The movie Blade Runner is an adaptation of the classic dystopian novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” by Philip K. Dick published in 1968. I just finished reading the novel and I have to say, this is one of the rare cases where it is hard to decide whether the book or the movie are better. So, it’s time to compare them. I will be referring to the director's cut of the movie. I am not going into too much nitpicking details. But:
Spoiler warning. This post contains spoilers for both novel and movie
Points of Similarity:
World Building: both the movie and the novel don’t waste time with exposition and background of the world. In the novel more so than the movie which gives us opening credits. We simply jump on the dystopia train.
General Plot: both in the novel and in the movie Rick Deckard is a bounty hunter who must retire 6 escaped Nexus-6 androids. These androids came to earth together, some of them try to blend in, some of them isolate themselves, and some try to kill Deckard.
Animals: are almost extinct and are worth a lot of money in both movie and novel.
Points of Difference:
Rosen Corporation vs. Tyrell Corporation: I don’t know why the name change. Rosen Corporation felt much more sinister to me than Tyrell Corporation. Dr. Eldon Tyrell has Rachael think that she is human, both in movie and novel where he is called Eldon Rosen. However, Tyrell in the movie dies by the hands of his own creation, he cannot control him. Man killed God, android kills man. The 6 androids want more life from him, something that he cannot give them. Roy is disappointed in his creator and kills him.
In the novel Roy or any of the other androids never thought about asking for more life, they know it cannot be done. However, we can through Rachael Rosen see that Rosen Corporation is a lot more sinister. Their androids seem loyal to them. And most disturbingly, it seems that the Tyrell Corporation doesn't want the police to be able to tell the difference between androids and humans. They try to manipulate the test results and use the fact that people with mental problems can also fail the test to eliminate it. We don’t know why, but it seems that Rosen Corporation doesn’t just make androids because they are useful, but because one day they could replace humans.
Android behavior: the androids in the movie are something special. All the humans around them seemed half dead, while they were full of life, friendship and style.
In the novel they are nothing like it. They may want to stay alive, but they don’t feel alive. Their oddness doesn’t seem childish or eccentric like in the movie, it seems cold and calculated. They are also calculated in the movie in order to achieve their goals, but the way that they treat each other, and their general behavior is less calculated and cold. I felt honestly sad for the androids in the movie, the androids in the novel did not cause me to feel any sympathy towards them. Maybe only towards the opera singer. But, Irmgard Baty took off spider’s legs just to see if it can walk with four, that’s rather sadistic and does not allow any emotional connection with them. And Rachael in the novel was horrid. Roy’s brilliant speech from the end of the movie was not taken the novel. That speech requires a certain amount of emotions and empathy. The androids in the movie moved me, the androids in the book a lot less so.
Empathy: "Voigt-Kampff" test. It exists in both movie and novel. However, in the movie it is presented as a viable test. In the novel it is not so. People who have mental problems, or have been raised in less social places can also fail this test. In fact, it seems that it is not sure that androids can’t cheat it out. It was very difficult to decide whether Rachael was an android. With the opera singer we can see that androids can lie about not understanding the language, the question or finding sophisticated ways simply not to answer. In the novel and in the movie feelings are one of the things that separates humans from androids, it is ironic then that in the novel humans use machines to manipulate their own feelings.
The World: The world in the movie seems over industrialized with no green in it (I am ignoring the ending). It seems like an ordinary industrial dystopia. The opening scene shows us buildings filling the horizon with no end, fire bursting out of some as if they are factories. The opening scene also tells us that there are off-planet colonies. Everything feels very crowded.
In the novel you get a sense that everything is empty and dead. We find out that there was a nuclear war and the fallout killed almost all animals and everyone who lives on earth is in mortal danger and must be tested regularly. Most people left earth for Mars and other off-world colonies. The feeling is of a big empty desert. People can live in a building that is completely abandoned. Although most people prefer to live near each other. They are both dystopian landscape, but they feel opposite.
Characters: There are some characters that exist only in the movie or novel. Officer Gaff and Bryant for example are only movie characters. Rick Deckard in the novel is married to a woman called Iran, there is a higher-ranking bounty hunter than him called Dave Holden and there is another bounty hunter which he meets named Phil Resch.
What do you prefer? The movie or the novel?
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