Blade Running from Reality

                Blade Runner is a dystopian film set in 2019 in which a few elite corporations seemingly come to replace government as the central institution of society. The crux of the story is the advent of human replicates that are nearly indistinguishable from humans without proper training. The replicates are so life like that they themselves may not even realize they are replicates, potentially allowing them to develop emotions and feelings to beyond what was initially programmed into their minds.

                One of the reoccurring questions throughout the movie is whether Deckard, the Blade Runner, is himself a replicate. Throughout the film Deckard’s interactions continue to lead one to believe he is a replicate, although it is never explicitly stated, which forces one to question who at all is human. One of the distinctions that is used in the movie as evidence of being human is having thoughts and memories that are independent and isolated from others. That is the criterion that allowed a replicate to believe themselves to be human, as evidenced when Rachel realizes she is a replicate upon hearing that her memories are not unique to her conscious. Applying this to the final scene where Gaff leaves behind the paper Unicorn that Deckard had dreamed of strongly points to Deckard’s thoughts, too, not being uniquely his own.  

                Another motif throughout the film is the use of eyes as evidence for humanity. This is drawing upon the age old concept of the eyes as the gateway to the soul. The most basic test they have for detection of replicates is the VOID test which does exactly that, peer into the eyes in order to see a soul. More subtle than the VOID test, the replicate eyes were all given a nonhuman luminosity which alludes to the replicates as animal like and inferior to humans.

                An interesting undertone I sensed throughout the film was that the traditional economic class system had been replaced in the movie by a class system based on race (replicate vs human races). Throughout the movie it is alluded to that the majority of humans have abandoned earth, and those that are introduced that do remain tend only to be part of the replicate manufacturing and policing process. I believe Ridley Scott was attempting to epitomize the class struggle that is felt by an oppressed lower class through the replicates struggle. Earth is the ghetto in which they live and their life span is the constraint imposed on them to hold them down. It reminds me of the dysfunctional economic policies of many 3^rd World countries where the government is, more or less, a conglomerate of the wealthiest putting in place policies to keep themselves in control. The struggle of the lower class of these countries to try to fight the oppression and regain control of their lives is something I saw in Zhora and Battys’ attempt to finally gain control of their lives.