Rick Deckard In The Blade Runner

Ideology is defined as a comprehensive set of normative beliefs, conscious and unconscious ideas that structure how individuals see themselves and interact with others. Accordingly, there seem to be a set of primary values that float around the plot of Blade Runner, cultural appropriation and a lack of minority identity and representation. On the surface, Blade Runner seamlessly fits into the category of timeless Sci-Fi classics with its star-studded cast of Harrison Ford, Sean Young, and Emmet Walsh. The film's basic premise follows the protagonist Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), an ex-cop and self-described killer in retirement, who hunts down replicants – bioengineered beings with superior strength, little to no human agency, and

Within Ridley Scott’s 1982 ‘Blade Runner’ memories serve as the “cushion” (‘Blade Runner’ 1982) for replicant emotion; subsequently making them easier to control. By this, memory lays a foundation, with past experiences creating a bridge to feel and identify as more human. Through past and present circumstances, mood, and relationships, memory serves as a lever to react with a “readiness to respond” (HM Works) within both the present and the future. Scott explores the function of memory in order to illustrate the human psychology in a complex light, using scientific references as to highlight key debates in what makes humans more empathetic and how they use memory in order to be a more emotive species; thus, evaluating the superiority of mankind. Memory in ‘Blade Runner’ is used in order to create a platform to mould replicants into society as more functioning humans as to be a more exact replica, rather than to serve as the initial function of a “slave” (‘Blade Runner’ 1982).

Blade runner promotes that empathy is the defining characteristics for humanity. The replicants, designed not to show any emotion, develop spiritually and emotionally throughout the film.

In Blade Runner, the Tyrell Corporation created advanced robot which were virtually identical to a human, they were known as a replicant. They were superior in strength and agility and at least equal in intelligence to the engineers that created them. The replicants were used for off-world as slave labour in hazardous explorations and colonisation of other planets. After a bloody mutiny replicants were declared illegal on earth. Special police units called Blade Runners were ordered to kill on sight “This was not called execution, it was called retirement” this quote manipulates our morality into a perception that is approvable by the tyrell corporation. Scott juxtaposes “executions” to “retirement” to convince society that corporation are in its core evil, as they manipulate people’s perspective of them by stating the righteousness of its actions, despite being blatant injustices behind the scenes. This particular scene is a message between the composer and the responder it helps mould our views on the rest of the movie to try to get us to be on the Tyrell Corporations side.There is dark irony through “execution” and “retirement”, Scott is trying to expose the corporations lack of morality for humanity appealing to audiences through the sheer power

In particular, Scott is seen to be using his realistic atmospheric lighting to help the scene become more life-like. For example, in the final scene of the film Rick Deckard and Roy Batty are seen in a misty, wet scene creating the essential sense of realism in a futuristic film. This carefully crafted mis-en-scene helps make the setting seem more real and immediate with the inner workings of the unfamiliar world shown in a recognizable manner. The raining, misty scene creates a sense of mystery forcing the audience to become uncomfortable. This is common in all Ridley Scott’s films. Many of Ridley Scott’s films are set in the future including Blade Runner, Alien and Prometheus to name a few. All these films show a broken down society that has a very evident social hierarchy – potentially showing Scott’s predictions for the future. In particular, the setting of the film is always based in a dark, rainy, smoky atmosphere as if it is post-apocalyptic; most unlike the atmosphere of Los Angeles’ (where the film is set) atmosphere today. Scott is also identified to be utilizing the slow-pacing cinematography to give the audience time to analyse and feel the emotions of the characters. As Batty proceeds to die, the camera switches between Batty and Deckard using close up shots on their faces showing the varying emotions of the two men. These close-up shots are complemented by the

Contrastingly, the modern, technologically driven world of Blade Runner conveys man’s usurption of nature caused through his arrogance and desire for dominance. In this contrastingly industrialized, scientifically grounded world, nature has been relentlessly exploited and commodified, as man has attempted to ‘penetrate into the recesses’. The allusion to the Promethean myth through the symbolic use of fire is seen in the opening scenes of shooting fire, intercut with close up shots of an eye, symbolically representing fire as having the potential to both nurture and destroy life. The ignorance and metaphorical blindness of man, is highlighted through the self-imposed destruction of humanity, as nature is obliterated in favour of ‘commerce (being our) goal”, symbolically representing the destruction of our natural

Ridley Scott’s film Blade Runner reflects some of the key themes seen in Mary Shelley’s classic novel Frankenstein. For one, both the sources touch on the necessity of creators taking responsibility for their creations. Another key theme established in both works is the idea that emotional complexity and knowledge, over memory and appearance, allow people to be defined as human beings.

Despite different contexts, both Shelley’s Frankenstein and Scott’s Blade Runner enthrall the audience in a journey to explore the inner psyche through the various perspectives that are drawn.

One of these plot points is the character Roy Batty, aka the sadistic fuckhead that gets pleasure from mankind’s heartbreaking distraught caused by Buster Friendly (who ain’t that friendly, friend). In the movie, Roy Batty and the other andies are violent criminals.  They murder quite a few people who get in their way, but they never kill out of some sort of psychopathic detachment. They murder because they are afraid of dying, because they are plagued by the fear of the unknown.  And when Deckard dangles from the roof of Sebastian’s apartment, Roy reaches out and hauls his enemy onto the roof. In short, the Batty of Blade Runner is a flawed hero who empathized with Deckard in his last

Film Noir uses similar aspects to Romantic Gothic novels and uses darkness and shadows to set mood and to portray ideas. This can be seen in a number of scenes where Deckard is in his apartment. The light, or rather, the lack of, is used to highlight the depressive mood and to emphasise Deckard as a flawed and mysterious character. Additionally, the hardboiled genre features a fallible protagonist, in this case Deckard. The audience is continually questioning the morality and the agenda of the ‘Blade Runner’ through the entirety of the film, which can be paralleled with Frankenstein, and his lack of morality as his “eagerness perpetually increased” as he creates his

Bound by different contexts, authors often use a popular medium in order to depict the discontent of the ideas of society. This is evident in the module Texts in Time; as Blade Runner, having been written more than one hundred years after Frankenstein is still able to reflect the ideas proposed in the latter. Blade Runner by Ridley Scott deals with the effects of globalisation and consumerism during 1980’s. Alternatively, the epistolary novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley deals with the kinship to the natural world set in the Romantic Era and enlightenment period. However Blade Runner, although subjected by a different context, also portrays a similar idea to Frankenstein; the fear of science and technology coupled with the value of the definition of a human. Through this commonality, we are able to utilise the values of Blade Runner in order to truly understand Shelley’s purpose.

‘Blade Runner’, the film adaption, directed by Ridley Scott in 1982, of the 1968 novel ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?’ by Philip K. Dick. This essay will explore the meaning of the Tyrell slogan “More human than human” by following Deckard on Earth in Los Angeles 2019 as a futuristic, dark and depressing industrial metropolis by looking into and discussing what is real and what is not, the good and the bad and why replicants are more appealing than humans. This essay will analyse and pull apart the “Blade Runner’ world, the condition of humanity and what it really means to be human.

It opposes the values of love, empathy and community with the innovative forms of technology and social life under advanced capitalism. The binary opposition between man and technology is represented by three characters in the plot: Deckard, apparently a human. Roy, an android who fears death and longs to be human and Rachel, who thinks she is human and who enters a relationship with a human. These replicants represent capitalism’s oppressive characteristics and also to a certain extent the rebellion against exploitation. Deckard's realization of how the Tyrell Corporation exploits him, and the rebellion of the replicants against their oppressors, is the ultimate critique of capitalism. Since both sides — killer and killed — reject their status as servants of the corporation and refuse further exploitation. (Kellner, et all) The corporation in the Blade Runner that is used to illustrate capitalism’s destructive characteristics is The Tyrell Coporation. The Tyrell Corporation invents replicants to have a controllable labor force that will perform difficult and dangerous tasks. Similarly applicable to today, where capitalism turns individuals into machines that have only the function of productivity. Ironically, the replicants form a human rebellion; while the actual human characters in the film seem to submit to corporate domination and live a life like the corporations sees them to. It seems as if the humans have become so dehumanized that the replicants form a rebellion against their oppressor instead of human beings. Capitalism has dehumanized the population to such an extent, that technology is actually more

This can be observed through Blade Runner’s hero Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) who struggles throughout the film to remember his past. A retired detective, Deckard was specialized in tracking down and destroying human replicants who attempt to live on earth. In 2019 the power of human replication has reached a new peak with the NEXUS 6; replicants that are far more advanced than their predecessors. They are stronger and more specialized than real humans because they are sent to off-world colonies as slave laborers. Deckard the best blade runner in Los Angeles is asked to return to duty a final time to find four NEXUS 6 replicants; Leon, Roy, Zhora and Pris, that returned to earth on a high jacked space shuttle. The replicants leader Roy wants to meet the designer of the replicants Elden

"Blade Runner" develops the notion of an android or replicant quite well, and it is the depiction of the android that calls into question the meaning of humanity. The viewer is constantly challenged to evaluate how human the androids are and how mechanical the humans are. This distinction is not easily made, as the androids are not simply robots. They are, in fact, artificial people created from organic materials. The robot now "...haunts the human consciousness and stares out through a mask of flesh". They have free will and some of the same emotions as humans, such as fear and love, but lack empathy, the ability to identify with the sufferings and joys of other beings, namely animals. However, in both the novel and the film the empathic ability of certain human beings such as Deckard is called into question. Aside from this, physically and behaviorally androids and humans are indistinguishable. Androids may even believe that they are human because of implanted artificial memory tapes, as is the case with Rachael.