Final Cut. (no VO, no epilogue) (Off-Topic)

by narcogen , Andover, Massachusetts, Thursday, October 12, 2017, 00:33 (2604 days ago) @ Cody Miller

Also if you look closely at Blade Runner 2049, this interpretation is proven false. Deckard is human.

False.

True. Look closer.

The whole point of Batty sparing Deckard was to show him that he does in fact have a soul. If Deckard were a replicant, 1. Batty would know, and 2. he would have no reason to do this. That is the point of the film: replicants have souls.

That does not follow at all.

Batty sparing Deckard proves to the audience and himself that he has a "soul" or possesses humanity-- however one would like to phrase it. It is no less important to demonstrate this whether or not Deckard is a replicant. Deckard is no less (or no more) worthy of mercy whether he is replicant or human-- especially if the point is that replicants possess humanity.

At that point in the film, Deckard still has presumed humanity because he's functioning as the audience surrogate. We presume his humanity because we presume our own, and it would make sense for Batty to presume it as well. There's no particular reason to presume that Batty would recognize him as a replicant or even think much of it if he did-- Deckard is a police officer hunting him and is an opponent who has killed his compatriots, regardless of his nature.

In fact, Batty's banter with Deckard during the fight is just as on point and relevant if not more so if Batty is aware of what Deckard is-- a replicant, like Rachel, that is unaware of its nature and presumes its own humanity. Batty is forcing him to appreciate something that he has taken for granted. That's the first phase of what the film is saying.

The next step is removing the presumption. Like Batty sparing Deckard, Gaff spares Rachel-- the first meaning of the origami unicorn is that Gaff could have apprehended Rachel, but chose not to. The second part is-- why a unicorn and not something different? To illustrate that Gaff knows Deckard is also a replicant, one just like Rachel.

Batty sparing Deckard demonstrates that those we seek to define as other may in fact possess the quality we refer to as humanity.

Deckard being a replicant demonstrates that just because you presume you have humanity by virtue of your nature, you may not.

Tears in the rain wasn't even in the script. Rutger Hauer understood the film better than anyone else working on it.

Or he just thought it sounded cool, and the entire thing is greater than the sum of its parts, which is often the case.