Blade Runner is an empathy test

I was in 9th grade at a predominantly Black inner-city public science magnet school in Washington, DC in the early 90s. My teacher let me write my final report on science fiction films since 1977. While I was summarizing Blade Runner, I realized (and wrote in my report) that Roy Baty was essentially Nat Turner. I got an A- on the report. My teacher was impressed. This is the first video that I have ever seen that directly relates the plight of the Replicants with the African-American experience. My 9th grade self is grateful.

The book, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is interesting because you see machines becoming more human while humans are becoming increasingly more machine-like.

The Roy Batty speech is the perfect segway to .. when a man dies, a library burns to the ground .. an African proverb.

My thanks for opening my eyes to empathic aspects of this film which I hadn’t, but should’ve, seen from the start.

Rutger Hauer was an amazing actor. I love your content. It is beautiful and thoughtful.

New ending, Damien? I had a feeling an earlier take was more declarative at the end, without the sense that Deckard may or may not be a replicant, but in the grand scheme that was less important than considering empathy, humanity and the implications. I think part of the power of Roy's death scene is that the audience has a gut-churning moment wondering "have I been rooting for the wrong character all this time? what then of my own judgement and morality? have I been dehumanizing on command by the metanarrative of the story?". Scott tears back this veil quite brutally, as he's given so little to humanize the replicants prior - even Pris seems somewhat untrustworthy as she befriends the chickenhead - he's a sanctuary, then a means to an end. Even Roy howling in grief could be programmed psychosis. But not the end, as Deckard hears his expression of restraint, perspective, compassion, and empathy, even for "you people".

The issue of sentient androids or "droids" being dismissed as nothing more than slaves and cast aside when no longer useful comes up surprisingly often in Star Wars discussions. Excellent critique which I'd be very interested in hearing a follow up for the 2049 sequel.

possibly the most intelligent video I've seen yet on YouTube

Amazing! I love the angle that you took

My favorite PK Dick quote: "The protagonist of any good science fiction story is an idea." Your analysis of the key idea in Blade Runner is truly brilliant.

One of your best video essays yet, I liked your pacing much better in this one. More natural. Great points as well. Blade Runner is a great work of art, its many layers reward repeated viewings and contemplation.

This is one of the best essays I have seen on Youtube… and you did it in 11 minutes.

Great video! When I was young I didn't like how Blade Runner left out so much of the book. Watching your video reminded me of what an amazing job the film does of taking 5% of the book's story and 25% of it's lead character and using it to explore and play with the subtext of the book - arguably in a deeper way than the source material did.

Very interesting analysis, quite fascinating and relevant. Thanks for sharing this.

Amazing video essay. This is a film I've been watching since the mid-eighties and had become kind of inured to any emotional or empathic response. Your ideas refreshed my perception of the film and I got goosebumps for the final speech. That hasn't happened in years. Thanks for that.

I’m an Episcopal priest who works as a chaplain and religious studies/philosophy teacher in a college prep school. It seems like this would make a great meditation during Holy Week at the end of Lent. The logic of the Incarnation and Passion, when removed from the judicial claptrap of much Western Theology, becomes a story of empathy: How the Creator enters creation to embody empathy, that we may in turn have empathy for all sentient beings. This is a great video to illustrate that.

Excellent breakdown of the theme of empathy in this story. I am forever going to hear your voice when I'm watching a movie passively seeing people die: " you failed the empathy test."

Your choice of phrasing and use of clips to emphasize your points were really ace and even had me emotional at times. Really great!

This is probably the best video essay I've seen on the original Blade Runner. I haven't seen one so dedicated to the structures of oppression in quite a while if at all. I firmly agree that in the end it doesn't matter if Deckard is human or replicant. "Slave hunter" is the best translation of "blade runner" into social role, but naratively, Deckard is on a line between human and replicant and can fall to either side. The reading that Deckard is human has the advantage that it shows how the system restricts and strips his humanity even as he believes he is protecting humanity. As a privileged human, he starts with an identification of his interests as tied to Tyrell's, but realizes when he can finally see Batty as an equal that the concepts of his own humanity are confined to Tyrell's mastery over him, and sees that his true interests are more similar to those of the replicants. In my opinion the best viewing of Blade Runner is open to as many interpretations as possible.

I don't usually feel justified in saying this, but I think in the case of Blade Runner, the movie is better than the original source story, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? The movie is much more thematically coherent, while in the story, thematic ideas are much more abstract and elusive to the reader. There are certainly ideas in the story, but it's not really clear what those ideas represent. Electric animals to replace real animals, the comedy of duplicate police stations that seem to be unaware of each other, the dust and disintegration of homes, and the quasi-religious experience as some kind of cinematic savior that Decker goes through without even realizing it. Or maybe I just read the story on a bad day. ;-)