LesserFollies on 14/8/2001 at 21:00

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yah! and speaking of EJ Olmos, he was excellent in Wolfen, which I saw last night.

Rogue Keeper on 15/8/2001 at 08:20

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Is anybody here who knows those K. W. Jeter's novels? I think they were written only for money. Frontiers of human were quite readable but Replicant's night was total crap. Jeter has his qualities, but those books weren't worth the BLADE RUNNER title.

And the game was as good as it could be, but again - nothing new for die-hard BR fans <IMG SRC="nono.gif" border="0">



Tyrrell must be sick when those sharp guys are hunting his products in the streets. <IMG SRC="joker.gif" border="0">

ahem, bad joke

[ August 15, 2001: Message edited by: Shrieker ]

scarecrow on 15/8/2001 at 11:11

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The missing replicant apparantly was a character taken out of the script. It was a sort of Carol Brady replicant called Mary who was the "mother" character to the others. But all her scenes were cut before shooting began. Ridley Scott left the inconsistancy with the chief saying there were five replicants to create the sort of questions that people are asking ot this day.

Rogue Keeper on 16/8/2001 at 09:16

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Ahhh, now we're getting closer to the "missing sixth replicant" problem, discussed so many times among BR fans. If I remember correctly, in DADoEs there were six replicants. In the first draft of the BR script, Scott/Fancher/Peoples trio decided to remove the sixth piece and let the fifth fried in the electric field.
But in the movie Bryant told Deckard that six replicants hijacked the shuttle and escaped from the off-world colony. Screenwriters simply forgot to change this part of the screenplay.

This "sixth replicant problem" has later reappeared in the Jeter's sequel Edge of Human, implying that Deckard could be the sixth missing replicant...

[ August 16, 2001: Message edited by: Shrieker ]

Rogue Keeper on 16/8/2001 at 12:03

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Okay, here are some excerpts from the Blade Runner FAQ by Murray Chapman for the lazy among us... :)


Something about voice-overs:

Ridley Scott made BR in a style called "film noir". Film noir is a
"hardboiled detective" style of story-telling. Perhaps the most famous
example is the Humphrey Bogart movie "The Maltese Falcon" (directed by John
Huston). A trademark of film noir is the voice-overs by the detective,
explaining what he is thinking/doing at the time.

Ridley Scott filmed BR *without* the voice-overs, but due to its poor
reception at a sneak previews, the studio insisted that the voice-overs be
added. Ridley Scott said in an interview on American television that in film
noir, voice-overs sometimes work, and sometimes don't, and they didn't work
in BR.

"(A)n extensive voice-over was added to help people relate to Harrison Ford's
character and make following the plot easier. (A)fter a draft by novelist-
screenwriter Darryl Ponicsan was discarded, a TV veteran named Roland Kibbee
got the job. As finally written, the voice-over met with universal scorn
from the filmmakers, mostly for what Scott characterized as its 'Irving the
Explainer' quality.... It sounded so tinny and ersatz that, in a curious bit
of film folklore, many members of the team believe to this day that Harrison
Ford, consciously or not, did an uninspired reading of it in the hopes it
wouldn't be used. And when co-writers Fancher and Peoples, now friends, saw
it together, they were so afraid the other had written it that they refrained
from any negative comments until months later." [Source: Los Angeles Times
Magazine, September 13, 1992.]

The ending of the film was also changed by the studio. Scott wanted to end
the film with Deckard and Rachael getting into the elevator, but the studio
decided that the film needed a happier, less ambiguous ending. The aerial
shots used in the 1982 theatrical release were outtakes from Stanley Kubrik's
"The Shining" (which, coincidentally, featured Joe Turkel).

The significance of the unicorn:

When Deckard leaves his apartment with Rachael at the end of the film, she
knocks over an origami unicorn. The unicorn is the last of a series of
origami figures that Gaff uses to taunt Deckard. In Bryant's office when
Deckard insists he's retired, Gaff folds a chicken: "You're afraid to do it".
Later he makes a man with an erection: "You're attracted to her". And
finally, the unicorn: "You're dreaming, you can run away with her, but she
won't live" (he says basically the same thing to Deckard on the rooftop).
One interpretation is that the unicorn was simply a message to Deckard to say
"I know you've got Rachael, but I'll let her live." Another interpretation
(based on the script) is that the unicorn is Gaff's gauntlet and he will hunt
them both down.

A unicorn has long been the symbol of virginity and purity (being white),
which ties in with Rachael's status. Legend states that only a virgin could
capture a unicorn. Unicorns are extinct, and Gaff may think the same of
Rachael, as she definitely has a limited lifespan.

A unicorn was used in Tennessee Williams' "The Glass Menagerie" to symbolize
that the girl was "different to other horses". The horn on this unicorn
represented her physical handicap, which prevented her from meeting people.
When she finally did meet a man, they danced and knocked over the unicorn,
breaking its horn off. "It's just like all the other horses now," she said,
which symbolizes that she has overcome her shyness and lost her virginity.

The unicorn may also symbolize:

- Rachael is (and always will be) a replicant among humans, and will
be different, like a unicorn among horses, because of her termination
date. (In the tacked-on ending, Deckard says that she doesn't have a
termination date)

- Rachael leaving and knocking over the unicorn symbolizes her escape
from the Tyrell corporation, which only looked upon her as a replicant.
Deckard fell in love with her as a human, and by doing so, she became
human.

- "The silver unicorn... is a made thing, a piece of human handiwork,
beautiful and fragile and glittering, yet perceived as waste, thrown
down and trodden upon, easily destroyed. Also, it is in the form of an
animal, albeit a mythical one, and in the BR future, the beasts of the
earth and fowls of the air are all be extinct, except in replicant
form."

[Source: Rebecca Warner in "Retrofitting Bladerunner]


BRDC, however, includes a scene not in the original release. It is a dream
sequence, showing Deckard's dream of a white unicorn. One can now argue Gaff
knew that Deckard had dreamt of a unicorn. If Gaff knew what Deckard was
dreaming, then we can assume that Deckard was a replicant himself, and Gaff
knew he would be dreaming of a unicorn just the way Deckard knew about the
spider outside Rachael's window.

"The Blade Cuts", Starburst (UK) no. 51, November 1982.
------------------------------------------------------
Quoted without permission:

Scott: ...did you see the version [of the script] with the unicorn?

McKenzie: No...

S: I think the idea of the unicorn was a terrific idea...

M: The obvious inference is that Deckard is a replicant himself.

S: Sure. To me it's entirely logical, particularly when you are doing a
film noire, you may as well go right through with that theme, and the
central character could in fact be what he is chasing...

M: Did you actually shoot the sequence in the glade with the unicorn?

S: Absolutely. It was cut into the picture, and I think it worked
wonderfully. Deckard was sitting, playing the piano rather badly
because he was drunk, and there's a moment where he gets absorbed
and goes off a little at a tangent and we went into the shot of the
unicorn plunging out of the forest. It's not subliminal, but it's a
brief shot. Cut back to Deckard and there's absolutely no reaction
to that, and he just carries on with the scene. That's where the
whole idea of the character of Gaff with his origami figures -- the
chicken and the little stick-figure man, so the origami figure of the
unicorn tells you that Gaff has been there. One of the layers of the
film has been talking about private thoughts and memories, so how
would Gaff have known that a private thought of Deckard was of a
unicorn? That's why Deckard shook his head like that [referring to
Deckard nodding his head after picking up the paper unicorn]."

Scott goes on to talk about how he decided to make the photograph of the
little girl with her mother come alive for a second, then later in the
interview we have:

M: Are you disappointed that the references to Deckard being a replicant
are no longer there?

S: The innuendo is still there. The French get it immediately! I
think it's interesting that he could be.

Scott intended the unicorn scene to be in the 1982 theatrical release, but
the producers vetoed the idea as "too arty".

Plot problems in Blade Runner:

Why did Holden need to VK Leon, if the police knew what he looked like? This
test is more crucial in the novel, where it is intimated that there are
humans who have actually been replaced by look-alike replicants. Replicants,
however, can readily change their appearances and aren't easily recognized
from photographs, e.g., Zhora's tattoo, and Pris' raccoon makeup. In the
July 1980 screenplay, Deckard muses, "They could change their appearances but
not their future." In the December 1980 screenplay, Deckard says Zhora's
"black hair is a wig which now hangs on the wall next to the shower. She
didn't look like Nexus designated Zhora to begin with, but even less now."

Bryant tells Deckard that there were six replicants, three male, three
female. Obviously, Roy and Leon are two of the males, and Pris and Zhora are
two of the females. Bryant also says that "one of them got fried trying to
get into the Tyrell building", but doesn't specify the sex. That leaves one
replicant, either male or female. It has been hypothesized that Deckard was
the sixth replicant, but there is ample evidence that this is not the case.
In an earlier version of the script "Mary" was the fifth replicant, and "Hodge"
was the sixth. Bryant's line in that script got past the screenwriter
unnoticed. It was recorded correctly in the Workprint as "two got fried" but
botched again on the release print.

Why is it so difficult to tell a replicant from a human, when replicants can
put their hands in boiling/freezing liquids without damage? Surely a tissue
sample would suffice? Perhaps, but Holden couldn't even get a straight
answer from Leon, much less a tissue sample.

How did word of Rachael's escape get out so quickly, and how could Tyrell
tell that she had gone for good? Remember that Deckard called Rachael at
home while he was still at the nightclub. It could not have been more than a
couple hours before he gave chase to Zhora. (How long could she "take the
pleasures from the serpent"?) Was that enough time for Rachael to run away
then for Tyrell to call the police and have Bryant put Deckard onto her?
Another explanation is that Tyrell's "experiment" was voided when Rachael
discovered she was a replicant; Tyrell simply used this opportunity to
dispose of her.

How did Roy get into Tyrell's office so easily? Did Tyrell trust Sebastian
enough to give him the option of bringing anyone/anything up in the lift?
Tyrell was unaware there was anyone in the lift with Sebastian until he said
"I brought a friend." In earlier scripts, Sebastian and Chew both held the
highest security clearance.

In an early version of the script, Tyrell was a replicant, and Roy picks up
on this because of a key both Sebastian and Tyrell are wearing. In that
version, the real Tyrell was in a "cryocrypt", for sketches of which see "The
Blade Runner Sketchbook". After Roy kills the replicant Tyrell, he makes
Sebastian show him the crypt where the real Tyrell lies dead because of a
mistake Sebastian had made.


IS DECKARD A REPLICANT?

This question causes the most debate among BR fans. The different versions
of BR support this notion to differing degrees. One might argue that in the
1982 theatrical release, Deckard is not a replicant but in BRDC, he is.

There is no definitive answer: Ridley Scott himself has stated that, although
he deliberately made the ending ambiguous, he also intentionally introduced
enough evidence to support the notion, and (as far as he is concerned),
Deckard is a replicant. [See section 9.]


The "FOR" case
--------------

- Ridley Scott and Harrison Ford have stated that Deckard was meant to be a
replicant. In Details magazine (US) October 1992 Ford says:

"Blade Runner was not one of my favorite films. I tangled
with Ridley. The biggest problem was that at the end, he wanted the
audience to find out that Deckard was a replicant. I fought that
because I felt the audience needed somebody to cheer for."

- The shooting script had a voice-over where Deckard says, "I knew it on the
roof that night. We were brothers, Roy Batty and I!"

- Gaff knew that Deckard dreamt of a unicorn, therefore Gaff knew what dreams
that Deckard had been implanted with. (BRDC only)

- Replicants have a penchant for photographs, because it gives them a tie to
their non-existent past. Deckard's flat is packed with photos, and none of
them are recent or in color. Despite her memories, Rachael needed a photo
as an emotional cushion. Likewise, Deckard would need photos, despite his
memory implants. Rachael plays the piano, and Deckard has a piano in his
flat.

- Gaff tells him "You've done a man's job, sir!". Early drafts of the script
have him then add: "But are you sure you are man? It's hard to be sure
who's who around here."

- Only a replicant could survive the beatings that Deckard takes, and then
struggle up the side of a building with two dislocated fingers.

- Bryant's threat "If you're not a cop, you're little people" might be
an allusion to Deckard being created solely for police work.

- Deckard's eyes glow (yellow-orange) when he tells Rachael that he wouldn't
go after her, "but someone would". Deckard is standing behind Rachael,
and he's out of focus.

- Roy knew Deckard's name, yet he was never told it. Some speculate that
Deckard might have been part of Roy's off-world rebellion, but was captured
by the police and used to hunt down the others. In tht case, Bryant is
including Deckard among the five escaped replicants.

- The police would not risk a human to hunt four powerful replicants,
particularly since replicants were designed for such dangerous work. Of
course Deckard would have to think he was human or he might not be willing
to hunt down other replicants.

- Gaff seems to follow Deckard everywhere -- he is at the scene of all the
Replicant retirings almost immediately. Gaff is always with Deckard when
the chief is around. This suggests that Gaff is the real BR, and that
Deckard is only a tool Gaff uses for the dirty work.


The "AGAINST" case
------------------

- A major point of the film was to show Deckard (The Common Man) the
value of life. "What's it like to live in fear?" If all the main
characters are replicants, the contrast between humans and replicants is
lost.

- Rachael had an implanted unicorn dream and Deckard's reverie in BRDC was a
result of having seen her implants. Gaff may have seen Rachael's implants
at the same time Deckard did, perhaps while they were at Tyrell's.

- Could you trust a replicant to kill other replicants? Why did the police
trust Deckard?

- Having Deckard as a replicant implies a conspiracy between the police and
Tyrell.

- Replicants were outlawed on Earth and it seems unlikely that a replicant
would have an ex-wife.

- If Deckard was a replicant designed to be a Blade Runner, why would they
give him bad memories of the police force? Wouldn't it be more effective
if he were loyal and happy about his work?

- Deckard was not a replicant in DADoES, although he has another Blade Runner
test him at one point just to be sure.


(Used without permission, but with deep respect to the author. I hope it suffices... :))