Blade Runner is an excellent movie, it's a sci-fi noir thriller that's set on Earth in 2019 as it follows Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), a Blade Runner which is a special police officer that goes after replicants (bio-engineered androids or artificial humans) and retire (kill) them. He was tasked to go after four fugitive replicants Zhora (Joanna Cassidy), Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer), Leon (Brion James) and Pris (Daryl Hannah), who had murdered people in their attempt to get to the Tyrell Corporation.
Starting his investigation, Deckard went to the Tyrell Corporation, the high-tech company that creates the replicants, to conduct a test on a Nexus 6 replicant. However, he was instructed by Dr. Eldon Tyrell (Joe Turkel), the owner of the company, to first give the test to a human, his assistant Rachel (Sean Young). Tyrell wanted to see how the test would work on a human before allowing Deckard access to a replicant. You could tell Deckard was suspicious and he got his answer as to why once the test on Rachel was complete. Turns out she's a replicant but didn't know it. Rachel had already left the room before this information was revealed.
Dr. Tyrell seemed thrilled that Deckard figured it out because according to the Blade Runner, it usually takes asking 20-30 questions before the test can positively identify a replicant. However with Rachel it took around 100 questions before she was identified. It's so strange that Tyrell or someone in his company created Rachel but didn't tell her the truth.
Rachel went to Deckard seeking answers and he told her the truth but what I found interesting is that he tried to spare her feelings and backtracked by telling her it was a joke. He strikes me as someone who doesn't seem to care one way or another about replicants, he was simply trying to do his job. So what was it about Rachel that struck a nerve and caused him to start caring about her? Clearly, he was attracted to her but there had to be something more to it because whatever it was made him see her as more than a replicant.
He still had a job to do and each encounter with the four fugitive replicants nearly got him killed. I was really surprised with his encounter with the final replicant, I was not expecting that outcome. This was a very good movie, the visuals were absolutely stunning and something I didn't know is that it's based on the book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick. I will have to add it to my list to get later because I would like to read it.
The movie posed an ethical dilemma about replicants. They were basically created as slave labor but after a deadly revolt happened off world they were banned from Earth. How can you create life (albeit synthetic life) and then not care how they are treated and when they revolt they are essentially banned or killed if they make their way to Earth. I feel the Tyrell Corporation should have been held responsible since they created the replicants but I don't recall seeing anything about that in the film. Yes, these replicants had murdered people but what about the ones who have not and can't go to Earth because they will be hunted down and killed for nothing more than existing.
I have a question about Gaff (Edward James Olmos), another police officer/detective, why was he creating and leaving small origami figures around? Was there something significant about those little figures? I feel like they were but I'm not understanding the meaning behind it. I also have questions about the ending, was Deckard and Rachel going away to live their lives until she died (replicants are reported to have a life span of four years) or were they going to try to figure out a way to save her? And what did that origami figure at the end mean? I wasn't quite sure about the ending but I guess it was left open which probably was a good thing since a sequel was released 35 years later. I look forward to watching Blade Runner 2049 once I get near the end of this Filmography Challenge.
Update: I forgot to mention, Blade Runner is Rated R for violence and brief nudity.
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