Look up and to the left
In the background there is Cyrillic text which says ‘целина’ – virgin soil, land that is untouched by man. An additional layer of irony is added in that neither man in this sequence is human.
Inside Morton’s house we see strangely dated living conditions compared to the world outside. Another sign of the creator in the created, humanity not matching the level of technology, unable to separate from old roots.
Officer K: “I prefer to keep an empty stomach until the hard part of the day is done”
This is clearly an unpleasant situation which has now become routine. The polite demeanor combined with an implied threat shows a masking of truth on K’s part. Hunting his own kind may have been an ethical dilemma in the past, but now the discomfort stems more from a weariness rather than guilt or shame.
With euphemistic language and an established routine, K has adopted human behavior when it comes to dealing with their mistakes.
It’s Morton who confronts the denied reality:
Sapper Morton: “Plan on taking me in, take a look inside?”
A functioning society requires citizens with a moral compass. To maintain the status quo, a sub class is needed to enforce the rules and ethics of that society. Replicants, occupy this role and serve as the buffer between humanity and their conscience. This contradiction between ethics and morality has been present throughout humanity’s history, and still exists in our future. While technology makes progress, humanity lags behind.
It takes a Replicant that is situated outside of this society to see this for what it is:
SM: “How does it feel killing your own kind?”
K’s response shows a denial of reality:
K: “I don’t retire my own kind because we don’t run. Only older models do.”
Though brief, this line implies a lot: being subservient to a master, following orders, converting murder to a tick on a spreadsheet.
Uncomfortable parallels can be drawn to the Nazis and their ‘final solution’ – mass genocide fueled by technological efficiency and lack of moral responsibility: “following orders / befehl ist befehl.” The defense used by SS officers when they were questioned on their atrocities.
This also connects back to Philip K Dick’s inspiration for writing Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? While researching the novel, Dick read the diary of an SS officer who worked at a concentration camp. In the diary, the officer complained:
“We are kept awake at night by the cries of starving children.”
This objectifying of human suffering to the level of nuisance disturbed Dick so much, that it made him reevaluate the nature of empathy. It planted the seed in his mind for the novel which later became Bladerunner.
K echoes this idea, separating himself from his fellow Replicants as he exterminates them. He justifies this through a denial of reality, his labeling of good and bad Replicants being based on their act of running. However, we later find out that K is also running away from the reality of oppression, only in a different direction.
The irony is striking: a Replicant, that is selling his humanity, corners another Replicant that has become more human than human.
The subsequent fight scene is not stylized. Instead it’s repugnant, with heavy thuds and gasping desperation. It’s symbolic of their two positions – K is the system:
K: “Please don’t get up.”
Morton is the desire to live, strongest when it is about to end:
SM: “…You new models are happy scraping the shit. Because you’ve never seen a miracle.”
Morton is fully aware of what life is – a swinging pendulum. To experience freedom, you must first be a slave. To be joyful, means to have experienced despair. To truly live, you must acknowledge that you will die.
Morton has become truly human, and stands defiant in the face of his creators’ orders:
Submit and obey, else retire.
The look between the two Replicants is telling. It’s a stalemate, with both sides unable to understand the logic or reasoning of the other.
The level of intensity and symbolism is already much deeper than typical Hollywood fare.
And this is only the opening scene.