Sympathy for the Replicants

[Toby Frost]

I've always found it quite hard to have much sympathy for the replicants: in particular, Roy. If Bryant is to be believed, all four replicants have blood on their hands from the shuttle mutiny before the story really begins. It's hard to say what the conditions of the mutiny were (whether it was the equivalent of a cruise liner or a slave ship) so I'll ignore that for now.

Leon just seems a bit simple and, although he is thuggish, seems to be responding in a basic and childlike way to what's going on - ie, angrily. Zhora doesn't really seem to do much except try to stay out of sight in bleak conditions, and her death is pretty pitiful.

However, both Pris and Roy seem too weird to be very lovable, and both of them effectively misuse Sebastian's hospitality. Beyond that, Pris doesn't seem very reprehensible, but Roy tortures and presumably kills Chew, the eye manufacturer, and pointlessly murders Sebastian in a calculated fashion. Even taking into account Roy's predicament, he surely doesn't deserve the Christ-like symbolism at the end of the film. While I felt that Roy's final speech was sad, I didn't feel much for him individually - more a sense that he was an impressive person than a likable one.

That said, a friend of mine has joked that I'd have trouble passing the VK test, so what do I know?

 

[Brian G Turner]

both Pris and Roy seem too weird to be very lovable

IMO it's their uniqueness that makes them seem more individual, and therefore more human. We might have got that from Zhora as well, if we'd seen her interacting with the others.

 

[Foxbat]

From what I remember (and it's been a long time so I might be wrong about this), the reason for the mutiny was because the replicants were being treated as expendable but were beginning to show traits of self-awareness and also self-preservation. The fact that Roy tortures and pointlessly murders is something that a great many human beings are capable of.

Roy's final predicament is the same as a human's - the knowledge that they are mortal and will one day cease to be no matter how much they struggle against it. As for the others - thuggish, pitiful, wierd...these are all human traits.

I have great sympathy and (to a certain extent) empathy with the replicants.

 

[Tower75]

Maybe it's an age thing, but I really, really don't get the whole "cult" appeal to this film. I've seen Blade Runner about 4 times, and I think it's rubbish. But then I hated Man in the High Castle, so maybe I just have a beef with Philip K. Dick's work.

 

[Rodders]

They are desperate people. Created for a life of servitude, but "gifted" with the intelligence to understand their situation. I'd imagine that there'd be a real loathing for their human masters common amongst most of the replicants.

Their incept dates looming, they're fighting to survive. A pretty instinctual and human reaction. I have a lot of sympathy for them and their kind.

 

[hej]

I've always found it quite hard to have much sympathy for the replicants: in particular, Roy. If Bryant is to be believed, all four replicants have blood on their hands from the shuttle mutiny before the story really begins.

I understand, but I have a much more ambivalent reaction. I see the replicants, and in particular Roy, as thoughtful criminals worthy of consideration. They are thugs, yes, but their impeding demise I find compelling.

 

[HanaBi]

Despite being built to imitate humans in every way other than learn emotions, Tyrell got it wrong; and as soon as the likes of Roy began to learn about his own self-awareness and perhaps even envy/jealousy concerning humanity's far longer lifespan compared to their own. Roy was suitably intelligent enough to recognise this and tried to do something about it.

Just like some Microsoft Windows products, they probably needed a patch - Nexus 6.1 perhaps?

 

[Vince W]

Based on the time when Blade Runner was made, any Microsoft product would be running on MS-DOS! No wonder replicants were so angry and confused.

 

[Alexa]

Not all were angry and confused. After all, Deckard runs with one of them.

 

[HanaBi]

But was Rachel a hardcore Nexus 6? Was she Tyrell's next generation in the making? A Nexus 7 prototype maybe. Not so much Microsoft but more appropriately an Android

 

[Alexa]

Rachel was special. I suppose we have to watch the new Blade Runner to find out.

 

[HanaBi]

ssshhhhhh!!

 

[Lumens]

I thought about this thread as I saw it again recently. Pris does die in a very unhuman way, looking almost like a machine, and for me this builds up Roy as something similar, unpredicable and dangerous. In the end, nobody is without faults and the film does not try to skew the viewer in any way. That's part of why I like it so much.