Community in Blade Runner Dylan Frazier 12th Grade

Blade Runner is a 1982 dystopian science-fiction film that takes place in a future Los Angeles where human-like androids called Replicants are believed to pose a threat to human society. Thus, a division of the police known as Blade Runners are tasked with hunting down and killing these Replicants. Blade Runner presents the viewer with two seemingly opposing (but also very similar) communities: humans and Replicants, and the dichotomy between these two communities plays a central role in the film’s plot and overarching themes. Carl Abbott, an urban historian, comments that “[Blade Runner] is a reminder that the essence of a city is not the physical container, but the people it contains,” (Abbott). Indeed, Blade Runner, through an examination of both unity and division, illustrates how relationships exist within and between those who inhabit the two communities of its future world. The film examines the concepts of stability, multi-culturalism, fear, and common ground that exists within both humans and Replicants, as well as that which exists between each community towards the other.

To begin, Blade Runner illustrates relationships within its communities through an examination of unity, division, and structure within humanity....