Scene By Scene Plot Analysis of Blade Runner

This is an analysis of 'Blade Runner', Ridley Scott's science fiction classic. 

Blade Runner

Title 4 (7:25—15:37) (8:12) Stop after “And if the machine doesn’t work on her?”

Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), a retired Blade Runner, is detained by a fellow Blade Runner named Gaff (Edward James Olmos) and taken to police headquarters to Captain Bryant (M. Emmet Walsh). Bryant brings Deckard out of retirement to hunt down and kill 4 bioengineered humans called replicants who have escaped an off-world slave colony and returned to Earth where replicants are banned. There were originally 6 fugitives but 2 died attempting to break into the Tyrell Corporation that created them. A replicant named Leon infiltrates the company headquarters and poses as an employee, later shooting a Blade Runner during interrogation. Captain Bryant sends Deckard to Tyrell to perform the Voigt Kampff test on an experimental replicant there named Rachel.

My viewpoint

In a documentary of the film, Ridley Scott confirms that Deckard is himself a replicant, a Nexus 6 model. But, in this scene, it is also apparent that Deckard is not just a replicant, or 2nd class citizen, but that he is also a slave. First, we find out that he is retired from duty but that he is arrested or detained by Gaff as though he is a criminal and taken to police headquarters where Captain Bryant forces him to return to work against his will. Next, we are introduced to the fugitives who, like Deckard, are slaves forced to do hard labor on other planets. Bryant forces Deckard to hunt and kill his own.

Knowing that Deckard is a replicant and that Tyrell has built a 4 year lifespan into the Nexus 6 models to prevent them from developing human emotions, it becomes clear that Deckard was created to kill his own kind before he developed human emotions, specifically, empathy which would interfere with him carrying out his job. As the film progresses, this will become clear as Deckard falls in love with Rachel (Sean Young) who is also a replicant.

Title 7 (17:46—30:19) (12:33) Stop after “And where would we find this…J.F. Sebastian 

Deckard performs the Voigt Kampff test on Rachel. It takes more questions to detect her than it ordinarily does. Two of the fugitives interrogate the contractor who made their eyes, wanting to know who their Maker is. Their genetic designer, they are told, is J.F. Sebastian.

My viewpoint

Rachel is a slave and has no history of her own. This is analogous to American slavery and how it destroyed the cultural identity of African Americans. Rachel’s memories belong to someone else, meaning that she has accepted her master’s interpretation of her history, in this case, she has been given the past (memories) of Tyrell’s (Joe Turkel) niece. But, being close to her expiration or preprogrammed death, she is beginning to suspect what she truly is, and that is, a slave. This is also analogous of childhood development. From infants up to a certain age, children are subjective, believing, for the most part, what their parents tell them. But when they reach a certain age, children have accumulated enough knowledge that they begin to question their parents, rebel against their parents. And this is why the replicants are engineered to live only 4 years and not allowed to fully develop emotionally by living to 6 years of age. As long as they only live to the age of 4 they can be controlled. 

In the following scene, Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) and Leon (Brion James) drop in on their eye maker, suggesting that they are nothing more than the sum of many parts. Again, there is the paradoxical question: “What is human?” as in the previous scene where Tyrell gives a cold, clinical breakdown of Rachel’s emotions: 

“Capillary dilation of the so-called blush response? Fluctuation of the pupil? Involuntary dilation of the iris?”

His description of replicants’ emotions are also characterized by the contractors who are responsible for supplying the various parts of the replicants, much like how companies outsource parts for things like cars and phones. Again, the question “What is human and what is machine,” in this case, biological machine, is asked. 

Title 12 (36:19—41:30) (5:11) Stop after “They’re soaked, aren’t they?”

J.F. Sebastian finds Pris in a pile of garbage on the sidewalk and takes her up to his apartment where she inadvertently finds out that he designed her. His home is occupied by other “toys” he created.  

My viewpoint

When J.F. Sebastian finds Pris in a pile of garbage, the symbolism of this suggests that she, as a replicant slave, is marginalized by society. J.F. Sebastian is her “designer” which also suggests that she is a thing and not a person. We see silhouettes of mannequins also in this scene acting as metaphors for how humans perceive replicants, as empty bodies without souls. In his apartment, Pris meets Sebastian’s friends, midgets in French military uniforms that he made. When Sebastian asks her about her folks, Pris says “I’m sort of an orphan.” The word orphan here not only means that she has no parents, but that she, acting as mankind, has been rejected by God which explains why she and the other replicants are seeking their Maker. 

The atmosphere and mood of this film is complemented by the music by Vangelis and British saxophonist Dick Morrissey who also did the love scene between Deckard and Rachel later in the film.

Title 16 (52:19-1:03:12) Stop after Rachel shoots Leon

Deckard tracks down Zhora working as a stripper in the red-light district and kills her. He then is attacked by Leon who is shot and killed by Rachel who escaped from Tyrell and who is also now a fugitive. 

My viewpoint

Zhora’s violent death is contrasted against the lifeless mannequins in a storefront display window. When they turn her body over on its back, a tear rolls out of an eye that confirms that she is a human and not simply a machine. After this, Rachel saves Deckard despite the fact that his job is to kill her along with the other replicants. She kills a fellow replicant, but, unlike Deckard who kills as part of his job, Rachel does so to save a life. 

Title 22 (1:08:07—1:12:40) Stop when Deckard and Rachel kiss

Deckard takes Rachel to his place. He owes her for saving his life and promises not to kill her. He falls asleep and when he awakens, Rachel is at his piano. He sits next to her and when he kisses her, she runs away. He corners her and they make love. 

My viewpoint 

Dick Morrissey’s tenor sax in this scene really lights it up and provides some much needed downtime from the previous scenes. Also, the cinematography plays a big part in setting the mood by using more close up shots of Rachel and then of both of them. The lighting in this scene especially that coming through the window blinds pays homage to cinematographer John Seitz’s work on Double Indemnity. This shot also foreshadows Decker’s decision later in the film to run away with Rachel, that they are both fugitives or runaway slaves. Decker’s orders to Rachel are a sort of Voigt Kampff test in that she reacts like a woman would in this situation with a man. This scene is pivotal to the plot and marks a transition in Decker’s character arc as he has fallen in love with a fugitive replicant and also this scene establishes conflict as he must carry out his job of killing the other fugitive replicants. 

Title 24 (1:14:16—1:16:10) (1:54) Stop after Roy says “No, we won’t”

Roy locates the apartment of J.F. Sebastian where he finds Pris and tells her that they are the only replicants left of the 6 who escaped the off-world slave colony.

My viewpoint

When casting for Roy Batty’s role, Production Executive Katherine Haber got Ridley Scott to watch Rutger Hauer’s Dutch films he’d done for Director Paul Verhoeven, such as Katie Tippel, Soldier of Orange, and Turkish Delight. Scott cast Hauer immediately without having met him, these films made so great an impression on him. In this short clip, Hauer alternates between a charismatic leader and a creature that is vulnerable and afraid of dying.

Title 25 (1:20:13—

Sebastian takes Roy Batty to see his Maker, Eldon Tyrell who is unable to give Roy more time. Roy kills Eldon Tyrell and Sebastian.

My viewpoint

Roy Batty is man and Tyrell is God in this clip. This meeting is the paradigm of the creature rebelling against its creator as in the biblical story of Lucifer’s fall or Shelley’s Frankenstein. This could be the scenario we may soon face if and when A.I. becomes sentient which is probably the underlying theme of this film. Roy Batty asks Tyrell the questions that mankind asks: “How much time do I have?” to which Tyrell replies “Revel in your time.” And when Roy Batty is in the descending elevator looking up at the stars, he is Lucifer falling from Heaven. Again, this scene shows why Rutger Hauer should be mentioned in the same breath with actors like Brando. And his performance in this film just as superlative as Brad Davis’s in ‘Midnight Express’ or Peter O’Toole’s in ‘Lawrence of Arabia.’ With the death of Tyrell, Roy is lost and resigned to his fate. All he has now is Pris. 

Title 31 (1:42:26-end)

Roy battles Deckard at J.F. Sebastian’s apartment and after saving Decker’s life, Roy dies.

My viewpoint

One of the great scenes and great lines in this or any genre as Roy describes to Deckard the things he’s seen working as an off-world slave. Afterwards, he releases his life represented by the dove, a cliche used many times, but nevertheless poetic and effectively used here. With Batty dead, there’s only one replicant left, Rachel, and this realization and conviction to run away with her as a fugitive completes Decker’s orbit from cold-blooded killer to empathizing with replicants and realizing that he himself is one when he sees the little origami Gaff left for him, the unicorn he dreams of throughout the film.