Philosophy on Film

Rating: 9/10 (10 April 2016)

In Los Angeles in November 2019, ex-police officer Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) is detained by officer Gaff (Edward James Olmos) and brought to his former supervisor, Bryant (M. Emmet Walsh). Deckard, whose job as a "Blade Runner" was to track down bioengineered beings known as replicants and "retire" (a euphemism for killing) them, is informed that four have come to Earth illegally.
Science fiction and philosophy go hand in hand. From the earliest days up through "The Matrix" and beyond, it allows the human mind to explore hypothetical situations. This movie is a good action film (though slower than necessary in parts), but carries with it an ethical question: when do robots become human? Do they ever? And should we be constructing them in the first place? (The film sort of skirts this issue, saying they were used for slave labor -- but why bother to give them feelings, senses, sexual organs and so on?) I do not know which of the seven (!) versions is best. I most recently (2016) saw the theatrical, but feel it was lacking something. Definitely the unicorn dream sequence is gone, which is important to the plot. Things are left more ambiguous.