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Released in 1982 and directed by Ridley Scott, the dystopian sci-fi movie\u00a0Blade Runner<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>is set in 2019 Los Angeles where the rain never ceases and the sun is always shrouded by a thick curtain of smoggy clouds.\u00a0\u00a0 The film, loosely based on Philip K. Dick\u2019s novel,\u00a0Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep<\/em>, tells the story of a small group of rogue\u00a0androids \u2013 \u201cmore human than human\u201d \u2013 who possess superhuman strength and intelligence.<\/p>\n Replicants were engineered to copy humans in all ways save one \u2013 they lack emotions.\u00a0 But in time, they do, in fact, develop feelings, and thus self-awareness.\u00a0 When they come to realize they are nothing more than slaves for the humans in the Offworld Colonies, they do everything they can to escape and secure their freedom (including killing humans if necessary).\u00a0 Thus, they are deemed \u201cillegal\u201d on Earth.<\/p>\n Hauer\u2019s character, Roy Batty, is the leader of these Replicants who return to Earth seeking a way to prolong their pre-programmed four-year lifespan. \u201cI want more life!\u201d he demands of his creator, Eldon Tyrell.\u00a0 But in fact, his character packed more life into his four short years \u2013 and Hauer packed more life into this one role \u2013 than many ever achieve.<\/p>\n What Hauer captured in this character was the full scope and depth of human emotion.\u00a0 From raw brutality and cold-blooded violence with his opponents to tenderness and romantic, lustful passion with his beloved, Pris.\u00a0 From swaggering bravado to pouting childlike remorse (\u201cI\u2019ve done questionable things.\u201d).\u00a0 From playfulness with Pris and JF Sebastian to howling grief when he finds Pris murdered by Deckard.<\/p>\n At one point, he slightly misquotes a line from William Blake\u2019s 1793 mythological narrative poem,\u00a0America A Prophecy<\/strong><\/a><\/em>: \u00a0\u201cFiery the angels fell. Deep thunder rolled around their shores, burning with the fires of Orc.\u201d<\/em> The epic poem describing the rebellion of the American Colonies against England becomes the esoteric allusion for describing the rebellion of Replicants against their human masters. Hauer\u2019s delivery is as chilling as the freezing solution used by the genetic eye-maker, Chew, in his laboratory.\u00a0 \u201cIf only you could see what I\u2019ve seen with your eyes,\u201d says Roy before leaving him to freeze to death.<\/p>\n As he pursues Deckard up through the Bradbury building, he feels his hand collapsing in claw-like rigidity, an indication that his body is shutting down.\u00a0 He pulls a nail from a floorboard and shoves it through his palm, forcing his fingers back to life.\u00a0 Pain is what keeps him alive.<\/p>\n Then, as Deckard dangles from the steel beam of a rooftop after missing his jump across the chasm, Roy appears holding a white dove.\u00a0 He jumps across to Deckard with ease and watches his hunter struggle to hold on.<\/p>\n \u201cQuite an experience to live in fear, isn\u2019t it?\u00a0 That\u2019s what it is to be a slave.\u201d<\/p>\n Then, just as Deckard\u2019s hand slips, Roy reaches out and grabs him \u2013 with his nail-pierced hand.<\/p>\n He lifts up Deckard and swings him onto the roof in a final act of mercy for the man who had killed his friends and intended to kill him.<\/p>\n In that moment, Roy becomes a Christ-like figure, his hand reminiscent of Jesus\u2019s own hand nailed to the cross.\u00a0 The crucifixion was a saving act.\u00a0 And Roy\u2019s stunning last act \u2013 saving Deckard when he did not at all deserve saving \u2013 is a powerful scene of grace.<\/p>\n He then delivers one of the most heart-wrenching monologues in movie history, ending with these famous words:<\/p>\n But seeing these words in no way captures the heart-wrenching pathos with which Hauer delivers them.\u00a0 His voice is first filled with awe and wonderment as he recalls his adventures: \u201cI\u2019ve seen things you people wouldn\u2019t believe. Attacked ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannh\u00e4user Gate.\u201d<\/p>\n Then, as the heaviness of his impending death wells up within in him, he delivers those famous words:\u00a0 \u201cAll those moments will be lost in time, like<\/p>\n *voice choking*<\/em><\/p>\n tears . . . in rain.\u201d<\/p>\n Pause. A rueful smile.<\/p>\n Vangelis\u2019 bittersweet music enfolds the scene as Hauer\u2019s head bows, dripping, and his grip releases. The white dove flutters into the thundering sky, a symbol of baptism, a symbol of the breath of life, a symbol of redemption.<\/p>\n I was a young teenager when I first watched this movie in the mid-80\u2019s.\u00a0 The sweet anguish of that scene was, and continues to be, a defining moment for me.\u00a0 The truth of his words filled me with unspeakable sadness. \u00a0Our tears are, indeed, indistinguishable from rain.\u00a0 And no matter how we try, the fact is that when we die, our experiences, all we have thought and felt \u2013 all of it will wash away with us at the time of our deaths.<\/p>\n This self-reflective awareness of finitude is one of the things that makes us human.\u00a0 Hauer captured the soul-piercing poignancy of this realization in a moment that is miraculously preserved on film.\u00a0 It is a moment that has been viewed by millions of people who resonate with this drenching portrayal of what it means to be human.<\/p>\n Of course, these moments, too, will eventually be washed away.\u00a0 But for a few fleeting minutes, for perhaps a few fleeting lifetimes, those tears will glide to our lips and we will taste the watery saltiness of who we are.<\/p>\n Thank you, Rutger Hauer, for your gift of tears in rain.<\/p>\n Leah D. Schade is the Assistant Professor of Preaching and Worship at\u00a0<\/em>Lexington Theological Seminary<\/i><\/a>\u00a0in Kentucky.\u00a0 Her essay \u201cSkin Jobs and Snow Jobs: Blade Runner 2049 as Cli-Fi Noir and Race Erasure\u201d is included in the edited volume<\/em>\u00a0Cyberpunk Nexus: Exploring the Blade Runner Universe<\/a> (Sequart, 2018).\u00a0\u00a0In the book\u00a0<\/em>Blade Runner 2049 and Philosophy: This Breaks the World<\/a>\u00a0(Open Court, 2019)\u00a0she co-authored the essay \u201cLess Human than Human\u201d with Emily Askew exploring the concept of illegality in the Blade Runner movies from the perspective of immigration.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Leah is also the author of\u00a0<\/em>Preaching in the Purple Zone: Ministry in the Red-Blue Divide<\/a>\u00a0(Rowman & Littlefield, 2019) and\u00a0<\/em>Creation-Crisis Preaching: Ecology, Theology, and the Pulpit<\/a>\u00a0(Chalice Press, 2015).\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Twitter:\u00a0<\/em>@LeahSchade<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n Facebook:\u00a0<\/em>https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/LeahDSchade\/<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n Blade Runner 2049: 5 Star Review<\/a><\/p>\n Blade Runner 2049: Cli-Fi at Its Best<\/a><\/p>\n Watching \u2018Blade Runner\u2019 (1982) in the Age of Black Lives Matter<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/764\/2019\/07\/Roy_Batty-Blade-Runner.jpg\")
<\/p>\nIt\u2019s the final minutes of the film, however, that have ensconced Hauer as an iconic film legend.<\/h3>\n
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<\/p>\n\u201cAll those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.\u201d<\/h3>\n
\u201cTime to die.\u201d<\/h3>\n
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