In "Blade Runner," Roy saves Deckard's life atop the Bradbury Building. Roy Batty, the replicant hunted by Deckard, reaches across the gap and pulls the exhausted blade runner to safety just as Deckard is about to fall.
The rescue is one of the film's most important reversals. Deckard has spent the story killing replicants, while Roy and the other escaped Nexus-6 replicants have been trying to survive after learning that their manufactured lifespans are deliberately limited. During their rooftop confrontation, Roy could allow Deckard to die, but instead chooses mercy while his own life is rapidly ending.
Roy's action gives emotional force to his final meditation on memory and mortality. He has experienced extraordinary events, but those memories will disappear when he dies. The scene also challenges the assumption that humans are automatically more compassionate or morally superior than replicants. A common mix-up is crediting Gaff, the police officer who later finds Deckard; Gaff does not perform the rescue. The character who physically saves Deckard is Roy Batty, played by Rutger Hauer.