calling into question reality and our ability to accurately perceive and remember it.
These thematic elements provide an atmosphere of uncertainty for Blade Runner’s central theme of examining humanity. In order to discover replicants, an empathy test is used, with a number of its questions focused on the treatment of animalst seems to be an essential indicator of someone’s “humanity”. The replicants are juxtaposed with human characters who lack empathy, while the replicants appear to show compassion and concern for one another at the same time as the mass of humanity on the streets is cold and impersonal. The film goes so far as to put in doubt whether Deckard is a human, and forces the audience to reevaluate what it means to be human.
The question of whether Deckard is intended to be a human or a replicant has been an ongoing controversy since the film’s