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Comment by Lio | Hacker News Reader

I love the film but for a long time I really disliked that Ridley Scott changed the plot.

To me Scott's idea that Deckard is a replicant but doesn't know it is just weak. Even the idea that they would make a replicant hunter that's weaker than the "basic pleasure model" it's designed to hunt doesn't work.

I think Scott shoe-horned his change in after the fact and he's had to keep releasing new edits because it doesn't really fit.

PKD's original plot themes are much richer and deeper:

The purpose of this story as I saw it was that in his job of hunting and killing these replicants, Deckard becomes progressively dehumanized.

At the same time, the replicants are being perceived as becoming more human.

Finally, Deckard must question what he is doing, and really what is the essential difference between him and them? And, to take it one step further, who is he if there is no real difference?

— Philip K. Dick

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First, I don't see Blade Runner as a film version of DADOES - it's inspired by it, but it's its own story. Scott took all the liberties he wanted in the script and movie. I think the movie does a excellent job of leaving Deckard questioning his humanity, the replicants' humanity, and what it means to be human. It's not a super-hero movie, I don't even think of Deckard as a hero. The replicants' strength is a product attribute that they happen to use as they become more human and rebel. And hunting replicants is not about strength or reflexes, it's police work. As others pointed, if Deckard had the same super-human abilities, there'd be no doubt, no uncertainty. Even Rachel, who we are let know is a replicants, she's starting to suspect, but we are never told what Deckard's condition - we are as much in the dark as he is. This is what this movie is about, and this is where I find it is most faithful to PKD's story.

> Finally, Deckard must question what he is doing, and really what is the essential difference between him and them? And, to take it one step further, who is he if there is no real difference?

Honestly, that is still what I get from Ridley Scott’s version.

Absolutely, having Deckard be a "weak" replicant makes no narrative sense, and it also makes no sense thematically. It's about a human hunting machines and finding the humanity in the machines and discovering what humanity is lacking in himself. It's important that the line is blurred, but it's also important that he's not actually a replicant.

If a "person" is not weak, it is easy for "it" to start suspecting that it is a replicant.

Furthermore, the biggest problem with replicants coming to Earth en masse is that they could overwhelm police forces. Deckard both "fits in" to his bureau (as a mostly independent officer), and isn't really powerful enough to threaten existing forces.

> Even the idea that they would make a replicant hunter that's weaker than the "basic pleasure model" it's designed to hunt doesn't work.

I don't disagree with your points, but one explanation is that Deckard was made for the purpose of passing as human and had to be kept ignorant that he was a replicant as that would likely affect his job performance. If he was made stronger than other people, then it would have tipped him off as to his nature.

That does then raise the question of why Tyrell would present Rachael as being his most "human" creation unless he was testing/playing with Deckard to see what happens when replicants start to replicate.

Also, isn't it a major plot point that replicants are not allowed on Earth?

So Deckard being a replicant operating on Earth is illegal; making his status as a replicant "obvious", by endowing him with superhuman traits (or even self-knowledge) would be ill-advised!

> I think Scott shoe-horned his change in after the fact

The effect used in at least one indoor scene, in which Harrison Food is filmed with his eyes glowing like the other replicants, is an in-camera effect and the decision to use it was made prior to filming.

> At the same time, the replicants are being perceived as becoming more human.

Surely this is what the acknowledged replicants in the film do, particularly Roy Batty when he saves Deckard?

I was a great PKD fan (collected his books), and was a little disappointed when the film first came out, but it does grow on you.

I just want a version that includes the prophet Mercer stuff.

felt like a huge component to drop out.

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