Editing Replicant (section)

==Ambiguity over Deckard's humanity==
{{See also|Themes in Blade Runner}}
A primary element of the Blade Runner film is the ambiguity over whether the protagonist, Deckard, is a human or a replicant. This ties into one of the central themes of the film: the nature of humanity. Ultimately, the important point is not whether Deckard is a replicant but that the ambiguity blurs the line between humans and replicants.<ref>Sammon, Paul (2002) [https://web.archive.org/web/20121003041611/http://brmovie.com/Articles/Sammon_Interview_13.htm BRmovie.com — Interview with Paul M. Sammon], sections 13 (Archive)</ref>

=== Creator opinions ===
[[Harrison Ford]], who played Deckard in the film, has said that he did not think Deckard is a replicant, and that he and director Ridley Scott had discussions that ended in the agreement that the character was human.<ref name=":0">{{cite news |date=July 9, 2000 |title=Blade Runner riddle solved |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/825641.stm |access-date=August 2, 2007}}</ref> 

According to several interviews with director Ridley Scott, Deckard is a replicant.<ref name=":0" /> When asked in October 2012 about the possibility of a ''Blade Runner'' sequel, Scott said, "It's not a rumor—it's happening. With Harrison Ford? I don't know yet. Is he too old? Well, he was a Nexus-6, so we don't know how long he can live. And that's all I'm going to say at this stage."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sullivan |first=Kevin P. |date=October 12, 2012 |title=Ridley Scott Gives 'Prometheus 2' And 'Blade Runner 2' Updates |url=http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2012/10/12/prometheus-2-blade-runner-2-updates/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131004231432/http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2012/10/12/prometheus-2-blade-runner-2-updates/ |archive-date=October 4, 2013 |access-date=October 13, 2012 |work=MTV Movies Blog |df=mdy-all}}</ref> 

Author [[Will Brooker]] has written that the unicorn dream may not be unique to Deckard and that it may be a personal touch added to some or all of the Nexus-6 replicants' brains. From this, one might also infer that Gaff is a replicant and shares the same embedded memory.<ref>Will Brooker (2005) [https://books.google.com/books?id=KE0XEBs2keQC&pg=PA222 ''The Blade Runner Experience: The Legacy of a Science Fiction Classic''], Wallflower Press, {{ISBN|9781904764304}}, p. 222</ref>

Paul Sammon, author of ''Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner'', has suggested in interviews that Deckard may be a Nexus-7 model, which possesses no superhuman strength or intelligence but does have neurological features that complete the illusion of humanity.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2015-04-02 |title=Amazon.com : Blade Runner Interview with Ridley Scott and Sean Young |website=Amazon |url=http://www.amazon.com/gp/mpd/permalink/m30VR9HY1NX2UI:m1LD3BEJD2T5Z9 |access-date=2022-12-20 |archive-date=April 2, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402141315/http://www.amazon.com/gp/mpd/permalink/m30VR9HY1NX2UI:m1LD3BEJD2T5Z9 |url-status=bot: unknown }}</ref> Sammon also suggests that Nexus-7 replicants may not have a set lifespan (i.e., they could be immortal, ruling out the lifespan as a determining trait).<ref>Sammon, Paul (2002) [https://web.archive.org/web/20120208055753/http://brmovie.com/Articles/Sammon_Interview_17.htm BRmovie.com — Interview with Paul M. Sammon], sections 13 and 17 (Archive.org)</ref> He goes on to propose that Scott thought it would be more provocative to imply that Deckard is a replicant.

=== In-universe evidence ===
In ''Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?'', Deckard was subjected to the Voight-Kampff test and passed, marking as a human, though Rachael's near-passing the test casts doubt on its infallibility. He collects photographs, yet has no obvious family beyond a reference to his ex-wife (who called him a "cold fish"). The film's Supervising Editor Terry Rawlings remembers that Scott "purposefully put Harrison in the background of the shot, and slightly out of focus, so that you'd only notice his eyes were glowing if you were paying attention... Ridley himself may have definitely felt that Deckard is a replicant, but still, by the end of the picture, he intended to leave it up to the viewer."<ref name="Sammon (Revised Ed.)">{{cite book|last1=Sammon|first1=Paul M.|title=Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner|date=2017|publisher=HarperCollins|location=New York|isbn=9780062699466|page=413|edition=Revised & Updated}}</ref>

The sequel, ''Blade Runner 2049'', revisited the question while leaving the answer deliberately ambiguous. The film reveals that Deckard was able to conceive a child with Rachael, and this was possible because she was an experimental prototype (designated Nexus-7), the first and only attempt to design a replicant model capable of procreation. Niander Wallace, CEO of the company that produced replicants, captures Deckard and muses that his falling in love with Rachael seemed too perfect, suggesting that Deckard was designed to fall in love with Rachael as part of Tyrell's experiment to develop replicants that can procreate, but with Tyrell dead and the records destroyed, he will never know.