Gaff

A silent watcher who folds fate into paper, leaving clues only the hunted can understand.

Gaff is a Los Angeles police officer who escorts Deckard throughout his mission. He primarily uses "Cityspeak", a creole of Spanish, French, German, Hungarian, Chinese, Russian and Japanese, which Deckard pretends not to understand. Gaff is never shown participating in Deckard's investigation, preferring to linger in the background crafting origami figures; he appears to have an ambivalent attitude towards the replicants, observing "the other man's dead, Deckard... it's a shame she won't live". Gaff was played by American actor/director Edward James Olmos.

Lore & Background

The sequel novel to Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? mentions that Gaff is killed in the line of duty. At the beginning of the novel, Bryant has just returned from the funeral and expresses his distaste for the Cityspeak written on Gaff's headstone. In the 2017 anime short film Blade Runner Black Out 2022, Gaff reluctantly agrees to hunt down five replicants who escaped from the off-world colony Calantha. In the sequel film Blade Runner 2049, Gaff is questioned by KD6-3.7 in a retirement home, asking about Deckard's whereabouts.