Name this classic scene

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Brian

climber

Cali

Mar 30, 2007 - 03:30pm PT

L

Good question. First, I don't know if, or even if I think, Decker is a replicant. It seems ambigious.

However, one possible answer is that Decker is a different model. The girl (Sean whatshername) seems to be pretty weak, in physical terms. She was created by Tyrell for something different.

Likewise, Decker could have been made as a replicant to track replicants. I mean, if he is a replicant with implanted memories and dreams, he could be a new model. Heck, he could be only one month old--created to track down Roy and his group.

It really is an amazing movie in terms of making you think about personal identity, memory, humanity, and--most importantly--the incommunicable beauty and tragic frailty of life.

Glad this thread started.

Brian

EDIT: Klimmer is right, I like it ambigious. "The Lady or the Tiger" anyone?

Ed Hartouni

Trad climber

Livermore, CA

Mar 30, 2007 - 03:31pm PT

Although my wife thought it was a bit over the top, the dove flying from the hand of the replicant Roy Batty in that death scene was poetic in my opinion...

I liked both the movie and the book (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?) which is rare. But both the movie maker and the author exploited an interesting idea in a more profound than usual way.

klinefelter

Boulder climber

Bishop, CA

Mar 30, 2007 - 03:44pm PT

Remember when Gaff tells Deckard "You've done a man's job, sir!"

Gaff is the real "Bladerunner" and just uses Deckard as his tool to get to the other four - Deckard is the mysterious fifth replicant from the six who fled the rebellion (one died on the trip).

Deckard seems week because he's been programmed to think he's human (so that he'll hunt replicants without remourse). He's actually pretty badass, taking a beating at the end that no human could endure.

Gary

climber

Desolation Basin, Calif.

Mar 30, 2007 - 03:44pm PT

And don't forget, Dick was nuttier than a fruitcake.

Klimmer

Mountain climber

San Diego

Mar 30, 2007 - 03:55pm PT

Why is it that we like these dark futuristic movies so much, especially Blade Runner?

My hunch is because we fear a fate of something similiar is in our future, and like the andriods all we really want is to be able to live and enjoy our lives for as long as possible (if not forever), with family and friends, and to be left the hell alone.

I really think that is what most of us want, yes?

Edit: On further thought . . . and if that is what we truly want, then it dictates that we do something to help stop such a plight of the world. I don't want my children to inherit a broken down Earth. Ultimately, I want them to inherit a world better than I experienced it, but sadly I don't know if that is really possible. That saddens me to no end.

bluering

Trad climber

Santa Clara, Ca.

Mar 30, 2007 - 04:07pm PT

Well said Dingus, I love the classics. Martian Chronicles, Robbie...Those guys had fabulous minds.

Gary

climber

Desolation Basin, Calif.

Mar 30, 2007 - 04:11pm PT

The best of the lot was Theodore Sturgeon. And for some reason I always liked those guys from the '30s, like A.E. Van Vogt.

Van Vogt scored big from Alien. He had a great short called Dark Destroyer that a jury felt was close enough to the movie to warrant him getting a cut of the action. Cool.

dirtineye

Trad climber

the south

Mar 30, 2007 - 04:21pm PT

In the book, I thought Decker had a wife. I really don't think he was a replicant, since he was a retired blade runner called back for this job by his old boss.

I didn't like the directors cut either, but the original version was my favorite movie for a long time, and is still my favorite Sci Fi movie.

But Ridley Scott seems to have the touch of gold, mo matter what genre he goes with.

Anyone a fan of Kingdom of Heaven?

climber

The Rebel L Gang

Mar 30, 2007 - 04:29pm PT

I'm with you, Dingus. Some of the first books I ever read were by Clark, Herbert, Asimov, Andre Norton...then the addiction grew to Bradbury and Vonnegut.

The strange thing about a lot of that writing is that it isn't science fiction anymore.

Chiloe

Trad climber

Lee, NH

Mar 30, 2007 - 05:08pm PT

And Clarke's Martian Chronicles still brings a tear to my eyes.

Bradbury layered his wistful elegy for a vanished Mars so you could see what we'd really lost, a more peaceful America, underneath.

Late at night some of the old Twilight Zone episodes on TV strike me that way too, though I don't think they were meant to at the time.

I was a 50s/60s sci-fi junkie as a kid. From Forbidden Planet to A.E. Van Vogt.

Brian

climber

Cali

Mar 30, 2007 - 05:10pm PT

For better or worse, Herbert and Tolkien were, through their fiction, absolutly formative influences on my young self (and, therefore, on my present self). I can't say enough about either series.

"Kingdom of Heaven" was alright IMO. How about "The Duelists"? Another classic.

Brian

wootles

climber

Gamma Quadrant

Mar 30, 2007 - 05:14pm PT

Chiloe, You got me hooked on William Gibson.

Brian

climber

Cali

Mar 30, 2007 - 05:16pm PT

dirt has a good comment about Decker above (married); however, the movie is not really a carbon copy of the book. Same case with "Total Recall" and "We can remember it for you wholesale," etc. The movie adaptation always takes liberties with the story and the question of Decker's status seems essential to the movie. I guess I should say that the question of Decker's "origin" remains ambigious, because part of the point of the movie is that Decker, Roy, Priss, et al. are definitely "persons," even if they are not homo sapiens...

Brian

Chiloe

Trad climber

Lee, NH

Mar 30, 2007 - 05:18pm PT

Chiloe, You got me hooked on William Gibson.

Whoa, I'd forgotten about him. Didn't we name some climb Neuromancer? I've kept up with his more recent books too, although that one was the best.

Two other semi-modern sf works I liked were Dan Simmons' Hyperion and Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game. Both seemed really original and sweeping. But then both authors made a franchise outta them, I guess that's how it's done nowadays, and wrote stacks of not-so-fresh sequels.

Mighty Hiker

Social climber

Vancouver, B.C.

Mar 30, 2007 - 05:22pm PT

What of 'A Canticle for Leibowitz'?

dirtbag

climber

Mar 30, 2007 - 05:28pm PT

Damn, I'm going to have to see this movie again. It's been at least 10 years. I'd forgotten how good it is.

climber

The Rebel L Gang

Mar 30, 2007 - 05:31pm PT

Blade Runner Party at Dirtbag's House!

10:00pm
BYOB
Will provide munchies

Origami contest afterwards

klk

Trad climber

cali

Mar 30, 2007 - 05:35pm PT

dmt is right about the ending. the voiceover got put in because scott's first cut seemed so murky. and it's hard to remember now, but this film absoutely flatlined in its theatrical release. it lost dough hand over fist. it's also one of the few movies that had a journalist embedded in production, start to end. the book he wrote (paul scammon, future noir) is not deathless prose, but it's a pretty entertaining look into the sausage factory.