Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

This exceptional and influential film deals with the issue of artificial intelligence.  In the 2019 the Tyrell Corporation of Los Angeles has succeeded in producing androids called replicants.  These manufactured humanoids are as close to being human as possible except in their emotions.  Built with a 4 year life span they serve human off-world colonists but have been declared illegal on Earth. 

Harrison Ford stars as Rick Deckard a Blade Runner employed by the LAPD to track down and "retire" a group of replicants who have escaped to LA.  The replicants want to petition Tyrell to extend their life span.  The replicants only want to have a chance at a real life.  They cannot because humans treat them not as life forms but as machines.  Calling them "it" and "skin jobs" helps the humans to dehumanize the replicants.

Deckard meets Rachael at Tyrell Corporation's headquarters.  Rachael is a replicant who is not aware of her nature.  She has been implanted with memories of Tyrell's niece.  This enables her to better deal with her emotions.  Deckard and Rachael develop a bond and eventually fall in love. 

The simple plot of the film is made much more complex by many ambiguities.  Deckard who is actually a replicant like Rachael only discovers this when he finally confronts the replicant leader Roy Batty.  He realizes that Roy and himself are not all that dissimilar and that they do both indeed live in fear.  Gaff, a mysterious police officer who is supervising Deckard, is most likely the real Blade Runner.  Deckard is simply a replicant tool used by the police.  Deckard is possibly one of the replicants who escaped the colonies and may have been reprogrammed by the police. 

The fact that Deckard is in fact a replicant was not made known until recently by director Ridley Scott.  For many years previous it was hotly debated.  Blade Runner exists in several versions, the primary ones being the original theatrical release and the Director's Cut.  The original release included a happy ending and a voice over by Harrison Ford.  The Director's Cut made it more certain that Deckard was a replicant because of a key "unicorn dream" sequence.  This linked Gaff's origami to Deckard's memories.  The end scene of Gaff's unicorn origami shows that Gaff knows about Deckard's memory of the unicorn that was revealed through the dream. 

"It's too bad she won't live, but then again who does?"  The final words from Gaff lead Deckard and Rachael out into an unknown future where they will probably be hunted by Gaff.  In the original theatrical version the happy ending was included that showed that Rachael does not have a termination of 4 years like other replicants and does not reveal that Deckard is a replicant.  They are seen in a car flying off into the wilderness to face a new life together.