The Story Behind The Shot: ‘Blade Runner’ and the masterful ‘Tears of rain’ monologue

When it comes to the science fiction genre, there are few names people praise more than the British filmmaker Ridley Scott, even if he has handed over the baton to such filmmakers as Christopher Nolan and Denis Villeneuve in recent years. Still, these modern directors learned their craft from the movies of Scott and such visionary masterpieces as the horror classic Alien and the sci-fi game changer Blade Runner.

Set in 2019 (the screenwriters got their prediction a little off), Scott’s 1982 movie takes place in a futuristic version of Los Angeles that’s teeming with androids, aliens and a multitude of flying cars. The story follows police officer Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), who is tasked with pursuing and terminating four replicants who have stolen a spaceship in the hopes of discovering their creator.

A stunning sci-fi tale based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick, the film culminates in an epic showdown between Deckard and the rogue android Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) on a rainy rooftop. While delivering a strange and existential monologue about the nature of being mortal, the fascinating climax sees the sinister android showing his human side, saving the protagonist from certain death before calmly ‘powering down’.

Whilst several moments in Scott’s revolutionary sci-fi are beloved, nothing compares to the adoration that the ‘Tears in the Rain’ speech gets from cinephiles and critics. “I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe,” Batty exclaims with an eerie stillness, reflecting on his life whilst defying his hard-coded want to kill. Though born a cold-blooded soldier, Batty allows the precious facts of humanity to pervade his consciousness, sparing life at the film’s conclusion instead of taking it.

Although the 42-word monologue was written by David Peoples, the late Dutch actor Rutger Hauer made some considerable alterations that made the moment truly iconic. In fact, Hauer went against a portion of People’s work, cutting it short and replacing it with the influential line, “All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain”. The actor later described the original monologue as “opera talk” and “hi-tech speech” that had no relevance to the rest of the film in the Channel 4 documentary On the Edge of Blade Runner.

So emotionally stirring was Hauer’s speech that several crew members applauded him on set, leaving some even in tears. Later, in an interview with Dan Jolin that features in The Ridley Scott Encyclopedia, Hauer explained that his character’s monologue was necessary to “make his mark on existence … the replicant in the final scene, by dying, shows Deckard what a real man is made of”.

Even putting the rich dialogue to one side, the composition of the shot and sequence is also marvellous, with the blue hue of Scott’s cinematography along with the imperfect structure of the surroundings helping to ground this story of androids and architects in a believable reality. Allowing Hauer to take centre stage, the music withdraws, and the pace slows, with the pitter-patter of rain heralding the slow, meditative death of Batty.

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