Bladerunner

 

Humans, replicants, or skin jobs? Similar to Brave New World the replicants or skin jobs, as that is their nickname, are manufactured to look like humans yet they are without human emotions. Dr. Tyrell who is the creator of these replicants created them with built-in memories so that the replicants would think that they are actual human beings. He also created them with a four-year life span. This was to make sure that the replicants would not begin to have emotions because the closer they got to their life span the probability of having human emotions was greater. Some of these replicants would become rogue and the bounty hunters, or in the movie they are called Bladerunners, are devoted to retiring (assinating) these replicants. Harrison Ford who plays Deckard is forced to return the bladerunner business in order to retire four replicants that have gone rogue and started killing other humans. While working on this task he meets a replicant named Rachel. Rachel believes that she is human because of the memories that were implanted in her, and this fascinates Deckard. Deckard begins to show feelings for Rachel and they seemd to be reciprocated. This confused me at first because I thought that the replicants were not supposed to have feelings, but then later in the movie we learn that Tyrell did not give Rachel a live span, thus giving her the opportunity to gradually gain human emotions. Deckard tracks down all of the replicants and begins to retire them. It is not until he meets one of the most dangerous replicants that he gets in trouble. This particular replicant is the one that kills Dr. Tyrell after learning that Tyrell is unable to give him eternal life. In the battle between the replicant and Deckard, Deckard is defeated and is hanging on the side of a building begging the replicant to save him. The replicant decides to save him and Deckard says it is because perhaps at that moment the replicant loved life more than anything before. The replicant then dies as his four year life span passes. Deckard rushes back to find Rachel and rescue her before any other blade runner can get to her. We then see a oragmi unicron left behind the other bladerunner as a sign that he chooses to let her live. Upon researching about this movie I learned that this movie had mulitple cuts and that the happy ending was later added in hopes to get better reviews from the viewers. This makes sense because you can tell that it does not match the rest of the movie. 

This movie is thought provoking as Deckard is forced to retire the replicants but he still struggles with it as he has to think about what constitutes a human. After all, he knows that Rachel is a replicant yet he still falls for her. This also causes the viewer to think about the morality of this problem and what they might do. It is understandable that replicants want to abolish the four year life span, yet they are also killing other humans. Overall students in Doppelgangers and Doubles should watch this movie as they might find that this mix of science fiction and film noir makes them think about their own definition of what is moral and what constitutes a human. Would it be the ability to have emotions or the physical traits?