Death and Androids: Explorig the Themes of Blade Runner (1982)

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nBlade Runner, like so many of Ridley Scott’s films, is an immersivenexperience. The world of Blade Runner is constructed in such an intricate andnlayered manner that you can’t help but get lost in the film. Aestheticallynspeaking, it’s one of my favorite films because it’s just beautiful to look at,nthose scenes with flying cars over a futuristic skyline filled with metalnpyramids? Count me in! A lot has been said about Blade Runner as the quintessentialncyber punk film because it’s about androids and because it’s set in a bleaknfuture, like so many of William Gibson’s cyberpunk novels. Who is WilliamnGibson you ask? Well, he’s the father of cyber punk that’s who; Gibson’s thenguy who practically invented what we now know as ‘cyber punk’ through a trilogynof novels, the first of which is the seminal ‘Neuromancer’. If you want tontruly find out what cyber punk is all about, I recommend starting there. But BladenRunner is based on Phillip K. Dicks ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?’; a novel withnits fair share of cyber punk elements, some of which bled onto the film. As a side note to this article, I’d like to mention that the book and the film are two different things all together, so you mightnwant to try and read the novel, it’s an entirely different experience.nActually, you might end up being surprised just how different book and film are!nHow different is the book from the film? Well, the books main theme is religion!nThe film has nothing to do with religion! The book explores a whole differentnset of themes and has an entirely different tone to it. The book remains a special experience, I highly recommend checking it out! The difference between book and film points to one thing, what an amazing filmmaker Ridley Scott is. He basically took the world that Phillip K. Dick presented us with in his book and weaved a story that played with other themes  which though different, are equally relevant.   

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nFor the longest time, I would just watch Blade Runnernbecause I loved that world, the look, the feel. And you have to admit, the filmnis a lush production, it’s not a cheap looking film.nBut it wasn’t until adulthood that I started to appreciate the film from anwhole other angle, I started to realize that there was a lot more to BladenRunner than flying cars and murderous androids. What was Blade Runner reallynabout? What was it commenting on? The films central theme is mans own disillusionmentnwith our short time on this earth. We come and go in the blink of an eye andnwhen you really stop and think about it, it’s a really sad thing how short ournlives are. I mean, our lives can be so rich, filled with so many memories andnexperiences, but as Roy Batty muses in the climax of the film, all of it just fadesnaway when we die. When Roy Batty goes up to Tyrell, his creator to ask him fornmore life, Tyrell tells him it’s not possible, but not without offering anglimmer of hope to Batty’s preoccupations about death. Tyrell tells Batty “Thenlight that burns twice as bright, burns half as long, and you have burned sonvery, very brightly Roy!” In this sense, the films offers us the only glimmernof hope when it comes to death, we have to live an amazing life, try and leavenour mark in the world, to make what little time we were given matter.   Unlessnyou lived an outstanding life and shined so brightly that your mark will benindelible for time immemorial, chances are, no one will even remember you were 100nyears from now. So let’s make that time count my friends!

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nNow, taking all that in consideration, what would you do ifnyou could go up to your god and ask him or her for more life? What if you couldnhave a conversation with your creator, what would you say? I’d ask him why henallows decease, dictatorships and death. I’d ask him why he is so silent andnapparently not even here. In Blade Runner, the Nexus 6 androids or ‘Replicants’n to use the term that they went with fornthe film get to actually talk to their creator, the “God of bio-mechanics” asnRoy Batty calls him. They question him about why they die so soon, they wantnmore life, they want for the god of bio-mechanics to let them into “heaven” so to speak. Problem is that thenengineers who made the Nexus 6 androids gave them a four year life span. Why?nBecause if given any more than that, they get too smart, revolt and kill theirnmasters. When given more than four years to live, the Nexus 6 would get toonindependent, volatile and unpredictable and that’s not what the powers that be want with anserving class; nope, they want the working class dumb and controllable. Here the filmnalso offers us an interesting allusion to class issues. Should we take our given place in society? Or should we aim for more? The androids in Blade Runner want just that, they want to be like their creators. So, in order to keep the androids from rebelling or getting smarter, as a failsafendevice, the Tyrell Corporation gave the Nexus 6 replicants only four years tonlive, after which they expire and die. In other words, the Nexus 6 arenconscious of their mortality and they will fight it to the bitter end. 

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nSo it is with some desperation that Roy Batty and his gangnof androids manage to find Tyrell himself in order to asknfor more life. Sadly Tyrell tells them that it’s not possible, essentiallyndenying Roy and his crew of life. The frustration is so huge that Roy killsnTyrell, his creator, but not before telling him “I want more life fucker!”  To me this is the most pivotal scene in thenwhole film because it lets us know exactly what the film is about: ournfrustrations with death. At the same time, this scene offers some of the filmsnmost shocking and daring ideas. On this scene, Tyrell plays the role of God,nthe creator, while Roy Batty plays the role of the human, close to his deathnbed, asking god for a few more years. Again, what would you ask God if you werenever face to face with him? Well, Roy asked for more life and when he wasndenied it, he killed his creator, a shocking idea if you ask me, that ofnkilling God. It’s not just any movie that will deliver the idea of anger andnhatred towards God, but this one has the guts to do so. The films characters showncertain contempt towards God for not having given us longer life. In this filmnGod has created imperfect creatures with the ultimate decease: death! Not sondifferent from the world we live in if you ask me! But, was Roy Batty justifiednto do what he did? Did his plea have any weight to it?

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nWell, if you ask me, Roy Batty may be the villain, but itnfeels to me like his plea is genuine, it has validity. To Batty, death just isn’tnfair. He has seen and lived so much; he is frustrated that it’s all going tonfade away “like tears in the rain” as he so eloquently puts it in the lastnmoments of the film; which reminds me just how beautiful and poetic the endingnof the film is. I mean, to be honest, I completely get the villain of the film,nhe may be a bit ‘batty’  as his last namenimplies, but you have to admit, his anger and frustrations are very real, it’sna cry out to life and death. Roy Batty is a desperate individual, but you havento understand, the guys body is freezing up! He can’t feel his fingers! Hisnskin is turning white! He has to penetrate his fingers with rusty nails innorder to make himself feel alive.  I comparenthis to those moments we’ll eventually get to in our life when we start feelingnthe aches and pains of old age and we start doing everything we can to battlenit. We go to the gym, we eat better, we go to the doctor, doing whatever we cannto fight what’s inevitably going to come. Yup, there comes a time in everyone’s life when we simply won’t run as well, when our resistance will be less, and we’ll get tired faster. At some point in our lives, ournenergies will no longer be what they used to be. Our bodies will sooner or later start to show signs ofnwear and tear and we’ll see death rearing its ugly head.  I find those last scenes in Blade Runner whennRoy Batty is reminiscing about the beauty of life, when he starts rememberingnabout that “he has seen things that you wouldn’t believe” just beautiful, like an old man remembering all those experiences he once lived and enjoyed; in many ways, RoynBatty has a lust for life, which is why death deeply saddensnhim. I have to admit, that scene always gets to me.

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nAs an artist, Ridley Scott is obviously terribly concernednwith death, which let’s face it, is kind of one of the big mysteries of life.nWhat happens when we die? Where do we go? Do we truly just vanish? This is whyninquisitive characters have always been a part of Ridley Scott’s films, so theyncan ask the big questions. Most recently in Prometheus (2012) he revisits thenexact same themes as he played with in Blade Runner, but with a slightly morenexistential twist to them because in Prometheus characters aren’t just askingnfor life, they want the answers to the big mysteries of the universe, they wantnto know where we all came from as well. Prometheus is less subtle with its themes;nit asks its questions louder. It proposes that our creators not only don’t likenus, they also want to wipe us out like some failed experiment that has to benstarted over again. Hell, even Ridley Scott’s brother, director Tony Scott wasnobsessed with this theme of death as well; I guess it runs in the family? Fornexample, Tony Scott’s The Hunger (1983) has David Bowie playing a half vampirenwho is searching for a scientific solution to old age and death. Again the ideanis visited on that film, can life be expanded? Can’t we live just a littlenmore? But going back to Blade Runner, this is a film that is extremely consistentnwith its death theme, for example, when Deckard is confronted by one of the androidsnin a fight and the android tells Deckard “Wake Up! Time to Die!” we arenreminded that it’s not only old age that can kill us. And then again, in thenending of the film, when Gaff, who knows that Deckard has fallen in love withnan android, tells him: “Too bad she won’t live. But then again, who does? “  And I think that ultimately, that is the filmsnfinal message, that we should live our lives as passionately and as intensely asnwe can, because death will be a part of it, eventually.

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