Early in the 21st Century, THE TYRELL
CORPORATION
advanced Robot evolution
into the NEXUS phase - a being virtually
identical to a human - known as a
Replicant.
The NEXUS 6 Replicants
were superior
in strength and agility, and at least equal
in intelligence, to the genetic engineers
who created them.
Replicants were used Off-world as
slave labor, in the hazardous exploration and
colonization of other planets.
After a bloody mutiny by a NEXUS 6
combat
team in an Off-world colony,
Replicants were declared illegal
on earth - under penalty of death.
Special police squads - BLADE RUNNER
UNITS
- had orders to shoot to kill, upon
detection, any trespassing
Replicant.
This was not called execution.
It was called retirement.
Intercom: Next subject, Kowalski, Leon, engineer, waste-disposal, file-section, new employees, six days.
[ Knock on door ]
Intercom (background): Calling Mr. Webber. Please...
Holden: Come in.
Intercom (background): ... report to zone A, sector 9. [ pause ] Replication sector, level 9 - we have a B-1 security alert. Standby for ID check...
Holden: Sit down.
Intercom (background): Replication sector, level 9 - we have a B-1 security alert. Standby for...
Leon: Care if I talk? I'm kind of nervous when I take tests.
Holden: Uh, just please don't move.
Leon: Oh, sorry. [ pause ] I already had an IQ test this year, I don't think I've ever had one of these-
Holden: Reaction time is a factor in this, so please pay attention. Now, answer as quickly as you can.
Leon: Sure.
Holden: One-one-eight-seven at Hunterwasser.
Leon: That's the hotel.
Holden: What?
Leon: Where I live.
Holden: Nice place?
Leon: Yeah, sure I guess--that part of the test?
Holden: No, just warming you up, that's all.
Leon: Oh. It's not fancy or anything.
Holden: You're in a desert, walking along in the sand when all of the sudden-
Leon: Is this the test now?
Holden: Yes. You're in a desert walking along in the sand when all of the sudden you look down-
Leon: What one?
Holden: What?
Leon: What desert?
Holden: It doesn't make any difference what desert, it's completely hypothetical.
Leon: But how come I'd be there?
Holden: Maybe you're fed up, maybe you want to be by yourself, who knows? You look down and you see a tortoise, Leon, it's crawling toward you-
Leon: Tortoise? What's that?
Holden: Know what a turtle is?
Leon: Of course.
Holden: Same thing.
Leon: I've never seen a turtle. [ pause ] But I understand what you mean.
Holden: You reach down, you flip the tortoise over on its back Leon.
Leon: Do you make up these questions, Mr. Holden, or do they write them down for you?
Holden: The tortoise lays on its back, its belly baking in the hot sun beating its legs trying to turn itself over but it can't, not without your help, but you're not helping.
Leon: What do you mean I'm not helping?
Holden: I mean, you're not helping. Why is that Leon? [ pause ] They're just questions, Leon. In answer to your query, they're written down for me. It's a test, designed to provoke an emotional response. [ pause ] Shall we continue? Describe in single words, only the good things that come in to your mind about: your mother.
Leon: My mother?
Holden: Yeah.
Leon: Let me tell you about my mother. [ shot fired ]
[ Cut to overhead shot of city, zooms in on Deckard, reading a newspaper ]
Overhead blimp: A new life awaits you in the Off-world colonies. The chance to begin again in a golden land of opportunity and adventure.
Sushi Master: Nan-ni shimasho-ka? [ Japanese for: "What would you like to have?" ]
Overhead blimp: A new life awaits you in the Off-world colonies. The chance
to begin again in a golden land of opportunity and adventure. New climate, recreational
facilities...
Deckard (voice-over): They don't advertise for killers in the newspaper. That was my profession. Ex-cop, ex-blade runner, ex-killer.
Overhead blimp: absolutely free... Use your new friend as a personal body servant or a tireless field hand - the custom tailored genetically engineered humanoid replicant designed especially for your needs. So come on America, lets put our team up there...
[ Deckard walks over to Japanese carry-out stand ]
Sushi Master: ...akimashita, akimashita. Irasshai, irasshai. [ pause ] Sa dozo. Nan-ni shimasho-ka? [ Japanese for: "Now you can sit here. Come on. Well, what would you like to have?" ]
Deckard: Give me four.
Sushi Master: Futatsu de jubun desuyo. [ Japanese for: "Two must be enough for you" ]
Deckard: No, four. Two, two, four.
Sushi Master: Futatsu de jubun desuyo. [ Japanese for: "Two must be enough for you" ]
Deckard: And noodles.
Sushi Master: Wakatte kudasai yo. [ Japanese for: "Please understand me." ]
Deckard (voice-over): Sushi, that's what my ex-wife called me. Cold fish.
Policeman: Hey, idi-wa. [ Korean for: "Come here." ]
Gaff: Monsier, ada-na kobishin angum bi-te. [ Cityspeak for: "You will be required to accompany me, sir." ]
Sushi Master: He say you under arrest, Mr. Deckard.
Deckard: Got the wrong guy, pal.
Gaff: Lo-faast! Nehod[y] maar! Te vad[y] a Blade... Blade Runner!
[
The meaning of Gaff's sentences in Cityspeak (Hungarian):
So, a close translation is:
Gaff: Shit, man, dontcha say, you're the Blade... Blade Runner.
]
Sushi Master: He say you brade runna.
Deckard: Tell him I'm eating.
Gaff: Captain Bryant toka. Meni-o mae-yo. [ Cityspeak for: "Captain Bryant ordered me to bring you in." ]
Deckard: Bryant, huh?
Sushi Master: Hai! [ Japanese for: "Yes!" ]
[ Deckard and Gaff take off vertically in spinner to see Bryant. ]
Spinner: Yellow 3, climb and maintain four thousand... when approaching pad six...
Deckard (voice-over): The charmer's name was Gaff. I'd seen him around. Bryant must have upped him to the Blade Runner unit. That gibberish he talked was city-speak, guttertalk, a mishmash of Japanese, Spanish, German, what have you. I didn't really need a translator. I knew the lingo, every good cop did. But I wasn't going to make it easier for him.
Spinner: ...final descent, now on glide path, on course, over the landing threshold.
[ Bryant's office ]
Bryant: Hiya Deck.
Deckard: Bryant.
Bryant: You wouldn't have come if I just asked you to. Sit down pal. C'mon don't be an asshole Deckard. I've got four skin jobs walking the streets.
Deckard (voice-over): Skin jobs. That's what Bryant called replicants. In history books he's the kind of cop that used to call black men niggers.
Bryant: They jumped a shuttle Off-world, killed the crew and passengers. They found the shuttle drifting off the coast two weeks ago so we know they're around.
Deckard: Embarrassing.
Bryant: No sir. Not embarrassing, because no one's ever going to find out they're down here. Because you're going to spot them, and you're going to air them out.
Deckard: I don't work here anymore. Give it to Holden, he's good.
Bryant: I did. He can breathe okay as long as nobody unplugs him. [ Gaff picks up a pice of paper ] He's not good enough, not as good as you. I need you, Deck. This is a bad one, the worst yet. I need the old blade runner, I need your magic.
Deckard: I was quit when I came in here, Bryant. I'm twice as quit now.
Bryant: Stop right where you are. You know the score pal. If you're not cop, you're little people.
[ Gaff sets down an oragami chicken ]
Deckard: No choice, huh?
Bryant: No choice pal.
[ Video room - showing video of Leon and Holden, labeled "V.K. 96/W/9-3H" ]
Leon (video): I already had an IQ test this year, I don't think I've ever had one of these-
Holden (video): Reaction time is a factor in this, so please pay attention. Answer as quickly as you can.
Leon (video): Yeah, sure.
Holden (video): One-one-eight-seven at Hunterwasser.
Leon (video): Yeah, that's the hotel.
Holden (video): What?
Leon (video): Where I live.
Holden (video): Nice place?
Leon (video): Yeah, sure I guess--
Bryant: There was an escape from the Off-world colonies two weeks ago. Six replicants, three male, three female. They slaughtered twenty-three people and jumped a shuttle. An aerial patrol spotted the ship off the coast. No crew, no sight of them. Three nights ago they tried to break into Tyrell Corporation. One of them got fried running through an electrical field. We lost the others. On the possibility they might try to infiltrate his employees, I had Holden go over and run Voigt-Kampff tests on the new workers. Looks like he got himself one.
Holden (video): So you look down you see a tortoise. It's crawling toward you.
Leon (video): Tortoise, what's that?
Holden (video): Know what a turtle is?
Leon (video): Of course.
Holden (video): Same thing.
Leon (video): I've never seen a turtle.
Deckard: I don't get it. What do they risk coming back to earth for? That's unusual. Why--what do they want out of the Tyrell Corporation?
Bryant: Well you tell me pal, that's what you're here for.
Deckard: [funny look]. [pause] What's this?
Bryant: Nexus 6. Roy Batty. Incept date 2016. Combat model. Optimum self-sufficiency. Probably the leader. [ pause ] This is Zhora. She's trained for an Off-world kick-murder squad. Talk about beauty and the beast, she's both. [ pause ] The fourth skin job is Pris. A basic pleasure model. The standard item for military clubs in the outer colonies. They were designed to copy human beings in every way except their emotions. The designers reckoned that after a few years they might develop their own emotional responses. You know, hate, love, fear, anger, envy. So they built in a fail-safe device.
Deckard: Which is what?
Bryant: Four year life span.
Bryant: Now there's a Nexus 6 over at the Tyrell Corporation. I want you to go put the machine on it.
Deckard: And if the machine doesn't work?
Next
