Written by Mr. Mouseburger 21st Jan 2006
Kindly submitted by Hazmat AGFA
Replicant Roy Batty beats the hell out of Deckard during a long, drawn-out battle (the fact that Deckard survives gives strong evidence to the "Deckard is a replicant" theory).
Having demonstrated that he's more than capable of the sort of animal brutality that's expected of his kind by most humans, Roy does not kill Deckard, instead he gives a poignant soliloquy and lies down to die at the end of his planned four-year lifespan. Roy displays the quality of empathy, and in so doing he embraces his humanity in the very moment that his existence ends.
Just caught the word that this speech was ad-libbed by Rutger. I've always watched this sceen at least 3 times whenever I watch the movie yet again. Ah...Gives me little shivers thinking about it...Have to go home and throw the DVD in tonite.
Nice succinct write up Hazmat. It truly is one of the more emotionally charged death scenes I know of. Yes, a lot of it was ad-libbed. It was also the very last scene to be filmed of the main movie, and they were to be kicked off the set that very morning. You can see the dawn coming as the scene closes. The bird release is a bit of stock footage I believe.
Mouseburger, when you said that you would add "Old Age" (Perhaps "Ironic"?) as soon as possible...
"Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it?
That's what it is to be a slave."
Roy's final speech was not ad libbed...
Years ago in an interview with Whoopi Goldberg (of all people) on her short lived, late night talk show Rutger Hauer discussed his role in Blade Runner. Apparently Whoopi is a huge fan of the film and asked Rutger about Roy's death scene and that memorable final speech. It turns out in the original screenplay Roy was supposed to give a rather long (nearly an entire page or so) speech before expiring but Rutger and/or Ridley Scott didn't think it worked so they cut most of it out except for those few brief but poignant lines that countless sci-fi fans know by heart.
Does anyone have the long draft of the speech?
Couldn't this fall into "disease" too since it was a defect that was programmed in his genes?
THat is an interesting point Schro, but i think we need to keep disease as an organic death.
Mr Briggs - the speech is something like:
[from memory]"i have seen things you people couldn't believe; attack ships off the shoulder of orion. I watched c-beams at the tannhauser gate. all these things will be lost in time....like tears in the rain....[moody Vangelis xylophone chimes]....Time....to...die........"
I meant the entire speech from the original script, it needs to be a feature on the soon-to-come ultimate edition!
Finally found an early enough draft!
[quote=Roy Batty]I've 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 Tanhauser Gate. All those moments... they'll be gone.[/quote]