Man and Machine

Technology has completely changed the way people live. Instead of waiting for weeks or months at a time to receive a letter from someone, people can call each other no matter how far away they are from each other. Years ago this would have just been science fiction, but now it is just an everyday occurrence just like waking up. Man’s relationship with technology is one of the most important issues in Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner. Although technology has improved people’s lives, they have become too dependent on it as seen in Blade Runner.

The film’s protagonist, Deckard, is an ex Blade Runner who is forced into service again. A Blade Runner’s job is to hunt down fugitive replicants on Earth. The only way to determine if someone is a replicant or fully human is to conduct a certain test. This test asks a series of questions that are meant to trigger an emotional response. However, to perform the test Blade Runners need a specific machine. This machine focuses on the eye of the subject and notices any slight changes during the course of the questioning. The irony in this test is that Deckard is using a machine to figure out if the person he is questioning is a machine as well. Throughout the course of the movie, Deckard has multiple confrontations with replicants. The only reason he survives these encounters is because of the gun that he is carrying on him. Without this machine, he would have surely died. However, during his confrontation with Roy, Deckard is not saved by his pistol. Roy is the one that catches him as he begins to fall from the top of a building. Yet again, Deckard has been saved by a machine. Except this time it is the very same machine he was trying to destroy.

Besides Deckard, there are other characters who illustrate this dependency on technology. The people that dance with the snakes use artificial snakes in order to complete their job. This is the only way that they can make a living, and it shows how important technology has become in this futuristic world.  It seems like there is no way for people to live in this world without technology affecting them in some way.