Essay/Term paper: Dicks' androids and scotts' replicants

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Culture

Dicks' Androids and Scotts' Replicants


Michael Tschappat
Patricia Stull
English 102
11/25/96

Philip K. Dick has written over fifty novels, and is considered among some
of the greatest experimental writers of the 1950s and '60s, such as; William
Burroughs, J.G. Ballard, and Thomas Pynchon.(Star 34) He has written science-
fiction and regular fiction. His fiction usually spoke of people trying to
figure out who they are, or what they are supposed to be. He is best known,
however, for his work in science-fiction, and this represents the majority of
his work. He has, also, won awards for two of his science-fiction novels. He
won the Hugo Award for best novel in 1962 for The Man in the High Castle and the
John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best novel of the year in 1974 for Flow My
Tears, The Policeman Said (Brians 1). An opera has been based on one of P.K.D.
later novels, Valis (Brians 1). One of his short stories, We Can Build It For
You, was made into a movie recently. The movie was Screamers, starring Peter
Weller. He has also had two of his novels, We Can Remember It for You
Wholesale (Total Recall), Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Blade Runner),
made into movies. Of the two, Blade Runner (B.R.) has had the greatest impact.
B.R., however, differs greatly from Dicks' original novel, Do Androids Dream of
Electric Sheep? (D.A.D.O.E.S.)
Blade Runner was released in 1982 under the direction of Ridley Scott,
who also made another sci-fi classic, Alien.
The film begins in the city of Los Angeles. The year is 2019. The city of
Los Angeles is overpopulated, teeming with all sorts of humans. Japanese ADs
are all over the place. The Japanese input was strictly the director, Ridley
Scot's. Scott saw the future world being controlled by the Japanese. Philip K.
Dick did not mention this. The planet is recovering from World War III,
although I'm not sure they actually say this. In the book, the war is clearly
stated and was called World War Terminus. The effects of the radiation has
mutated some people. Only the ones who had not been disfigured or altered
genetically by radiation from the nuclear bombs could emigrate, (leave the
planet earth). Some, who were perfectly healthy chose to stay, however. They
stayed because they were stubborn and wanted to die on the planet they were born
on. The chickenheads had to stay, it was law. Chickenheads is Dicks term for
the disfigured or the genetically altered. They are also referred to as
specials. There are no chickenheads in the movie. None of this is made clear
in the movie, but this is what is explained in the novel.
The ones who do emigrate to other planets receive one free worker to help
them with their settling of a new home. The worker is not human. It is an
android. In the movie they are called replicants or skin-jobs. These are the
newest versions of androids, which were created by the Rosen Association. They
are Nexus-6. Nexus-6 mimic humans in every way, except in one thing, they have
no empathy.
Empathy is the ability to feel for another. For example, if you cared for
a puppy that was beaten, skinned, and then left to die, that care would be
empathy. Androids don't have this trait. They would watch the puppies' skin be
removed without a blink in their eyes. They can pretend to feel, but they'd
have to know first there was something disturbing about the skinning of a puppy.
The nonexistent empathy of replicants is never discussed in the movie, but it
is pretty obvious in the way they kill or try to kill. This lack of empathy
scared many humans on earth, so a law was passed that didn't allow androids on
the planet.
In the novel, this is where the bounty hunters come in. Their job is to
retire (kill) the androids, who have somehow escaped to earth or just were never
weeded out from the other humans.
You might be wondering why I said bounty hunter instead of blade runner?
Well, the term blade runner is never used in the novel. Apparently, Ridley
Scott wanted a specific name for the people who hunted down the androids. He
didn't want to just call them bounty hunters. Scott was told of a William
Burroughs book named Blade Runner: The Movie. The book was never a movie.
Burroughs just had that in the title. Scott liked the way blade runner sounded,
so he bought the rights of the Burroughs novel (Blackwood). That is how he came
up with the title and a name for the hunters of the replicants.
The way a blade runner can know if an android is a human or not is through
the Voight-Kampff test. This is shown in the movie, although not used as much
as in the novel. The test consists of the tester setting up several scenarios
and seeing the testes's responses. The responses are measured through dilation
in the eyes and the blushing of cheeks. The blushing is recorded by a device
that is placed on your face and the dilation of the eye; by a laser that shines
in your eye. An example of something that Deckard or whoever was administering
the test would say was: "You are watching an old movie on TV, a movie from
before the war. It shows a banquet in progress; the guests are enjoying raw
oysters."
"Ugh," Rachel said; the needles swung swiftly.
"The entree," he continued, "consists of boiled dog, stuffed with rice."
The needles moved less this time, less than they had for the raw oysters. "Are
raw oysters more acceptable to you than a dish of boiled dog? Evidently
not."(Dick 45) A human would react more to the dog than raw oysters. This
showed that this particular subject, Rachael Rosen, was an android. It wouldn't
just be one question though, it would be many. All would be something along
these lines, though. After, he found out for sure; the android, ( or in the
movie: replicant), would be retired. The Voight-kampff test is only shown at
the beginning of the movie when Dave Holden is administering the test to Polokov,
a replicant.
The main character of the novel and movie is Rick Deckard . Deckard is
played by Harrison Ford. He is a blade runner (bounty hunter) that has come out
of retirement. Rick is hired to track down four androids: Roy Baty, Pris,
Luba, and Polokov. The original number of replicants had been five, but one of
his colleagues, Dave Holden, had already retired one. The name of the retired
replicant is never mentioned. The original five had killed their human masters
on another planet, stolen a ship, and illegally come to earth. In D.A.D.O.E.S.,
the original number of androids is eight and Holden retires two, leaving six for
Deckard. Holden was only able to kill one; because he is paralyzed by
Polokov, while administering the Voigt-Kampff test. This, also, is what happens
in the novel: Polokov shoots a laser through Holdens' back. So, Deckards'
search begins, and the hunt for the replicants' (androids) is on.
The remaining part of the film, is Deckard tracking down and killing the
renegade replicants.
When first released, B.R. was not a commercial success.(Star 39) Some
audiences members loved it, but others didn't think it was so great. The box
office showed the latter: not very good. The film made little money. But, one
thing that almost all people did enjoy from the film was the scenery and the
visionary background. The set designs were wonderful. Roger Ebert, a critic of
the Chicago Sun-Times said, " It looks fabulous, it uses special effects to
create a new world of it's own, but it is thin in its human story" (Ebert 1)
Ebert gave it an overall rating of three stars. His opinion, though, summed up
the majority opinion of the few people who went and saw it at the theater. The
special effects and background were great, but the plot was weak. It was just
another action film, with a lot of violence; nothing unique about it. Even
though the movie did not make money at first; over the years, it would become a
cult classic.
The late interest was most likely sparked by a new version that would be
released years after the original release of the movie. The version, Blade
Runner: The Director's Cut, was what the director, Ridley Scott, originally
wanted (Scott). Apparently, the original movie that came out at theaters in
1982 had been tainted by Hollywood producers, with editing (Berry 16). They
said the film was too confusing and didn't have a happy ending. "Preview
audiences found this ending too ambiguous and bleak" (Smith 2) You have to have
a cheesy happy ending in Hollywood.
The 1982 release has Deckard and Rachael, (a replicant that is an exact
copy of the daughter of the President of The Rosen Association; he falls in love
with her), at the end, riding off into the country. Supposedly, these scenes
were out takes from The Shining (Smith 2) The producers didn't like Scotts
ending. In Scott's ending, Deckard and Rachael enter an elevator, and then the
movie abruptly ends. Too unhappy.
The producers also thought the movie was too confusing and not clear, so
they added a voice-over; someone narrating the story (Berry 16). The narrator
was Deckard (Harrison Ford).
Blade Runner: The Director's Cut, returns the original scenes. The happy
ending is gone, and there is no more voice-over. This changed the effect of the
movie. In the 1982 release it gave you the feel of an old Bogart movie. In the
new version, a new mood is brought out, and a better effect is created. The
narration was totally unnecessary. The movie becomes more enjoyable.
The followers of B.R. grows; as the sparks of interest touch them with
this improved movie. This is how the director had originally created it. B.R.
should have been released this way, originally. Proof of this is shown just in
this newfound interest. Remember, the movie originally bombed at the box office,
but now people loved it.
The second director's cut, however, would fan those sparks of interest up
into flames.
There had been rumors, that in the original screenplay, it was quite
obvious that Deckard was a replicant. Deckard, the replicant hunter, was a
replicant himself! Blade Runner: The Directors Cut II confirmed this rumor.
Evidence is plentiful that Deckard was actually a replicant himself. First,
is the glowing eyes (Bitnet 22) When he(Deckard) goes to meet The President of
The Rosen Association to discuss the knowledge of any replicants on earth, there
is a replicant owl and if you watch when the owls' head turns, you can see an
orange glow in its; eyes. The glow is also in Rachael eyes, and can be seen in
Roys' when he is first introduced in the movie. Later, if you watch closely,
you can see that same glow in Deckards eye in a scene where he is talking to
Rachel of someday someone will hunt her down. When he turns his head, you can
see the glow. You have to be watching extremely close to notice it, and it he