Oh, the Humanity!

Blade Runner would definitely not be my first choice when wanting to watch a film. It could be that there wasn’t enough romance in the film, or that I watched it four times in a row that turned me away from it…unclear. In any case, after becoming immune to the horrible futuristic sounds, dark scenes picturing my apparent life in six years, and very odd murders, I began to question myself on a few things. And by a few things, I mean one thing.

What defines a human being?

As any college student would do, I decided to look up the definition online at the best place to find definitions for words you don’t know: Urbandictionary. I am totally kidding…I used dictionary.reference.com. There, a human was defined as having four characteristics:

• Having the nature of people
• Consisting of people
• Pertaining to the social aspect of people
• Sympathetic; humane

I would like to stick to the last bullet in the definition, for use with the movie, seeing as the other three are pretty vague and obvious. So keep this in mind throughout the rest of my rant on how humans are sympathetic and humane.

Let’s start off with one example of how humane human’s are. In the film, Bryant and Deckard (who I will state is human for the purpose of this argument and because the film is extremely vague on the matter) are out to kill four replicants. These replicants—Roy, Pris, Leon, and Zhora—have come to Earth, uninvited and apparently unwanted, in an attempt to extend their lifespans. As powerful beings, they are allotted only a four-year lifespan, which we find is not enough time to develop an emotional response. However, they are also seeking something more than time. It seems that they also desire emotional sentiments (I will divulge on this in just a few moments, don’t worry). They come to Earth and don’t really do anything wrong…until they are being hunted down and chased by the police and Tyrell Corporation. (As a side note, the replicants were only every taught to fight back with force—they did it to the humans because it’s what the humans taught them to do.) It’s perfectly humane to pursue and kill “humans” for the purpose of wanting them eradicated, right? Wrong! Maybe they could be a threat…maybe. But had they been given a longer lifespan, probably not. If that’s what they came to Earth to fight for, then it doesn’t look like they would have another reason to fight.

As I alluded to earlier, I think the replicants desire to have emotions, along with more time to develop them. Why else would they want to extend their lifespans? Why would they want to live longer just to be slaves to the man? Bryant explains to Deckard that the lifespan is installed so the replicants die before they develop their own emotional responses. The interesting thing, in my opinion, is that the replicants had already begun to develop emotional responses before their life span ended. A particular example of this is found with Roy. At the end of the movie when Roy and Deckard are getting ready to duke it out, Roy finds Pris dead on the floor and begins to cry, gripping her hand and giving her a final kiss goodbye. With this, I am confident in saying that the replicants had definitely developed an emotional, sympathetic response. In contrast, we clearly see Deckard killing and having a love interest with Rachael with zero emotional attachment or response; his movements and words almost seem robotic and forced. It was the replicants desire to continue living, extending their lives with loved ones they had begun to form memories with. It was they who truly wanted the experience to bond, form memories, and feel true emotions.

So who’s more human, replicants or humans? Aye, there’s the rub!

Sure the replicants may have superhuman strength and no real background story. But after a good, hard look, it doesn’t look like the humans really possess any human qualities. They have no motivation for their actions, they just do, just kill, in extremely inhumane format, showing no empathy or sympathy. They show no emotion. I mean hell, Rachael shows more emotion than Deckard in that creepy love scene they have. Therefore, it is my opinion that replicants are more humane, emotional, empathetic, and purposefully motivated than the humans characterized in this movie. It is my opinion that the replicants are more human than humans!