Deckard's Unicorn Dream

The Director's Cut dream that, with Gaff's parting origami unicorn, fuels the debate over whether Deckard is a replicant.

Deckard's unicorn dream is a short sequence in Ridley Scott's Blade Runner in which Rick Deckard daydreams about a unicorn running through a forest. The 1982 theatrical release does not include it; Scott's Director's Cut (1992) put it into the film, and The Final Cut (2007) restored it at its original full length. Taken together with the origami unicorn that Gaff leaves for Deckard in the last scene, it is the clue at the centre of the long debate over whether Deckard is himself a replicant.

Quick Facts

Film: Blade Runner (1982)

Facts from the source article.

The sequence

In the Director's Cut the dream comes about 42 minutes in, a shot of a unicorn running through a forest. It is often said to be an outtake from Legend, Scott's next film, which also features unicorns; in fact it was shot for Blade Runner as additional photography by second-unit cinematographer Brian Tufano. Adding it was one of the main changes of the 1992 Director's Cut, together with dropping Deckard's voice-over and the studio-imposed happy ending.

Gaff's origami unicorn

Officer Gaff makes small origami figures throughout the film. At the end, after Roy Batty's death, Deckard goes back to his apartment for Rachael; as he leads her to the elevator he sees a small origami unicorn on the floor, recalls Gaff's remark that Rachael will not live - "but then again, who does?" - and leaves with her. In the versions that contain the dream, the figure suggests that Gaff knows what Deckard dreams, in the same way that Deckard knows Rachael's implanted memories.

Human or replicant?

Scott has said that this reading was his intent and that he saw Deckard as a replicant. Producer Michael Deeley and Harrison Ford wanted Deckard to be human, while screenwriter Hampton Fancher preferred to leave it ambiguous. Others read the unicorn differently: as a sign that the characters, human or replicant, share the same dreams and recognise their kinship, or as part of a film whose point is that there is no decisive answer. Implanted memories are established for replicants in the film, but it is not clear that daydreams work the same way.