Heroes, villains and tears in rain – @SPressfield #Writing

Another great post from Steven Pressfield’s Writing Wednesdays took me back to Bladerunner (the 1978 film).

The replicant Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) gives the most powerful, most human speech…

I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.

The words are mostly meaningless (C-beams? attack ships?) but the sound is eloquent. The delivery, the performance is so engaging.

As Steven says,

That’s not a villain speech, is it? It’s a hero speech. It tells us (though the filmmakers themselves may not have realized this at the time) that the villain in Blade Runner is not Roy or his fellow replicants … whose only aim is to survive the four-year life span they’ve been doomed to by their creators, but the idea of manufacturing human-like slaves in the first place. In other words, the villain is Mr. Eldon Tyrell of the Tyrell Corporation—and all those who went along with this concept.

It’s a great reminder that words alone are not enough. They need great delivery.

Here’s the scene:

Leave a reply

** *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked*