What Is The Future Of Humanity In The Blade Runner

Blade Runner: A Dystopian Future for Minorities Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982) presents an imminent look into the future of the 21st century. A film adapted from the novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Phillip K. Dick, Blade Runner focuses on the struggle of humanity – often accentuating the notion that humanity in the year 2019 co-exists with android-like humans (replicants). The idea conveyed behind Blade Runner becomes additive to the sizable realm of Sci-Fi films that attempt to peek into the future of humanity. With comparable scenery, films such as Star Trek and Star-Wars may seem related, but Blade Runner contains an underlying culture that causes vast separation. A deeper analysis of Blade Runner will uncover the films

Accordingly, there seem to be a set of primary values that float around the plot of Blade Runner, cultural appropriation and a lack of minority identity and representation. On the surface, Blade Runner seamlessly fits into the category of timeless Sci-Fi classics with its star-studded cast of Harrison Ford, Sean Young, and Emmet Walsh. The films basic premise follows the protagonist Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), an ex-cop and self-described killer in retirement, who hunts down replicants – bioengineered beings with superior strength, little to no human agency, and primarily used for labor—in a dystopian Los Angeles during the year 2019. From the beginning, it is clear that Scott intended for this film to fit the ultra-narrative and common perception that we have of the future, kick-ass robots, guns, and flying cars. While those may be the conceptual aspects of the future, the future that Blade Runner paints is an all-white

Is Blade Runner purposefully presenting a future that excludes minorities? The obvious is no, meaning is constructed by the viewers as the director can only do his or her best to conduct a fluid projection of their story. In this case, Scott created a masterful depiction of a post-modern, neo-noir-esque world in which we as humans co-exist with androids. Although the meaning of Blade Runner is up for interpretation, the argument of racial identity and the lack of people of color still remains. While minority culture is displayed through the vast signage and advertisement on the buildings of Los Angeles, and the short screen-time of the casual bystander being African-American or of Asian descent, bad representation is not representation. Are people of color not capable of existing/surviving in the world of Blade Runner? For all of the attention to be put towards the intricacies of the details and plot of the film, the two-hour film does very little to concern itself with anything beyond the depth of the white male protagonists which ultimately sidelines non-white characters. Instead, the film generates the ideologies perpetuated by American history and has now written the future. While the true meaning of racial absence in the film is never mentioned, it preserves the idea of racial hierarchy.