‘Blade Runner’ explained: The truth lies in Deckard’s eyes
More than 40 years after its release, Ridley Scott’s seminal sci-fi Blade Runner continues to be examined under the microscope and placed under levels of scrutiny that few films in history have ever managed.
The most burning question of all is whether or not Harrison Ford’s Rick Deckard is a replicant, one that’s thrown up an innumerable volume of fan-driven theories and has still failed to reach a consensus even among the people who put their minds together to create the stone-cold classic.
The multiple different cuts of the movie don’t offer much in the way of definitive answers, but deleted scenes have offered the clearest indication that Deckard may not be as human as he believes himself to be, although there’s a massive suggestion made in the theatrical edition to point towards his synthetic status.
Deckard doesn’t hold the same harsh views on replicants as the majority of human characters; he falls in love with one of them after becoming besotted with Sean Young’s Rachael, and it’s left entirely open-ended as to whether or not he’d even taken the Voight-Kampff that separates the real from the created.
However, the eyes of a replicant shimmer with a distinctive golden-hued glow at various points throughout Blade Runner, something that can quite clearly be seen in Deckard’s peepers during one scene in particular. He’s got the eyes of a replicant that can be glimpsed on-camera within the context of the film, even if Ford and Scott took a long time to reach an agreement.
Was Harrison Ford a replicant in Blade Runner?
It’s one of cinema’s most open-ended questions, and for decades, the answer largely depended on who was asked and at what point they fielded the inquiry. Even Ford seemed unsure for the longest time, with his allegiances constantly shifting much like Deckard’s.
Philip K. Dick wrote Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and stated that Deckard was unequivocally human, but Blade Runner took plenty of large deviations from its source material and has refused to confirm or deny with any deal of explicit certainty where the truth lies beyond the assessment of its most important players.
Scott confirmed that Deckard daydreaming about unicorns in the Director’s Cut and The Final Cut – which included an origami unicorn left outside his door by Edward James Olmos’ Gaff – was intended to echo how he knew about Rachael’s implanted memories, seemingly signalling his status as a replicant, although it’s never ruled out with any degree of certainly that he’s human.
Harrison Ford once described the debate as “the main area of contention between Ridley and myself at the time,” with the actor believing “the audience deserved one human being on-screen that they could establish an emotional relationship with.” However, he eventually changed his tune.
In a 2023 interview with Esquire, though, Ford claimed he “always knew” Deckard was a replicant, while Scott simply offered that “he’s a replicant” when pressed. With the director and star finally aligned, it would appear much easier to accept that Deckard isn’t human after all.
What year is Blade Runner set in?
Arguably the most influential cinematic dystopia ever realised on-screen, Blade Runner is set in the distant and unimaginable future of 2019, where technology has evolved to the point of humanoid androids occupying a role in society.
The story that served as the inspiration behind the film was published in 1968 and takes place in 1992, but that evidently wasn’t far enough away when the time came for Scott to follow his literary inspiration to the letter when production began in March 1981.
Of course, Blade Runner is hardly a beat-for-beat recreation of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, and having gone through numerous rewrites on its way from page to screen, the timeline is far from the only noticeable difference.
Did Blade Runner win any Oscars?
Even though it’s now celebrated as one of the greatest features in cinema history, Blade Runner was hardly a runaway critical, commercial, or awards season freight train during its initial run in cinemas.
Scott’s sci-fi epic only secured two nominations at the Academy Awards and failed to win either of them. In addition to Lawrence G. Paull, David L. Snyder, and Linda DeScenna being shortlisted for ‘Best Art Direction’, Douglas Trumbull, Richard Yuricich, and David Dryer came up short in the ‘Best Visual Effects’ category.
Denis Villeneuve’s sequel Blade Runner 2049 fared much better, though, winning two of its five nominations for ‘Best Cinematography’ and ‘Best Visual Effects’, the former of which marked Roger Deakins’ first Oscar after previously going home empty-handed 13 times.
