Chapters 3-11

Allison LeBel


"Blade Runner"


Philip K. Dick


Pages read: from 25 to 126




Chapters 3-11
   

Since I last posted I have read and learned so much more about the great Decker and the background information to why he does what he does. We start off with the latest version of replicant technology- which is the Nexus 6 model. Replicants are mostly used as manual laborers in the "off world" colonies out in space. Their advanced nature and tendency towards violence, have forced the replicants to be outlawed on Earth. Specialized police units, "blade runners" are charged with the difficult task of detecting replicants who come to Earth. If found, replicants get executed or "retired." We now know the setting for the story is in Los Angeles, and the date is November, 2019. Los Angeles and the surrounding area have become heavily industrialized, crowded with people and rain falls constantly.
                   At the Tyrell Corporation, a blade runner, Holden is interviewing a new employee using a special device called a Voight-Kampff (VK) analyzer. The machine is designed to detect any physical changes in the test subject in response to questions that are deliberately meant to affect the subject emotionally. After a few questions, the man being tested, Leon, becomes obviously agitated and eventually hostile, shooting Holden- who ends up in the hospital in critical condition. 

                Deckard a former blade runner is eating at a Japanese noodle bar when another man, Gaff, tells him he's under arrest. Deckard tries to ignore the man but eventually agrees to go with him. Gaff flies Deckard to police headquarters and delivers him to his old boss, Bryant. Bryant tells Deckard that a small group of Nexus-6 replicants have come to Earth illegally. Two of them were killed trying to scale a high-voltage security fence outside the Tyrell Corporation. Four have survived; Bryant shows Deckard their files. The leader is Roy Batty, the most advanced of the group. The others are Zhora, Pris and Leon- the replicant who'd shot Holden. Deckard is charged with tracking them down. This is Deckard's big break. In order to keep Iran motivated and happy he must capture them all and save his marriage. Bryant also tells Deckard that the Nexus-6s are believed to be advanced enough that they may have developed emotions, that might make them harder to detect via VK testing. Subsequently, the scientists designed the Nexus-6s to have only a four year lifespan. Bryant sends Deckard to Tyrell Corp's headquarters to test the VK machine on a Nexus-6.
                  Deckard and Gaff fly to Tyrell headquarters. While Deckard awaits Tyrell, he meets Rachel, a beautiful woman who welcomes him and who acts as Tyrell's personal assistant. Tyrell appears and questions Deckard about the Voight-Kampff test, doubting its processes in detecting replicants among humans. Tyrell offers Rachel as a test subject, saying he wants to see a negative test result on a human before providing a replicant. Deckard asks Rachel over 100 test questions until the VK machine finally alerts Deckard that Rachel is actually a replicant. Rachel leaves and Tyrell explains that Rachel is a Nexus-6 and one of the most advanced replicants ever designed. She has been designed to possess memories; however, the memories given Rachel have been culled from Tyrell's nieces or other family members.
                   Deckard's first lead takes him to Leon's apartment. Deckard finds a stack of photographs there, as well as an animal scale. Not far away, Roy Batty is waiting on the street for Leon to return from his apartment. Roy is perturbed but takes Leon with him to a shop called Eye World, owned by a Chinese man, who engineers eyes for replicants for Tyrell. He is confronted in his subzero lab by Roy and Leon, the latter of whom rips open the owner's thermal coat to make it easier for Roy to interrogate him. Roy asks the owner about "inception dates", the date marking a replicant's first activation and beginning of their four year lifespan. The owner, quickly freezing to death (just imagine how painful that would be), desperately tells them that they need to talk to Tyrell about increasing their life spans. 

                  I am confused with how the Nexus-6 actually works... I understand that there are advanced and under-advanced models but I have not grasped exactly what each model does. Also, Deckard is a very confused man. He tries to make choices that will help him improve his marriage and keep Iran happy, when in reality he's only happy because his Penfield is set so high, that he cannot be unhappy.