“The replicants, are they evil geniuses, abused children, slaves in revolt, or all of the above?” To me, the replicants are androids who desire to become humans. Silverman states in her essay that the film critiques the binary opposite of human/nonhuman, and as the character of Deckard develops in the film, this binary opposite weakens more and more. In the film, humans and replicants are not rivalries or in a master-slave relation——they are equivalent, just like twin siblings.

1.Deckard’s hatred or disgust towards the replicants

At the beginning Deckard is like a cold-faced killer who can precisely catch every replicant. He accepts this job because Byrant tells him that “if you are not a cop, you are little people.“ It suggests the social hierarchy in this dystopian world: the rich who immigrate to the off-world, humans and cops, and then the replicants. Deckard sees himself higher than replicants, because he identifies himself as a human. After testing out Rachel, Deckard asks: “suspect? How can it not know what it is?” “It” in here contains a great sense of despise, as if Rachel, the beautiful girl who just sat in front of him, suddenly becomes some sort of insect or animal. And “how can it not know what it is” is like an insult to Rachel’s intelligence.

In Deckard’s second encounter with Rachel, he tells that Rachel’s memories are “implants”. He sits on the seat, holding a drink, and just casually shakes his head and says “those are not your memories.They are somebody else’s.” Meanwhile, Rachel stands and looks down on him, seeming to be shocked and hurted. Deckard is half in shadow, displaying his rigorous mood. He impatiently rubs his head and simply sees it as a “bad joke” to Rachel. He is not expecting Rachel to cry because to him, replicants are not humans, and replicants don’t know what it is like to be “hurted”. When Deckard hunts down Zhora, he is apparently disturbed by her dead body, and through his expression we can tell that he knows he “killed a person”. But in order to ease his guilt, he immediately tells his license number and indicates he is only a cop doing his job. If Deckard is a replicant, he then does have empathy, but he has suppressed that feeling towards whom he sees as “nonhumans”.

2.Human equivalence: J.F. Sebastian

In another sequence, Pris and Sebastian are talking. Pris asks Sebstian “Is that why you are still on Earth?” Then Sebstian replies “Yeah. I couldn’t pass the medical.” The film earlier mentions parts of human migrated out of Earth, suggesting that those who are left are the lower class, such as people like Sebastian who are physically “defective”. The Earth right now is heavily polluted (with a doomy sky), crowded, misty, rainy, noisy, and shabby, so whoever is still here——whether humans or replicants——all fall under the same “deserted” category. Replicants are discriminated against as “nonhumans”, and people are also seen as unworthy, so perhaps to those privileged people, humans and replicants on Earth are equivalently “lowlives”. Later Roy joined them two. There is an interesting transition about Sebastian. He is first interested in Nexus 6 and tells Roy and Pris “there’s some of me in you”, as if he is their father, the creator, and then he even orders them to show him some skills. Roy rejects to be a subject to Sebastian and says “we are not computers. . .we are physical.” Then Pris stands up to surround Sebastian with her arms, and she does the same when they ask Sebastian to take them to Tyrell. Even though Sebastian is a real human and even a designer, he is obviously dominated by those replicants. They besiege him as a prey. The early “hierarchy” is broken, now the replicants seem to be more powerful than humans.

3. Roy’s rebellion

When Roy meets Tyrell, Sebastian looks timid, while Roy walks in slowly with confidence and power (he even orders Sebastain to “stay here”). As Roy walks close to Tyrell, the candle light in the background flickers and gradually he comes to the light, but still with face half lit. The camera shot across Tyrell’s back and thus we see Roy standing in a near distance. As he speaks the dimmed flickering light shines on half of his face, making him a threatening figure. Roy says the problem is “death”. Interestingly, “death” is a process that human experiences, and here Roy directly says it without referring to “retirement”. In the next scene, Tyrell steps back a little and immediately it follows the close up shot to Roy’s face as he comes close. Even if Roy calls Tyrell “father”, he calls it in a very terrifying and threatening way. Roy is exercising his dominance, which makes him the “rebellious child”. Replicants fear death and desire life as much as humans, but in this case, replicants also “inherited” other traits from humans: violence and the willingness to destroy for the things they can’t get. Roy’s rebellion against humans (or his creator) is out of the desire to live longer. This desire for the better is exactly the same for humans too. And because of this desire, humans migrate to a better space, and create replicants to do the hard, hazardous work so that they can directly enjoy the “better” result. I think humans’ desire to live better is the same as the replicants wishing to live longer (so maybe they can also “live better”). Roy’s desire exposes him as having a “human heart”, and his violent killing of Tyrell is not a sign of rebellion but rather a mirror reflection of the conduct of humans in other situations.

4. Experiencing, understanding, and accepting death

In the hunting sequence, Deckard kills Pris. Then Roy demonstrates another “human trait”——vengeance——as he breaks Deckard’s fingers (and also empathy because he’s painful knowing his friends are dead). What’s most touching to me is when Roy kisses Pris and closes her mouth, and then he touches her wound. As he sits up, the light shines on his pale face where a tear drops, and he smears the blood on his lips, as if he wants to retain the very last bit of Pris within him, or it is his way of commemorating his dead lover. Then Roy howls: this action reminds me of the primitive ”animal state“ of early humans, and Roy seems to return to that primordial status of humans, not replicants.

At the moment when Deckard hangs on the roof, the camera shoots upward to show Deckard’s view, and Roy appears with the big fans in the background which is similar to the fans in the beginning at the office when Leon is tested. In the beginning shoot, Leon will be “retired” once he is confirmed to be a replicant, whereas here Deckard, a self-identified human, will be killed by a replicant. This reverse of position from beginning to the end seems to establish a rivalry between the two. However, Roy jumps over and watches Deckard struggling for life, and delivers one of the most significant lines: “quite an experience to live in fear, isn’t it? That’s what it is to be a slave.” The camera cuts back and forth to Deckard, his hand, and Roy’s horrifying face stained with blood, creating a tension and indicating that Roy is intentionally torturing Deckard. But almost immediately when Deckard falls, Roy catches him and saves his life. Roy’s choice overthrows the “rivalry” built earlier, and he just sits and talks to Deckard. In this very moment, all the anger, hatred, barriers, and difference are gone, only with Roy recounting his brief but “brightly burned” life. When Roy says “all those moments will be lost in time, like tears in the rain”, he has very subtle expressions on his face showing scorn, regret, pity, pain, and relief. All those facial expressions show that he is “more human than human”, with the ability to experience, to feel, and to live by heart. It also shows that the “memories” are not to control replicants, but to construct them. In his final moment, Roy realizes and understands the meaning of his life, and accepts the death.Perhaps just like Tyrell says “the light that burns twice as bright burns half as long”: Roy has had a revel. Nothing will last forever, so he chooses to accept his fate and peacefully walk into death. The dove that flies out of his arm signifies that the replicants are just like humans——they also have souls and spirit that will continue in heaven by faith.

Towards the very end, Deckard spots the unicorn origami and realizes he might be a replicant, but he nods and continues to run away with Rachel. In the last moment Deckard has changed from a “self-identified human” to a “replicant”. Whichever type he is, he understands what Gaff says that “it’s too bad she won’t live, but then again who does?” Humans or replicants, both desire for life and no one escapes death.

Deckard’s transition, from the beginning that he despises replicants to the end that he might be one himself, shows that humans and replicants are equivalent. Roy’s journey from anger and resentment to the eventual acceptance and peace also manifests that replicants are made in the image of humans. Humans serve as a mirror, and the replicants are their own reflections.

*其他note*

看的是2007 director's cut

本学期最后一部电影，周四讨论完就结课了:( 舍不得

2020.12.1 1567 words (大概破纪录了吧？)