Rachael's Memory Implants

False recollections designed to stabilize the soul of a machine.

Rachael's memories are implants: the recollections of Eldon Tyrell's niece, given to a replicant who believes she is human. Tyrell describes them as an "emotional cushion": an experiment in making replicants more mentally stable through implanted memories. The implants represent one of Eldon Tyrell's most ambitious experiments in bio-engineering. By giving a replicant a past he hoped to cushion its emotions and make it easier to control.

Quick Facts

Subject: Rachael
Memory source: Tyrell's Niece
Discovery agent: Deckard

Lore & Background

Eldon Tyrell believed that since replicants had such a limited lifespan, they had little time to develop control of their emotions, causing difficulty in managing these emotions. He believed implanting the replicants with memories would create a cushion that would allow for emotional development, and make them more controllable. Rachael has the implanted memories of Tyrell's niece, leading her to believe that she is human. It is not revealed in the film how long she has been living, but Tyrell admits that he thinks she is beginning to suspect the truth of her nature. When Deckard administers the Voight-Kampff test on Rachael, he concludes she is a Nexus-6 replicant since the test takes much longer than normal. Rachael denies it by showing a picture of her as a young child, but Deckard explains to her that she has been implanted with memories from Tyrell's niece. She leaves in tears.

Did You Know?

Rachael is the sole Nexus-7 replicant, given the ability to reproduce by Tyrell.
In Blade Runner 2049, Rachael was portrayed by actress Loren Peta with Sean Young's facial features de-aged and overlaid via CGI.