The dramatic finale of Blade Runner makes it my favorite Sci-fi movie ever. Here’s why.
“I’ve seen things that you people wouldn’t believe”
“I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe…” (Roy Batty)
Even if you have never watched Blade Runner (film by Ridley Scott -1982-) you might have heard these words. You might have even seen them on T-shirts. Blade Runner is my favorite sci-fi movie. Here’s why.
Roy Batty is a Nexus 6 replicant (i.e. a robot). But you can’t tell… because he looks like a human. As every Nexus 6, he has been programmed to live only 4 years, to prevent him develop emphatic abilities and human-like emotions. Apparently though, Nexus 6 develop these “skills” way earlier than expected.
“I want more life, father”
Says Roy to his “creator”, the owner of Tyrell Corporation (the company that manufactures Nexus 6 replicants), at some point in the movie.
(Spoiler). In the final stages on the movie, he’s fighting against his worst enemy, Rick Deckard — the “Blade Runner” — the one who was in charge of his “retirement” (i.e. elimination).
Roy Batty will die soon anyway: his 4-year term is close.
This scene is incredibly fascinating. Deckard is about to fall out of a skyscraper. As he loses grip on the piece of metal that was keeping him anchored to the building, Roy Batty grabs his arm and pulls him up, saving his life.
Let me make sure you got this right: he saves the life of his prosecutor, the person that had been chasing him with the sole purpose to kill him!
How counter-intuitive is that?
In this very moment, Roy Batty comes to the awareness that his love for his own life has just evolved into something bigger. It has become love for LIFE. Not just his own, not the ones of his fellow Nexus 6.
ANY LIFE. Even the one of his worst enemy.
He has indeed become “more human than human”.
Something we, people, wouldn’t believe.
Vale
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