ABSTRACT
One of the most lamentable aspects of Ridley Scott’s film Blade Runner is the way in which they rapidly turn into a discussion of whether Deckard is a replicant, when the really interesting philosophical question is what makes the replicants human. Replicants live on earth knowing they are going to die. In Heidegger’s language, their lives are lived as being-toward-death. The reason why death is so important in Heidegger is that only death can make us recognize the importance of life. By focusing on the character of Roy Batty the author has tried to show that replicants express their humanity insofar as their lives are lived in the Heideggerian sense of being-toward-death. If Roy were acting purely instinctually, without reflection, then it would destroy the conditions of intelligibility of the word kinship, which is clearly a meaningful utterance and not merely a groan or expression of exertion.
