Blade Runner is a stunning sci-fi film that is made into one, largely due to its blend of film noir elements and dystopian cyberpunk worlds style-defining work in the history of moving images. Director Ridley Scott takes you into a rainy, steamy world full of abysses.
Harrison Ford as Rick Deckard hunts down so-called replicants in the urban canyons of run-down Los Angeles. They are androids that look just like humans but have an artificial core. Of all people most emotional scene of the film belongs to such a replicant.
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Sci-Fi Masterpiece: The best scene in Blade Runner was never actually scripted
Roy Batty, played by Rutger Hauer, appears in Blade Runner as a major villain. He is one of the replicants that Rick Deckard is after. Although he is the stronger of the two and could easily kill Deckard, in the film’s final minutes he realizes that his limited lifetime coming to an end.
In the following monologue, Batty reflects on his life and mortality.
I’ve seen things you humans would never believe…Giant ships burning out off Orion’s shoulder…And I’ve seen C-Beams glittering in the dark near Tannhauser Gate. All these moments will be lost in time, like tears in the rain… time to die.
You can watch the Tears in the Rain monologue here:
Blade Runner – Clip Tears in Rain (English) HD
The rain, the music, and Rutger Hauer’s pauses in speaking: The Tears in the Rain monologue has become Blade Runner’s most iconic moment over time. Within minutes, the android introduced as a killer will receive one unexpectedly human levelwhich makes him vulnerable.
However, the monologue was not planned from the beginning. According to a post on script blog Go Into the Story, Batty had in the first draft of the script no text at all. This came from the pen of Hampton Fancher. The monologue only emerged in the later versions of David Peoples.
There are three different versions of Roy Batty’s Tears in the Rain monologue in Blade Runner
Peoples was hired by Scott in 1980 to rewrite Fancher’s script. He extended Batty’s farewell scene around the Tears in the Rain monologue, but in a very extensive version. You can read the original below.
I’ve known adventures, seen places you people will never see, I’ve been Offworld and back… frontiers! I’ve stood on the back deck of a blinker bound for the Plutition Camps with sweat in my eyes watching stars fight on the shoulder of Orion… I’ve felt wind in my hair, riding test boats off the black galaxies and seen an attack fleet burn like a match and disappear. I’ve seen it, felt it…!
After a further revision the monologue was much shorter, but still not in the form we know from the finished film.
I’ve seen things… seen things you little people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion bright as magnesium… I rode on the back decks of a blinker and watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments… they’ll be gone.
Warner Bros.
Rutger Hauer as Roy Batty in Blade Runner
The final version was created on set. Hauer appropriated Peoples’ words and delivered his own interpretation away.
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 Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain… Time to die.
While Hauer made small cuts, the free ending proves to be his most important contribution: “All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain… Time to die.” The 42-word monologue now ends completely on the mortal, human touchwhich makes the replicant’s death so touching despite its artificiality.
Scott, Hauer and Peoples also address this in the 2007 making-of documentary Dangerous Days: Making Blade Runner. Apparently he should impromptu moment the people on the set even got so excited that they applauded after the recording and shed a few tears.
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