Blade Runner (Philosophical Films)

BLADE RUNNER (1982)

PHILOSOPHICAL ISSUES: Personal identity

CHARACTERS: Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), Tyrell (owner of Tyrell Corporation), Sabastian (again genetic engineer), Rachael (Sean Young, replicant), Leon (replicant), Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer, replicant), Pris (Daryl Hannah, replicant)

OTHER FILMS BY DIRECTOR RIDLEY SCOTT: Alien (1979), Thelma and Louise (1991), Gladiator (2000), Black Hawk Down (2001), Matchstick Men (2003)

SYNOPSIS: Blade Runner is based on the science fiction novel by Phillip K. Dick Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, who also authored the story behind the film Total Recall (1990). Set in the future, around the year 2020, Deckard is a retired law enforcement officer who is coerced back into service for a special mission. A group of enslaved replicants (genetically engineered human-like creatures) revolted on another planet. As the replicants were designed to live for only a few years, they returned to Earth to find a way of extending their lifespan. Deckard must hunt them down and kill them. He visits the Tyrell Corporation, manufacturers of the replicants, and meets Rachael, a worker there who is unaware that she is a replicant herself. Deckard discovers this fact and informs her of it, which forces her to be on the run as well. Deckard tracks down and kills all the rebel replicants but one, and in the mean time shelters Rachael and becomes her lover. The remaining replicant learns from Tyrell (founder of the corporation) that his lifespan cannot be extended. He then expires while in combat with Deckard. Deckard and Rachael make their escape together. The film was nominated for two Academy Awards (art direction and visual effects).

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. A key puzzle raised by Blade Runner is whether we can definitively distinguish between real humans and artificially engineered replicants. Suppose that no test (either objective or subjectively introspective) could show this for sure. Would that mean that a given replicant was indeed fully human?

2. One of the more dramatic philosophical points made in the movie is that we can’t trust our memories: they may have been implanted in us regardless of how true they seem. What is the main reason that we trust our memories as more or less accurate accounts of our past events?

3. Rachael became convinced that she was a replicant when Deckard described some of her private childhood memories to her. What would it take for you to seriously question the truth of your memories and consider instead that they might implanted in you or the result of a drug or mental defect?

4. The director’s cut version of the movie made an alteration to the original theatrically-released story line: at the close of the movie it seems clear that Rachael has a short replicant life-span, rather than a full human life-span. Assuming that she and Deckard safely escape, does this make the ending that much less happy?

5. Another alteration in the director’s cut is that questions are raised about whether Deckard himself is a replicant. What is the main indication of this, and what sort of impact should this have on Deckard, particularly in view of his feelings about Rachael?

6. A moral message of the movie is that it was wrong to enslave the replicants and use them as forced labor since they were so human-like in both appearance and thought process. What would need to be different about replicants in order for us to feel that it was OK to use them for labor?

REVIEWS

This film pulls no punches in asking the most troubling questions about artificial intelligence and cloning. What is a human? If it looks just like one, but we made it, can we kill it? This is Deckers job, a “Blade Runner” played by Harrison Ford. When Replicants, the pseudo clone slaves of human society, run amok (or in this case, return to earth, which they are banned from) it’s the job of a Blade Runner to find and “retire” them. They are spoken about in a very particular language, so as to reinforce the nonhuman status they retain. Decker has already found himself morally opposed to killing replicants at the onset of the film, or if he’s not morally opposed, he’s at least very tired of it. When it’s made clear to him the dire consequences of his refusal, he takes up the hunt again. He begins by visiting Tyrell Corp., the company that designs and produces replicants. There he is introduced to Rachel, a female replicant who’s been implanted with memories so as to make her more stable. From personal experience I might add that, if stability was the goal, they might have rethought making her female. Anyway, Decker falls in love with Rachel, and this further complicates things, because he’s supposed to kill her too. This raises questions about love in general. If he can fall in love with her, is she human? Or is he just kind of pervy? Would engaging her in a relationship be the equivalent of bestiality? -- Reviewer from Hell