acting Blade Runner - Rutger Hauer's final scene.

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Aspiring Mogul

Everyone,

I was digging around, and I came across a reference to the final scene when the Replicant, played by Rutger Hauer, gave his death speech, of how his memories would disappear like tears in the rain. Apparently, that scene has become iconic, which is news to me. Can anyone say anything about that? Thanks for your input.
 
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I don't think its iconic because of the exact verbiage. I think its iconic because it shows that machine had become more human than humans themselves. Its the audience realizing something while watching the film. A big aha moment.

All of it speaks to the sadness of loosing life/experience no matter where that knowledge or experience is stored/comes from.

Its the sadness of the struggle to stay alive being futile, like tears in the rain.
 
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First of all? BLADE RUNNER in and of itself is an ICONIC film in its own right and that's not just me saying it. That fact is known the world over.

Rutger Hauer is known best for the TEARS IN RAIN monologue from BLADE RUNNER which he wrote mostly himself. I think the scene is iconic because Roy is originally depicted as the villain of the movie along with all his other now deceased replicant family members. By now, he's dying and in fact, he's about to die any second. He attempts to explain to Deckard the things he's seen. The subtext, which will be different to many and that's the beauty of film and subtext in dialogue; is that he's telling Deckard how PRECIOUS life really is and that maybe... Just maybe? Humans simply take it for granted. He may be a Replicant but as we can plainly see in the film, he loves his family of Replicants... Especially, Priss.

Replicants were built to be nothing more than slaves... Deckard knows this... Which is another reason why he can kill them so easily. No remorse.

Roy doesn't want to die. Why? Because even as a Replicant being chased by a BLADE RUNNER, life is worth living. He's experienced so much in so little time that he wants MORE hence, his visit to Tyrell and even though Roy kills Tyrell, I feel that it's this particular scene that now shows us Tyrell as the villain.

Deckard is just a guy doing his job up until the TEARS IN RAIN scene. To him? Replicants are nothing. Just something he needs to kill. Roy saves Deckard before he falls to his death. In other words, he's proving his HUMANITY to Deckard. That he is in fact REAL and not just some device dreamed up in some laboratory. Deckard INTENTLY listens to Roy before he dies and to me? He finally GETS IT. No matter what these replicants were created for? They TRANSCENDED above and beyond that. They are now as human as human can be.

Which is why Deckard takes off with Rachael in the end. Although, some argue that Deckard too, is a replicant and that could also explain why he takes off with Rachael. The beauty of the film however, is that we simply do not know for sure. Each of us will have our own opinion and I think it's these differing opinions that we can talk about with each other that help give the film and the TEARS IN RAIN scene its iconic reputation.

 
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The good thing about the movie is that, if you take away all the beautiful imagery and had the actors rehearse on an empty stage, you would still have a good story. That's what I look for - a story with a solid structure.

The other good thing is that Harrison Ford, despite his fame, did not let his ego get in the way of the story. IOW, in that final scene, he had to be hanging on the ledge, terrified for his life, until the replicant saved him. Many stars would have demanded a scene where he trounced the replicant and that spoke that scene as his opponent died.
 
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Aspiring Mogul said:
I like that scene too, which, as you rightly said, has struck a chord in me as well. But "iconic" would mean a scene that has become an endemic part of our culture, such as "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn", or "Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore", or "Beam me up, Scotty".
Click to expand...

You may be right. I doubt it's as iconic as those. However, I'm still under the impression …like tears in the rain, which is the heart of the scene after all, has gotten plenty of mileage in the popular culture. I don't know how to go about doing it off the top of my head, but in this day and age of Google and other convenient resources, it may be a simple thing to search, even to find something of a statistical quantification. How many times has "tears in the rain" been referenced or incorporated into music, film, books, or other media over the decades? Possibly more than you think? Or maybe not.

I also wonder: does a thing have to be as iconic as the most iconic things in order to be iconic itself?
 
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