So much for ambiguous endings. “Blade Runner” fans have debated for years whether Harrison Ford’s Deckard cop character was or wasn’t a replicant (android) and the 1991 “director’s cut” of the film reinforced this possibility, but wisely kept still left this theory open-ended and open to subjective interpretation.
Well, no longer. In a New York Times interview that ran this weekend director Ridley Scott made it crystal clear. “Yes, he’s a replicant. He was always a replicant.”
Boo, that’s disappointing. Apparently this isn’t the first time Ridley Scott has said this, but it’s new to us. From the Times:
“The clue to Deckard’s true nature comes in a scene that was cut from the original release and only recently unearthed by Charles de Lauzirika, Mr. Scott’s assistant and the restoration’s producer. In the last scene of Mr. Scott’s version, Deckard leads Rachael out of his apartment. He notices an origami figure of a unicorn on the floor. A fellow cop has often left such figures outside replicants’ rooms. In an earlier scene, Deckard was thinking about a unicorn. Looking at the cutout now, he realizes that the authorities know what’s in his mind, that the unicorn is a planted memory, that he’s a replicant and that he and Rachael are both now on the run. They get into the elevator. The door slams. The end.”
The five-disc Blade Runner extravaganza comes out on DVD December 18 and an exclusive New York/LA theatrical launch begins October 5. Oh and ps, Sean Young is still loose-cannon crazy.