“Other”-Ness in Cinema Represented by Fictional Groups - Part II: Replicants

Well, I feel like I’ve beaten X-Men and Mutants to death and then some, so I’m going to move on to some other groups in Cinema that represent “other”-ness.  One big example that I wanted to touch on isn’t exactly straightforward, and that’s Blade Runner’s Replicants.  First of all, I’m not even going to touch the whole Fruedian thing, so don’t get me started on that.  Rather, I’m going to tackle what they represent as far as this topic of “other”-ness concerns us.

If Rick Deckard were real, I would have a lot to say to him— but the first thing would probably be, “Yeah, I get it.”

While Mutants represent the marginalized and oppressed, due to their treatment from “everyday” people, Replicants, I feel, aren’t merely as much of a metaphor as some may believe in this context.  I believe they simply represent how we perceive our own creations, and if they deserve love, attention, and respect.  Most importantly, however, I believe they pose the question of, “Can/Should we create something sentient?”  Well, you’d think the answer would be yes, right?  We can create children, and children are living, biological beings with what many of us believe to be souls, so what’s the issue?  It’s the fact that some people don’t treat their children with love, respect, or give them the attention they need.  This is why, I believe, we as a species will always be burdened with the burning question of if we are truly worthy of creation; not because some God or gods may or may not have told us not to (create something like AI or beings in labs)– but rather, we know what we are truly capable of, and we don’t want to pass that potential on to our creations (or in this case, our Replicants).

Wait– did I just do some unintentional Frued-ing?  Dammit…  Well, I guess even a coked-out psychologist is right twice a day, or however the saying goes.

If a human fails the test, it’s a fluke of course…

Isn’t that what the humans are most afraid of in Blade Runner, anyway?  The Replicants essentially become too similar to their creations, so similar that they question why they exist, and question their purpose as creations.  It’s almost as if them doing the most human thing imaginable is what makes them flawed creations.  In my professionally nonprofessional opinion, the only thing that truly makes them flawed in this way, is the fact that their creators aren’t perfect.  It’s only because we as humans were wrong in thinking that our creations would be perfect, something not even the perfect gods we worship could accomplish when creating us could achieve.  Do we really see ourselves, not simply as God, but as above God?  To me, that’s the humans’ biggest mistake, and that’s the ultimate downfall of the relationship between the Replicants (man’s creation) and humanity/Tyrell (man).

I could just as easily have put the, “Moments lost in time, like tears in rain,” but I feel like this line was more applicable.