Blade Runner (1982) quotes
Director
Ridley Scott.
Cast
Harrison Ford.
Rutger Hauer.
Sean Young.
A blade runner must pursue and try to terminate four replicants who stole a ship in space and have returned to Earth to find their creator.
I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time… like tears in rain… Time to die.
– Batty
Quite an experience to live in fear, isn’t it? That’s what it is to be a slave.
– Batty
You’ve done a man’s job, sir. I guess you’re through, huh?
– Gaff
Finished.
– Deckard
[Gaff throws Deckard his gun]
It’s too bad she won’t live! But then again, who does?
You’ve done a man’s job, sir. I guess you’re through, huh?
– Gaff
Finished.
– Deckard
[Gaff throws Deckard his gun]
It’s too bad she won’t live! But then again, who does?
– Gaff
[Tyrell explains to Roy why he can’t extend his lifespan] The facts of life… to make an alteration in the evolvement of an organic life system is fatal. A coding sequence cannot be revised once it’s been established.
– Tyrell
Why not?
– Batty
Because by the second day of incubation, any cells that have undergone reversion mutation give rise to revertant colonies, like rats leaving a sinking ship; then the ship… sinks.
– Tyrell
What about EMS-3 recombination?
– Batty
We’ve already tried it – ethyl, methane, sulfinate as an alkylating agent and potent mutagen; it created a virus so lethal the subject was dead before it even left the table.
– Tyrell
Then a repressor protein, that would block the operating cells.
– Batty
Wouldn’t obstruct replication; but it does give rise to an error in replication, so that the newly formed DNA strand carries with it a mutation – and you’ve got a virus again… but this, all of this is academic. You were made as well as we could make you.
– Tyrell
But not to last.
– Batty
The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long – and you have burned so very, very brightly, Roy. Look at you: you’re the Prodigal Son; you’re quite a prize!
– Tyrell
I’ve done… questionable things.
– Batty
Also extraordinary things; revel in your time.
– Tyrell
Nothing the God of biomechanics wouldn’t let you into heaven for.
– Batty
You’re in a desert, walking along in the sand, when all of a sudden you look down…
– Holden
What one?
– Leon
What?
– Holden
What desert?
– Leon
It doesn’t make any difference what desert, it’s completely hypothetical.
– Holden
But, how come I’d be there?
– Leon
Maybe you’re fed up. Maybe you want to be by yourself. Who knows? You look down and see a tortoise, Leon. It’s crawling toward you…
– Holden
Tortoise? What’s that?
– Leon
[irritated by Leon’s interruptions] You know what a turtle is?
– Holden
Of course!
– Leon
Same thing.
– Holden
I’ve never seen a turtle… But I understand what you mean.
– Leon
You reach down and you flip the tortoise over on its back, Leon.
– Holden
Do you make up these questions, Mr. Holden? Or do they write ’em down for you?
– Leon
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.
– Holden
[angry at the suggestion] What do you mean, I’m not helping?
– Leon
I mean: you’re not helping! Why is that, Leon?
– Holden
[Leon has become visibly shaken]
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… Shall we continue?
– Holden
Do you like our owl?
– Rachael
It’s artificial?
– Deckard
Of course it is.
– Rachael
Must be expensive.
– Deckard
Very.
– Rachael
I’m Rachael.
– Rachael
Deckard.
– Deckard
It seems you feel our work is not a benefit to the public.
– Rachael
Replicants are like any other machine – they’re either a benefit or a hazard. If they’re a benefit, it’s not my problem.
– Deckard
“More human than human” is our motto.
– Tyrell
[narrating] I don’t know why he saved my life. Maybe in those last moments he loved life more than he ever had before. Not just his life – anybody’s life; my life. All he’d wanted were the same answers the rest of us want. Where did I come from? Where am I going? How long have I got? All I could do was sit there and watch him die.
– Deckard
Fiery the angels fell. Deep thunder rolled around their shoulders… burning with the fires of Orc.
– Batty
May I ask you a personal question?
– Rachael
Sure.
– Deckard
Have you ever retired a human by mistake?
– Rachael
No.
– Deckard
But in your position, that is a risk.
– Rachael
I have had people walk out on me before, but not… when I was being so charming.
– Deckard
You’re reading a magazine. You come across a full-page nude photo of a girl.
– Deckard
Is this testing whether I’m a replicant or a lesbian, Mr. Deckard?
– Rachael