Eyes are supposed to be the gateway to the soul, and it always struck me that at some point the replicants had accidentally been given that gift by their creators. What is it that Batty wants, or why does he want to live longer? To experience more, to have the thing he cherishes the most, his extraordinary memories, linger instead of disappearing "like tears in the rain". Don't forget Tyrell Corp's slogan: "More human than human". imho that's what Rachel, and Deckard to some extent represent: that they're real beings, with fully intact souls, and mankind's next evolutionary step. It's a little far, imho, to think of Deckard and Rachel as some kind of replicant Adam and Eve, but the script quotes Blake (on Ridley Scott's request), and the imagery is supposed to be some kind of vision of hell. It would be interesting to me, to see how Ridley Scott would remake this movie, 30 years later, now that he's a much better actor's director, as opposed to the brilliant visual director he's always been. I feel he'd explore that theme more strongly.

The eyes are the window on the soul. The Voight-Kamff machine focusses on the eye. The eyes of replicants reflect like cats' eyes (as does the owl's in the movie - your first clue - because it's not real, contrary to the script). The photograph is an eye on the hotel room the replicants were in. Zhora dies with her eyes wide open. Roy presses his fingers into Tyrell's eyes. Pris applies extreme make-up to her eyes. Deckard is looking for prying eyes in Zhora's dressing room. We have the reflections-in-eyes asked for in the script. And Chew just makes eyes. But what the movie is about: what it means to be human. It's about the inevitability of death but living and loving in spite of it. I've not bothered mentioning the detective storyline because that is merely the vehicle for everything else. It's the least important aspect of the film, IMO. Sushi also comes up.

Snap.

There's the dystopian world themes: world dominated by corporations, nature destroyed beyond repair, technology run amuk, interplay of technology and human. And religion is touched upon. Androids wanting to know and meet their maker. So touching, their quest, so fundamentally human. But the eyes and memories, and what is human, and what makes us us, that's the juicy turf, so much good stuff. And what a potent metaphor, the eye, Blade Runner puts it to fantastic use. The memory stuff (eg, are we our memories) was prescient (eg, nyt article). Yay smart science fiction.

The Corporate theme is one that resonates strongly, that they've become powerful monolithic corporation states. Also, the "empire" for want of a better phrase is still a violent place in conflict. Of the 4 replicants that Deckard kills, two are soldiers, one's a whore and the other an assassin. Assuming replicants are expensive, and therefore only used where necessary, this set of functions says much about the nature of the future world. As for the religious themes, with Rutger Hauer's performance, I think there's more than a touch of Paradise Lost in Blade Runner, Ray Batty being the brave, almost heroic Lucifer character that Milton depicts. When he meets his maker, his first reaction is anger: "I want more life, fucker"

Here are the themes that BL wiki lists: http://bladerunner.wikia.com/wiki/Themes_in_Blade_Runner

according to http://stason.org/TULARC/movies/blade-runner/12-Blade-Runner-Production-Notes-excerpts-from-the-1982-Pr.html Each character is associated with an animal: Leon = Turtle Roy = Wolf, Dove Zhora = Snake Rachael = Spider Tyrell = Owl Sebastian = Mouse Pris = Raccoon Deckard = Sushi (raw fish), unicorn

Here's another take on themes: Themes in Blade Runner

More interesting facts from BL. What is their significance, I wonder? • Deckard only retires two replicants, both women. • All replicants are referred to by first name, all humans by last name. • Pris' incept date is Valentine's Day. • The lamp on Bryant's desk has a translucent shade depicting a hunter standing beside a fallen cape buffalo. • Each replicant's serial number summarizes their characteristics: for example, Leon's "N6MAC41717" stands for Nexus-6, Male, A-Physical, C-Mental, and incept date 4/17/17. • Gaff's origami taunts Deckard: when Deckard tries to leave Bryant's office without taking the job, Gaff makes a chicken. Gaff makes a man with a huge erection to tease Deckard about either being attracted to Rachael, or getting so involved/excited by the job (when he didn't want it in the first place). Gaff might have felt that Deckard searching Leon's room was just "jacking off". The origami unicorn is a reminder to Deckard of either Rachael's or his own mortality. • Rachael's hairstyle: as a replicant, it is perfect, rigid, machine like, and cold. As a human, it's soft, curly, and messed up.

Wow, Anna, great catches on all fronts! Add all that to the Blade Runner lore. Thanks!

Beautiful observation re Paradise Lost. Watching movie, that moment scared the bejeezuz out of me. Batty so cold and ruthless, and Tyrell certainly no god. Even years later, reading script, I held my breath during scene.

Wow, phenomenal work, Anna. Fascinating stuff, thank you.

You're welcome. I have more incredible facts about BL. This story is like an iceberg; it has so many hidden layers beneath the visual surface and I'm trying to dig as deep to find as many themes, structures and subplots as I can. Here's another batch: Religious/Philosophical Parallels • The replicants are fallen angels (fallen from the heavens/outer space), with Roy as Lucifer. • Tyrell lives in a giant pyramid (like a Pharaoh), which looks like a cathedral inside, whereas Sebastian lives in an abandoned apartment with a "toilet bowl plunger" on his head. • Tyrell creates. He builds his creations imperfect. One of his creations resents the in-built imperfection (since the creator had no reason apart from fear to inhibit his creations), and he returns to the creator to fix him. This parallels the baby spiders killing their mother. • Tyrell's huge bed, pedestaled and canopied, is modeled after the bed of Pope John Paul II. • Roy: "Fiery the angels fell/Deep thunder rolled around their shores/ indignant Burning with the fires of Orc." This is a paraphrase of William Blake's "America: A Prophesy": "Fiery the angels rose/and as they rose deep thunder rolled around their shores/indignant burning with the fires of Orc." • Insofar as he creates artificial life and is killed by it, Tyrell is another Dr. Frankenstein. Tyrell and Frankenstein both are cruel towards their own creations, and yet it is these creations, not the creators, who are persecuted. We are sympathetic towards both Roy and Frankenstein's creature, as they are inherently benign creatures who become violent only when spurned by a paranoid society. Our creations tell us more about the ugliness of ourselves than they do about the created. The "Frankenstein" parallel is not perfect, however, as Dr Frankenstein is not directly killed by his creation. • Roy puts a nail through his palm, a symbol of Christian crucifixion. • In Milton's "Paradise Lost", Satan is, despite himself, the most attractive and interesting character. Roy is, of course, both Christ and Lucifer, but the important thing is that, almost despite ourselves, we are obliged to locate our sympathy where we do not want it to go. On a theological level, the "felix culpa", our "fortunate fall" through which we are redeemed, is occasioned by Satan, just as Deckard's "fortunate fall" is through Roy -- Roy not only saves him from plummeting, but in fact elevates him to the heavens, a redeemed world. • After Roy's death Deckard muses: "All he'd wanted were the same answers the rest of us want. Where do I come from? Where am I going? How long have I got. All I could do was sit there and watch him die." According to an essay in "Retrofitting Blade Runner", these three questions are the title of a painting by Gauguin during one of his more suicidal phases: "Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?"

The significance of the chess game The chess game between Tyrell and Sebastian uses the conclusion of a game played between Anderssen and Kieseritzky, in London in 1851. It is considered one of the most brilliant games ever played, and is universally known as "The Immortal Game". The chess boards in the film are not arranged exactly as they would in be the Immortal Game, and Sebastian's board does not match Tyrell's. The concept of immortality has obvious associations in the ensuing confrontation between Tyrell and Batty. On one level, the chess game represents the struggle of the replicants against the humans: the humans consider the replicants pawns, to be removed one by one. The individual replicants (pawns) are attempting to become immortal (a queen). At another level, the game between Tyrell and Sebastian represents Batty stalking Tyrell. Tyrell makes a fatal mistake in the chess game, and another fatal mistake trying to reason with Batty.

The Definition and Meaning of the Eye as a Christian Symbol The Eye Christian Symbol represents the "all-seeing eye" representing the eye of God the Father, the all-knowing and ever-present God. In later examples of Christian art the eye was pictured in a triangle with rays of light to represent the infinite holiness of the Trinity. The trinity in BL = Tyrell, Roy, the dove Reference to the Eye Christian Symbol in the Bible The Easton Bible Dictionary provides the following definition, meaning and emblem for the Eye Christian Symbol in the Bible: • The custom of painting the eyes is alluded to in 2 Kings 9:30, R.V.; Jer. 4:30; Ezek. 23:40, a custom which still prevails extensively among Eastern women. • Men were sometimes punished by having their eyes put out (1 Sam. 11:2; Samson, Judg. 16:21; Zedekiah, 2 Kings 25:7).

The basic story in Blade Runner is clear, easily understood and felt. And the setting (future, dystopian) and pursuits (creating and killing almost humans) allow for all sorts of layers fraught with meaning. And religion is so great at providing meaning (stories, rhythms, motivations, iconography, etc, we all grok). I think Supernatural does a great job of wrapping religious constructs around their story, and making it fresh and awesome. Like Death, older than time, driving a white Cadillac with license plate BUH BYE. Death: Join me, Dean. The pizza's delicious. Dean: I gotta ask. How old are you? Death: As old as God, maybe older. Neither of us can remember anymore. Life, death, chicken, egg. Regardless, at the end, I'll reap him too. Dean: God? You'll reap God? Death: Oh yes. God will die too, Dean. Dean: Well, this is way above my pay grade. Death: A bit. And religion can even be used as wrappers around older religions, particularly useful in conquests. Like when Cortes provided a localized wrapper edition of Christianity to the Aztecs (even destroyed a temple of their mother-goddess and built a chapel in the same spot, to the newly minted Virgin of Guadalupe). So similar wrapping paper, with ribbons in the same spots (like a spring rebirth and fall harvest in every religion), but what was inside the box was different. A story around a story.

And the Pope's bed and William Blake, what great details.