10 Ambiguous Movie Endings That Had Ridiculously Simple Solutions

2. Blade Runner

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The Ambiguous Ending: Is Deckard a replicant?

Whenever someone has says they€™ve seen Blade Runner, the first question they€™ll be asked is whether they believe Harrison Ford€™s Deckard is one of the replicants he was tasked with hunting down. There€™s plenty of clues that point in both directions; in one scene his eyes go red just like the androids, but in others he appears to have been around the department much longer than the standard five year lifespan. The specifics vary from version to version, but the film€™s ending leaves this subplot deviously unresolved.

The Simple Solution: Follow the unicorn.

The reason for this ambiguity is the different versions of the film; it wasn't until the 1992 director€™s cut that the unicorn was introduced, marking Scott€™s change in view of the argument. Before then and in the years when the original still aired on TV, people picked up a skewed view of the film. In the end, there€™s one piece of overriding evidence that puts the ball in the court of Deckard being a replicant. Midway through the film there€™s a bizarre dream sequence with a unicorn, which gets referenced at the end when Deckard finds a origami unicorn left by surly colleague Gaff. It€™s not difficult to take from this that Gaff is telling both Deckard and the audience he knows his dreams and by extension he€™s a replicant.

Contributor
Contributor

Film Editor (2014-2016). Loves The Usual Suspects. Hates Transformers 2. Everything else lies somewhere in the middle. Once met the Chuckle Brothers.