The Meaning of Being Human
How the film Blade Runner makes us question our humanity.
According to Steven M. Sanders, every film genre raises philosophical questions. The romantic film may ask, what is love? The action film, what is power? The crime genre, what is Justice? But the science fiction genre raises questions, such as how the future will be. What is the purpose of existence? What does it mean to be a human?
Blade Runner (1982), directed by Ridley Scott, is based on Philip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? The film combines film noir detective stories with a subgenre of science fiction known as cyberpunk. These two themes shaped an environment of uncertainty, which leads the viewer to think about the importance of memory and emotions in constructing identity and question the idea of what it is to be a human.
The higher levels of uncertainty in Blade Runner establish an atmosphere of mystery and ambiguity that brings doubts about what is alive or dead, human or nonhuman, and what is real, false or fabricated. The concept of humanity will change along the film through the ambiguity, and “the human will become more inanimate; the nonhuman, more animate, and the resulting intellectual uncertainty […] will help create the uneasy feeling of the uncanny” (Kerman in Retrofitting Blade Runner, page 9). This change in the perception of humanity and the ambiguity is conveyed through a detective stylistic format and a cyberpunk world.
Cyberpunk fiction is often set in a megalopolis of a dark and decadent future with high violence levels, corrupt corporations, and emerging technologies on which humans depend, making it impossible to distinguish the real and the artificial. For example, the Tyrell Corporation controls every Replicant in the world; the city’s streets are full of thieves, dwarves, and policemen. The city is a multiethnic megalopolis with abandoned buildings punished by heavy rain and “embellished” by the mass advertising displayed on the streets. There is no blue sky or plants; nature is absent. Also, the own humanity of the protagonist is questioned throughout the film, making it hard to differentiate humans from androids.
Thus, the noir theme influenced by science fiction in Blade Runner also helps to express uncertainty. The film exploits the idea of fatalism; the hunter against the savage; the doubt of what the enemy is; the ambiguity of the protagonist; and the struggle to retain control of the circumstances. This feeling of “revelation” of the facts in the course of the events that do not lead to a certainty but in a set of doubts about humanity is the medium for the shifting of the story.
The story takes place in a chaotic Los Angeles in the year 2019. The protagonist, Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), is indulged in terminating four humanlike androids, known as Replicants, who have escaped from their prisons and come to the earth to meet their creator. The Tyrell Corporation is responsible for creating synthetic life through genetic engineering. Its presence is justified by the cyberpunk city where the only animals are Replicants, such as Tyrell’s owl and Zhora’s serpent. Also, They created synthetic humans to work on other planets in several functions — for example, slaves on off-world colonies; soldiers, as Roy Batty, the antagonist; models, as Pris; and even maybe blade runners (detectives that hunt Replicants that aren’t under control). The Replicant's characters are used to introduce questions about humanity, especially concerning their emotions and memory, creating a contrast between the humans and non-humans encircled in ambiguity.
Philosophical questions are raised inside the film about the role played by memory and emotions in our understanding of human life. The film initially approaches this question from the perspective of the Replicants. Roy Batty, the antagonist, wants to be human. The Replicant Leon also asks Deckard how old he is to know how many years of life he still possesses. The Replicants want to live; they are worried about their survival; they have fear and insecurity, which are forms of emotion. Also, they show esteem for their memories. Leon returned to his apartment only to rescue his photographs, even knowing they were false memories.
The memory in Blade Runner is used to shape identity. We don’t know who we are without memory, so we can’t decide about our actions and ourselves without our identity. It molds how we interact with the world. The Tyrell Corporation makes the Replicants “More Human Than Human,” as its motto states. In addition to their super strength and intelligence over human, each Replicant received implanted memories according to their functions. These memories work as a control tool over synthetic humans, making them easier to control and giving them the false notion of who they are. Rachel is the niece of Tyrell, the CEO of Tyrell Corporation, who received Deckard during his visit to the Corporation. Initially, she is secure in herself, strong, and indifferent to Deckard in her reception of the blade runner. She believes in her identity as Tyrell’s niece. The shift in her identity starts when Tyrell invites Deckard to test her humanity, and she fails the test evidencing that she is a sophisticated Replicant. From this moment on, she changes her personality, showing confusion and doubts about who she is.
Also, the implanted memories make them believe that they are older than they are. Tyrell, the human creator, gives them a fixed four-year life span as a safe device for their possible rebellion, giving their connections and relations to others a short time for existence. However, their memories allow them to dream about their future and make them develop their desire. Roy Batty desires to live longer than his predefined four years to know the meaning of his life. That’s the purpose of his coming to earth to see his creator.
Along with the implanted memories, each Replicant received photographs of their fake past to reinforce those memories. The photographs work as a link to their past, as a witness of their humanity. But when the Replicants realize their memories are false, their identity sinks. In Deckard’s apartment, Rachel talks about their memories holding in her hands the photographs to prove them. Deckard interrupted her and finished telling the story that only Rachel could know. He said these are memories of Tyrell’s niece, not hers, making her accept her reality as a Replicant. Thereby, Rachel changes her personality again and starts to follow Deckard as her only connection with whom she is. This uncertainty about the characters' humanity makes us question how we know who is human.
Blade Runner simply states that those with feelings are human, and who does not is a Replicant. For Deckard, the “Replicants are like any other machine.” Humans are humans, and Replicants are creatures. At the beginning of the film, when Deckard discovers through the Voight-Kampff test that Rachel, Tyrell’s niece, is a Replicant, He starts to refer to her as it. The Voight-Kampff test scale measures the empathy response of the individual with questions related to hypothetical situations such as, for example, treason by your partners, a dangerous animal in your arm, or a simple dialogue with a child.
Memory is less important than emotions in Blade Runner. Memories are unreliable, dubious, and false; they can be implanted and manipulated at the designer's will. Feelings are the central element that sustains true identity; it divides humans from non-human, as shown in the Voight-Kampff test scale. Deckard believed Replicants don’t have emotions and strongly dehumanized them, making their genocide possible. He said, “Replicants weren’t supposed to have feelings; neither were blade runners,” reinforcing his concept of Replicants as savages, non-human, and unworthy of mercy.
However, Deckard’s vision of the Replicants changes throughout the film, and the viewers start to see through the eyes of the blade runner. This shift makes the viewer change his/her ideas together with the protagonist, united with the humanization of the androids. Rachel’s status changed his conceptions of Replicants. Deckard knows he needs to kill her, even knowing she is not dangerous. In the battle with Leon, where Deckard is vulnerable, Rachel shows courage, takes the gun, and shoots Leon, saving Deckard’s life. Again, the uncertainty and doubt, if the Replicants don’t have emotions, why did she save his life? Why did she act like a human? This scene makes the viewer criticize the nature of the Replicants as a machine without emotions. The enemy's position, as the devil, starts to change, confusing the viewer.
However, another reason for the change in the status of the Replicants was Roy Batty. He denotes being a complex character with emotions, memory, and intelligence; his thoughts and words often lead to the questioning of humans' humanity and the humanization of the Replicants. Roy's words to Deckard, “not very sporting to fire on an unarmed opponent. I thought you were supposed to be good,” deconstructs the idea of humanity related to the body and brings emotion and morality as elements to define humans. Sebastian, one of the designers, said to Roy Batty that he was perfect and demanded, “do something.” Batty replies, “we are not computers, Sebastian. We are physical.” Replicants have emotions; they developed free will and identity, not a savage, cruel, and monstrous identity, but a soul.
Roy Batty and the dove at the brink of his death
Roy Batty constantly recites poetry throughout the film as a symbol of his soul and his humanity. He considered himself a fallen angel, a perfect being not understood and not following his default purpose. He was considered an enemy. To describe himself, he quotes William Blake, “Fiery the angel fell; deep thunder rolled round their shores; burning with the fires of Orc.” May an animal or a monster recite poetry? What is poetry if not the vision and words of the soul? It can be a passion for truth, beauty, and power; it is admiration, pleasure, and exaltation. Poetry is feeling, emotion, and identity, the soul's breath.
In the final scene, Roy Batty is raised to human status on the brink of his death. That point defines humanity and creates a great contrast between Deckard and Roy Batty. At the same time, it deconstructs the barriers between humans and androids. Deckard was running from Roy and jumped from one building to another, getting on the shore of one of them, almost falling from the terrace. Instead of killing Deckard, knowing that death is imminent (the end of his four-year life span), Roy saves Deckard’s life. This action makes the protagonist emotionally involved with the antagonist, leading the viewer to question what and who is human. Deckard, throughout the film, shows an extreme lack of feeling and indifference, He does not feel anything for Leon and Zhora’s death, as also all the other humans: Tyrell, Gaff, J.F.Sebastian, etc. The contrast makes Roy Batty turns out to be more human than Deckard, even though Tyrell has manufactured him.
The final scene turns our understanding of the Replicants from machines to humans, from enemies to victims, from soulless creatures to beings of beauty and tenacity prisoned in a chaotic world, as birds in a cage. The words of Roy Batty to Deckard demonstrate the Replicant’s life: “Quite an experience to live in fear, isn’t it? That’s what it is to be a slave.” At the end of his life, Roy remembers his memories of old saying, “All those moments will be lost in time like tears in the rain” and then he releases the white dove from his hands. The dove, as his soul, reaffirms the ambiguity; it’s difficult to separate human beings from androids. They might both be Replicants or human beings.”
The shift in the portrait of the Replicants makes us “recognize [them] as those who embody the values we believe define what it is to be human: empathy, trust, loyalty and love” (Sanders in The Philosophy of Science Fiction Films, pg. 35). Emotions are an essential motif in Blade Runner and are strongly connected with the concept of humanity. The film shows that feelings are essential to support actions and one’s identity. The images in Blade Runner are not reliable, as memories are selected, distorted, and dismembered; it is implanted and ratified by photos to create a sense of reality, history, and identity.
The personality is constructed by false images in the film, offering a double reading about the characters. Deckard’s identity as a human being is challenged during the film. When Deckard was analyzing Leon’s photographs, he found a picture similar to one of his photographs. Also, Deckard is certain of his identity until he meets Rachel. She asks him, “Have you ever retired a human by mistake?” and he replies that he has not, but when she asks, “that Voight-Kampff test of yours — did you ever take that test yourself?” Deckard did not reply.
Roy’s death makes significant transformations in Deckard’s understanding of his own identity. He rethinks himself and accepts the possibility of being a Replicant. His conceptions about the androids have changed. The theatrical release shows Deckard and Rachel traveling across fields and meadows. This was a happy ending proposed by the studios. However, the Director’s cut is uncertain, darker, and leans toward his identity as a Replicant. Deckard had a dream of a unicorn running in a field, and at the end of the film, when Deckard was preparing to escape with Rachel, Deckard finds an origami unicorn made by Gaff, one superior official, in the front of his apartment.
Deckard’s status as a human was psychically and morally in doubt. He suffered a reverse in the understanding of the Replicants and himself. The romantic evolvement with Rachel and his fight with Roy humanize him, make him develop emotions; care about others; and finally, He becomes a human. Deckard’s dehumanized personality was molded by his memories. During the film, the photographs are used as a visual testimony to help verify their own identities, helping the construction of their identity.
The relevance of Blade Runner is in its understanding of humanity. The film uses a chaotic environment where people can become human or non-human, a detective format, and darkness in the plot to create a story full of uncertainty and ambiguity. Through these elements, the emotions, together with the possession of personal memories, eliminated many distinctions between human and Replicant, becoming clear their importance in the construction of the personality; consequently, by contrast, helped to understand what it is to be a human. Humanity is not exclusively to the body but to those who possess feelings and emotions.
