born but manufactured by humans are so real that they are almost undetectable.
They show all the signs of being human and especially Rachael and Roy appear to be humane. With the real humans being so cold and unemotional puts forward the question of what makes someone human or humane. In the dark and gloomy world the replicants are vulnerable and struggling for life. Does a machine do this? Does it come to the point where we need to give the replicants rights that we demand? That is the result of such technological advances that we may take our selves and then Ridley Scott’s book may not be fiction.
