Blade Runner: Genre Theory, Neo-Noir, and Sci-Fi Analysis

Introduction: Genre and the World of Blade Runner

While Ridley Scott's Blade Runner is ranked No. 6 on the AFI's 10 Top 10 list in the science-fiction genre, the film has so much in common with noir — the type of black-and-white film that typically offered murder mysteries or cops-versus-robbers as plot vehicles — that it is often considered a neo-noir classic (Doll & Faller, 1986). Scott's film blends noir with sci-fi in such a way, however, that Blade Runner's categorization as a science-fiction film cannot be disputed. The film explores complex issues — such as the rise of artificial intelligence and its use in human society — in a way that melds fantasy with reality by bringing the future of technology forward, by some decades, to the audience.

The result is almost literary in effect. Blade Runner's protagonist Deckard, the replicant-hunting ex-cop, and antagonist Roy Batty, chief rebel replicant, serve as modern-day stand-ins for Shelley's Frankenstein and his monster. Who has an actual soul? What does life actually mean? By probing these issues and drawing on aspects of both noir and sci-fi, Scott blends genre conventions and displays his genius as a director to create a film that resonates with audiences on a deep level. This paper critiques Scott's Blade Runner from the standpoint of genre theory to explore how the film uses genre styles and conventions to tell an old story anew.

Context: Film Noir Meets Science Fiction

Blade Runner is a 1982 film directed by Ridley Scott, starring Harrison Ford as Deckard, Rutger Hauer as Batty, and Sean Young as a female replicant who becomes Deckard's love interest. The cinematographer was Jordan Cronenweth. The film's box office receipts only barely surpassed its $28 million budget, but in subsequent years the film developed a cult following — especially after the release of a director's cut, which removed the voice-over narration supplied by Ford's Deckard in the theatrical release and deepened the mystery of whether Deckard himself was a human or a replicant.

Though film noir has been called not so much a genre as a tone and mood (Schrader, 1972), it is undeniably a distinctive type of cinema. In film noir, a moral ambiguity exists within the narrative and is embellished by the style of filmmaking, taking center stage behind the obvious action of the plot — always present, as though indirectly calling attention to itself through the manipulation of its characters. In some of the most compelling noir films, characters skirt fine lines between good and evil, and the films typically refrain from presenting any one character as wholly good or wholly bad. This quality is expressed in a memorable line at the end of Orson Welles' Touch of Evil, spoken in reference to the corrupt cop: "He was some kind of man." Even if the viewer is unsympathetic to the cop, the film insists that a degree of empathy be developed. Nothing is black and white in these ironically black-and-white films noir.

Blade Runner could be called a neo-noir — it is in color but uses all the typical shades and shadows of film noir — because it fully embraces this moral ambiguity. It also deploys sci-fi genre conventions, chief among them the assumption that advanced technology is achievable in the near future. In the film, that technology takes the form of artificial intelligence so convincingly human that it is impossible to distinguish a replicant from a person. This question — is Deckard himself a replicant? — is one of the film's central mysteries. Deckard is an ex-cop hired to hunt fugitive replicants and "retire" them, placing the plot squarely within the noir tradition of cops versus criminals. The final soliloquy of Batty, however, elevates the film above both noir and sci-fi and connects it to its gothic literary ancestor: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, which probes questions of life and soul, the real and the unreal, meaning and its absence.

Story and Plot

The story of the film follows Deckard as he is enlisted to hunt down fugitive replicants who have fled their off-world work colony to take up an unauthorized existence in Los Angeles. The distinction between story and plot is worth noting here: story summarizes the action of a film in a linear way, while plot details the action as it actually unfolds on screen — which need not be linear.

The plot moves the main characters through a futuristically dreary metropolis where the line between reality and the surreal is continually blurred. Deckard meets Tyrell, the designer of the replicants, whose assistant Rachael is identified by Deckard as a replicant. Unlike the fugitives Deckard is hunting, Rachael does not know she is a replicant. When told she is a machine rather than a human, she attempts to prove otherwise, producing a photograph and memories she believes are her own. Deckard informs her that those memories were implanted by Tyrell. Distraught, she flees.

Deckard locates one of the fugitive replicants at a strip club and retires her, then encounters another on the street — even as he receives orders to retire Rachael as well, since she has abandoned her duties. He is attacked by the fugitive replicant but is saved by Rachael, who retires the attacker. Out of gratitude, Deckard takes Rachael under his protection and promises not to retire her. Meanwhile, Batty seeks out Tyrell to request an extension of his lifespan, knowing his time is running out. He makes a kind of confession in hopes of cleansing his consciousness, but Tyrell dismisses the need. Batty kills his creator. Eventually, Deckard and Batty confront each other directly — the hunter becoming the hunted. After a rooftop chase, Deckard dangles from a ledge on the verge of falling. Batty saves him and delivers a soulful soliloquy, then expires naturally. Deckard leaves the city, taking Rachael with him.

References

Doll, S., & Faller, G. (1986). Blade Runner and genre: Film noir and science fiction. Literature/Film Quarterly, 14(2), 89–100.

Kerman, J. (1991). Retrofitting Blade Runner. Bowling Green, KY: Bowling Green UP.

Schrader, P. (1972). Notes on film noir. Film Comment, 8(1), 8–13.

Scott, R., dir. (1982). Blade Runner. Los Angeles, CA: Warner Bros.