Was Deckard a Replicant?
After 18 years the mistery is revealed...

Finally Ridley Scott has revealed what for 18 years all the fan of B.R. have always suspected but of which certainties didn't exist. In the Director's cut version Deckard IS a Replicant! His dreams, in fact, (like the unicorn's dream) are only memories that were installed in his artificial mind exactly like those of Rachel. It could be understood by the fact that Gaff creates a small unicorn of origami and lets him to find it on his floor, leaving him to understand the truth.



The official version instead, was modified by the production, cutting the unicorn's dream to don't let understand that Deckard is a Replicant, and it has been added the happy-ending to increase the audience's satisfaction, and money incomes.
So in this version Deckard isn't a Replicant but a human being that, at the end, escapes from all with his new girlfriend toward a happy life.

Now that the mistery is revealed there shouldn't be reasons yet to insist on the hypotheses that could let to think that Deckard is or isn't Replicant, however for an historical reason and for possible matters of discussion and of criticism of the movie, I propose the principal themes that in these years have stimulated the minds of most relentless fans of Blade Runner.

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What about the hypothesis of Deckard as Replicant:
  • Ridley Scott and Harrison Ford have stated that Deckard was meant to be a replicant. In Details (US) October 1992 Ford says:
    "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".

  • The shooting script had a voice-over where Deckard says, "I knew it on the roof that night. We were brothers, Roy Batty and I!"

  • 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. Rachael plays the piano, and Deckard has a piano in his flat.

  • 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 struggle up the side of a building with two dislocated fingers.

  • Bryant's threat "If you're not a cop, you're little people" might be an 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". Deckard is standing behind Rachael, and he's out of focus.

  • Roy knew Deckard's name, yet he was never told it. Someone has hypothesized that Deckard could have had a role in the Replicant ribellion on the off-world colony but that he has been used by the police for hunting the others. In this case, Bryant includes Deckard within the five escaped Replicants.

  • The police would not risk a human to hunt four powerful replicants, particularly since replicants were designed for such dangerous work. Of course Deckard would have to think he was human or he might not be willing to hunt down other replicants.

  • 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 Blade Runner, and that Deckard is only a tool Gaff uses for the dirty work.



What about the hypothesis of Deckard as Human:
  • 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 are replicants, the contrast between humans and replicants is lost.

  • Rachael had an implanted unicorn dream and Deckard's reverie in BRDC was a result of having seen her implants. Gaff may have seen Rachael's implants at the same time Deckard did, perhaps while they were at Tyrell Corporation.

  • Could you trust a replicant to kill other replicants? Why did the police trust Deckard?

  • Having Deckard as a replicant implies a conspiracy between the police and Tyrell.

  • Replicants were outlawed on Earth and it seems unlikely that a replicant would have an ex-wife.

  • If Deckard was a replicant designed to be a Blade Runner, why would they give him bad memories of the police force? Wouldn't it be more effective if he were loyal and happy about his work?

  • Deckard was not a replicant in novel of Dick, although he has another Blade Runner test him at one point just to be sure.

  • If Deckard is a Replicant, why he doesn't have the same physical strenght of other Replicants? And why he feel pain instead others not?


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