Denis Villeneuve discusses Deckard’s true identity in Blade Runner 2049.
With the upcoming release of the Blade Runner sequel, Blade Runner 2049, there is a huge weight of expectation but also trepidation over whether director Denis Villeneuve will make a film worthy of its predecessor. Whilst the film stars the original’s lead, Harrison Ford and is being produced by original director Ridley Scott, there is hope that the new feature will do justice to the original source material, but Villeneuve is also faced with the near impossible task of crafting a sequel to a film that actually has no fewer than five different edits with the Original Theatrical Cut (plus the slightly gorier International Cut), Director’s Cut and Final Cut that have subsequently been made available.
It’s a fair question to ask as the different versions of the film clearly have a defined impact on the question as to whether Ford’s detective Rick Deckard is actually human or a replicant and this of course changes the feel and significance of the plot of the film significantly. So what version is he basing his new film on? Well it would appear that this is a tricky question as the director explained that even he can’t get a clear answer from his discussions with Ford and Scott.
Speaking to Cinemablend he said,
“I was raised with the first [movie], and then later on, I discovered what was the original dream of Ridley. So I really loved his version, too. The key to making this [new] movie was to be in between. Because the first movie was a story of a human being falling in love with a designed human being — an artificial human being. And the story of the second movie is a replicant that doesn’t know he’s a replicant, who slowly discovers his own identity. So those are two different stories. I felt that the key to deal with that was in the novel of Philip K. Dick. Which was that, in the novel, that characters are doubting themselves. They are not sure if they are replicants or not. From time to time, the detectives are having to go and perform [tests] on themselves to make sure they are really humans. I love that. So I decided that the movie… Deckard, in the movie, is unsure, as we are, of what his identity is. Because I love that. I love mystery. That’s an interesting thing to me. I really love that. Again, Harrison and Ridley are still arguing about that. If you put them in the same room they don’t agree. And they start to talk very loud when they do. It’s very funny.”
So we still really have no idea if we will yet get a clear, definitive answer to the question that has been debated ever since the release of the Director’s Cut in 1992, but no matter what the answer is provided, there will always be fan theories and other discussions fuelled by this, all dependent on what your chosen version of Blade Runner actually is.
Blade Runner 2049 opens in the US & UK October 6th.