How similar are memories of events to the actual events they refer to? Is it possible that what seems to be a recording of the past is not actually real–either fantasy we subconsciously construct or even confuse with other’s memories? Science Fiction often explores the relationship between manipulated memories and what makes humanity unique. Directed by Ridley Scott, Blade Runner (1982) explores this idea of artificially implanted memories. In Blade Runner, a corporation called Tyrell creates bioengineered humans or replicants with superior strength to act as slaves for humans. When a group of replicants commits a mutiny in the new off-world colony many live in, and set course for earth, Rick Deckard, a retired blade runner, is instructed to “retire” or kill them. Replicants are created with no memories and emotional experience, so blade runners use the Voight-Kampf test to poke at their emotions to distinguish them from humans. When Deckard meets Rachael, a replicant who is created with memories to be similar to humans, a defining question is raised: what makes humanity human or unique? In Blade Runner, it initially seems that humanity rests on the validity of our memories, but it’s later revealed that empathy drives humanity.
In Blade Runner, it’s initially very clear who is a replicant and who is human through the Voight Kampf test. A replicant is created with no memories, and only a time span of four years to develop memories; in other words, not nearly long enough to become emotionally mature or experienced. As a result, the Voight Kampf test, which places replicants in imaginary situations that require subjects to display emotion and empathy, reveals their inexperienced emotional states through involuntary dilation of the pupil or violent outbreaks. Thus, the divide between humans and bioengineered replicants seems to be clearly defined by memories; memories are what make it possible to pass the Voight Kamf test and to ultimately be human. However, the line is later blurred when Rachael is placed in the Voight Kampf–because of artificially implanted memories, there is no way for her to know that she’s a replicant.
She reacts as a human would for the most part. Thus, when Rick Deckard begins asking her questions, it takes over 100 questions to reveal that she’s a replicant. An average, normal replicant is exposed in usually around 20-30 questions because of their underdeveloped emotions. When Deckard and Tyrell converse after the test, Deckard realizes Rachael is unaware that she is, in fact, a replicant, prompting him to ask, “How can it not know what it is?” While Rachael is nothing more than an experiment to see if replicants can be more like humans, her existence has much bigger implications: how can humans be sure that their memories are in fact real and that they’re human? What makes a human, human? Clearly, the defining factor for humans cannot merely be their memories, as even a bioengineered machine can have the memories like a human.
The idea that memories can be implanted by someone else baffles Deckard, and would be shocking to any human; memories are held dear by humans, considered to be their own and uninfluenced by others. However, Tyrell manages to destroy this notion, creating artificial memories for replicants, suggesting that memories aren’t what make humans human. Rather, humanity rests on compassion and the ability to express this compassion or empathize with others. Ironically, throughout the course of the film, Roy Batty, a replicant, slowly develops this trait. At the end of the fight between Batty and Deckard, Deckard is left hanging from the edge of a building, but Batty decides to save him from his falling to his death by catching him. Batty is nearing the end of his four-year life, and practically speaking, saving Deckard is a very low priority especially in the face of his own death. Thus, his choice to save Deckard is one made from a moral or ethical standpoint, not from a practical standpoint. He empathizes with Deckard, hanging there in fear, just as he’s spent the four years fearing as a slave himself, which complicates Batty’s status as an emotionless replicant.
At this point in the movie, it seems that Batty has raised himself into the status of a human. This is depicted by the heavy religious imagery in the film. For example, when Deckard is hanging by the ledge at the top of the building and slips, Batty reaches down to grab Deckard with his hand impaled by a nail. The nail in his hand is a clear allusion to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. In addition, when Deckard is about to fall downwards into the depths of darkness, which is often associated with evil, Batty saves him from falling into darkness. Thus, when Batty reaches out to prevent Deckard from falling into this “evil,” it’s similar to Jesus Christ saving people from falling into hell. Perhaps through compassion for Deckard, Batty becomes the model human, Christ, who is the holiest and most perfect human being there is in Christianity.
By association, Tyrell, the creator and father of Batty or Christ, could represent God. This is supported by the scene of Batty meeting Tyrell. Batty comes to ask for more life, and Tyrell responds that it’s not possible. Tyrell is dressed in white robes, and approaches Batty to rub Batty’s head with his right hand as he sits down on the right of Batty. The two men are shown in the dark, with the flickering of the candlelight on their faces. Paired with the candlelight is a plethora of ancient art pieces and furniture, all made of bronze. The doors of the room are tall and wide. The decor of the room matches common characteristics of churches in ancient times. Tyrell is dressed in white robes, much like God is depicted in various paintings. Having Batty sit at his right hand and calling him the “prodigal son” further suggests the biblical metaphor of Tyrell being God, and his son Batty being Christ. The idea of the prodigal son is hinted when Batty first walks in, as Tyrell says, “I’m surprised you didn’t come here sooner,” as if he was hoping he’d come; throughout the scene, Tyrell not only doesn’t chastise Batty, but compliments him, saying how Batty has, “shined so very brightly.” Like God is described in the bible, Tyrell is slow to anger and quick to forgive Batty. If this is the case, then why would Batty who represents such a holy figure be so violent, going so far as to gouge out the eyes of Tyrell, his father and thus God, as well as killing J.F. Sebastian?
This conflict can be reconciled if Batty is instead considered a symbol of mankind, while Sebastian can be considered the true Christ figure. Sebastian, while human, has a medical condition that makes him age much faster than normal. Thus, his severely shortened lifespan compares to the lifespan of replicants. He is a combination of human and replicant; Tyrell, a human, represents God, while Batty, a replicant, represents mankind. Thus, his mix between human and replicant corresponds to Christ being a combination of God and mankind. Sebastian also guides Batty to Tyrell, which can be likened to Jesus Christ bringing mankind to Christianity and God. Batty gouges out the eyes of Tyrell and then kills Sebastian, immediately after Tyrell informs him that it’s not possible to extend his lifespan. This action can be likened to people who condemn God when their prayers aren’t fulfilled, while Sebastian’s death can be likened to the humans who killed Jesus Christ when he attempted to bring mankind to God. Clearly, Batty is not a symbol of Christ, but closer to the average human, as he is quick to anger and excessively violent.
As he nears the end of his life, Batty comes closer to the ideal image of man, Christ. He comes to terms with his own mortality. Thus, when faced with his only death, he decides to empathize with Deckard, despite being his enemy, showing that he’s learned true compassion and gained a moral compass. He understands the fear and struggles that Deckard is experiencing hanging from the building, as he connects it with his own experiences, saying, “That’s what it’s like to be a slave.” The camera cuts between closeups of high angle shots of Deckard’s face and low angle shots of Batty’s face. The high angle shot makes Deckard appear small, while Batty appears to be towering over Deckard, showing how powerless he is in the face of Batty. However, Batty follows in the footsteps of Christ, who is forgiving and compassionate, by understanding Deckard’s fear and saving him. When Batty passes away, the scene cuts to a dove flying out of his hand into the night sky; the dove is often used as a symbol of the holy spirit or the soul in the bible. Thus, it seems the film communicates that after Batty saves Deckard, he ascends into heaven, which is an honor reserved for those that have chased after Christ’s example. Through compassion for someone that is an enemy, Batty becomes a human in the image of Christ. In other words, he has become, other than Jesus Christ himself, the ideal human, not by possessing memories like Rachael, but by learning empathy for others.
Despite the fact that Batty and Deckard are on opposing sides, they may both be replicants, and this serves as additional motivation for Batty to save Deckard from falling. It’s not immediately obvious that Deckard is a replicant, as he doesn’t have the same level of strength as replicants. For example, in the fight scene, he ends up hanging at the edge of the building when trying to jump across the gap between the two buildings, while Batty easily clears the gap. However, there are some hints that Deckard could be a replicant. At the beginning of the film, police captain Harry Bryant says, “six replicants: three male, three female,” escaped the off-world colony. Deckard retires four of them and one of them kills itself while trying to break into the Tyrell lab. So where’s the last replicant?
At the end of the film, when Deckard is running off with Rachael, the camera cuts to a close up of Rachael’s foot stepping on an origami figure. This is a seemingly minor detail until Deckard pauses in his footsteps and slowly turns around to investigate. The sparse bells in the background and mysterious music further build up the confusion and importance behind this figurine. When Deckard picks up the figurine, it turns out to be a unicorn. The camera cuts to a close up of Deckard’s hand fidgeting with the unicorn. Gaff’s voice echoes in the background, saying, “It’s too bad she’ll never live. But then again, who does?” Gaff, an experienced blade runner, is referring to Rachael and how she won’t live because she’s a replicant. Deckard is shown nodding as he recalls what Gaff tells him because earlier in the film, he has a daydream sequence where he sees a unicorn running through a forest. The most logical reason for why Gaff leaves Deckard a unicorn is to hint that he’s aware Deckard is a replicant because that would be the only way for Gaff to be aware of his unicorn dream sequence–implanted memories.
The question is, does Deckard follow a similar arc as Batty to become more human? He’s depicted as an alcoholic and cold replicant hunter, who blindly follows the orders of his bosses, not displaying the empathy. At first, it seems that Deckard eventually learns empathy; he decides to abandon his job as a cruel, disconnected blade runner and runs off with Rachael, a replicant. However, the motivation for fleeing with Rachael seems to made out of love, as Deckard somewhat forces Rachael to reciprocate his affection to him in a previous scene. Connecting with Rachael, who was always supporting him to begin with, such him from Leon, is very different than how Roy showed empathy for Deckard, an enemy and threat. When Roy chases Deckard through the dark run-down apartment, the differences between him and Deckard slowly disappear.
They both have injured right hands, and more importantly, both of them understand the feeling of being hunted, as Deckard is now Roy’s desperately fleeing prey. Deckard is also a slave to the police department in a similar way that Roy is a slave, allowing Roy to empathize with Deckard and ultimately save him from falling when he’s at the peak of his fear. This makes it even more clear why Roy is able to empathize with Deckard when he’s hanging from the edge of the building; he’s able to see himself in Deckard and consequently even recognize that Deckard is a replicant. Deckard ultimately fails to do the same, not realizing he himself is a replicant until he finds the unicorn origami figurine. The unicorn figurine is a statement to the fact that Deckard’s still a replicant; because he fails to see himself in Roy and show compassion like Roy, he has not yet become human, showing that compassion and empathy are the keys to humanity.
In conclusion, Blade Runner raises the central question of what it means to be human. It intially seems that memories are something that define humanity, but this idea is soon outdated by Rachael, a replicant with implanted memories. Batty later learns to become more human through empathy but laments that his memories will die with him. While Batty discovers the meaning of humanity, he nonetheless suffers the pain and lack of rights associated with being nothing more than a slave machine. Thus, our hopes to create advanced artificial intelligences like Batty often overshadow an important ethical question: when humanity manages to create sentient artificial intelligence, should it be protected under the same right as humans?
