# Are the replicants in Blade Runner actually human? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 26, 2011, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-replicants-in-blade-runner-actually-human/607403 "2011-12-26T05:56:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2011, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-replicants-in-blade-runner-actually-human/607403/21 "2011-12-29T21:51:30Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > As for the OP, I don’t think it’s clear whether replicants are _entirely_ flesh and blood, but they certainly do seem to be _mostly_ flesh and blood. They might have some mechanical or electronic components or non-human genetic material, but they can’t be just robots or it would be easier to tell them apart from non-replicants. That’s the thing, though. Any physical object could be scanned for. (Even non-magnetic stuff.) With the technology levels displayed in the movie, MRI stuff should be childs play, and no need for a VK. Full spectrum medical scanners were shown in _Star Trek: The Motion Picture_ being used on the Ilea replacement-droid, so the concept was out there in Hollywood land. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2011, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-replicants-in-blade-runner-actually-human/607403/22 "2011-12-29T22:19:39Z")
> [@Zebra](#): > > The book mentions that in order to collect his bounty the replicant has to undergo a bone marrow test. Right, either they are A: humans (more or less) or they are B: androids who can dip their hands in boiling water with no ill effects. They can’t be both. Anyone whose skin was so tough as to easily withstand boiling water could be detectable without any psychological testing. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2011, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-replicants-in-blade-runner-actually-human/607403/23 "2011-12-29T22:22:16Z")
> [@mlees](#): > > That’s the thing, though. Any physical object could be scanned for. (Even non-magnetic stuff.) With the technology levels displayed in the movie, MRI stuff should be childs play, and no need for a VK. I don’t think the movie gives us enough information to know what kinds of scans could be performed or whether this would be easier/cheaper than administering the VK test. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2011, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-replicants-in-blade-runner-actually-human/607403/24 "2011-12-29T22:48:37Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > I don’t think the movie gives us enough information to know what kinds of scans could be performed or whether this would be easier/cheaper than administering the VK test. I concede the point. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2011, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-replicants-in-blade-runner-actually-human/607403/25 "2011-12-30T01:05:38Z")
R.U.R. Rossum’s Universal Robots. By Karel Capek in 1921. Everybody remembers that the play invented the word robot, but almost nobody knows what it was about (including me until I read it recently). The robots that the play is about are artificial humans, made from a protoplasm-like substance and anatomically simplified to be able to easily manufacture. They are incapable of being told apart from humans from mere appearance, but at first they do not have emotions or even feel pain. In fact, they have a limited lifespan as well and no reproductive ability. Over the course of the play they are given more and more humanity. They are taught to use weapons and replace all the world’s soldiers. They then rebel and kill off every human in the world, except one. However, the secret of their protoplasm is also destroyed so they’re now screwed. In an epilogue, it turns out that the last model robots have the ability to feel love for one another and that magically gives them the power to have babies. Adam and Eve - yes, literally with those names - will repopulate the world. I don’t remember if any biography talks about Dick reading the play (or seeing one of its many revivals) but the coincidences are thick on the ground, even more so in the movie version which discards most of Dick’s boring obsession with animals. The play’s moral is that humanness isn’t about physiology but emotions. If you look at it that way, the replicants are as human as the humans. Or as not-human as the humans, which I think is more Dick’s view of the world. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2011, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-replicants-in-blade-runner-actually-human/607403/26 "2011-12-30T02:14:52Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > I don’t think the movie gives us enough information to know what kinds of scans could be performed or whether this would be easier/cheaper than administering the VK test. For that matter, Deckard is briefed on the escaped replicants and shown production-line pictures of each. How hard would it have been to give those same pics to the Tyrell corporate security people, who could’ve spotted recent-hire Leon instantly? ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2011, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-replicants-in-blade-runner-actually-human/607403/27 "2011-12-30T02:42:45Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > For that matter, Deckard is briefed on the escaped replicants and shown production-line pictures of each. How hard would it have been to give those same pics to the Tyrell corporate security people, who could’ve spotted recent-hire Leon instantly? Seems to me to be one of those plot holes that’s not a plot hole. Tyrell might know full well who and where each of the replicants are, but for whatever reason consider it convenient or less messy to have a captured and re-programmed replicant believe he’s a cop and go off murdering the others, rather than having their human staff go and do the work. “You’ve done a man’s job, sir!” ---
**Author:** ![Theophane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@Theophane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Theophane)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2011, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-replicants-in-blade-runner-actually-human/607403/28 "2011-12-30T02:46:21Z")
> [@](#): > > Are the replicants in Blade Runner actually human? No, they’re biological androids. The movie’s “Voight-Kampff test” scene is meant to draw attention this by suggesting a crucial difference (empathy) in the Replicant’s psychological makeup. When L[eon](http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~syverson/309-fall95/classpage/bladerunner/barrientes/characters.html) realizes what the test is and that he is failing it, he kills the Tyrell employee administering it to him. If anyone disagrees with my assessment, feel free to tell me. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2011, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-replicants-in-blade-runner-actually-human/607403/29 "2011-12-30T03:18:28Z")
I concur with Astral Rejection’s take, though I’d add that possibly there _are_ passionate humans still around - they’ve just all migrated to the offworld colonies. The bummed-out losers who couldn’t summon the energy and pass the physicals remain on Earth, wallowing in its rain-soaked smog-choked decay. ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2011, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-replicants-in-blade-runner-actually-human/607403/30 "2011-12-30T03:28:44Z")
> [@Theophane](#): > > When L[eon](http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~syverson/309-fall95/classpage/bladerunner/barrientes/characters.html) realizes what the test is and that he is failing it, he kills the Tyrell employee administering it to him. > > If anyone disagrees with my assessment, feel free to tell me. Minor correction: Leon kills “Holden,” another cop/Blade Runner. When Bryant has Gaff fetch Deckard and bring him in, Deckard tells Bryant something along the line sof “Give it to Holden, he’s good.” Bryant: “I did. He can breathe okay, as long as no one unplugs him.” ETA: added relevant bit from Theopane’s post. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2011, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-replicants-in-blade-runner-actually-human/607403/31 "2011-12-30T17:03:00Z")
> [@Koxinga](#): > > Seems to me to be one of those plot holes that’s not a plot hole. Tyrell might know full well who and where each of the replicants are, but for whatever reason consider it convenient or less messy to have a captured and re-programmed replicant believe he’s a cop and go off murdering the others, rather than having their human staff go and do the work. “You’ve done a man’s job, sir!” I really doubt that Tyrell Corp. would be inclined to let a replicant whom they employ, Leon, shoot and nearly kill an LAPD detective, Holden, on the corporate premises. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2011, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-replicants-in-blade-runner-actually-human/607403/32 "2011-12-30T17:49:22Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > I was originally going to say I thought of them as sort of ‘organic robots’ akin to Ash and Bishop in the Alien films I prefer the term “Artificial Person” myself. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2011, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-replicants-in-blade-runner-actually-human/607403/33 "2011-12-30T18:54:38Z")
> [@Koxinga](#): > > Tyrell might know full well who and where each of the replicants are, but for whatever reason consider it convenient or less messy to have **a captured and re-programmed replicant believe he’s a cop** and go off murdering the others, rather than having their human staff go and do the work. That didn’t happen in the movie I saw. ---
**Author:** ![camarampi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bc79bd/32.png) [@camarampi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/camarampi)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2013, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-replicants-in-blade-runner-actually-human/607403/34 "2013-01-04T00:15:56Z")
I agree with most of your comments on the film. In particulasr at the start i felt Leon could well respond this way if autistic. Autistics are humans - is the film suggesting some autistic behaviour can be deemed inhuman, preventing people recognising they are simply a minority part of a normal distribution curve? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2013, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-replicants-in-blade-runner-actually-human/607403/35 "2013-01-04T00:58:04Z")
> [@astro](#): > > It dates the movie somewhat re the notion that you can’t tell the replicant from a human being when a simply DNA profile would deduce it immediately if you have the replicants genomes on file, which they certainly should. The movie Bladerunner was released in 1982 which is based a [book published in 1968.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_Androids_Dream_of_Electric_Sheep%3F). > > Genetic ID testing took off with the advent of [PCR analysis](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymerase_chain_reaction)which debuted in 1983. > > The movie was so elegantly done sometimes we forget the science in the movie is 30-50 years old. Trying to parse out whether the replicants were physcially “real” humans or not is going to be an exercise in frustration. Right. Any creature that can stick his hand into boiling water like that has to have different DNA. Which asks the question: why not just test the replicants with a drop of boiling water? ---
**Author:** ![Reyemile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/46a35a/32.png) [@Reyemile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reyemile)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2013, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-replicants-in-blade-runner-actually-human/607403/36 "2013-01-04T02:16:55Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Right. Any creature that can stick his hand into boiling water like that has to have different DNA. > > Which asks the question: why not just test the replicants with a drop of boiling water? Yeah, that scene always bugged the hell out of me. ---
**Author:** ![SirGalahad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/71c47a/32.png) [@SirGalahad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SirGalahad)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2013, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-replicants-in-blade-runner-actually-human/607403/37 "2013-01-04T05:30:10Z")
Read the book way back when, and saw the movie when it first came out … here’s how I explain the Replicants: they aren’t clones exactly, they are assembled from biological “parts”, grown in vats separately. The organs and bones, etc., are mass produced by specialists. Combining the parts results in a being with no parent except perhaps the original cell donations upon which the genetic code for the vat “meat” is based. Since we don’t know what progress will be made in medical and genetic science, we can’t presume that humans, having perhaps had medical procedures involving replaced organs or novel cell or virus therapy, can be reliable differentiated from Replicants. Maybe the tests to identify manufactured pseudo-humans give false positives for transplant patients with “grown” organs or limbs. I wouldn’t be too sure that human tissue couldn’t be resistant to freezing temps, like the liquid nitrogen that Batty reached into, or to the boiling water Priss grabbed the egg from. Again, futurist medical treatments may involve genetic changes in human patients that mimic the altered flesh or tissue of the Androids. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2013, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-replicants-in-blade-runner-actually-human/607403/38 "2013-01-04T06:15:24Z")
> [@Astral\_Rejection](#): > > What leads me to my conclusion is that we don’t really see humans express much emotion anywhere else in the movie, much less during the VK test. The movie mostly features replicants. What actual humans do we see who don’t display expected emotion? Vague references to jadedness aren’t good enough. Who exactly doesn’t emote in exactly what way? Most of the humans we see are hard boiled cops, extras who are given about as much chance to display emotion as any extra is, and Tyrell. They may not be emoting much, but in what way would you expect them to? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2013, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-replicants-in-blade-runner-actually-human/607403/39 "2013-01-04T06:40:13Z")
Tyrell had some replicant in him, mostly in his eyes. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2013, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-replicants-in-blade-runner-actually-human/607403/40 "2013-01-04T06:51:20Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Right. Any creature that can stick his hand into boiling water like that has to have different DNA. There are humans with only human DNA who are insensitive to pain. This recent [New York Times piece on the subject](http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/18/magazine/ashlyn-blocker-feels-no-pain.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0) actually opens with a story about a girl reaching into a pot of boiling water. > [@](#): > > Which asks the question: why not just test the replicants with a drop of boiling water? Seems like it would be pretty easy for a replicant to feign pain in this situation, provided they can sense changes in temperature. They apparently cannot bluff their way through the VK test, though. Even Rachel was identified as a replicant through the VK test, it just took longer than usual. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-replicants-in-blade-runner-actually-human/607403.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-replicants-in-blade-runner-actually-human/607403.md?page=3)