Rick Deckard

"Deckard" redirects here. For the American artist, see John Silk Deckard.

Rick Deckard
Blade Runner character
Rick Deckard portrayed by Harrison Ford in the film Blade Runner
First appearance	Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Created by	Philip K. Dick
Portrayed by	Harrison Ford
Information
Gender	Male
Occupation	Blade Runner

Rick Deckard is a fictional character and the protagonist of Philip K. Dick's 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, and also the 1982 film adaptation Blade Runner directed by Ridley Scott. The cinematic version of the character is played by the actor Harrison Ford.

Overview

Deckard is a "Blade Runner", a special member (or bounty hunter) of the Los Angeles Police Department whose job is to hunt and "retire" androids, or "replicants", which have been declared illegal on Earth. At the beginning of the film, a group of replicants hijack a shuttle to Earth, intending to infiltrate their place of manufacture and extend their four-year lifespans. Deckard, formerly the best Blade Runner in the LAPD, is called out of retirement to hunt them down. He is reluctant to resume work, but is told he has no choice and must use some of "the old blade runner magic" to succeed.

Adaptation

The term "blade runner" is, in fact, never used in the original novel. In the novel, Deckard is an active bounty hunter working in San Francisco rather than a Los Angeles detective, tasked with hunting down six escaped replicants, called "androids", who hope not to extend their lifespans, instead only to escape slavery on the colonies. Philip K. Dick approved of Harrison Ford's performance, saying that Ford had brought to life a "a genuine, real, authentic Deckard."

Harrison Ford is more like Rick Deckard than I could have even imagined...if Harrison Ford had not played that role, Deckard would never become an actual person. Ford radiates this tremendous reality when you see him. And seeing him as a character I created is a stunning and almost supernatural experience to me.

Philip K. Dick

Is Deckard a replicant?

The film deliberately leaves ambiguous the answer to the question of whether Deckard is a replicant or a human being. Early in the film, it is established that the Tyrell Corporation has created replicants with implanted memories. Rachel, created by Tyrell with the memories of his niece, believed she was human but Deckard confirms this to her by recalling memories she had told no one about. The footage added in the Final Cut shows Deckard has dreams about unicorns. In all versions of the film, Gaff leaves a unicorn origami figure in Deckard's apartment, allowing for the possibility that he knows about the dream for the same reasons he knew about Rachel's memories. Note that not all versions of the film have a unicorn dream sequence and other origami figures are left by Gaff without a corresponding dream sequence.

The purpose of this story as I saw it was that in his job of hunting and killing these replicants, Deckard becomes progressively dehumanized. At the same time, the replicants are being perceived as becoming more human. Finally, Deckard must question what he is doing, and really what is the essential difference between him and them? And, to take it one step further, who is he if there is no real difference?

Philip K. Dick

Actor Harrison Ford has stated that when he and director Ridley Scott were discussing the character prior to filming, they both agreed that Deckard was not a replicant. However, in multiple subsequent interviews, Scott has come forward stating that Deckard is in fact a replicant. Scott also states that Harrison Ford may have given up the idea of Deckard being human.

In the book, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Deckard appears more likely to be a human; references are made to him having passed a Voight-Kampff test during the Blade Runner recruitment process, and the behavior of replicants is more notably different from that of humans than in the movie. However, the book raises the same question in a different way: Deckard also makes use of devices such as a "Penfield Mood Organ" (which allows him to "dial" any emotion he wishes to feel at any moment) and an "Empathy Box" (which he uses to commune with others in the consciousness of an unknown being called Mercer). As such, even if Deckard is physically human, it is not clear that he is human in a way that is in any way recognizable to the reader.

In K.W. Jeter's sequel novels, Rick Deckard is rediscovered by the Tyrell Corporation, who want to use him to retire the mysterious "sixth replicant" from the group he last hunted. (These novels use the character of Deckard as shown in the movie, not the original novel.) In Blade Runner 2: The Edge of Human, John Isidore claims to Dave Holden that all Blade Runners - and thus, both Deckard and Holden - are replicants; but Holden doesn't believe him, and it is also established that many replicants are based on human originals, meaning that a human Deckard and Holden may also exist. This mission ends up leading to further adventures involving various conspiracies between the Tyrell Corp., the United Nations, and Replicant Sympathizers.

See also

• Deckard: human or replicant?

External links

• Marj Kibby [Department of Sociology and Anthropology, The University of Newcastle]journal of interdisciplinary gender studies V1 N2 September 1996:139-146 retrieved 10:13 2011-11-02
• Slavoj ŽižekTarrying with the negative: Kant, Hegel, and the critique of ideology published:Duke University Press, 1993 retrieved 10:24 2011-10-02