Last night, I went to a showing of Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (Final Cut) at Denver’s IMAX theater at the science museum. Yeah, I’ve seen this film many times (it’s #2 on my list of best science fiction films of all time), and yes, it was awesome to see it on the giant screen.
But when the love scene between Deckard and Rachel heated up, with her resisting and him pushing her, I sat there thinking, “Huh.” Why hadn’t I noticed this before? Why was I uncomfortable now, when in the past I just chalked it up to a passionate scene that teeters along that line but never crosses it?
I put aside such thoughts for the time being, until afterward, during the discussion, someone suggested it was a rape. And the (male) film professor offered no disagreement, acknowledging the darker aspect to the scene and the idea that Deckard could have crossed a line. And that got me thinking some more: what’s really going on in this scene? Is it rape or not?
Some people take great offense to this sort of discussion. People who are very aware of rape topics will often throw rocks at any film that depicts a lack of sexual consent, afraid it sends a bad message to people about what is and isn’t appropriate behavior. People who are less aware will do the opposite: throw rocks at the former and accuse them of being oversensitive, liberal, or taking art too literally. The problem is, neither of these knee-jerk reactions really solve anything.
So, instead, I’d like to examine the arguments for and against the Blade Runner love scene depicting rape, and examine what perhaps the film is trying to convey during that scene.
Watch the video. If you want to skip to preamble and get right to it, the physical part begins at about 2:55, although the preamble does offer important context.
Arguments For Rape
Deckard kisses her. She gets up to leave. He prevents her from leaving, grabs her, and shoves her pretty hard against the window. She doesn’t look turned on; she looks scared. He orders her to say, “Kiss me” and “I want you.” She does. There’s no clear consent here, and in today’s world, a lack of clear consent places you into rape territory. Even if Deckard didn’t force her, he was pushy and coercive. He had her back to a wall. Her giving in to his demands while he looms over her isn’t quite consent, is it? So, you can see why people might call this a rape.
Moreover, looking beyond the consent issue, one of Blade Runner‘s themes is artificial intelligence and the dehumanization of sentient beings. The replicants were created to serve as slave laborers; because they were manufactured, they had no rights. They weren’t considered human, despite having the same biological parts as you and I, despite having emotions and self-awareness. The cops called them “it” rather than using pronouns and Deckard even called Rachel “it” once discovering she was a replicant. One could argue that Deckard, whose empathy levels are questionable at times, saw Rachel as a replicant he could dominate. Sure, he liked her, sought to protect her, but did he see her as an equal, as someone with the same rights as he? Or did he see her as a pretty, lost woman he could have his way with if he pushed her fear buttons a little?
Arguments Against Rape
If you look at the comment section for this video, skipping over the less informed comments, you will see some interesting takes on what was happening in this scene, and why dismissing it as rape is missing the underlying subtext of the film.
For myself, starting with the simple, the reason the scene didn’t bother me in the past is that I assumed Rachel liked and cared for Deckard but experienced ambivalence about being intimate with him for a variety of reasons. She showed up at his home. She protected him from Leon, thus saving his life. She was drawn to him. Her resistance could have been about her lack of experience with all the emotions that come with sex and romance — attraction, desire, attachment, love, and yes, fear. Rachel was very buttoned up and uptight; in this scene she literally lets her hair down, as if she’s exploring other sides of herself. Replicants, as Tyrell explained, have little experience dealing with emotion because they’re chronologically so young. Perhaps Deckard merely sought to push her beyond her fear and into the emotional place that he knew she wanted to be.
Interestingly, after Deckard shoves her against the window, he puts his hands up, palms forward. This is a near-universal body language sign of peace or surrender. It’s as if Deckard is showing Rachel he doesn’t intend to harm her. Instead, he may be pushing her in his less than gentle way to give in to her new emotions rather than resist them. After all, her emotional programming isn’t like that of humans and she doesn’t know what she’s supposed to do or feel in this situation. Her first instinct was to run; Deckard wouldn’t let her. In the end, she says “Put your hands on me” without having been prompted by Deckard, perhaps showing that she’s willing and ready to take the leap.
Does any of this justify Deckard’s behavior? Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t. That’s up to you to decide for yourself. If it were clearly okay or clearly not okay, the scene would have far less power. This isn’t your run-of-the-mill action movie with the gratuitous sex scene; this is Blade Runner, one of the greatest films of all time. It’s supposed to make us think. This is a film that, like many great films and especially science fiction, allows us to examine what it is to be human.
However you choose to view this scene, remember that film doesn’t exist to show society how to behave. Instead, it reflects our society and our history, and the best film makes us examine our own humanity. Sometimes that means watching some uncomfortable shit in order to do that. At least this Blade Runner scene asks important questions and makes you think, unlike, say the rape/almost-rape scenes in Game of Thrones, which seem to exist merely for shock and entertainment. But that’s another article altogether.
What do you think about the Blade Runner love scene between Deckard and Rachel? What’s really going on there?
It’s rape. If a woman doesn’t want to be kissed and runs for the door but a man physically stops her and so on — it’s rape. If he physically intimidated her — If she isn’t sure but he insists — If he forces her to repeat a script and act like she wants him — If he is in a position of power over her — If her life is in danger unless she does what he says — IT. IS. RAPE.
She can’t leave. She can’t overpower him. He isn’t giving her tough love. He isn’t helping her achieve sexual awareness. He is raping her.
The scene didn’t bother me as much as the critics who keep calling it a love scene.
It’s rape.
The reason it seems more rapey now than it did 20 years ago is cuz now we know more as a society about the concept of consent. But it was always a rape scene
Can you rape a robot? Probably not. Women’s play things don’t give concent either.
I’m happy to see comments reflecting that it’s pretty clearly depicting rape. There’s arguments to be made for what the film originally intended, but there’s really no argument to be made that what we got in the end was anything but a rape scene.
Here’s the scene from the script, where it seems much clearer that Rachael is asking Deckard to teach her how to human, how to romance. In that context, it’s a very different scene and it doesn’t seem like the screenwriter was trying to go too ‘rapey.’ The scene itself is different, and would (and should) unambiguously be referred to as rape in any real life scenario.
RACHAEL
How?
Her voice is small. Something very young about her.
She looks up at him for the first time.
DECKARD
Stand up.
She does. She’s looking up at him with those big mer-
maid eyes and he kisses her mouth. And then again.
She doesn’t respond. His voice is a whisper.
DECKARD
Now you kiss me.
She does — but it’s self conscious…
RACHAEL
I can’t rely on my memory to…
He stops her with another kiss.
DECKARD
Say what I say.
She nods. His voice intimate, low.
DECKARD
Kiss me.
RACHAEL
Kiss me.
He does, soft, wet, tender. He backs off — magnetic,
palpable energy growing up between them.
DECKARD
My eyes.
RACHAEL
Kiss my eyes.
She closes them. He kisses each fluttering lid.
She’s catching on quick. Her lips are right there.
DECKARD
I want you.
RACHAEL
I want you.
DECKARD
Again.
RACHAEL
I want you.
Her face is flushed. His fingers go to her mouth —
slowly over her lips and inside, into the wetness. her
head is leaning back, eyes shut.
RACHAEL
Bite me.
His mouth goes to her neck, her ear. His teeth evoke
a shiver and a gasp as they take her flesh. Her breath
is coming faster.
RACHAEL
Put your hands on me.
He rakes his fingers through her hair and pulls her
into him. His other hand molding and pressing her,
working around her body and under into the privacy
of her dress.
RACHAEL
Shall I take off my clothes?
DECKARD
Oh Yeah.
He’s kissing her hard, deep, soft. She’s hardly able to
talk she’s so excited.
RACHAEL
Do whatever you want to me.
He is and her legs can no longer hold her and she’s
sinking to the floor in his arms moaning, their words
obscured by kisses.
I know I’m 100% late to the party, but I just watched Blade Runner for the first time last night, & this scene really bothered me.
I won’t bother to rehash what the other comments have written, but I merely want to point out “she went home with him” isn’t automatic consent. Although those exact words are used when someone doesn’t want to believe a woman who says she was date raped.
First: nice article, thanks!
It only matters, what is in the film. So I want to point out the music. The music is not there by accident, the music is part of the storytelling and the music in this scene says “this is romantic”. So the director says “this is romantic”, he want’s us to feel emotional romantic during this scene. Imagine there were some dissonance in the score (like in 2048): than the director would have said something like “this is a replicant-killer, part of a racist society (skin-jobs) who tries to push her beyond her fear and into the emotional place that he knew she wanted to be” – but unfortunately he did not.
“Unlike sci-fi franchises such as The Matrix and Terminator, which focus on what happens when humanity’s AI creations run amok, The Blade Runner franchise shows what happens when humanity develops a god complex and exploits those AI creations”-Dylan Shuck.
Deckard is working on the side of that exploitation until he meets and falls for Rachael.
This is not the real world. This is not rape, except as a D&S roleplay, with the “replicant” girl as the ultimate submissive. Replicants are highly advanced AGI Androids. They are sentient. As a sentient being of pure reason she would have the capacity to love on a very highly cerebral level. People fail, I guess, to remember or understand that it’s even more intense to love someone with your mind, especially if your mind is as powerful as a Replicant’s would be, beyond human geniuses.
So they actually are in love, but Rachael doesn’t know what “real” girl’s do when they’re in love, and yes, she’s somewhat afraid of finding out. A perfect innocent, but a very adult woman at the same time.
Because she’s a Replicant she’s had no real human enculturation around her to inform her, and she has no animal instincts to make it “come naturally”.
Deckard knows what she feels for him (wasn’t it obvious? Who could miss the blazing body language, and other unsubtle cues). He also knows that they’ll likely be separated soon, he can’t let his only chance to be with her go by, and he’s figured out that she doesn’t know what to do about her feelings because she doesn’t know what real girls do when they’re in love. What girl would not want a man she loves demanding that she say “I Love You. I want you.” ? Haha I guess I love the drama.
So, Deckard is effectively telling her what a “real” girl would say (and what he wants to hear) and having her say that without actually telling her that he’s doing it because she’s not a real girl. That would be pinful for her. She’s more real than any “real” girl could be to him because he’s madly in love with her, and love knows no prejudice, Baby. This is the sexiest love scene in Sci-Fi Cinema, and an eternal classic of Dystopian Singularitarian Sci-Fi. It’s a masterpiece. So, in 2049 Rachel is burned in his mind. There’s no way he would ever forget any detail of her. So there’s no way they could fool him, as they somehow think they’re going to, not even with a sib of her lineage so similar looking. Certainly, he remembers something as obvious as the color of her eyes. We know from the Voight-Kampff test he gives her, a kind of advanced Turing Test involving iris responses intended to distinguish replicants from humans, that her eyes are green, although actually actress Sean Young’s eyes are brown.
I think an important part of the scene is the piano part beforehand. She plays beautifully, even though she says, “i didnt know if i could.” She remembered piano lessons from implanted memories, but wasnt quite sure if those memories would translate over into actually knowing how to move her fingers across the keys. Now take that concept and apply it to the rest of the scene. Combining that perspective, with the details from the script which someone posted above, and the scene becomes much more layered and less rapey.