In an interview with Wired.

http://www.wired.com/entertainment/hollywood/magazine/15-10/ff_bladerunner_full?currentPage=all

From what I've read, whether or not Deckard was a replicant has always been debatable. Here's Ridley Scott saying in pretty absolute terms that he was:

Quote :

"Wired: Well, it was never on paper that Deckard was a replicant. Scott: No, it was actually. Wired: It was on paper? Scott: Oh yeah. The whole point of Gaff was — the guy who makes origami and leaves little matchstick figures around, right? The whole point of Gaff, the whole point in that direction at the very end, if Gaff is an operator for the department, then Gaff is also probably an exterminator. Gaff, at the end, doesn't like Deckard, and we don't really know why. And if you take for granted for a moment that, let's say, Deckard is Nexus 7, he probably has an unknown life span and therefore is starting to get awfully human. Gaff, just at the very end, leaves a piece of origami, which is a piece of silver paper you might find in a cigarette packet. And it's of a unicorn, right? So, the unicorn that's used in Deckard's daydream tells me that Deckard wouldn't normally talk about such a thing to anyone. If Gaff knew about that, it's Gaff's message to say, "I've basically read your file, mate." Right? So, that file relates to Deckard's first speech to Rachael when he says, "That isn't your imagination, that's Tyrell's niece's daydreams. And he describes a little spider on a bush outside the kitchen door. Do you remember that? Wired: I don't remember the — oh, the spider. Yeah. Scott: Well, the spider is an implanted piece of imagination. And therefore Deckard has imagination and even history implanted in his head. He even has memories of his mother and father in his head, maybe a brother or sister in his head. So if you want to make a Nexus that really believes they're human, then you're going to have to think about their past, and you're going to have to put that in their mind. "

I was always inclined to believe that he wasn't a replicant.

10/1/2007 2:44:46 PM

I thought it was pretty clear he was a replicant. I can't remember why off the top of my head this was clear... but that's how i always felt.

10/1/2007 3:04:46 PM

It's been a while since I thought about it, and now that it's been made completely clear, I honestly can't remember why I thought he wasn't.

10/1/2007 3:09:44 PM

So I guess he's referring to "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" ? I know PK Dick liked to mess with your perception of reality and what it means to be human, etc. but Scott's argument doesn't sound incontrovertibly solid. But then PKD might have liked to just leave a few ambiguous clues around to let you wonder. It's been a while since I've read it, and I can't even remember who Gaff was - maybe an acquaintance of Deckard's who had radiation-damaged DNA...?

10/1/2007 3:10:45 PM

Well here's more of the interview, including him claiming that he was echoing the author's intent:

Quote :

"Wired: Why didn't the unicorn dream sequence appear in either the work print or the original release? As I said, there was too much discussion in the room. I wanted it. They didn't want it. I said, "Well, it's a fundamental part of the story." And they said, "Well, isn't it obvious that he's a replicant here?" And I said, "No. No more obvious than he's not a replicant at the end. So, it's a matter of choice, isn't it?" Wired: As a fan reading people's comments about this, I've come across statements of Harrison Ford saying that he was not a replicant. Scott: I know. Wired: And watching the director's cut, it seemed to me when Ford picks up the origami unicorn at the end of the movie — Scott: And he nods. Wired: The look on his face says, "Oh, so Gaff was here, and he let Rachael live." It doesn't say, "Oh my God! Am I a replicant?" Scott: No? Yeah, but then you — OK. I don't know. Why is he nodding when he looks at this silver unicorn? It's actually echoing in his head when he has that drunken daydream at the piano, he's staring at the pictures that Roy Batty had in his drawer. And he can't fathom why Roy Batty's got all these pictures about. Why? Family, background, that's history. Roy Batty's got no history, so he's fascinated by the past. And he has no future. All those things are in there to tap into if you want it. But Deckard, I'm not going to have a balloon go up. Deckard's look on his face, look at it again now that I've told you what it was about. Deckard, again, it's like he had a suspicion that doing the job he does, reading the files he reads on other replicants, because — remember — he's, as they call them, a blade runner. He's a replicant moderator or even exterminator. And if he's done so many now — and who are the biggest hypochondriacs? Doctors. So, if he's a killer of replicants, he may have wondered at one point, can they fiddle with me? Am I human, or am I a replicant? That's in his innermost thoughts. I'm just giving the fully flushed-out possibility to justify that gleaming look at the end where he kind of glints and kind of looks angry, but it's like, to me, an affirmation. That look confirms something. And he nods, he agrees. "Ah hah, Gaff was here." And he goes for the elevator door. And he is a replicant getting into an elevator with another replicant. Wired: And why does Harrison Ford think otherwise? Scott: You mean that he may not be or that he is? Wired: Well, he is on record saying that, as far as he's concerned, Deckard is not a replicant. Scott: Yeah, but that was, like, probably 20 years ago. Wired: OK, but — Scott: He's given up now. He's said, "OK, mate. You win, you win. Anything, anything, just put it to rest." Wired: OK. Scott: I'm just saying that the hours of discussion that the writer and I used to have when were trying to get it on paper, that it expanded into that, you see. And that's where it all came from. And suddenly you get everyone's opinion and their mother, and I don't tend to have that any more. "

Gaff was the blade runner that got Deckard at the beginning of the movie, drove him around, and made origami

10/1/2007 3:14:19 PM

edward james olmos

10/1/2007 5:44:38 PM

STAND AND DELIVER

10/1/2007 6:05:03 PM

deckard was a cylon

10/1/2007 6:34:24 PM