The most fantastic Si-Fi film ever

Rating: 10/10 (1 May 2006)

This movie is the great blueprint for nearly all Sience-Fiction movies coming afterwards. It is courageous as well as spirited, seminal and prophetic. Probably, This is the reason why BR (especially the end) was 1982 so deformed by the producers. I was 14 years old when it was released in Germany. I could only watch it through the eyes of a boy that was on the verge of getting an adolescent. Thanks to the corresponding zeitgeist of the 80's with it's unmatched mixture of fascination and fear of the future, it was an admirable work and a thunderclap that nearly produced an overflow of fascination in a young boy's synapsis. But I got a wonderful glimpse and now an assuredness that I was a witness to something singular. The beginning shows a central theme of the film. An apocalyptic skyline with gigantic fires mirrors in the eyes of a man. The eyes are the window to the soul of a human and they are used to separate the humans from the non humans, that means the replicants. The replicants are used for dangerous slave works in the outer worlds. No more. The interesting thing is that they are much more intelligent,strong and fit than even the engineers who constructed them. But whenever they try to come back to the earth, they will be killed, euphemistically called "retired". People, who do this job, are called "Blade Runner". Deckard, the main character of the film, is one of them and his name is no accident. Deckard refers to Descartes, the french philosopher and founder of the modern philosophy, who's known for his insight that self awareness is the basis for existence. At the beginning Deckard is confident about the role all beings play. But he's that only because he doesn't question anything. He lives his life, and that's it. His new job changes everything. Bryant, his last boss, "motivates" him to "retire" four "skin-jobs", i.e. replicants. So he starts as usual. At first he has to show the machine for revealing non humans to Eldon Tyrell, the genuine diabolic chief of the Tyrell corporation, who invented and "produces" the newest generation of replicants, called Nexus 6. Deckard demonstrates his machine on Rachel. Questions are asked to provoke an emotional reaction in the test object. Replicants can't deal with it. Tyrell advanced his replicants, but the machine works even with them. One of the two weaknesses of them. The other is the lifespan of 4 years. As Rachel starts to get aware of what she is, Deckard is grievously untouched. Tyrell regards and realizes all. As the Owl he owns, the symbol for wisdom. The first impression of Roy Batty, the leader of the replicants, who came back to earth for a special reason, is symptomatic for the rest of the movie. He's unapproachable for the humans he visits. Deckard does his job as usual with Salomé, the name of a bible character. In the meantime, as Roy Betty visits his maker, Eldon Tyrell, the "god" of Bio-Genetics. Roy wanted to bid his "father" to give him more time to live. But all Tyrell can do is to summarize Roy's life in two sentences. "The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long. And you have burned so very very brightly Roy." Then the son kills his father. Nitsche's greeting. Then, Rachel shows Deckard photos of her youth to get a confirmation for her last hope to be human, but he destroys all her illusions. She weeps - one of the most human emotions. Deckard recognizes what he's done and wants to console her, but is merely implausible. That's the point when Deckard gets real doubts, because he can't handle real emotions himself. But he carries on. In the end he is confronted with Roy Betty, who sees his lifetime fading away. Therefore he drills a nail through his hand to feel life through pain. That reminds of Jesus which is again no accident. In the end Deckard is eyeball to eyeball with his own death. Roy stands beside and confronts him with the only feeling he experienced himself: fear. "Quite an experience to life in fear, isn't it ?" and then... Roy saves him with his pierced hand, holding a dove, the symbol for the soul, in the other. His last words in view of his nearing death are ultimately sad and wonderful at the same time: "I've seen things you people wouldn't believe.......All those moments will be lost in time. Like tears in the rain. Time to die." Then his dove rises. What a statement ? He tells his innermost memories, which were not implanted and will be lost when he dies. He realizes that the meaning of life is to live. He accepted his ending existence as Roy Batty. That gave him salvation and he could die being one with the world. There he reminds again to Jesus. He learned his lesson, and that makes him really "more human than human". Actually, the Nexus 6 are the only ones, who shine in a dark world of steady rain and curious people. The end gives a hint on Deckard's reality as he finds an origami, which symbolizes a unicorn. It's from Gaff, the mysterious figure, who follows Deckard through the whole movie. Deckard nods his head as if he knows. It was the final scene of the better version. No questions anymore. The movie makes a mountainous statement of what makes a human human. The conclusion can only be the self awareness and the affirmation of life. And it was the end of a gigantic and singular movie which You should have seen. A comment will never live up to the atmosphere BR enfolds You in. Even today, 25 years later, I'm still enchanted. The themes, implications, questions and answers are unmatched and more actual than 1982.