Die-hard fans say "yes" but 2049 begs to differ...
[SPOILER ALERT]
Its glaringly obvious that Blade Runner teases at Deckard being a replicant. At the beginning of the movie, we learn, as well as Deckard, that Tyrell has created a new model of replicant that is unaware of the nature of its existence due to implanted memories. This primes Deckard to wonder the nature of his
OWN existence and life in general. Throughout the story, he hunts down the skin jobs assigned to him while simultaneously becoming empathetic to their plight and eventually runs off with Rachael, the innocent replicant he identified in the beginning.
At various points throughout this epic, Deckard seems to be replaying a dream of a white unicorn galloping through a misty forest in his mind while Gaff, a fellow Detective, is repeatedly shown making origami animals. Given the stoic, private nature of Deckard, this dream was definitely personal. The closing scene of this movie shows Deckard picking up an origami unicorn left by Gaff which implies that Gaff knew about the dream and therefore, it was an
IMPLANTED MEMORY.
If this wasn't enough proof, Gaff yells "You've done a man's job" to Deckard after he kills the last replicant, Roy. Gaff also just appears out of nowhere in just about every scene involving Deckard....even in the first scene where we find out Deckard was retired. Its hard to imagine Deckard would have a GPS tracker on him in retirement unless the tracker is
IN him and he's a replicant. Then theres this scene to the right that shows Deckard's eyes momentarily
GLOWING like the same tell tale glow that we see in all the replicant's eyes throughout the story. Plus, Deckard seems to hold up ok after multiple engagements with replicants that, in theory, would kill a human pretty quickly. After all, a human hunting a replicant sounds as stupid as a horse trying to race a car. It only makes sense that you would send a robot to kill antoher robot and not a human which is exactly what happens in the 2017 Sequel
Blade Runner 2049
.....But.....
Deckard is
MUCH older when he appears in the 2049 re-boot and as most know, the Nexus 6 Replicants in the original only had a four year life-span. We know that Rachael also shares this life-span as she was just a prototype and we have to assume that Deckard's life span is open-ended, similar to the replicants in the new movie. Now, the only reason a humanoid robot would need to appear to age would be to comfort humans but I seriously doubt that Tyrell would design Deckard this way and then let him free roam with the potential of being killed that would render Tyrell unable to witness Deckard aging. Surely, the technology was
expensive as fuck so it doesn't make sense to make an even more advanced prototype into a cop that could and would be put into dangerous situations. This is a strong argument for Deckard being human.
.....But.....
We found out later that Rachael doesn't die from her four year life span but from
CHILD BIRTH. Yea...I know...wtf. So if Tyrell somehow mastered the creation of life through the proceration of two synthetic beings, then he definitely mastered the art of designing cyborgs to age which puts Deckard right back up on the fence....and theres more(fuck).
K, the new films replicant protagonist, finds Deckard in the now abandoned, radiated city of Las Vegas. How long Deckard has been here isn't clear but its definitely awhile since its later revealed that Deckard and Rachael were being hunted and Deckard had to disappear in order to save the child. Some would argue that Deckard living in radiation so long and being unscathed is further proof of his cyborg nature but we also see bees thriving here and dying by radiation can be a very
SLOW process.
Finally, Deckard is eventually kidnapped by Niander Wallace, the new films stoic brash visionary entrepeneur that rivals the genius of Tyrell by buying out what was left of Tyrell Corp. and making completely obedient replicants. Wallace is fascinated by Deckard and even references to whether Deckard is a replicant or not by saying:
"Did it never occur to you that was why
you were summoned in the first place?
Designed to do nothing short of fall for
her right then and there. All to make
that single perfect...specimen"
"That is, if you were designed. Love...
or mathematical precision... Yes?...
No?... You are a window to me."
And as far as clues to Deckard's existence goes, thats it. Niander just repeats what we were all already wondering and Deckard simply replies: "I KNOW WHATS REAL". So this sequel, to me, has succesfully left this question more open-ended than the original. It seems that the whole point of filming these brilliant movies the way they've been filmed is to leave the audience with more questions than answers which keeps viewers speculating for years to come.
(It also turns out that Deckard's daughter was headed off-world with her adopted parents but fell sick with a chronic contagious disease and was quarantined.She doesn't look ill at all when we see her and I'm sure this was part of Deckard's cover up. As a result of this, she stays on Earth and ends up making the implanted memories for Wallace's replicants. She appears to be human so I might just make a second article about this after watching 2049 AGAIN)
Thoughts?
