It Shoulda Ended with...

[IndigoPrime]

I find that the question of Deckard literally being a replicant, or not, is not in itself a particularly interesting loose-end nor the point, as Ridley Scott continues to argue.

I never got why Scott was so gung-ho on that point. It details the entire ending, for a start, and much of the point of what it means to be human, if we're basically watching an Amiga track down and kill ZX Spectrums.

[JOE SOAP]

Apart from it raising plot-holes, I can only assume he likes it because it makes his additions of metaphorical origami and fantasy animals come together in a 'clever' plot-twist at the end, which hardly matters at that point in a film which is more about story/theme than plot.

[JamesC]

I love Blade Runner and agree that it doesn't matter whether Deckard is a replicant or not. Part of the fun is in reading the story in different ways and pondering the 'what ifs'.
If you accept him being a replicant though, it opens the possibility that the whole plot is actualy a Deckard field test and that the Nexus VI replicants haven't seen attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion - it's all made up to give Deckard something to do.

[JOE SOAP]

If you accept him being a replicant though, it opens the possibility that the whole plot is actualy a Deckard field test and that the Nexus VI replicants haven't seen attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion - it's all made up to give Deckard something to do.

A field-test where they send a weaker, middle-aged replicant against a bunch of sexy upgrades who kick the shite of him repeatedly.

[JamesC]

If you accept him being a replicant though, it opens the possibility that the whole plot is actualy a Deckard field test and that the Nexus VI replicants haven't seen attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion - it's all made up to give Deckard something to do.

A field-test where they send a weaker, middle-aged replicant against a bunch of sexy upgrades who kick the shite of him repeatedly.

Yes - and the value of this depends on what they're testing for.
Maybe they're trying to see if the memories, values, emotions they've implanted will create the desired effect of him persevering with his duty and not saying 'fuck it' and doing a runner when faced with superior odds.

All I'm saying is, it's fun to look at the film from different angles and hypothesize on different scenarios. Some of these meanderings may lead you down a blind alley but it doesn't make them any less fun to engage in. Having an almost definite [spoiler]'replicants are just as alive as humans'[/spoiler] angle makes things a little more cut and dried which I think is detrimental to the orginial film.

[JOE SOAP]

Yes - and the value of this depends on what they're testing for.
Maybe they're trying to see if the memories, values, emotions they've implanted will create the desired effect of him persevering with his duty and not saying 'fuck it' and doing a runner when faced with superior odds.

All that's fine to think about in a kind of fan-fictiony way, as we often do here, but none of it is really supported by the text of the film. It's an extrapolation a few steps beyond a reasonable reading, for me at least, but your mileage may vary.

[IndigoPrime]

I think that angle is purely Scott's, too. It certainly wasn't in the original novel, nor something the people who worked on the screenplay were thinking.

[GrudgeJohnDeed]

Are the replicants artificial in the book? Embarrassingly as a Sci-fi fan I've never read it. I read Starship Troopers for the first time recently, I really enjoyed it. I guess the film people thought it'd silly if the troopers were bouncing around in power armour though!

[JOE SOAP]

It was suggested in a paranoid scene/delusion from the book when Deckard finds himself in a fake police station run by replicant cops. Fancher also only saw it as a suggested possibility but wrote him as a human.

[JOE SOAP]

Rocky and Predator have been mentioned already. I would add [spoiler]The Matrix[/spoiler], Rambo and Ghostbusters.

It's your day, Pops, Matrix 4 got the greenlight.

https://variety.com/2019/film/news/matrix-4-keanu-reeves-carrie-anne-moss-lana-wachowski-1203307955/

[The Legendary Shark]

Oh Christ.

[JOE SOAP]

Oh Christ.

Neo

[The Legendary Shark]

Oh Christ.

Neo

"Why hast thou forsaken me?"

"Oh, behave. There is no crucifix."

[Mardroid]

Are the replicants artificial in the book? Embarrassingly as a Sci-fi fan I've never read it. I read Starship Troopers for the first time recently, I really enjoyed it. I guess the film people thought it'd silly if the troopers were bouncing around in power armour though!

In the book they're called 'androids' but they are biological in nature like the replicants of the film. I vaguely remember a scene in the book with an android character having something in his arm suggesting they may have cybernetic components, but they are predominantly flesh and blood. The voigtt kampff (probably misspelled) test is the main method used to detect them, just as in the film.

Interestingly, a bone marrow test is also mentioned as providing definitive proof suggesting some differences at the cellular level, although why an ordinary DNA test wouldn't work, I don't know. I'm just guessing not so much about DNA was known during the period the author wrote the novel. To do that test would require capturing the suspect and taking them to a lab, however, so they go with the portable VK kit.

[Mardroid]

Rocky and Predator have been mentioned already. I would add [spoiler]The Matrix[/spoiler], Rambo and Ghostbusters.

It's your day, Pops, Matrix 4 got the greenlight.

https://variety.com/2019/film/news/matrix-4-keanu-reeves-carrie-anne-moss-lana-wachowski-1203307955/

Didn't [spoiler]Carrie Anne-Moss's character die, in the third film? Then again, in a world where sentient computer programs also exist, there are ways around that.[/spoiler]