4. Rick Deckard Gets Most Of The Job Done By Complete Accident (And Had To Be Saved By The Villain)
The Movie: Blade Runner Rick Deckard is your typical hard-boiled hero - a washed-up alcoholic whose best days are most definitely behind him. In most cases, broken characters such as these are still notable for their detective skills, which is exactly the reason why Deckard is brought out of retirement in
Blade Runner to hunt down some renegade replicants. His former boss, Bryant, puts it as such: "I need the old Blade Runner. I need your magic." And although Deckard's magic is mentioned, we never actually get to witness what Bryant was talking about. Think about it. Deckard manages to track down most of his android targets by complete accident - mostly they just seek him out, or bump into the guy by accident. So let's take a look. Firstly, there's Zhora, who - to be fair - Deckard manages to hunt down for himself. He retires her, only to be attacked by Leon. Leon is about to kill Deckard, but is saved by Rachel, who shoots him in the head. Later, Deckard manages to defeat Pris by sheer luck after she almost murders him. And in the famous final scene, the villain - Roy Batty - saves his life. Yes, most of the things that happen to Deckard occur entirely by chance. Though we see him doing a bit of detective work in the beginning, he's still pretty terrible when you consider that he's supposed to be the best of the best - wouldn't one of the job requirements of Blade Runner mean that you could go up against a replicant in a fight? When Leon knocks the gun out of his hand in one move, Deckard just stares blankly. Even when he locates Zhora, she takes him down with a single karate chop. Why didn't he just shoot her? He knew what she looked like, after all.