GITS Script Reading and Analysis Series: “Blade Runner” — Characters

Welcome to Week 7 of the GITS Script Reading & Analysis series. This week we will be analyzing the screenplay for Blade Runner (screenplay by Hampton Fancher and David Webb Peoples, based on the novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” by Philip K. Dick), your selection for the Science Fiction genre. If you haven’t had a chance to read the script yet, you may access the 1981–05–15 version of the script here.

Today we discuss the script’s characters. Here is a list of most of them in order of appearance in the script:

Leon

Holden

Deckard

Gaff

Bryant

Rachael

Tyrell

Batty

Chew

Pris

Sebastian

Egyptian

Salome

HT to Anna Kelian for sourcing two links — here and here — with some interesting questions and answers about specific details about the story. Here is an example:

Q: Batty’s incept date of January 2016 means that he should have lived to
January 2020. Why did he die in November 2019?
A1:The margin of error on a replicant’s lifespan is probably the same as that
of any human with a fatal disease. It was suggested earlier that the short
lifespan was a trade-off for increased performance. It is clear that Roy
had exceeded even Tyrell’s expectations, and so we could expect him to
wear out that little bit before his due expiry date.
A2:Earlier versions of the story were set in 2020, but this was changed when
it was decided that it sounded too much like an eyesight test. The date
was changed to 2019, but this inconsistency remained.

See you in Comments to discuss the characters in Blade Runner.

For Day 1 of our analysis, go here.

For Day 2 focusing on structure, go here.

[Remember next week (10/23–10/27), we will be reading The Thing, your choice for the Horror genre. You may access the 1981–03–04 version of the script here.]

NOTE: THIS SERIES AND THE USE OF SCRIPTS IS STRICTLY FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES!

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