Rick Deckard: "More Human Than Human?"
By Lucy
Telling a story about robots that
are virtually identical to humans is an opportunity to
explore a lot of questions about the definition of life and
the meaning of death, as well as
what makes us human. In the Director's cut version
of Blade Runner, there is a scene
where Deckardhas a vision of a unicorn while he is looking
at his numerous family
photographs. This scene, and the paper unicorn at the
end of the film, supposedly
suggests that Deckard may also be a replicant with implanted
memories, just like the
replicants he hunts down and "retires." This
would raise some interesting questions about
Deckard's life and line of work, but it is not consistent
with the
rest of the film.
Replicants are often used for dangerous
jobs, such as exploration of off-world colonies,
and military purposes. This would be consistent with
Deckard's occupation as a blade
runner, a very high risk job that requires a well trained,
specialized individual. Yet I
believe Deckard is not a replicant police officer because
this could possibly present a
dangerous conflict of interest should he or his targets discover
that he is a replicant, a risk
the police department would be unlikely to take. It
would become impossible for Deckard
to perform his job if he knew he was killing his own kind
simply because they didn't want
to be slaves. And it would give his replicant victims
a lever to convince him not to kill
them. It also is apparent in the beginning of the film
that Deckard is not currently with the
department, he is forced out of retirement to hunt down the
current Nexus-6 escapees. It
wouldn't make any sense for the police to let Deckard retire
and do as he wished if it were
illegal for replicants to be on Earth; it would make more
sense if they destroyed him or
sent him off-world.
Even if the police department did
hire a replicant to kill other replicants, they probably
would hire the most state-of -the-art model to take on the
Nexus-6s. Replicants are
supposed to be physically fitter and much more agile than
humans. This would mean that
Deckard would be an equal match for the replicants--but he
is not. The first replicant he
kills, Zhora, would have killed him first if she hadn't been
startled by the other girls
entering the dressing room. Leon Kowalski almost kills
Deckard as well, but he is saved
by Rachael. He never moves as gracefully as Pris, with
her murderous Olympic gymnast's
routine, even though he does get her in the end. And
his life is actually saved by the last
replicant, Roy Baty, from a certain death that Deckard got
himself into because he wasn't
quick enough to kill even an unarmed replicant before it
could out maneuver him.
Another reason that Deckard cannot
be a replicant is that he has too much empathy.
Even though the replicants are capable of developing empathy
after they have stored
enough experience, it is unlikely that the police department
would need an empathy
capable robot to be a hit man. The film shows that
Deckard does indeed feel remorse after
each "retirement." When Rachael and he are
back at his apartment after they have killed
Leon and Zhora, he comments to Rachael, "Shakes?
Me too. I get um bad. Part of the
business." This also suggests that Rachael has
empathy like a human, since she is upset
after killing Leon as well. She also falls in love
with Deckard and saves him from Leon, an
activity that requires empathy. But Tyrell tells Deckard
that "Rachael is an experiment,
nothing more." She is a prototype, Tyrell's latest
effort to create a replicant "more human
than human." It wouldn't make sense for Deckard
to also be an empathy capable
prototype if he stands the risk of being blown to bits by
the replicants he chases. It would
ruin anything experimental that the Tyrell corporation was
trying to accomplish. Also, as I
have said before, what good is empathy in a robot whose primary
function is murder?
Nevertheless, the last replicant
to be destroyed, Roy Baty, saves Deckard from certain
death, a most definite act of empathy from a robot not created
to have empathy. For the
rest of the movie, Roy Baty is a ruthless killer, even though
he does have some basic
emotions. Why would he bother to save Deckard if he
could recognize Deckard as a
replicant? It seems that the replicants know one another,
and Roy would probably have
tried to convince Deckard to join his team if he thought
Deckard was a replicant. But
instead Roy tries to kill Deckard until the very end, when
Roy suddenly realizes that he is
about to die. Perhaps Roy decides that any life is
worth saving because he sees his own
slipping away. Roy may also be saving Deckard's life
just to tell him about his memories
before he finally passes on, because it seems at the end
that the thing most upsetting to
Roy about his short life is how the few memories he has will
slip away. "I've seen
things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on
fire off the shoulder of Orion. I've
watched sea beams glitter in the dark near the Tenhauser
gate. All those moments will be
lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die."
These are Roy's last words, and it doesn't
make sense for Roy to confide in another replicant if he
wants his memories to live on.
Another replicant will be dead in a few short years as well,
but a human can live to be
eighty or more. A long time for Roy's shared memories
to continue to exist.
The Tyrell corporation's motto is
"more human than human," and if Deckard were a
replicant, he might fit this description. But even
as a human, we see that he is imperfect.
Deckard has been given the responsibility of killing off
replicants, and in the end, has one
confide his memories to him and falls in love with another.
He is not the most perfect
blade runner as the department would probably want a replicant
blade runner to be if they
were going to use robots. As J.R. said to Roy and Pris
when he realized they were
replicants, "...you're so different. You're so
perfect." Replicants are physically perfect and
Deckard is far from this. He is constantly saved by
one lucky occurrence after another in
his clumsy close call efforts to destroy the Nexus-6s.
I think the question of Deckard
having implanted memories is a part of the story in order
to explore the arbitrariness of
memories, and the definition of what it means to be alive.
If it is our memories and
experiences that set us apart from that which is inanimate,
then how do we know our
memories are real?