Rick Deckard

In the Director's Cut and the Final Cut, there is a sequence in which Deckard daydreams about a unicorn; in the final scene, he finds an origami unicorn on the floor outside his apartment, left there by Gaff, suggesting that Gaff knows about Deckard's dream in the same manner that Deckard knows about Rachael's implanted memories. Scott confirmed this interpretation was his intent in the unicorn daydream.[3][4]

However, while memory implantation for replicants is established elsewhere in the movie, it is unclear if daydreams work in the same way.[5] Even without considering this scene, there is other evidence and hints that allow for the possibility of Deckard being a replicant but does not eliminate the possibility of Deckard being human:[6]

• That Deckard's apartment is full of photographs, none of them recent or in color. Replicants have a taste for photographs because it provides a tie to a non-existent past.[7]
• The scene in which Rachael asks, "You know that Voight-Kampff test of yours? Did you ever take that test yourself? Deckard?". By the time she calls out his name, Rachael finds that she had not received an answer because the injured, exhausted Deckard has fallen asleep.
• His fellow detective Gaff shows no sympathy for Deckard throughout the film and tells him "You've done a man's job, sir!" after Roy expires.[7]
• Deckard's eyes glow briefly in one scene, which was used in the film to subtly suggest his replicant identity.[8] However, Ford denies this was an intentional effect and he may have caught some of the light intended to fall on Sean Young's eyes.[9]

Philip K. Dick wrote the character Deckard as a human in the original novel in order to explore the increasing similarity of humans and replicants.[10] However, the film significantly diverges from the book, e.g. the book states explicitly that Deckard passed the Voight-Kampff test. Screenwriter Hampton Fancher has said that he wrote the character as a human, but wanted the film to suggest the possibility that he may be a replicant. When asked, "Is Deckard a replicant?", Fancher replied, "No. It wasn't like I had a tricky idea about Deckard that way."[11] During a discussion panel with Ridley Scott to discuss Blade Runner: The Final Cut, Fancher again stated that he believes Deckard is human (saying that "[Scott's] idea is too complex"[12]), but also repeated that he prefers the film to remain ambiguous.[13]

Harrison Ford considers Deckard to be human. "That was the main area of contention between Ridley and myself at the time," Ford told an interviewer during a BBC One Hollywood Greats segment. "I thought the audience deserved one human being on screen that they could establish an emotional relationship with. I thought I had won Ridley's agreement to that, but in fact I think he had a little reservation about that. I think he really wanted to have it both ways."[14] Scott suggests that Ford may have since changed his view,[4] although Blade Runner 2049 director Denis Villeneuve claimed that Ford and Scott argue about the issue to this day.[15] Other people involved in the movie's production who have expressed the view that Deckard is human include: David Snyder (art director), M. Emmet Walsh (who portrayed Bryant) and Rutger Hauer (who portrayed Roy Batty).[16]

Ridley Scott stated in several interviews that he considers Deckard to be a replicant.[16][17] Syd Mead, the film's visual futurist, agrees with Scott that Deckard is a replicant.[16] The disagreement among the people involved in making Blade Runner raises interesting questions about authorial intent, including who, if anyone, can make authoritative pronouncements about a film's interpretation.[9]