Bladerunner - Humanity and Nature

What makes something or someone human can often be unclear. Humans have many preconceived notions about who and what they are and what their rightful place in society is. These notions, however, are frequently at odds with reality. The uncertainty of what makes someone human is explored in Ridley Scott's classic science fiction film Blade Runner. Dr. Eldon Tyrell's Tyrell Corporation created the replicants to be sub-human servants that were clearly distinct from and inferior to human beings; the replicants were intentionally designed to be unable to express emotions, particularly empathy, which is believed to be a trait that only human beings can possess. Human beings believe that the quintessential thing that makes them human and distinguishes

In Blade Runner, the human race is seen to have abused an outstanding amount of power over the natural world, as seen by the environmental decrepitude in the 2019 Los Angeles city. There is a large amount of photochemical smog from which the constant acidic rain falls, deteriorating the large buildings. Costuming such as umbrellas

Blade runner promotes that empathy is the defining characteristics for humanity. The replicants, designed not to show any emotion, develop spiritually and emotionally throughout the film.

Contrastingly, the modern, technologically driven world of Blade Runner conveys man’s usurption of nature caused through his arrogance and desire for dominance. In this contrastingly industrialized, scientifically grounded world, nature has been relentlessly exploited and commodified, as man has attempted to ‘penetrate into the recesses’. The allusion to the Promethean myth through the symbolic use of fire is seen in the opening scenes of shooting fire, intercut with close up shots of an eye, symbolically representing fire as having the potential to both nurture and destroy life. The ignorance and metaphorical blindness of man, is highlighted through the self-imposed destruction of humanity, as nature is obliterated in favour of ‘commerce (being our) goal”, symbolically representing the destruction of our natural

A Comparison of the Themes of Blade Runner and Brave New World ‘Humanity likes to think of itself as more sophisticated than the wild yet it cannot really escape its need for the natural world’ Despite different contexts both Aldous Huxley within his book Brave New World and Ridley Scott in the film Blade Runner explore the idea that humans feel themselves more sophisticated than the natural world, yet are able to completely sever relations between humanity and the nature. Through various techniques both texts warn their varied audiences of the negative ramifications that will come from such disdainful, careless opinions and actions. All aspects of the ‘New State’ within Aldous

Ridley Scott’s film Blade Runner reflects some of the key themes seen in Mary Shelley’s classic novel Frankenstein. For one, both the sources touch on the necessity of creators taking responsibility for their creations. Another key theme established in both works is the idea that emotional complexity and knowledge, over memory and appearance, allow people to be defined as human beings.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, whilst separated by 174 years, feature very similar content which can be seen by comparing the two side by side. Coming from different contexts, they both express their anxieties about technology, which is shown through a man made creature, and they both exhibit a strong valuing of nature. However due to their different contexts, these ideas are represented differently. The medium of production is clearly different, as is the representation of the creature and whether or not they are able to assimilate into society. In both texts the responder

Many of the shots of nature contain manmade objects in the background, which highlights European culture infringing on Native territory. Likewise, the use of extreme long-shots to film the nature could highlight the emotional and cultural distance that Native Americans currently feel towards the land due to modern development. The only life seen in any of the shots is a single bird soaring above Niagara Falls. The shot pans to keep the bird close to the centre of the frame. The single bird being watched by the camera could symbolize how lonely and judged Native Americans may currently feel as they are denied their land and lack support from the rest of the country.

Nature is present in Scene 1, where the film begins by displaying a flourishing lantana bush in the natural sunlight, with cicadas peacefully chirping. The tracking shots from bottom to top make the bush appear pleasantly, but the beauty of this nature is quickly succumbed when the frenzied sound of cicadas chirping intensifies to an extremely loud volume as the camera delves deeper into the lantana bush. As the camera reaches deeper inside the bush, the natural light begins to fade, revealing the dark truths that many relationships seem to hold. The viscous tangles in the bush show webs that are weaved and how easy it is for someone to get caught up in their idea of a healthy, thriving relationship. This symbolises and enforces

The central theme of Bladerunner is the relationship between humanity and nature. More specifically it has a purpose in showing how science can negatively influence this fragile relationship. Set in Los Angeles of 2019 we see the decadence of western society into an inhumane harsh impersonal, technology-dominated realm. The inhabitants who fight for their daily survival are in desperate want for nature, contact with which is denied to them by the unrestricted scientific progress and the consequent exploitation of the natural world conducted for the sole purpose of profit. Humanity is also losing touch with it’s own nature. The compassion, the empathy, the love and the emotion are all rare or absent. This ailing relationship between

‘Blade Runner’, the film adaption, directed by Ridley Scott in 1982, of the 1968 novel ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?’ by Philip K. Dick. This essay will explore the meaning of the Tyrell slogan “More human than human” by following Deckard on Earth in Los Angeles 2019 as a futuristic, dark and depressing industrial metropolis by looking into and discussing what is real and what is not, the good and the bad and why replicants are more appealing than humans. This essay will analyse and pull apart the “Blade Runner’ world, the condition of humanity and what it really means to be human.

It opposes the values of love, empathy and community with the innovative forms of technology and social life under advanced capitalism. The binary opposition between man and technology is represented by three characters in the plot: Deckard, apparently a human. Roy, an android who fears death and longs to be human and Rachel, who thinks she is human and who enters a relationship with a human. These replicants represent capitalism’s oppressive characteristics and also to a certain extent the rebellion against exploitation. Deckard's realization of how the Tyrell Corporation exploits him, and the rebellion of the replicants against their oppressors, is the ultimate critique of capitalism. Since both sides — killer and killed — reject their status as servants of the corporation and refuse further exploitation. (Kellner, et all) The corporation in the Blade Runner that is used to illustrate capitalism’s destructive characteristics is The Tyrell Coporation. The Tyrell Corporation invents replicants to have a controllable labor force that will perform difficult and dangerous tasks. Similarly applicable to today, where capitalism turns individuals into machines that have only the function of productivity. Ironically, the replicants form a human rebellion; while the actual human characters in the film seem to submit to corporate domination and live a life like the corporations sees them to. It seems as if the humans have become so dehumanized that the replicants form a rebellion against their oppressor instead of human beings. Capitalism has dehumanized the population to such an extent, that technology is actually more

This can be observed through Blade Runner’s hero Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) who struggles throughout the film to remember his past. A retired detective, Deckard was specialized in tracking down and destroying human replicants who attempt to live on earth. In 2019 the power of human replication has reached a new peak with the NEXUS 6; replicants that are far more advanced than their predecessors. They are stronger and more specialized than real humans because they are sent to off-world colonies as slave laborers. Deckard the best blade runner in Los Angeles is asked to return to duty a final time to find four NEXUS 6 replicants; Leon, Roy, Zhora and Pris, that returned to earth on a high jacked space shuttle. The replicants leader Roy wants to meet the designer of the replicants Elden

Also, Deckard and Rachael are seated facing each other across the table. This creates an impression of competition or conflict. Also, the area behind Rachael is filled with vines and leafs, natural objects which fill the space chaotically. The area behind Deckard is, by contrast, empty, ordered, even geometric in it’s simplicity. This creates another contrast between the natural and the artificial,

us driving nature away it emphasis on how magical it is to see a wild