Fiery the angels fell; deep thunder rolled around their shores; burning with the fires of Orc. – Roy Batty, paraphrasing William Blake
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Los Angeles, November, 2019
Dark sheets of rain fall relentlessly on a dark city. Smokestacks shoot fiery emissions from the factories of mega-corporations. Monumental architecture dwarfs swarms of inhabitants walking along the damp ground. Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner was the first film to meaningfully paint a picture of this now-ubiquitous style of realist dystopia, a world of leftovers: those deemed genetically superior have left planet Earth in favor of superior off-world colonies. Ever-present blimps advertising this fact loudly urge the remaining eligible population to start a new life elsewhere. Those left on Earth scrounge for subsistence among the remains of a society that has lost itself.
The dark, corporatized world of the film is illuminated only by advertisements and indiscriminate floodlights that survey the remaining populace.
It’s hard to imagine anyone willingly making their way back to a planet like this. But Deckard, played by Harrison Ford, is briefed on a new case: a group of “replicants,” genetically engineered human beings made by the shadowy Tyrell Corporation, have hijacked a space shuttle and killed twenty-three people before making their way back to the planet. “I don’t get it. What do they risk coming back to Earth for? That’s unusual. Why . . . ? What do they want out of the Tyrell Corporation?” asks Deckard. Presumably the foremost Blade Runner (i.e., replicant hunter) in the city, he soon begins his investigation to track down and “retire” (kill) the remaining replicants, whose presence on Earth has been outlawed.
While the opening crawl explains why the replicants have been banned from the planet (a previous, bloody off-world rebellion), the reason they choose to return to Earth (seeking answers from Dr. Eldon Tyrell, the mastermind behind the biotech giant that created them) is soon revealed. This variant of replicant, known as the Nexus-6, has been designed with a fail-safe: four-year lifespans ensure that the previously violent peak of emotional maturity is controlled with artificial mortality. “The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long.” Roy, Leon, Zhora, and Pris, the four replicants remaining after an initial failed attempt to infiltrate the Tyrell Corporation, are running out of time. Nearing the end of their lifespans, the group is faced with the unimaginable: pursue answers at the place where they were created or die as slaves. They unflinchingly choose the former.
“Questions… Morphology? Longevity? Incept dates?” Roy and Leon interrogate an eye designer for information in the early stage of their mission to reach Dr. Tyrell.
Replicant as Worker-Commodity
Replicants function uniquely as both worker and commodity: worker-commodity. They are manufactured and sold off-world by the Tyrell Corporation for a variety of distinct tasks. Roy and Zhora are combat models, designed for off-world conflict resolution and assassination respectively. Leon is a nuclear ammunition loader. Pris is described as a “basic pleasure model.” From manual labor to violence to sex, replicants are equal parts commodity and person. Sentient of their status as people-commodities, and recognizing the subjugation of their people, the replicants turn to gruesome acts of violence to attain freedom, exercising their newfound free will.
Deckard’s briefing shows us that replicants are identified as products, marked primarily by model, creation date, and function.
Non-replicants in Blade Runner believe that the exploitation of their counterparts is justified, despite their indistinguishability from humans. Their status as commodities, in addition to the violence and emotional immaturity they display, acts as rationale for their retirement. Part of the film’s importance lies in its exploration of commodities that, now sentient of their role in society, gain the ability to adopt ideologies of their own. Commodities function beyond their use-value as empty receptacles that reflect the wants, beliefs, and desires of the individual back at himself, generated in part by the prevailing symbolic order of society.
Deckard aims at Zhora after tracking her down, retiring her as she crashes through a series of storefronts while trying to escape.
In this way, the commodity’s abstract form allows it to be imbued with diverse meanings, effectively functioning as a placeholder for social meaning and desire, and priming it as a malleable vehicle for communicating the dominant ideology. The commodity is one of the central mechanisms by which ideology operates, transforming mundane objects into potent symbols that structure our perception of reality and our participation in society. Replicants can be seen as tangible manifestations of the belief in replicant inferiority and the prescriptive violence directed at them: this dominant order in action, the prevailing ideology holding a mirror to itself.
In Blade Runner, the commodity is given an active role in this process and chooses to fight back. The replicants adopt beliefs that mirror those of their masters: violent and destructive, which is accelerated and inversely transformed in response to their repression and enslavement. The aims of Roy and the other replicants center on a quest for identity and meaning, and an unrelenting desire for autonomy. Blade Runner brilliantly demonstrates the anthropomorphized commodity weaponizing the explosive violence of the ruling ideology, redirected at the society that relies on it as its primary form of control. It begs the question – what would the objects we buy, trade, and ultimately discard do if they had the ability to react?
Artificial Love
Early in the film, Deckard is sent to the Tyrell Corporation to demonstrate a method for distinguishing replicants from humans: the Voight-Kampff test. Deckard applies the test to Rachael, a new style of replicant implanted with false memories and unaware of her nonhuman status. Dr. Tyrell is impressed with the test and acknowledges that Rachael has no idea – of course, eventually tipped off by Deckard, she realizes her life and memories are a facade, and goes rogue. She is added to the list of replicants Deckard is tasked with retiring.
Rachael and Deckard’s first meeting at the Tyrell Corporation’s headquarters.
But the allure of Rachael and the obvious chemistry between the two is carried over in their future interactions. Deckard and Rachael inevitably fall in love. Initially weary that her feelings can’t be trusted, Deckard’s violent display of passion forces her to decide. Their mutual desire is palpable, despite their status as human and replicant, person and commodity. When they finally give into this desire, sealing their bond with a passionate kiss, we see the perfected mutual reflection of desire in two people-commodities, ones that not only yearn for one another but yearn to be desired by one another. In that moment they are one and the same.
Deckard and Rachael forge a forbidden relationship that blurs the line between human and replicant.
Among fans of Blade Runner, it’s hotly contested whether or not Deckard himself is a replicant. Signs in the final cut of the film, as well as commentary from director Ridley Scott himself, point to yes. But Harrison Ford and the original crew have publicly stated their belief that Deckard is not, with many finding the relationship with Rachael less impactful without bridging the gap between person and replicant. Wherever you stand on the issue – it’s clear no matter what that the question is intentionally ambiguous – the film calls into question the viewer’s ability to identify who is a replicant and who isn’t; in essence, you are the commodity, and the commodity is you. Replicants are “More Human than Human” per the Tyrell Corporation’s motto.
The Prodigal Son Returns
At the same time, Pris manipulates a genetic designer at the Tyrell Corporation, JF Sebastian (who Roy is told can help him reach the elder Tyrell), into inviting her into his residence. Here we see the commodity baring its fangs despite the pretense of innocence – like in the real world, the commodity reflects the consumer’s desire back at himself (in this case, sexual desire) for its own subsistence. It aims to squeeze every last drop of usefulness out of the individual before strangling the life out of him. We find this to be exactly the case when Roy appears, with the two begging JF to help them–”We need you, Sebastian. You’re our best and only friend.”
“It’s not an easy thing to meet your maker.” Dr. Tyrell tells Roy that extending a replicant’s lifespan is impossible, prompting Roy to kill him.
On meeting his God, the father, Dr. Eldon Tyrell (who acknowledges him as the prodigal son) Roy shockingly kisses him on the lips before executing him in a fit of controlled rage. This kiss demonstrates the desire of both the consumer and maker reflected back through the commodity, as well as the potential for the commodity-as-identity marker to destroy the creative, productive forces that have brought it to fruition.
Desire, Realized
Blade Runner provides endless avenues for examining the role of ideology and commodities in society, the destructive potential of desire as a ruling principle, and the death throes of a populace that craves autonomy but faces subjugation. Replicants as commodities turn the destructive forces of capitalism on itself, representing the psychic, spectral war between individual drives and the ideology that enforces them through desire as an extension of societal control.
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All images are screenshots from the film.
