BLADE RUNNER Frequently Asked Questions - Part 4 Taken from Compiled by Murray Chapman (muzzle@cs.uq.oz.au), from sources too numerous to mention. Thank-you one and all. @~Concluded from issue 58 ------------------------------------------------------------------ 13. MORE QUESTIONS/ANSWERS This section contains some questions which cannot be answered by considering solely the film. In these cases, either auxilliary material is quoted, or a rational explanation is offered. Q: Whose eye is it at the start of the movie? A: The storyboard says that it is Holden's Q: Why would the Tyrell building have ceiling fans in it? A: Ceiling fans are very efficient, even in 2019. Q: How did Leon smuggle his gun into room where Holden VK'd him? And how did he escape from the building, given that the whole incident was on videotape, and occurred high up in the Tyrell building? A: According to news reports, the World Trade Center in New York that was bombed in February 1993 had about 100,000 people in the 110-story building (presumably both buildings). The Tyrell Corp. also has two buildings and, according to various descriptions, is 700-stories tall. Since the top story is several times the area of the WTC, the base must be enormously larger. Also, it is surrounded by four buttresses that are probably equal in area to the WTC. All of this suggests that the pyramid must be larger by as much as a factor of 100. That suggests the pyramid might house up to 10 million people. It should be easy to get lost in a crowd that size. Add in the fact there may be other replicants that look like Leon and you've got an impossible job. We also know that Tyrell Corp. security is not perfect because, 1) Bryant tells Deckard one was fried trying to break in and the others got away, and 2) Batty gets in and kills Tyrell. Q: What does the voice from the blimp say? A: "A new life awaits you in the Off-World colonies. The chance to begin again in a golden land of opportunity and adventure. New climate, recreational facilities.....absolutely free. Use your new friend as a personal body servant or a tireless field hand -- the custom tailored genetically engineered humanoid replicant designed especially for your needs. So come on America, let's put our team up there...." Q: Why can't Tyrell afford a real owl? A: The February 1981 screenplay was written as: Deckard: "It's artificial?" Rachael: "Of course not." I believe this is how it was shot. If you watch Rachael's lips when she is saying this, it looks like an overdub. Hard to see except in a theater. Tyrell may want to keep a replicant owl in his penthouse, the same as most companies have showpiece models in their offices. Note further that in DADoES, the "Tyrell corporation" lied to Deckard (that is, told him it was real) as an attempted bribe. Q: Who is the guy lying down in the photo Deckard uses in his image processor? A: Roy? Q: How did Rachael get away with killing Leon in public, when she was wanted dead by the police? The police arrived pretty soon after Deckard killed Zhora, so why didn't they swoop when Rachael killed Leon? A: Deckard kills Zhora in the midst of a crowded street. Leon picked a deserted alley to maul Deckard. Q: How can Tyrell tell Roy that "We made you to the best of our abilities", when he deliberately gave him a four year lifespan? A: What Tyrell means is: You were made as well as we dared make you because we can only control you for so long. This explanation assumes Bryant is correct in saying the 4-year lifespan is built-in. But it's possible Tyrell simply turned a problem into a benefit by claiming advantages for a 4-year lifespan rather than limitations. When Sebastian says, "There's some of me in you," he might well be referring to the Methuselah Syndrome. Q: Why are real animals so expensive if there are lots of birds living in Sebastian's building? A: DADoES offers an explanation: some animals are rarer than others. Pigeons will always be cheap. Q: Batty calls Deckard by name during the chase at the end. How did he know Deckard's name? A: This is either a technical error in the film, or an indication that Batty knew Deckard, and Deckard doesn't remember Batty. One theory is that Deckard (and possibly Rachael) were replicants, and part of the rebellion. They were caught alive entering the Tyrell building, and as an experiment they were retrained as an ex-Blade Runner, and a replicant who think's she's a human. The experiment was to see if a replicant could turn on other replicants that he/she used to know. This explanation is a bit weak and far fetched, as it relies on the Tyrell corporation retraining Deckard but not changing his name. (Imagine if Roy had called him "Mr Smith"!) This makes the Deckard/Zhora confrontation more interesting: she would have recognized him, and would be wondering if he was having a joke or not. When she realized that he was for real, she clobbered him. This could also give Bryant an excuse for getting the number of escaped replicants wrong. Different versions of the script have Deckard as a well-known Blade Runner, so in that case it would be reasonable for Batty to know him. Q: Batty's incept date of January 2016 means that he should have lived to January 2020. Why did he die in November 2019? A: The margin of error on a replicant's lifetime is probably the same as that of any human with a fatal disease. Q: How did Gaff get Deckard's gun? Was he following them? A: Deckard sits on the roof for a long time. Gaff probably followed Deckard's groundcar, or checked out the radio reports of Sebastian's death, walked around to piece together what happened, then found Deckard's gun. Q: Which companies/products have their logos appearing in BR? A: ANACO, Atari, Atriton, Budweiser, Bulova, Citizen, Coca-Cola, Cuisine Art, Dentyne, Hilton, Jovan, JVC, Koss, Lark, Marlboro, Million Dollar Discount, Mon Hart, Pan Am, Polaroid, RCA, Remy, Schiltz, Shakey's Toshiba, Star Jewelers, TDK, The Million Dollar Movie, TWA, Wakamoto. Q: What is this "Blade Runner Curse"? A: Someone once noticed that a number of the companies whose logos appeared in BR had financial difficulties after the film was released. Atari had 70% of the home console market in 1982, but faced losses of over $2 million in the first quarter of 1991. RCA was dismantled in 1986. Bell lost its monopoly in 1982. Pan-Am filed for bankruptcy protection in 1991. It is interesting to note that the Coca-Cola company has seen the biggest growth in the last 10 years of any American company in history. Cusinart filed for bankruptcy protection in July 1989. Q: Is there going to be a sequel to Blade Runner? A: Ridley Scott has said that he is interested in doing a sequel. It is rumoured that he is considering Gerard Depardieu (whom he directed in _1492_) as one of the actors. Q: Batty's nail disappears when he catches Deckard. A: The bottom of the frame is slightly cropped (even on the Criterion disc), which prevents us from seeing the nail. It is nevertheless there and can be seen for a single frame at C-19 24493. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 14. 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 theatrical release (1982), 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: Noise-free post from October 1992 "Details" (Discussions on Blade Runner); reprinted without permission: FORD: "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." - 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. - 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 pull itself up onto the roof with two fingers. - Bryant's threat "..if you're not a cop, you're little people" might be a 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". This is hard to spot: Deckard is standing behind Rachael, and he's out of focus. - Deckard's character is much like Holden's. - If you listen closely in the audio dissolve during Rachael's VK test, you can hear Deckard say "orange body, green legs". How did he know that this was significant to Rachael? - Roy knew Deckard's name, yet he was never told it. Some people claim that Deckard was part of Roy's off-world rebellion, but was captured by the police and used to hunt down the others. - Bryant got the number of escaped replicants wrong becuase he mistakenly counted Deckard. - 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 to do 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 become replicants, the contrast between humans and replicants is lost. - Why send a replicant to kill other replicants? What was Deckard doing on Earth, if replicants are outlawed there? Why did the police trust him? - If Deckard was a replicant designed to be a Blade Runner, why did they give him bad memories of the police force? It would have suited them much more if he had been loyal and happy. - Rachael was the one with an implanted unicorn dream, Deckard dreamt of the unicorn (BRDC) as both he and Gaff viewed Rachael's implants. - Deckard's unicorn dream happened after his "incept", so there is no guarantee that Gaff would know about it. ================================================================== NOTES This file has been primarily compiled from my own viewings of Blade Runner, debates on the Internet, and private email messages. The contributors are too numerous to mention, and this task would never have been completed had I replied to everyone that sent me mail. Special thanks to: William M. Kolb (bkolb@arinc.com) Peter Merel (pete@extro.ucc.su.OZ.AU) Geoff Wright (gmw4432@bcstec.ca.boeing.com) Michael Kaufman (kaufman@delta.eecs.nwu.edu) Steve Griffiths (etlsngs@etlxd20.ericsson.se) Juhana Kouhia (kouhia@nic.funet.fi) I regularly read the movie newsgroups, but I am more likely to get your message if you email it directly to me. At present, I have no plans to form a mailing list, however this may change, depending on how many people are interested. My policy stands like this at the moment: If you don't have access to net news, I'll mail it to you. If you still don't get it, that means the mail has bounced, and you should try again, possibly with a different return address. - o -