credit: Blade Runner
Blade Runner was a 1982 cinematic adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? It featured the quest of an officer, referred to as a “blade runner” in the film, where he had to kill some bioengineered humanoids called replicants. The movie’s ending also produced one of the most memorable and sad final words in the history of movies.
A sequel, Blade Runner 2049, was released in 2017, and then an anime series, Blade Runner: Black Lotus, in 2021.
credit: Blade Runner
The Blade Runner
The movie was set in Los Angeles in the year 2019. A company had produced biologically engineered humanoids referred to as “replicants.” These creatures were created and designed to have a limited life span, and now they plan to rebel against having a longer life. So it was up to the “blade runner” Rick Deckard to “retire” these creations from life.
Deckard was shown a video of officer Holden administering the Voight-Kampff test to a subject, Leon. The test simulates an emotional response to distinguish androids from humans. When asked about his mother, Leon suddenly shoots the administering officer, giving away that he is not a human because no human would have the first reaction of shooting somebody asking for memories of their mother, no matter how painful an experience could be.
Bryant, Deckard’s superior, tasked him with killing the other three replicants: Roy, Zhora, and Pris.
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The investigations
The superior arranged for Deckard to meet with the company’s CEO producing these humanoids, Eldon Tyrell, to test the feasibility of the Voight-Kampff to the Nexus-6 replicants. Tyrell told Deckard to test his assistant, Rachael. The test went on. Afterward, Deckard concluded to Tyrell that Rachael was a replicant, thinking she was a human. Tyrell revealed that it was true; her human thoughts were because he was injected with false memories to make her “more human” with emotions.
While looking at photos of Leon’s hotel room, he found synthetic snake skin which would be later identified as belonging to Zhora. Meanwhile, coming back to his apartment, Deckard met Rachael. The assistant tried to prove she was a human through childhood photos, but he dismissed it, revealing that he was given memories of someone else. This devastated Rachael, and they went away crying.
The retiring of the replicants
The snake skin leads to the bar where Zhora works, where after a few struggles, was successfully killed by Deckard. Bryant then tasked Deckard to kill Rachael because she was a replicant who escaped the Tyrell corporation.
After spotting Rachael in a crowd, he was attacked and overwhelmed by Leon. Rachael managed to save Deckard by killing Leon using the gun that fell out of the officer’s hand. The two returned to Deckard’s apartment, and it was decided that the blade runner would not “retire” Rachael. Deckard left Rachael in the apartment to continue his mission.
Meanwhile, Roy informed Pris of their two fallen from their kind. Sebastian, an engineer working for the Tyrells, revealed to Roy that his life would end not long after because of the aging disaster that limited the replicants’ to only four years. Roy used Sebastian to enter Tyrell’s penthouse, where he requested a longer life and tried to prove his worthiness. Still, Tyrell told him it was impossible but congratulated him on his feats during his short life anyway. Roy then killed Tyrell by plucking out his eyes. Later, it was implied, but not shown, that Roy also killed Sebastian.
While investigating Sebastian’s place, Deckard is attacked by Pris, but he kills her while Roy is after her. He escaped through the roof, where he tried to jump off to the roof of another building. He almost made it.
Sebastian came after him and jumped to the other roof quickly. He pulled Deckard up and stated that after all these years, all the achievements, all his life, there would be no one to remember them all once he was gone.
A superior commended Deckard for his actions but warned him that Rachael wouldn’t live for long either. A worried Deckard went back to his apartment to look for Rachael, who was still alive. He escorted her out.
Blade Runner 2049
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