Martinez 1

Grecia Martinez

Professor Wexler

ENGL 421 SF

May 13, 2019

Blade Runner and the Cyberpunk Noir

Ridley Scott’s 1982 film Blade Runner serves as a perfect blend of science fiction, film

noir, and provocative storytelling. As one of the most influential science fiction films of all time

and now considered a classic, Blade Runner had a rocky start with its financial flop in the

theaters and criticism it garnered. However, as the years progressed, and the Director’s Cut was

released, more audience members were able to fully realize and appreciate the brilliance and

depth of the film. Based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick,

the film sets forth in creating a futuristic world where humanity has nearly destroyed all of

Earth’s natural resources, eliminating most of nature and wildlife, which has brought forth the

notion to create artificial life. The film’s main theme revolves around the question of what it

means to be human, and often teases the audience with whether the main protagonist Deckard, is

one himself. Taking place in a rainy and gritty futuristic Los Angeles with elements of Asian city

culture, the film creates a world that helps elevate the themes of the story. Blade Runner’s use of

aesthetics to create a futuristic cyberpunk world reflects the notion of blurring the line between

human and machine.

The main storyline involves replicants who are nearly indistinguishable physically from

humans and whether they too, have humanity. The replicants were created for labor on the off-

world colonies where most of humanity now lives, and are designed to look, feel and think as a
 Martinez 2

human would. However, they lack the ability to empathize which only humans can. In the time

the film takes place, it is ironically 2019, and replicants have been banned from Earth due to

their malfunctioning and ability to retaliate against their masters. Because of this, blade runners

were tasked with finding rogue replicants and “retiring them”. As the story begins, a group of

replicants revolt and make their way to Earth in order to confront their creator. The turn of events

forces the protagonist Deckard to come out of retirement to take care of this rogue group led by

the antagonistic replicant Roy Batty.

The positioning of replicants, the lesser beings, as the antagonists, while the human

Deckard is the protagonist ordered to take them out, reflects one of humanity’s dilemmas, which

is to continuously create separation by class systems. One author in the article, “Politics of

Utopia” argues this point, and discusses humanity’s inability to avoid such a perspective even in

the case of a perfect world;

“This situation has an interesting consequence in the present context: it

means, not only that all utopias spring from a specific class position, but

that their fundamental thematization—the root-of-all-evil diagnosis in

terms of which they are each framed—will also reflect a specific class-

historical standpoint or perspective” (Jameson 47).

Since humanity is seemingly united due to the state of the planet, they must find a new enemy and

in this case, they created their own. Before the replicant humans began malfunctioning, they were

used as slaves, forced to do labor unfit for humans as they colonized other planets. The replicants

are part of a lower-class system, not intended to mix in with humanity but to serve it. Now that

they rebelled however, they can blend in, indistinguishable to the naked eye.

The film gives the audience two ways of identifying these replicants, one that they tell and
 Martinez 3

one that they show. In the opening of the film, we see a blade runner giving a replicant a test in

order to determine whether they are human or not. The machine used to monitor the heartbeat and

body reactions, focusing on the pupils dilating and the nervous stutter of the replicant. When asked

questions that require an emotional response, the replicant is unable to answer. This type of

assessment occurs again later in the film when Deckard is testing Rachael, the assistant of Dr.

Tyrell, creator of the replicants. He asks similar questions but takes twice as many to finally

determine that she is also a replicant. The difference between the two is that the first replicant

came from the models that know what they are, whereas Rachael believed she was human,

implanted with false memories, she is the first of her kind. The second form of identifying

replicants comes from an aesthetic choice of the filmmakers. When in the light, the replicants have

a glare or glow in their eyes, similar to that of a marble. This is made apparent when a replicant

owl, Rachael and the other replicants share that same glare in their eyes. This is what also suggests

the theory that Deckard himself is a replicant when his eyes glow as well.

Focusing on the question of whether Deckard is human or replicant, this notion further

blurs the line between human and machine by pushing the film’s thematic question of what it

means to be human. While the theatrical cut leaves this notion up for debate, the much-preferred

Director’s and Final cut both make it convincingly clear by placing more hints. “Ridley Scott's

1992 version omits the studio-enforced "happy ending" and Harrison Ford's voice-over narration,

and introduces the chic postmodern suggestion—via the unicorn dream sequence—that Deckard

himself might be a replicant” (Begley 186). The unicorn then serves as an aesthetic symbol that

alludes to androids dreaming, as reference to the novel, and whether the dream is truly his, or is

merely an implanted one. If it is his, this urges the audience to question; was that then an electric

unicorn?
 Martinez 4

The aesthetic nature of Scott’s film is intertwined with the themes and message itself,

creating a natural connection and purpose between them. Aesthetics in film are supposed to be

more than just pretty imagery, they are meant to illustrate the theme and tone of a film in a way

words cannot. Films with powerful aesthetics to correlate with their story are more likely to get

the message across. “In the culture industry the notion of genuine style is seen to be the aesthetic

equivalent of domination. Style considered as mere aesthetic regularity is a romantic dream of

the past” (Adorno and Horkheimer 115). Blade Runner is a film that demonstrates powerful

aesthetics that serve thematic purpose. The film uses the aesthetics to further convey the blurring

of humanity through the world itself that both director Ridley Scott and cinematographer Jordan

Cronenweth have created.

The setting in which the film takes place is designed with a futuristic grit that is so iconic

that many films have replicated it since. Surrounded by constant rain, possibly due to the

unbalanced climate of the future, Earth has been mostly abandoned. The Los Angeles in which

the story takes place is even more grimy and dark than it currently is, lit only by blaring neon

lights and jumbotrons that create a “neoasian”(O’Falt) look. This mixture is constructed as Scott

and collaborators incorporate neon colors against the blackness of the city as a key aspect to the

Blade Runner palette. This creates a cyberpunk look and feel to the city, mixing 80’s rural Los

Angeles with a neon machine. “The popular science fiction sub-genre juxtaposes a

technologically advanced future with the breakdown of social order (in other words a

technological dystopia)” (O’Falt). As explained in an article about how the film influenced the

look of the science fiction genre, O’Falt describes the aesthetic techniques introduced in Blade

Runner that changed the genre forever. The lighting choices made in the film further the urban

dystopian city that has been designed. Cronenweth uses unorthodox lighting sources such as
 Martinez 5

Xenon lights which were originaly used for large boats; a technique that has since been

frequently used when filming futuristic cities. The eerie use of lighting in this manner takes away

the realistic aspect and makes the city feel unnatural, an aesthetic choice that symbolizes the

artificial condition of the city and the people or replicants living in it.

Considering the many aesthetic choices that the film incorporates into the central themes,

it is no wonder that Blade Runner is considered one the most successful sci-fi films in terms of

constructing a reality through the set design. The texture created through the colors and lighting

in juxtaposition to the black backdrop of the city generates a style that maximizes the impact of

this futuristic world that feels more machine than human. The film feels like a modern noir,

evolving from the traditional black and white into a gritty darkness. The visual aesthetics mixed

in with some melancholy music sets a somber tone of the film, which reflects the emotional toll

that such a philosophical question might initiate. Rachael discovers that the memories she

believes she grew up with are artificial, her life that she remembers isn’t hers. Roy Batty finally

comes to terms with the fact that he is doomed to die, and all his memories will soon disappear

and be forgotten. These tragic emotions that only humans have the ability to conceive are being

felt by those who are not. If empathy is what separated humans from replicants, what does it

mean when that line is disintegrated? The definition of humanity begins to blend just as the city

is a blend of old and new, American and Asian, machine and human.
 Martinez 6

Works Cited

Begley, Varun. “Blade Runner and the Postmodern: A Reconsideration.” Literature/Film Quarterly,
vol. 32, no. 3, 2004, pp. 186–192.

Blade Runner. Dir. Scott, R. Warner. Bros., 1982. Film

Horkheimer, Max, and Theodor W. Adorno. “The Culture Industry: Enlightenment of Mass
Deception.” Dialectic of Enlightenment. Continuum, 1972, pp. 1110-1127. (Via Canvas).

Jameson, Fredric. “The Politics of Utopia.” Utopia/Dystopia, 2004, pp. 35–54. (Via Canvas).

O'Falt, Chris. “5 Ways 'Blade Runner' Changed the Look of Sci-Fi Forever.” IndieWire, 3 Oct. 2017.