Blade Runner Cinema Poetry: Roy Batty’s Tears in the Rain

[dropcap]J[/dropcap]ust about everybody agrees that Blade Runner, Ridley Scott's phenomenally creative version of Philip K. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is an iconic science fiction film. In my view, Scott has only three great movies that will stand he test of time, Runner, The Duellists (1977), with Keith Carradine and Harvey Keitel in memorable parts (a historical drama also loosely based on true events during the Napoleonic wars), and the equally stunning Alien (1979). Thelma and Louise (1991), also deserves mention. But Gladiator (2000), despite boffo box office and critical acclaim was in many respects a mess; a Cecil B deMille extravaganza playing to Hollywood thirst for blockbusters (which it was). The film marked the beginning of the rot in Ridley Scott's career. In 2001, Scott released the equally celebrated Black Hawk Down, a war film essentially in tune with Hollywood's fascination with the empire's military antics. Scott's output also included Kingdom of Heaven (2005), where he shows once again his artistry in a historical framework. The film is set during the Crusades.

Blade Runner (1982) had a formidable cast, both for the leads and the supporting roles. The hero, or antihero, depending on how you felt about the replicants, was played by Harrison Ford (Deckard);  he's the "blade runner" of the title, a cross between a private eye and futuristic hard-luck bounty hunter, charged in actuality with "retiring" the replicants by any means necessary. Deemed by their human creators and the state to be extremely dangerous given their superhuman qualities, they are given a death sentence. Ironically, the replicants are on earth because they are trying to extend their extremely short programmed life. Deckard, given the job, rather ruthlessly, tracks these beings down systematically and blows them away. The leader of the Rogue replicants, Roy Batty, the chief "combat model", is far more difficult to defeat. Played by Dutch actor Rutger Hauer with ferocious intensity, Batty is more than Deckard's match—he is his superior in almost all respects. Killed, in essence, by an impersonal embedded software command, it was Hauer who actually wrote the lines for Batty's final scene monologue, widely known today as "Tears in the Rain." The effect was poetic.

I've... seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those... moments will be lost... in time... like... tears... in rain. Time... to die.

Hauer died in 2019, at age 75, after a brief illness. This heart-gripping scene, in a long and illustrious career, is likely to be the one for which he will be remembered. I defer the final comment and homage to Rutger and Blade Runner to Guillermo St, whose YouTube entry on this topic carried these words.

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The climax of the classic Sci-fi film "Blade Runner". Taken from the "Final Cut" version.