Harrison Ford plays police officer Rick Deckard in the 1982 science-fiction crime film Blade Runner. Deckard is a former Los Angeles police detective recalled to hunt artificial humans known as replicants.
The film is loosely based on Philip K. Dick’s 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? In the film’s dystopian 2019 Los Angeles, replicants are bioengineered workers who are forbidden from returning to Earth after escaping from off-world colonies. Deckard’s assignment concerns four escaped Nexus-6 replicants.
Deckard’s work is called “retirement,” a euphemism for killing replicants. As he investigates, the case raises questions about memory, identity, empathy, and what makes someone human. His encounters with the replicants, especially Roy Batty and Rachael, complicate the apparently simple police assignment.
Rick Deckard is sometimes confused with Gaff, another police officer played by Edward James Olmos. Gaff is a recurring figure who assists and observes Deckard, but he is not Ford’s character. The film has several edits, including the theatrical cut and the later Final Cut.