Ravensbourne Foundation in Design and Media: More Human than Human (Blade Runner 1982)

Rachael

At the end of last week, we watched Blade Runner (directed by Ridley Scott) for the project of 'Memories.' When watching this film the scene that stood out for me the most was when Rachael finds out her memories and past were a lie and that they belonged to someone else. After this scene she struggles to remember what memories were real and what ones were not - therefore struggling to find out her true identity. I think that this identifies that memories make up a very large part of who we are. A person that looses their memories or in this case never had them to start with does not know who they truelly are. Experiences and memories are what build our characters as we grow up. E.g. a person that is afraid of heights might have fallen out of a tree as a child to build this part of their character. However by not remembering these experiences how can an identity be born?

The quote: "More human than human," is used to describe Rachael because she is a replicant with human experiences but what the creator didn't realise by giving her someone else's memories is that he didn't allow her to build her own character like other replicants - therefore making her less 'human' than anything. I think that this scene was so powerful because Rachael desperately is fighting to prove that she is human even to go as far as to show a photograph of her mother and her as a child. This is an item that she carriers because of the sentiment and memories attached to it however when she discovers they are not real she discards the photograph because it is worthless. Rachael was my favourite character in Blade Runner because of her character - in the beginning she is presented as a strong and emotionless character (at this point she appears to be most like a replicant even though she was described as 'more human than human') in the second half of the film she seems very lost and this is seen through her appearance. Her clothes and hair become more relaxed as she tries to rediscover who she is. (This part of the film shows her personally to be more human and less replicant.)