Eyes may play the most crucial role in the film Blade Runner. The subject matter arises numerous times throughout the movie in dialogue and shown in major scenes of the film. But why are eyes so important?
Eyes are used to differentiate replicants from humans. Replicants are so humanistic a Voight-Kampff test is needed to study the eye; The test measures pupil dilation and other eye movements in regards to emotions. Replicants often fail the test because their automated responses are not the same as humans.
I believe that replicants automated responses are different from humans (besides the obvious of not being human) because they lack actual memories provided through sight. Humans remember the majority of their lives because they have seen and lived through an event that produces an emotional response. Replicants, on the other hand, are provided with a myriad of memories that are not their own. Because of this they do not have the same emotional ties to an event like humans. Human bodies have reactions to certain events that we cannot control like pupil dilation. Say the pupil dilates when a human witness's a murder, if you feed that same murder memory to a replicant, the pupils automated response would also have to be fed to the replicant. I'm not sure how exactly the replicants gain their memories, but it seems as though they gain memories through photographs and stories, so there are no automated responses associated with their memories.
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