A scene that really impacted me was when Roy grabs onto Deckard’s hand in order to save him. Does that make him more human or less? Deckard had killed, murdered, Roy’s lover and friends, so it could be considered human of him to want to avenge their deaths. The act of saving Deckard, thus would not be an innately human act because he would technically be revolting against his instincts. However, the other side of this argument takes into consideration why he decided to save Deckard. He felt empathy in that moment because Deckard was now living in the same fear that Roy has for his entire “life”. Also, Deckard was the last connection he had to the world, and if he died then Roy would have no one in his final moments. That need to be connected to someone else, to have someone feel or understand what you feel, that is truly a uniquely human trait, exemplified by the Voight-Kampff test in the movie itself. Roy could not kill this connection, in spite of his anger and quest for vengeance. When Roy pulls Deckard up, he uses his weak hand, the one that he had previously stabbed with a nail, showing his power over humans even at his most vulnerable point. He has the upper hand but he chooses to bring Deckard back to the same level as him. Finally, before Roy dies, he and Deckard are equals, showing that he is as human as Deckard is. His head bows down at the end, relating him back to the machine that humans consider him as, and symbolizing him almost accepting his fate despite the human qualities he has developed.
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Roy’s position as the superior figure in this scene has a drastic impact, as he purposefully brings Decker and pushes himself down to the same level. His humanity is not necessarily defined by the empathetic response to Decker’s near-death spiral, but by the choice Roy made in his saving him. The facial expression that can be scene, especially with the close-up angle, is not one stereotypical of artificial life, being cold/lifeless, but one that deems itself victorious. One can see the internal struggle portrayed on the actor’s voice, and one can see the progression to relief and comfort in knowing that he is just as human as any “ordinary” human being. These expressions exemplify the very thing that the creators did not believe the replicants were worthy of: true emotion. Loss, love, vengeance, compassion. Androids should not be capable of exhibiting these types of feelings, let alone acting on them. Yet, Roy was capable of proving everyone wrong in this final scene.
Rather than view Roy’s final moments as either indicative of his humanity or supposed lack of it, let’s complicate the metrics used in defining humanity and what is human in the “Tears in Rain” scene. As the scene begins, Roy towers over the precipice of the building. Drenched in blood and rain, a searchlight draws attention to his fierce and powerful figure, further highlighted by his super-human speed and strength in clearing the building’s edge and leaping across to Deckard. The visual mise en place here seems to establish a distinct difference between Roy and Deckard: the former, a replicant – more specifically, a monstrous creation; the latter, a human. Furthermore, the camera focuses on Roy’s blue eyes and the blood dripping off his face, again sharply highlighted by the flash of a searchlight. Although his physical features in this scene resemble those of a human, even paralleling Deckard’s, the sum of Roy’s parts appears more fiendish and less human in an experience of the uncanny valley. His smile, too, at Deckard’s seemingly inevitable demise resonates feelings of fear and horror. However, Roy ultimately saves Deckard by drawing him onto the roof with his nailed hand, an allusion to the crucifixion of Jesus that evokes concepts of sacrifice, suffering, and salvation – all incredibly human in nature. Additionally, Roy’s anecdote about attack ships on fire and glittering C-beams challenges the uncanny characterization of his eyes, suggesting that he not only sees objectively but also experiences the world around him subjectively (beauty). His sorrow about the loss of his memories, his hesitation and momentary stuttering, and his resignation that life will fade away also contribute to a more human portrayal. In sum, the scene depicts Roy as complex and multifaceted. To parse out individual elements, then, as either confirming or denying his humanity seems to perpetuate a paradigm of thought in which there is life that is human and there is life that is not. So rather than practice Othering by attempting to understand replicants as universally human or otherwise different, let’s try to understand how the two resemble each other piecewise and thus free ourselves from the human-nonhuman binary.