Blade Runner’s Harrison Ford Weighs In On Long-Standing Deckard Replicant Debate
Was Harrison Ford’s Blade Runner character a human or replicant? It’s a question that has long plagued fans of Ridley Scott’s 1982 science fiction classic. And when Denis Villeneuve made his 2017 sequel, Blade Runner 2049, the filmmaker shared with CinemaBlend that the discussion was a point of disagreement between Ford and Scott. Now the legendary actor behind Rick Deckard has shared his own take on the long-standing debate.
Per Villeneuve, when Blade Runner’s director and star got in the same room, they “don’t agree” and “start to talk very loud” about the whole thing. It certainly doesn’t help that Ridley Scott’s movie had no less than eight different edits of the film, with different endings and story devices. So, when Ford was asked by Esquire to speak to the disagreement, he said this:
I always knew that I was a replicant. I just wanted to push back against it, though. I think a replicant would want to believe that they're human. At least this one did.
Interesting. If you watched Blade Runner 2049, you know that Villeneuve’s film didn’t ultimately answer the question after the original film’s ambiguity on the subject, perhaps on purpose. I don’t know about you, but I think the whole point of the question has been the debate. You know what I mean? The idea that this world makes it so difficult for one to distinguish between who’s human and who’s a bioengineered humanoid is part of the beautiful and terrifying horrors of the science fiction classic.
It was reported before that Harrison Ford believed his character to be human and he played him as such in the Blade Runner movies. As for Ridley Scott, he previously shared his viewpoint on Deckard being a replicant (per Telegraph). However, Hampton Fancher, one of the screenwriters of the 1982 movie, has said that he didn’t write Deckard as a replicant. Does anyone on this film actually agree about who Deckard is?
Harrison Ford answered the question from his point of view while explaining all sorts of elements of his career with Esquire. Check out the interview below:
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The actor is currently promoting one of the most-anticipated 2023 new movie releases, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. The movie is set to hit theaters later this month, and Harrison Ford will play the adventurer one last time. The fifth Indy movie comes 15 years after Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and it marks the first movie in the franchise not to be helmed by Steven Speilberg. Instead, Logan filmmaker James Mangold is holding the proverbial golden statue of the movie series in his hands.
Ahead of the fifth Indiana Jones movie, you can check out what people are saying about Harrison Ford’s new movie following its glitzy premiere at Cannes. Given it’s the end of Indiana Jones, who knows, maybe Ford will be at the center of another age-old cinematic debate come June 30.
