The ending of Blade Runner explained

Much of the debate surrounding Blade Runner centers on whether the film's replicant-hunting protagonist, Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), is actually a replicant himself. One main piece of evidence suggesting Deckard's secretly an android comes in the final scene, in which we watch him pick up an origami unicorn made of cigarette foil—disconcerting because, in the "Director's Cut" and "Final Cut" versions of Blade Runner, Deckard dreamed of a unicorn earlier in the film.

We can assume that Eduardo Gaff, the veteran LAPD blade runner and origami maker who orders Deckard around, made the unicorn in question, since origami is kind of his thing. But how could he know the contents of Deckard's dreams? Given Deckard's rather reserved nature, it's hard to imagine he would have told Gaff he dreams about mythical horned horses commonly associated with little girls' fantasies.

There's only one way Gaff could possibly know about the blade runner's dream unicorn: Deckard must be a replicant. Gaff must have read Deckard's memory file—just as we know Deckard read the contents of Rachael's. Director Ridley Scott even confirmed this in Deck-A-Rep: The True Nature of Rick Deckard, stating: "How would anyone have known what was inside his head other than someone who knew what was in his file, that had been implanted in his brain? Can't be any clearer than that."

In fact, Scott's rather testy about the whole question of whether Deckard is a replicant, claiming: "If you don't get it, you're a moron."

In addition to following our protagonist around, Eduardo Gaff also drops another major hint that the titular blade runner might not be human after all.

After Deckard climactically retires the advanced Nexus 6 Roy Batty—or, rather, is surprisingly saved by Roy and forced to watch Batty succumb to fatal obsolescence—Gaff immediately shows up and drops some compensation at Deckard's feet. But that's not all he drops. Gaff also delivers one of the most dissected lines in the film's history when he tells Deckard: "You've done a man's job, sir!" What does he mean?

It's entirely possible that Gaff is merely commending Deckard on a job well done. However, who can deny that there's something awfully fishy about his specific choice of words? It's almost as if he's leaving out the second part of his thought, which might be something along the lines of: "But are you sure you are a man? It's hard to tell who's who around here." In fact, those exact lines were allegedly cut from the original script—which would all but assuredly give Deckard's true identity away.

Perhaps it's reading a bit too far into a single phrase, but given everything we already know about Gaff, it seems there's more to his final lines than meets the eye.

The last major piece of evidence suggesting Deckard isn't a human is tough to overlook. Anyone who's even passively watched the film has surely noticed that the blade runner gets his ass thoroughly kicked multiple times throughout the story, yet seems to heal almost immediately. Everyone knows Harrison Ford is a badass, but either he's even stronger than we all thought, or Deckard is an android.

Let's look at the fights in question. First, Deckard gets roughed up and choked out by Zhora, the first replicant he retires, but is still able to chase her down. Then he gets slammed around by Leon, who tosses him through a windshield. Later, Deckard ends up in a thigh-clamp headlock courtesy of Pris, who tried and failed to break his neck and rip off his nose. He then has his fingers dislocated by Roy, but rather easily relocates them and still manages to climb on buildings. All in all, Deckard remains largely unscathed during his successful Nexus 6 manhunt. "A man's job?" Yeah…right.

Given the fact that Nexus 6 replicants are significantly stronger than their creators and can crush human skulls like overripe cantaloupe, it's astounding that Deckard could survive Pris' attempt at decapitation and de-nose-ification—unless, of course, he's a replicant. What else could possibly match up against Los Angeles' four most dangerous on-the-loose androids? Either Deckard's just one hard dude, or he's a replicant himself—perhaps even a more advanced Nexus 7?

After mulling over Blade Runner's final scene and examining all the evidence, the next logical step in our quest to uncover Rick Deckard's true nature would be to ask the film's director, Ridley Scott. Luckily, he has a definitive answer.

In an interview with Wired, Scott made the bold claim that his intention was to always have Deckard be a replicant, despite what anyone else thinks. "That's the whole point of Gaff, the guy who makes origami and leaves little matchstick figures around," Scott explained. "He doesn't like Deckard, and we don't really know why. If you take for granted for a moment that, let's say, Deckard is a Nexus 7, he probably has an unknown life span and therefore is starting to get awfully human."

So there you have it. If the director said Deckard's a replicant, he's a replicant … right? Well, not quite. You see, not everyone involved in the film's production agrees.

Blade Runner's producer, Michael Deeley, sides with Harrison Ford when it comes to the Deckard-as-a-replicant debate, claiming that Deckard was never supposed to be a replicant.

In an interview with The MALESTROM, Deeley claimed Deckard was always intended to be human—just a more somber, morose human in the vein of classic film noir. In describing Ford's performance, Deeley said, "Well, of course there was the looming issue of here's an actor that wants to be playing in a classic style, which he did, like the early American detective films, that sort of feeling. Subsequently of course, it's argued that he is… a replicant! But that's the theory that I know was never in the original concept … it was developed. Actually, Ridley developed it… he decided this was a great twist but it was never permitted to be part of the [original version]."

Furthermore, Deeley thinks Ridley's twist is just plain stupid. In Paul M. Sammon's book Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner, the producer doesn't hold back: "I never thought Deckard was a replicant, either. That was just a bit of bulls***, a little extra layer Ridley put in. Also an obfuscation. Not only did I never believe Deckard was a replicant, I also thought it futile to try and make him one. Harrison resisted the idea, too. But that was Ridley's pet theory, even if it didn't make sense. Why would you do that? Deckard would be the first replicant you'd knock off if you were getting rid of them. Anyway, just because you say, 'Wouldn't it be funny if Deckard was an android?' doesn't necessarily make it so."

We can argue all we want about whether Eduardo Gaff knows the contents of Rick Deckard's dream, or whether Deckard's durability stems from him being some variation of the Nexus model, or whether the split second his retinas reflect light indicates that his eyes were manufactured in a laboratory… but does it really matter? And does it really matter that Ridley Scott always intended Deckard to be a replicant? The rather obvious answer is a resounding: "No."

Blade Runner's themes run much deeper than simply arguing about the literal nature of its protagonist. Rather than fight over whether Deckard is an android, we're all supposed to question the difference between the blade runner and the replicants he's tasked with disposing of. The film forces us to question what it really means to exist in a bleak near-future of industrial smog, Coca-Cola advertisements, and loneliness. It makes us examine the nature of humanity when robots like Roy Batty are capable of showing more empathy than their creators. It asks us to question the very purpose of life when all of our memories "will be lost in time like tears in the rain."

Finally, Blade Runner reminds us that we'll all die, someday, and to live in fear is to be a slave—replicant or not.