Rachael "remembers" how to play the piano... (Blade Runner, dir. Ridley Scott, 1982)"Philip K. Dick gives us two oppositions: Human/Android and Human/Inhuman. The first is ultimately unimportant, while the second is urgent. The division between human and android raises a central philosophical question: how do you know you're human? The second opposition leads to a moral problem: what does it mean to be human?"
-Scott Bukatman, "Replicants and Mental Life"
Referring to the film screening and the essays by Scott Bukatman and Guiliana Bruno, select one replicant character (Batty, Pris, Leon, Zhora, Rachael) and describe the objects assembled and criteria used by the replicant to establish its human identity. (Refer to at least two of the following discussions: search for origins, memory, sexual difference and history.)
Do all of the replicants want to be human?
Why is it significant that Deckard's status (as human or replicant) remains undetermined?
-Scott Bukatman, "Replicants and Mental Life"
Referring to the film screening and the essays by Scott Bukatman and Guiliana Bruno, select one replicant character (Batty, Pris, Leon, Zhora, Rachael) and describe the objects assembled and criteria used by the replicant to establish its human identity. (Refer to at least two of the following discussions: search for origins, memory, sexual difference and history.)
Do all of the replicants want to be human?
Why is it significant that Deckard's status (as human or replicant) remains undetermined?
21 comments:
Tony Lopez
I found the android Rachael the most interesting android of them all. She had no idea of what she was, which was the contradictory predicament that Roy and Pris were in. She thought she had a memory, she thought she had a history, and she thought she knew her human identity. Really this was just artificial replication implanted in her simulated mind. I guess I find her so interesting because she thought she was human, and that she knew what it meant to have a sexual identity as a female, she had no idea she only had four years to leave her imprint on this planet. She felt her history was important, because it made her who she is, and without history or an origin, what are you? This was the circumstance that was abruptly placed in front of her. These challenges forced her to rethink the discussion of origin, memory, sexual difference and history in an immediate manner. Why are we human? Do we know that we are human? What makes us human? Our memory proves that we have lived, and that our brain is organic. Rachael did not feel as such, she seemed to fall into depression, which is an organic syndrome and reaction to these situations. She looks like one of us, she feels like one of us, but she is not one of us.
One of the main objects that have established Rachael’s, and other replicant’s, history are the photos they are given after their creation. Rachael was given the memories of her creator’s niece and photos to support those memories. Not knowing that she was a replicant, she believed that these were tangible proof of her origins and her familial history. Bukatman states, “The tangibility of the photograph creates a substitute history that belies the replicant’s artificial origin.” When she shows Deckard the photos, we as viewers even question the possibility that she is human until Deckard finishes the relation of the memory that she tells him. I find the quality of the photographs interesting. They look like they are Polaroid’s, maybe taken in the 70’s and given that the year is supposed to be 2019, there is no way that Rachael is in her 40’s or 50’s.
I don’t think that all replicant’s necessarily want to be human. Rachael thought that she was human and when she found out that she wasn’t she rebelled and left Tyrell Corporation. When she returns a second time to Deckard, she seems to have accepted the fact without any intension of trying to extend her lifespan.
Deckard’s status remains unknown so the viewers can decide for themselves. If he is a replicant, then there is irony in that he was programmed to destroy his own kind and has an extended life span. If he isn’t, then his job is to destroy the most advanced form of technology while the rest of society, including himself, thrives on the advancements this technology has made.
I feel that Rachael was the replicant that was the most unique because even she had no idea that she was simply a replicant and not a real human. She has always seen all of her memories to be real because she has no reason to not believe so. This is very interesting because you feel like an android would know if they were real or not. Looking in Rachael’s case you can see that she would have no reason to believe differently. In the “BFI Modern Classics” article it talks about the replicants view of history and mentions that photographs are essentially history. In “Blade Runner” we see Rachael show Deckard a picture of her and her mom, which to Rachael was proof of the history. This confirms the belief that photos are what essentially represent history.
I believe that the majority of replicants would want to be human. This is only because of their limited life span. Who would rather pick a four-year life over a full human lifetime? I can’t think of many cases where this would be untrue.
I really liked the fact that Deckard’s status was never revealed. In interviews with Ridley Scott he confirms that Deckard was actually a replicant but because this is never revealed it gives the viewers something to question at the end of the film. Without knowing this I would have always pictured Deckard as a human just because of his Blade Runner status and how he convinces Rachael that she is not a real human. This adds much depth to the film.
-Logan Lovett
In the movie, Rachel is the replicant who to me gave the biggest impact. Rachel stood out from the other replicants; she showed no signs of violence and she was in denial of what she was. Also on terms of our sexual difference conversation, Rachel appears to share a similar personality to the woman from “Metropolis”, the one the main character falls in love with. Unlike Hel, Rachel seems to have humane traits. These things, along with her wanting to be human, resembled the criteria to establish her human identity. Unlike the others, she was not carrying snakes or killing people; her personality portrayed that of a normal human being. In the scene where Pris is in the mansion with the toy maker she shows signs of being insane or inhuman, also in the scene where Leon murders his maker, he shows a being that is beyond human limits; Rachel holds a different disposition. Another scene that is revealing is when Harris Ford gave her the test; it took more that twice as long as it usually would.
There were also objects in the movie that helped establish Rachel’s human identity. In the scene where she has the photograph of the scientist’s niece, she truly believed, at least for a little while, that she was that girl. This brings up topics that came up in our “search for Origins” discussions. Rachel was trying to make sense of the photo and her life. She believed the memories she had were her own.
The other object that stood out was the piano. Rachel did not even need the music to play; her fingers knew the melody. It seems weird that a machine, robot, or android would play music to enjoy it itself. This is why the piano, in my opinion, was the most revealing object in terms of Rachel’s human identity.
It seemed that most of the replicants wanted to be human, or at least have some of the freedoms that humans had over them. Zhora and
Rachel definitely wanted to be human; Rachel had fallen in love with a human, and Zhora was trying to blend in a human profession. Pris, although having moments of craziness, revealed herself a little bit to the man who owned the house. And Batty and Leon, although being violent to humans, did show that they wanted to be free like real human beings.
Deckard’s unknown status is significant because he is the creator. And the whole story is about how intelligent these replicants are and how similar they are to human beings. So it is a good ending in which the audience is left to wonder whether the creator of this breed was one of them himself.
-Ryan Bender
In attempting to establish its (her?) human identity, Rachael the replicant provides a photograph of herself and her mother to Deckard. Hoping to convince the blade runner and herself, Rachael uses the photograph as proof of being human. As Bruno writes, “That photograph represents the trace of an origin and thus a personal identity…”(191).
Following this confrontation with Deckard, Rachael exhibits a sexual desire for him. This chain of events show Rachael attempting to establish an identity, first with tracing her past through a photograph, and also by submitting to her sexual desire for Deckard. Bruno argues that she is the only replicant who really succeeds in establishing a temporal identity because “She assumes a sexual identity, becomes a woman, and loves a man”(190).
It may be difficult to decide whether all replicants want to be human. Perhaps the question should be, once replicants discover that they are not human, does their desires and experiences make them “more human than human” in the established Blade Runner universe?
The balancing act that the film contends with on whether or not Deckard is a replicant is one that needs no resolution. The question itself is what arguably what makes Deckard (or at least the possibility) that he is human. On the other hand, this same logic could be applied to Rachael. Bukatman sums it up best in his essay when he quotes Zizek. He writes, “the eternal gnawing doubt over whether I am truly human or just an android – it is these very undecided, intermediate states which make me human” (86).
-Joseph Belknap
The replicant that I found most intriguing was Pris. Unlike the others, Pris shows an innocence and personality of a child. This is a unique formation of personality, unlike the other relicants who already had pre-programmed memories and lives. Pris does not show this characteristic; instead it is almost as if she is truly only a child – being alive for nearly four years. In this way, her life is essentially her own, yet she seems to show a love for Leon, a very human characteristic. However, her relationship can also be one of father-daughter, as Leon is a brace for Pris to lean on and look up to, unquestioning. Ironically, the corruption of Pris is evident when she attempts to kill Deckard and violently attacks – yet it’s still very similar to an angry child, in an adult body.
It is never clear whether or not all replicants want to be human, it is however apparent that the replicants rarely have knowledge of whether or not they actually are human or not. When the realization that they are not human is revealed, there is often a huge confusion and conflict – as shown in Rachael. It is strange how realistic the replicants are; with organs, blood, there is no physical evidence that they are not human, yet inside they are not.
From the beginning of the film, Deckard felt regret or remorse for all that he has done to the replicants. This internal conflict leaves mystery as to whether or not he is human or a replicant and it is important to establish this idea. This idea allows for the possibility that either a replicant will always be superior to humans, or that a human overcame superhuman replicants.
-Matteo Garcia
When Rachael asked Deckard if he'd ever taken the test, I thought for sure I knew where the movie was headed, but it didn't turn out so. Because of her query, my immediate reaction was, "Of course" and I continued watching, expecting his true identity to reveal itself. Because it wasn't, the movie led me to believe that he was indeed a replicant, created just for one purpose; to eliminate other, lower replicants. The BFI Modern Classics article mentioned his photos on the piano and spread throughout his flat, but each photo was, on sight, ancient. This may be further evidence that he was given the photos and told stories of a faux past, just as Andrea had mentioned in her response.
From here I suppose I could talk about Rachael as the most influential and pivotal replicant, and to a point I agree, but the others had their own 'story'. The one thing we need to remember is that the replicants were programmed to be just who they were. The 'Creator' of the reps said Rachael was the most advanced one to date, meaning, to me, she may have unmentioned abilities, such as higher learning or a grasp of what being a human means. To be honest, I don't believe the reps desired to be human. Specifically in Batty's case, they accepted the fact that they were to die eventually, some more inclined to accept it than others. Each one attempted evasion from Deckard, which to me is an animalistic, if not human, trait, not a machine's. They also fought back. Even Rachael fought Deckard, but she did it in a more advanced, humanistic fashion, that being language, both in verbal and body, specifically using her 'new found' sexuality.
I picked Batty as my rep of choice because his last action as a rep before he retired has a tie with how Rachael existed as a whole. Rachael, as I mentioned before, had a grasp on what is meant to be human more so than the other reps represented in the film. The other, lesser reps had one goal, that being evasion from blade runners. They were willing to turn on the 'superior' being in order to hinder their retirement. I mentioned this being a more animalistic behavior, but it's more of an instinct. This just means the reps had artificial intelligence, a non-existent trait of machines we tackled the first meeting of class. But one human value they supposedly didn't posses were feelings and emotions. Only Rachael effectively displayed non-violent emotion during the film, but it wasn't until the end did Batty have pity on Deckard and save him from eventual death. Was this a freshly learned trait by a dominant replicant, or was it a replicant bidding adieu to 'life' on earth, all the while paying respect to a more superior replicant?
-Jim
Leon, the first replicant that we see in the Blade Runner, is one that we don't get to know much about. While the rest of the replicants try to define themselves as human through obvious means, the only thing that we see about Leon are the pictures that Deckard finds in his apartment and the interrogation at the beginning of the film. He tries to make himself seem human in the interrogation by trying to simulate emotions that humans would have from the questions he is asked. It is obvious that he is getting overly agitated by the questions that should be easy answers. He ends the interrogation violently when he isn't able to answer a question about his mother and he knows he has been caught. It is also apparent that when the pictures are taken out of his apartment that he looks like he lost something very personal to him; though they aren't even his own family, loved ones, or memories in the picture.
Pris and Roy partly want to be human, but not all the way because they want to have a longer life like a human, though it could be assumed that they want to live forever. Other than that, they don't really want any of the weaknesses that humans have and don't seem to want to blend into society or identify themselves as human.
I think it is significant that we do not find out whether Deckard is human or replicant because they question his ability to do the job of the blade runner a lot during the film and there are certain expectations we might have for him if we were told for certain which one he was. If he was a replicant I know I would expect him to act much like the other replicants.
Throughout the movie, it was apparent that Rachel was the most intriguing of all the replicants. Through most of her "life" she "knew" she was human, until it was revealed otherwise. She seemed to question why it was important to make the determination between human and android. She took on a strong identity of being a woman, and it was the identity that she was familiar with. Of course, she felt as though she had lived a full life, full of memories and events that had occurred through her childhood. It wasn't until it was revealed to her that she was a replicant that she found everything she came to know to be false. In a sense, she was engaged in trying to find her origins. Who she really was and what was her purpose. To the rest of the population, she was able to have memories, have feelings, and make emotional connections with other humans. This was all part of her programming that made her what she was: nothing more than a mere android. A machine with programming.
Not all replicants feel the need to be human. Once rachel, for example, found out she was not human, she did not struggle to become one. She came to terms with who (or what) she really was, and accepted it as best she could. Others fought to extend their four year life to live a full existence amongst the human society. Whether it would only be for a few extra years, or even to live forever, they fought for more.
It may have been significant that Deckard's status as either a human or replicant remained a mystery because it left the viewer to determine the following: as we knew Deckard to be human, we saw nothing out of the ordinary. Had, in the end, we found out he was indeed a replicant, what impact on our opinion of him would that have? Would we at any point have felt sorry for him? Hoped he survived? If he had died, would we have cared? It adds an interesting spin to the story, knowing that he may have been just like the rest, and even more of an android than all those before him.
- Brandon Savage
Being human implies that a person has senses, a brain, consciousness, free will, and the ability to reason. There are many other attributes that humans have, but most of these can be replicated. The flaw of this replication is the fact that they have no histories. They can be programmed to remember history but as realistic as it is for a replicant, it’s not real. For me, Rachael is by far the most interesting replicant. Her memories of childhood have been “programmed” into her, but her memory of them seem so vivid. She obviously knows something is wrong because she carries a picture of her mother around with her has proof of her memories. I think she uses this to convince herself of the past, more than for convincing others. When she is told she isn’t human she doesn’t want to believe it at first, but the way her character is presented it leads me to believe that somehow she knew something wasn’t right about her. The one thing I find hard to distinguish between humans and androids is emotion. It is hard to tell if a replicant is actually having the emotion or is preprogrammed to act is a certain way when something triggers it. One emotion that is hard to examine is love. Love can be quite a general term but the love we see in Rachael is sexual towards Deckard. I wouldn’t think her programming would be able to control or allow such a human feeling. Since she is a replicant I wouldn’t think she could have this sexual identification as a woman, but she does. My question is why? If she was human it would be for reproduction and companionship, but since she is not human I don’t expect that she is able to reproduce so the answer must be for pure companionship. I do think it is true that replicants want to be human, especially if they know they are replicants. All of the replicants in Blade Runner seem to be lacking something that I cannot put my finger on. Not to turn this topic into religion, but perhaps it is a soul they lack. Another view of the topic is obvious; no they don’t want to be humans but they want to be more like humans in the sense of a longer life span.
Not knowing Deckard’s status is important because it leaves the film open-ended. It makes the viewer have to think even deeper about what it actually means to be human and how easily human qualities can be contrived.
Desten Johnson
The replicant character Rachael had one main way of establishing her identity - through photographs given to her by her creator. She would refer to these pictures when she was in doubt of being a "human". Another characteristic Rachael showed when trying to be human was having feelings for other humans. Rachael showed to have feelings for Rick, and could have possibly been falling in love with him. This made me question whether or not she was a replicant or not. Love is a definite human characteristic, and for a replicant to be portraying that emotion was truly puzzling to me.
Personally, I think that all replicants want to be human only to have a sense of belonging with the norm. When humans talk about replicants, they talk of them as machines, not people. Replicants view themselves as human, but people speak of them differently. If I were a replicant, I would have a passion towards becoming human only to belong to a group where everyone is looked upon equally.
The android Rachel was the android that I found the most interesting. This was because she had no idea that she was an android until the question of if she was really a human got into her head. She was physically not a human because she was not born as a baby, like all humans are. She was born in an adult body. Another thing that made her not human was that her memories were not real. Those memories were programmed into her mind to make her think that she was a human. On the other side she was partly human because she had emotions. She had emotions for blade runner, and the emotions for blade runner were related to sexual identity. She also cried at one point in the movie, which is a sign of strong human feelings. Rachel also showed an emotion that could be called sadness when she stormed out of blade runners room. On a level of a physical world Rachel was non human, but on a level of an emotional world Rachel was just as human as any other human.
Robin Christiansen
When the movie first began I thought the replicants in movie were universally evil for Deckard position as a Blade Runner was set out to kill and destroy all those that weren’t human. I felt he came across fearful and on edge. It wasn’t until Rachael came along that you really felt connected to them. She was beautiful woman that looked just as human as anyone of us and she truly felt she was human. She had no reason to think differently, that was until Deckard came along and questioned her very being. She was forced to rethink her history of orgin. Racheal felt her memories were real and this is what made her identity. She even had a picture that she felt was proof that she was human. She comes to find out that all her memories are artifical programmed from her creator. Unlike so many of the other replicants Rachael is not violent, instead she shows real human emotions that allow the viewers to feel for her and connect with the pain she must be feeling.
Throughout the movie I questioned if it would end with Deckard admitting he too was a replicant, however it ends leaving this an unanswered question. By the end of the movie this makes you wonder about what makes us all human? How are we any different that Rachael?
Rachael was a replicant that was a very interesting character because, unlike the other replicants that are shown in the movie, she spends the majority of the four years of her life not knowing her own identity, and believing in a false history that was implanted in her memory to make her believe in humanity. She also is determined to be proud of her "history" as it is important to her that she believed that she came from a great family and loved them, even though it was only her memory and not reality.
I do not believe that all the replicants want to be human, but to be there own beings, without knowing that they were controlled by the humans. They would rather be their own entity, with control over their own destiny.
It is significant because it leaves an ambiguity to it that makes the viewer able to take away what they would choose to believe in, rather than a conclusion.
The replicant I found most intriguing was Rachel. She had no idea she was a replicant and when she went to see Deckard she tried convincing him she was a human. He, however, knew her exact memories. Here she was thinking she has this extensive past and a family but in reality she is less than 4 years old and is not a human at all. This reminded me a great deal of the film, the Island. In the film, they are clones living a facility and all of their memories are programmed but they start to develop more and more human-like qualities and emotions. Rachel was unlike the other replicants. She was calm and had a great deal of emotions. She had a sexual identity as a female and even "fell in love" with Deckard. She seemed just as much human as Deckard.
That, however, brings about another point in the film. We never know if Deckard is a replicant or not. It is hinted that he may be, quite often but it is never actually stated. He could be a replicant built to rid the world of the other replicants. The script was written over many times so it has made it more confusing and it is no wonder people are a bit confused about his character. He seems almost programmed.
As for all the replicants wanting to be human, I do not think that is so. I think they want to be like humans but not actual human. The replicant, Batty, is incredible strong and had human-like emotion. He wanted a longer life for him and Pris but I do not think they actually wanted to be human. As for Rachel, she believed she was human but upon finding out what she really was, she began to accept it.
Referring to the film screenings and the essays by Scott Bukatman and Guiliana Bruno the replicant character Roy Batty establishes its human identity. Batty expresses his heterosexuality when he kisses Pris thus showing that he is capable of expressing a man’s sexual desires towards a “woman” as well as the pure difference that this creates between what distinctly separates and defines him as a “man”. Androids are known to not express feelings in any way and because Batty very easily expresses feelings of anger, lust and happiness alike he goes onto to say that maybe he is not an Android because he does not fit the mold.
Batty feels that his physical body is another reason while he feels that he is more human than “computer-like” and this is another reason why he needed to have his four-year lifespan increased if not made infinite.
History of the human and the prejudice of the minority and those believed to be non-human, black slaves, can be compared to Batty in that he the replicants were created to be a source of tireless workers who would accomplish much and did not need to be treated with respect or kindness because it was non-human.
Batty and other replicants were considered inhuman and were not even allowed to live on the same planet! The replicants did not like their new “home” and thus they returned to try and find a solution to their living situation. Their return was like an uprising of those who felt suppressed. Yet another feeling by a non-human not meant or programmed to feel in the first place.
Most ironically Batty is a white male and is compared to Nazi’s. This is ironic because he is almost the complete opposite physically of what he is standing for, that of racism in out world history. The replicants were created and were victims from the day they became alive.
I believe the replicants do want to be human, It seems that Blade Runner shows that thoughout the life of a replicant a growth of feelings and “person” is developed. Like time with anyone, people grow, things grow and replicants grow. They wanted more time to develop and grow into what they might.
It is very significant that Deckard’s status remains undetermined because that was not the main point of the story. The main theme was about what it really means to be human, not which characters within the story are actually human or not. It is already apparent that we as viewers can not separate or really tell the in human from human because the line is very thin. Perhaps what we should grasp from this story is that as humans we create and then try to hold back such creations from greatness. At times things will grow and amount to more than what we could ever hope to be and instead of happiness this creates resentment and even unhappiness in our lives.
The real answer is that Deckard was happy because he found love, a feeling experienced by the human and should we all be so lucky to find that.
-Monica Salazar
Rachael struggles with her identity as a replicant from the start of her characters introduction. She is given memories of Tyrell's niece and photos to make them "real." She brings up times of her past and talks about them as to validate herself as human to herself and to Deckard. She does, however, fall for Deckard and they have emotions for each other which lead to sex. This creates a great question for the viewer, esspecially of the director's cut. Is Deckard a replicant also?
I don't believe that every replicant wants to be human, given Roys behavior in the film. He knows his exsistance as a replicant, however, he wants to know all that there is to know. He has knowledge of his timelimit on life and pursues Tyrell to prolong this. When Tyrell tells him he cannot change the code after this long, Roy kills Tyrell and accepts his fate, though much later after saving Deckard.
Back to the question of Deckard of being a replicant or not, it never is clearly answered. This is important because it leaves the viewer to decide and not the film. This is one of the most powerful things a film can do in my opinion because it makes the question almost bigger than the film. When you finish watching a film that gives you the answer, your thought process ends shortly after, however, when a question such as this goes unanswered it challenges you to think much past the credits. I for one think, after some additional research, reading and thinking, that Deckard was a replicant, but only in the directors cut. The unicorn signifies that his dreams are known and are not real, thus he is a replicant. Throughout the film though I never felt as if he was but the old pictures and the dream scene made me wonder, and after additional reading I feel it more on the side he is replicant.
Roy Batty is by far the most interesting character when thinking in terms of human/replicant differences. I think the concept of emotion really shows through when Pris dies. He does cry and show his rage at her death. So the idea of emotion in his replicant body and mind is really interesting to me. The 2 ways he establishes his human identity (apart from emotion) would be through his search for origins and his sexuality. In fact, the above mentioned idea of emotion kind of blends into the idea of sexuality. He cared for Pris like a husband would care for his wife. He has no problem kissing her and he looks like he likes it. As far as the origins go, it seems like his one main goal is to meet his creator.
I do think all the replicants want to be human. At least it seems that way in the film. I also think the significance with Deckard's status remaining unknown comes because the audience then has nobody they can fully relate to. I myself had troubles caring during the final "battle" between Deckard and Roy. I knew Roy could die at anytime, but I didn't care for Deckard because I couldn't relate to him.
Kyle Arpke
Rachael was the one replicant that initially thought she was a human. She had memories of being with her mother and the photos to prove it. She had empathy towards other living beings. The difference between humans and replicants was that replicants were not supposed to have empathy towards others but Rachael did have empathy. Her photos and memories gave her a history. In the photo that showed her with her mother she was a child so with that photo and the memories that were implanted into her she thought she had a history. She was a child; she had memories of spiders outside her window, and playing doctor with her brother. She would think that if she has the photos and memories that she was a child and had a life before she presently existed.
I don’t think the replicants other than Rachael wanted to be human. What they wanted was to exist past their four years that was programmed into their system as a safeguard for humans. It was an instinct that all living beings have and that is to try to exist and what I mean by exist to continue living. Leon was the only replicant among the surviving four that seemed to want to be human-like. He had his photos that were important to him. He was going to go back to the hotel to get them but was unable to because the police were there. These showed that he wanted to have a history, the photo, of a memory, something that had happened to him, which he then took a photo of the event.
The significant of Deckard’s status (as human or replicant) remains undetermined is that he is struggling with his own humanity. The Blade Runner is not to have any empathy towards the replicants they hunt down and kill (retire) this is similar to the replicants not having empathy towards other living creatures. Deckard lives on a earth that is dirty litalary and morally. He is trying to regain his humanity. If we were to know that he was a replicant it would effect our view on his journey to regain his humanity.
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