Blade Runner is a rather serious movie with a bit of a funny name. The themes and concepts it tackles, the gritty cyberpunk scenario we are thrown into, the main character, every little thing about the movie screams “dark and serious”. Given its slow burn plot, its grim nature, and how (in the director’s cut) there is little guidance to help steer the audience through the world they are introduced to, watching this movie could be a bit intimidating to an unexpecting audience. However, this is a rather nuanced and detailed movie, one that will surely leave you thinking about it hours after you finish it.

Blade Runner is partially a film adaptation of the book “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?’, a novel by Philip K. Dick in 1968. Following the emergence of science fiction in Hollywood in the 70s and 80s, Blade Runner was made to showcase a darker and grittier world when compared to that of movies like Star Wars, in the vein of Alien (1979). While it aimed for both a serious take on the genre and an experimentation in cinematography in general, the original release of the film was received rather poorly due to studio decisions forced onto the film, like the inclusion of Harrison Ford providing internal monologues throughout the film as the main character. When the “Final Cut” was released in 2007, Ridley Scott (the Director of Blade Runner) was finally able to show the public their complete vision of Blade Runner, having full creative control over this release. It is this cut that we will be talking talking about, and this cut which I recommend everyone view (the first release really isn’t that great).

While a lot can be said in the way each scene is shot, with every last bit of color grading and intention essential for the audience’s understanding due to the lack of Harrison Ford’s narration in this version, with how beautifully the scenes were shot and how alive the film feels with each scene packed to the brim world building, that’s not the main takeaway I got from this film. The main takeaway I got was from what the film had to say on a larger level, on what the film wanted to leave the viewers with after they finished the movie. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Do they dream? Do we?

Blade Runner’s main question, one that it never tries to answer itself, is what it means to be alive; what makes something sentient? Throughout the entire movie, our main character, the “Blade Runner” himself, is hunting a group of rogue androids due to them being perceived as dangerous weapons, dangerous weapons thought to be owned by a company that wants them off the streets. Companies use androids in various ways, but mainly in off-world colonies as tools for labor, their lack of a free will making them perfect for large corporations to exploit. Throughout the film, we see these androids form families with one another, show fear, anger, and disgust, and fight for their very right to survive. Meanwhile, through Deckard (the Blade Runner) we see them largely as the antagonists of the film, seeing the aftermaths of their fights, seeing dead humans and their deviancy firsthand. By the end of the movie, two questions are posed for the audience to pick up on, but never directly asked. One question is how do we know ourselves that Deckard isn’t an android? We see some of the traits notably shown in androids exhibited through Deckard at the end of the movie, and honestly there is no right answer on if he is or isn’t an android. Likewise, we are left to ask if that even matters; what makes something alive? Throughout the entire film, we see these androids exhibit more “human” emotion than the supposed human that was hunting them down, and much more emotion than those that they interact with. Again, this is never answered. It is heavily hinted throughout the film that the idea of free will is what makes something sentient, and ironically only one character is ever explicitly shown to have it. Deckard isn’t seemingly acting of his own accord, at least not at that point, he is following out his job and the rules that go with it. In fact, due to the hyper-capitalistic system that the characters live in, it seems like no single human is acting in their complete free will, even those on top, all serving as cogs  in the dystopia’s machine. The only character we see break their chains and choose their own path is Roy Batty, the last android alive by the end of the film. Roy has defeated Deckard, after watching Deckard kill every last android that he called family. Instead of choosing to repeat the cycle of violence, instead of choosing to give in to his urges, instead of choosing to prove that humanity was right, Roy lets Deckard go. The first act of compassion and forgiveness in this film was done at the very end, by an android.

Now, does that necessarily make Roy alive? I’d say it probably doesn’t have enough evidence in and of itself to prove that. But, what I think it does show is that Roy was no less alive, no less sentient, than the man that spent the whole movie chasing him. Are these androids in Blade Runner sentient? Is Deckard an android? Are humans sentient? I think the beauty of Blade Runner is that, in my own interpretation, it shows that it doesn’t matter. If a machine can artificially think, artificially feel, artificially love, what does it matter if it’s artificial? If, in its own version of reality through its mechanical processors, it has created the illusion of existence, who are humans to say that that existence is anything lesser than our own existence?