In the year 2000, the Tyrell Corporation created bioengineered humanoids called replicants. The purpose of the replicants was for slave labor in off-Earth conditions not sustainable for humans. They were indistinguishable from humans, depending on the model. In 2019 a rebellion occurred. A law was enacted that forbade the existence of replicants on Earth. To handle the situation a special police force known as Blade Runners was created to hunt down and “retire” or destroy replicants.
One of the replicants, Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) became the leader of a small group. Six replicants, three male and three female escaped to Earth. Two were killed but four are still on Earth. Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) is an ex-blade runner. After the replicants killed everyone on their transport and escaped to Earth, he is called back to duty by Bryant (M. Emmet Walsh) to hunt them down.
Bryant believes that some of the replicants are trying to infiltrate the Tyrell Corporation, so he sends Deckard there. He meets Eldon Tyrell (Joe Turkel), and a young woman named Rachael (Sean Young). Tyrell wants to see how replicants are identified. He has Deckard show him how he identifies if someone is a replicant or human by using his assistant, Rachael as a test subject. Deckard determines that Rachael is a replicant; however, she is unaware of it and believes herself to be human. Tyrell is attempting to improve the replicants by adding memories to their consciousness. Rachel is his test subject.
As Deckard hunts down the missing replicants and “retires” them, he begins to have feelings for Rachael.
“Blade Runner” was released in 1982 and was directed by Ridley Scott. It is an American science fiction movie with some steampunk and noir elements. The film was based on the 1968 book “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” by Philip K. Dick. Dick died before the release of the film. The movie didn’t do well at the box office but since then, despite it being confusing and drawn out, has gained cult status, big time. A sequel called “Blade Runner 2049” was released in 2017.
A replicant is a genetically engineered humanoid that looks like a human except for having heightened powers such as super strength, and intelligence. They were created to provide slave labor for off-Earth facilities that would be too dangerous for humans. Some females were designed as sex workers. They are considered second class citizens and are illegal on Earth. Replicants do not experience human emotions. This can make them unstable and sociopathic. They are hunted by a special group of officers called Blade Runners. They can be detected by the use of a Voight-Kampff machine which operates similar to a lie detector. They were developed with a limited life span of about four years. The flying cars in the film are called “Spinners”.
The film takes place in a dark and dreary dystopian future. It seems that most futures are dystopian. Humans can’t help themselves; they must destroy. The fact that regular humans consider replicants, who look exactly like humans, as subhuman, and not much more than Frankenstein’s monster, seems to project that human beings have a self-loathing mechanism in their brain. At least Frankenstein’s creation didn’t look human.