Skip to main content

blade runner - Why do replicants have a short lifespan?


In Blade Runner the replicants have a limited lifespan, which is of course a key part of the film. When Deckard and Bryant are talking, Bryant states the short lifespan was deliberately built in to kill the replicants before they develop their own emotional responses. But the conversation between Roy and Tyrell suggests the life span is a consequence of the technology used rather than a deliberate design feature.


I know there's no real answer to this, especially as there's no mention of a limited lifespan in the book, but I'd be interested to know what the panel think about this.


For some reason I always thought it was an accident of the replicant design rather than deliberate, but a recent argument with a Blade Runner loving friend has made me wonder. I found the script online, and Bryant is unambiguous about his position, but then Bryant is a policeman not a scientist. Tyrell, who designed the replicants says:



You were made as well as we could make you.



Anyhow, I'd love to know if there is a generally accepted answer to this. Where did the short lifespan of replicants originate?



Answer




Yes there is a conflict between Bryant and Tyrell's statements, but lets consider the two situations:




  • Bryant is talking to Deckard: a man who used to report to him and who he is in a position to force to do things; indeed he also voices the rather unsavory opinion that there are "cops" and "little people". He has no particular need to lie and his character doesn't seem given to subterfuge without reason.




  • Tyrell is in the presence of a being who he knows to be



    1. A physcial threat even unarmed

    2. Mental very competent (possibly smarter than Tyrell, as he is beating him in chess)


    3. Illegally present on the planet and not afraid to kill to get what he wants.

    4. Has arranged to have J.F. provide him entry. Tyrell probably thinks of J.F. as a bit simple, but he must wonder what lever was used.


    Tyrell has a very good reason to lie to Roy Batty--if he thinks he can get away with it--and he seems comfortable with subterfuge, trickery and lies by omission if they suit his purposes.





Aside: a out-of-universe reason to think the same thing is that Bryan's conversation with Deckard has the feel of the dreaded "exposition of the rules" scene. It's a better than average example of the class, and serves a second purpose in the story, but still...


Accordingly I take it to be definitive.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Did the gatekeeper and the keymaster get intimate in Ghostbusters?

According to TVTropes ( usual warning, don't follow the link or you'll waste half your life in a twisty maze of content ): In Ghostbusters, it's strongly implied that Dana Barret, while possessed by Zuul the Gatekeeper, had sex with Louis Tully, who was possessed by Vinz Clortho the Keymaster (key, gate, get it?), in order to free Big Bad Gozer. In fact, a deleted scene from the movie has Venkman explicitly asking Dana if she and Louis "did it". I turned the quote into a spoiler since it contains really poor-taste joke, but the gist of it is that it's implied that as part of freeing Gozer , the two characters possessed by the Keymaster and the Gatekeeper had sex. Is there any canon confirmation or denial of this theory (canon meaning something from creators' interviews, DVD commentary, script, delete scenes etc...)? Answer The Richard Mueller novelisation and both versions of the script strongly suggest that they didn't have sex (or at the very l...
1 comment
Read more

Why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize Missy right away?

So after it was established that Missy is actually both the Master, and the "woman in the shop" who gave Clara the TARDIS number... ...why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize her right away? I remember the Tenth Doctor in The Sound of Drums stating that Timelords had a way of recognizing other Timelords no matter if they had regenerated. And Clara should have recognized her as well... I'm hoping for a better explanation than "Moffat screwed up", and that I actually missed something after two watchthroughs of the episode. Answer There seems to be a lot of in-canon uncertainty as to the extent to which Time Lords can recognise one another which far pre-dates Moffat's tenure. From the Time Lords page on Wikipedia : Whether or not Time Lords can recognise each other across regenerations is not made entirely clear: In The War Games, the War Chief recognises the Second Doctor despite his regeneration and it is implied that the Doctor knows him when they fir...
Post a Comment
Read more

story identification - Animation: floating island, flying pests

At least 20 years ago I watched a short animated film which stuck in my mind. The whole thing was wordless, possibly European, and I'm pretty sure I didn't imagine it... It featured a flying island which was inhabited by some creatures who (in my memory) reminded me of the Moomins. The island was frequently bothered by large winged animals who swooped around, although I don't think they did any actual damage. At the end one of the moomin creatures suddenly gets a weird feeling, feels forced to climb to the top of the island and then plunges down a shaft right through the centre - only to emerge at the bottom as one of the flyers. Answer Skywhales from 1983. The story begins with a man warning the tribe of approaching skywhales. The drummers then warn everybody of the hunt as everyone get prepared to set "sail". Except one man is found in his home sleeping as the noise wake him up. He then gets ready and is about to take his weapon as he hesitates then decides ...
Post a Comment
Read more

warhammer40k - What evidence supposedly supports Tau as related to the Necrontyr?

I've heard of rumours saying that the Tau from Warhammer 40K are in fact the Necrontyr. Is there anything that supports this statement, in WH40K canon? I just found this, on 1d4 chan 1 : Helping Necrons? Or are they Necrontyr descendants? An often overlooked issue is that Tau have no warp signatures, just like Necrons, hate Warpspawns and Warp in general, just like Necrons, have the exact same skull shape,stature and short lives, and the overwhelming need for Technology and beam weapons, JUST LIKE NECRONS. GW may have planned a race that simply prepares a pacified, multiracial galaxy for Necrons to feast upon, supported by Ethereals that have a C'tan phase blade. Then there is a reference of "dark seed in east" by the Deceiver, so the tricky C'tan might give Tzeentch the finger in the JUST AS PLANNED competition. Or maybe GW just has so little creativity that they simply made a new civ conforming to an Old One's standards without knowing it. Is this the connec...
Post a Comment
Read more