Replicant - Was Deckard A Replicant?

Was Deckard A Replicant?

Blade Runner's dark paranoid atmosphere – and multiple versions of the film – adds fuel to the speculation and debate over this issue.

In the book, Rick Deckard (the main character) is at one point tricked into following an android, who believes himself to be a police officer, to a faked police station. Deckard then escapes and "retires" some androids there before returning to his own police station. However, Deckard takes the Voight-Kampff test and it fails to indicate that he is an android.

Harrison Ford, who played Deckard in the film, has said that he did not think Deckard was a replicant, and also states he and the director had discussions that ended in the agreement that the character was human. However, according to several interviews with director Ridley Scott, Deckard is indeed a replicant. He collects photographs, seen crowding over his piano, yet has no obvious family, beyond a reference to his ex-wife (who called him cold fish). In a scene where Deckard talks with Rachael, their eyes both appear to shine in the way indicative of Replicants.

Furthermore in the Director's Cut police officer Gaff (played by Edward James Olmos) leaves Rick Deckard an origami Unicorn a day after Rick dreamed of one. Just before Deckard finds the unicorn, Gaff says to him in passing, "It's too bad she won't live...then again, who does?". A unicorn can also be seen briefly in a scene in J. F. Sebastian's home, amongst scattered toys (to the right of a sleeping Sebastian, while Pris snoops around his equipment). Unicorns also appear several times in the dream sequences of the director's cut, and as it is explained in the film; Rachel's memories are known by her creators, e.g. the memory Rachel has of the spiders (as explained to her by Deckard in the movie). That Gaff is leaving origami unicorns at Deckard's house, implies that Gaff is aware of the content of Deckard's unicorn dream.

The dream may not be uniquely Deckard's, as the unicorn does appear in J.F. Sebastian's house. As J.F. designed the "brain" of the Nexus-6 (and other) replicants, one could take the opinion that the unicorn dreams are a "personal touch" added to some or all Nexus-6's (and above) "brains." Since we are not privy to the dreams of the other replicants, this is unknown - however it does add weight to the argument. From this one could also speculate that Gaff himself is a replicant and may share in the same imbedded memory.

Paul Sammon, author of Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner, has suggested in interviews that Deckard may be a Nexus-7, a next-generation replicant who possesses no superhuman strength or intelligence, but brain implants that complete the human illusion. This view is shared by Ridley Scott. Sammon also suggests that Nexus-7 replicants may not have a preset lifespan (i.e., they could be immortal). If so, this may suggest that Rachael is also a Nexus-7.

Further, Sammon stated that Ridley Scott thought it would be far more provocative to imply that Deckard was a replicant, without giving a definitive answer. This ties back into the central theme of "what is it to be human?" What is important is not so much whether Deckard is a replicant or not, but that very possibility and uncertainty further blurs the line between humans and replicants.