10 Best Movie Robots
4. Roy Batty - Blade Runner
More even than Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer’s Roy Batty makes Blade Runner what it is. You’d argue it was Ford’s career best performance too, but that’s forgetting this is the same man who brought Indiana Jones and Han Solo to life.
While Ford spins his rugged magic again in Blade Runner as Deckard, he’s more of a vehicle for us to experience the wonder and the squalor of the world. An existential movie at heart, the true genius lies in those on the outskirts of the society: the replicants.
Batty is nihilistic and violent, but it’s not just mindless, inane bloodshed. There’s an anguish inside of him, a yearning for life that we can all empathise with, but it’s expressed in such a brutish way we’re never sure if he has our sympathies or our fears.
One thing’s for sure: he definitely has our attention, as one of the most interesting robotic creatures ever to appear on the big screen.
His final ‘tears in the rain’ monologue (written at the last second on set and heavily embellished by actor Rutger Hauer) is one of the most poetic send offs in movie history too.