Preface 1 Introduction

Notes Preface 1. The foregoing description comes from the back cover of Paul M. Sammon’s invaluable book, Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner (1996). In 1993 Blade Runner was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being ‘culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.’ In 2007 it was named the second most visually influential film of all time by the Visual Effects Society. In 2012 in a poll with over 10,000 votes cast it was ranked by SFX magazine as the greatest science fiction film of all time. 2. Sammon’s comments appear in his audio commentary on the Workprint version of the film (included in the Five-Disc Ultimate Collector’s Edition). 3. Bukatman is here referring specifically to the film’s visual density, but his subsequent remarks make clear that he intends this judgment to apply to the film’s thematic elements as well. 1 Introduction 1. Although we are told in the film’s opening crawl that blade runner units are special police squads created to hunt down trespassing replicants, ‘blade runner’ nowhere appears in Philip K. Dick’s novel and its significance is never explained in the film. Blade Runner was sug- gested as a title for the film by Hampton Fancher, who wrote the orig- inal screenplay, after he came across it in his library as the title of a script by William Burroughs based on a novel by Alan E. Nourse about smugglers of medical supplies. Despite the absence of any thematic connection between the Nourse novel and Dick’s book, the title nonetheless proved to be perfect for the film. ‘Blade runner’ conjures up an image of someone whose job it is to make split-second decisions along a razor-thin line. In the film this means distinguishing humans from replicants, and right from wrong, in situations that are fraught with uncertainty and moral dangers. Scott liked the ‘edgy’ sound of ‘blade 183 Notes runner’ over the more conventional term ‘detective.’ Rights to its use were purchased from Burroughs and Nourse (Sammon 1996, pp. 53–4). 2. The novel’s interest in animals is reflected in more subtle ways in the film as well. For example, each major character in the film is linked to an animal (or animals): Leon – tortoise; Tyrell – owl; Zhora – snake; Rachael – spider; Sebastian – rat; Deckard – chicken; Gaff – unicorn; Bryant – cape buffalo; Pris – raccoon; Roy – wolf (and dove) (see Sammon 1996, p. 172). 3. Dick’s comments are included in the Enhancement Archive DVD (included in the Five-Disk Ultimate Collector’s Edition). 4. Source: http://www.philipkdick.com/new_letters-laddcompany.html. Accessed 7 May 2012. 5. Sammon (1996, pp. 394–408) painstakingly catalogues every differ- ence among these versions, except for the Final Cut, which appeared after his book was published. 6. Voice-over narration was apparently always a part of the movie’s conception. It is present in the 24 July 1980 script by Hampton Fancher (hereafter, BR 7-80). It was subsequently reduced to just a few lines toward the end of the 23 February 1981 script by Fancher and David Peoples (hereafter, BR 2-81). The final script reintroduces considerable voice-over narration, albeit entirely different from the narration that appears in the previous scripts. 7. Contrary to a common belief among fans who lament the addi- tion of this tacked-on happy ending, a happy ending (of sorts) was planned for the film until shortly before shooting ended. The scenes were scripted but not shot due to falling behind schedule and cost overruns. But after negative audience reactions at the Denver and Dallas sneak previews, additional scenes were shot after all and add- ed to the film (Sammon 1996, pp. 299–300, 307–8). BR 2-81 has Deckard whisking Rachael away from the city, as Gaff gives pursuit. BR 7-80 also ends with Deckard whisking Rachael out of the city so that Rachael can see snow and trees … before he shoots her. 8. Even these changes were not enough to satisfy some people. Rut- ger Hauer (Roy Batty in the film) dislikes the Deckard–Rachael re- lationship at the end of all versions of the film even more than he dislikes the happy ending of the Theatrical Release: ‘Forget the happy ending. I didn’t even like the fact that Deckard ran off with Rachael at the end. Deckard loving replicants didn’t make any sense to me. Frankly, I thought Deckard was a little sick, because he ran away with a vibrator that looked like a woman. Some people get angry with me when I tell them that. They say, “Rutger, you missed the point. You really should read Philip K. Dick’s book.” Well, they don’t know that I read the book. Whose whole moral, I thought, 184 Notes boiled down to this: “Does a computer love you? No, a computer does not.” End of story’ (Sammon 1996, p. 201, n. 15). 9. See, for example, the many ‘clues’ identified by Byron (2008), although in the end he concludes that resolving the question of whether or not Deckard is a replicant is unimportant. 10. Scott Bukatman (2012, p. 92) observes that, ‘sometimes it seems that the question, “Is Deckard a replicant?” has generated more discussion on the Internet than the existence of God.’ Judging by the urgency with which this issue is debated, to some people the answer is even more critical than its theological counterpart. 11. I take the question at issue to be whether Deckard is a replicant, not whether he is human because, as the discussion in Chapter 2 suggests, being human and being a replicant are not necessarily mutually exclusive: it is possible to be both. Nonetheless, to avoid cumbersome circumlocution I will adopt the convention of asking whether Deckard is a replicant or human. 12. There is no end to the clues viewers have detected in the film sug- gesting to them that Deckard is a replicant. For example, it has been noted that Deckard’s job is to retire replicants, and he is a retired blade runner (Mawby 2001, pp. 147–8). Durham (2013, p. 4) takes for granted that Deckard is an even more advanced Nexus 7 replicant, and suggests that it is possible that the selection of Deckard to retire the rogue replicants ‘indicates an experiment on the part of the maker to test the limitations of his invention.’ This is, indeed, possible. But there is no evidence to support such speculations and they will not be considered here. 13. This interpretation is bolstered by the final scenes as scripted in BR 2-81 where Deckard describes the tinfoil unicorn as ‘Gaff’s gaunt- let.’ Shortly thereafter he places it on the dash of his car as he and Rachael speed past birch trees at 160 mph with Gaff in his spinner racing after them in hot pursuit. 14. Reported by Paul M. Sammon in his audio commentary on the Work- print version (available in the Five-Disk Ultimate Collector’s Edition). 15. The unicorn motif lends itself to many other interpretations as well. According to Nick Lacey (2000, p. 44), ‘The unicorn is a mythical beast that can only be tamed by a virgin, the single horn being an obviously phallic symbol. Rachael is a virgin and she tames the hunter Deckard, giving meaning to his alienated life.’ According to Philip Strick (1992, p. 8), by contrast, the unicorn scene was ‘lift- ed’ from Legend (Scott’s next film after 1982’s Blade Runner), whose opening titles explain that ‘precious light … is harboured in the souls of Unicorns, the most mystical of all creatures…. they can only be found by the purest of mortals.’ From this observation Strick 185 Notes (inexplicably) concludes that, ‘In the Blade Runner context, its main implication is that Deckard, who has hitherto shown little incli- nation towards the poetic, is again drinking too hard or has taken leave of his senses.’ Alternatively, Peter Brooker (2005, p. 222) pro- poses that, ‘The appearance of a fabulous beast from the borderland realm of myth or fable reinforces the film’s underlying interest in a new hybrid, posthuman type.’ We also have the testimony of Ridley Scott, who explains that, ‘while so much has been made by critics of the unicorn, they’ve actually missed the wider issue. It is not the unicorn itself which is important. It’s the landscape around it – the green landscape – they should be noticing’ (Sammon 1996, p. 377). Picking up on this remark, Gerblinger (2002, pp. 26–7) opines that, ‘Deckard’s and, to a lesser degree, Gaff’s unicorns take on the function of the “nature” construct and its multiple meanings. Since the unicorn’s mythological framework is built upon the symbolism of folklore and Christianity, its correspondence to nature in Blade Runner implies that the concept of nature may be assigned a similar metaphorical implication.’ Still other interpretations are possible. In a deleted scene Deckard explains that after administering the Voight-Kampff test to Rachael, ‘Tyrell … ran scans of her memory implants for me, a proud father showing off the insides of his kid’s brain.’ If one of those implants had included unicorn imagery, then Deckard’s daydream could signify that he was thinking about Rachael. I include this small sampling of interpretations to underscore the point that there are many interpretations of this scene besides the one that views it as conclusive evidence that Deckard is a replicant. 16. Scott’s comments appear in the Enhancement Archive DVD ( included in the Five-Disk Ultimate Collector’s Edition).

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