Blade Runner vs. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Blade Runner is a film based on one of the foremost plot lines in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? However, despite the fact that several significant aspects of the original story are omitted in the cinematic interpretation, meaning is not lost. Instead, there is an additional dimension of meaning as the viewer begins to empathize with Rick Deckard, who is to be revealed as a replicant himself before the end of the film.

In Philip K. Dick’s text, androids play the role of a plot device. They are the motivation for fear and apprehension, symbolic of technology created by humans that has come to tire of its role as a slave to its creators. The need for Blade Runners arises from situations in which rogue androids kill their masters and take their place. However, in the film Blade Runner by Ridley Scott, these inhuman creations are orchestrated in such a manner that we begin to respond to them with sympathy and compassion (Galagher 70). Our inability to differentiate between biological humans and androids does not interfere with our yearning to empathize with them (Galagher 70).

One of the ways in which the director elicits sympathy from viewers for robots by juxtapositioning their behavior against the behavior of “humans.” Roy Batty, in one scene, expresses concern and dismay that his android lover may be nearing the end of her lifespan. “Pris hasn’t got long to live,” he says, expressing the sense that replicants are truly self-conscious beings (Armstrong 120). This type of behavior strongly contrasts against the scene in which Deckard retires the android Zhora, where he appears to be chasing after a seemingly innocent woman and shooting in the back in public.

Assigning behavior considered to be human may have farther-reaching consequences than to question the true identity of the characters. Varun Begley, in his paper “Blade Runner and the Postmodern,” suggests that this may be evidence for the interpretation of the film as postmodern cinema. “The film frustrates our attempts to formulate correspondences or construct interpretations (190).” Further evidence to support this interpretation of the film is one of Deckard’s own statements about Rachael, who is revealed to be a replicant as well. “How can it not know what it is?” he asks Tyrell, of Rachael’s lack of awareness of herself being a replicant (Slade 13). Clearly Rachael’s belief that she is, in fact, a human contradicts the self-awareness of Pris and Roy Batty, who identify themselves as replicants.

Other visual metaphors are more clearly expressed in the film instead of in print. During one of the final scenes when Deckard is hunting for Pris, she hides by posing herself among a group of animated toy figures, which are owned by Sebastian, who he considers to be his “friends.” This illustration of android among dolls brings to light the ways in which Pris is similar and dissimilar from the other animated creatures, as well as humans (Lev 34). Although she may appear visually similar to humans, she also fills the role of mechanically functional to that of the dolls she surrounds. Yet some of her behavior is considered human as well. The replicants are suggested to be surreptitiously human and non human.


This dimension of humanity that Ridley Scott applies to the androids in Blade Runner seems contradictory and somewhat paradoxical. This contributes to the viewing and interpretation of Blade Runner as a postmodern work of film. However, the same aspects that suggest it to be a postmodern film also insert a new depth of meaning to the story, which was begot by Do Androids Dream of Elecctric Sheep?

Works Cited

Armstrong, Richard. "SIGNS OF LIFE: SOUL AND CINEPHILIA IN 'BLADE RUNNER'." Screen Education (June 2006): 117-122. Communication & Mass Media Complete. EBSCO. 1 Oct. 2008.

Begley, Varun. "Blade Runner and the Postmodern: A Reconsideration." Literature Film Quarterly 32.3 (July 2004): 186-192. Communication & Mass Media Complete. EBSCO. 1 Oct. 2008.

Galagher, Nola. "BLEAK VISIONS: RIDLEY SCOTT'S BLADE RUNNER, DIRECTOR'S CUT." Australian Screen Education (Winter2002 2002): 169. Communication & Mass Media Complete. EBSCO. 1 Oct. 2008.

Lev, Peter. "Whose Future? "Star Wars," " Alien," and "Blade Runner."." Literature Film Quarterly 26.1 (Jan. 1998): 30. Communication & Mass Media Complete. EBSCO. 1 Oct. 2008.

Slade, Joseph W. "Romanticizing cybernetics in Ridley Scott's Blade Runner." Literature Film Quarterly 18.1 (Jan. 1990): 11. Communication & Mass Media Complete. EBSCO. 1 Oct. 2008.
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