I guess I should start this out with a big, fat SPOILER WARNING for the original Ridley Scott classic BLADE RUNNER. So if you – for some reason – have yet to see the 1982 masterpiece, avert your eyes to this post, then go buy a horse, live up in the mountains and don't bother anybody.
That out of the way, BLADE RUNNER and ALIEN: COVENANT director Ridley Scott was recently having a sit down with the folks over at IGN and talking all things blades and running. At one point in the interview, Scott was asked at what point in the original film's production did he decide that Ford's Deckard character was, in fact, a replicant.
To which Scott replied:
Oh, it was always my thesis theory. It was one or two people who were relevant were… I can't remember if Hampton agreed with me or not. But I remember someone had said, “Well, isn't it corny?” I said, “Listen, I'll be the best f#@king judge of that. I'm the director, okay?” So, and that, you learn — you know, by then I'm 44, so I'm no f#@king chicken. I'm a very experienced director from commercials and The Duellists and Alien. So, I'm able to, you know, answer that with confidence at the time, and say, “You know, back off, it's what it's gonna be.” Harrison, he was never — I don't remember, actually. I think Harrison was going, “Uh, I don't know about that.” I said, “But you have to be, because Gaff, who leaves a trail of origami everywhere, will leave you a little piece of origami at the end of the movie to say, ‘I've been here, I left her alive, and I can't resist letting you know what's in your most private thoughts when you get drunk is a f#@king unicorn!’” Right? So, I love Beavis and Butthead, so what should follow that is “Duh.” So now it will be revealed [in the sequel], one way or the other.
Now as all of us already know, the original film – in some people's eyes – didn't answer the "is he or isn't he" debate and so the battle has raged on as long as the "Who directed POLTERGEIST" debate. Both of which have clear answers and were settled long ago, by the way.
All the same, certain peeps demand to keep the arguments going so, until we get a movie based on the production of POLTERGEIST (I would see the sh*t out of that movie), we'll just have to wait for "concrete" answers to the Hopper/Spielberg debate. But thankfully, come October we will be able to put a nail into the Deckard/Replicant coffin once and for all via BLADE RUNNER 2049. Thank God.
What is YOUR stance on the Deckard replicant issue? Let us know why or why not the man is, in fact, the machine on Facebook, Twitter, and/or Instagram!
BLADE RUNNER 2049 hits theaters October 6th.
PICTURED: The face of a man being told he's a replicant.
