“All these moments will be lost in time…like tears in the rain.” — Roy Batty’s Last Words
BLADERUNNER WIKIA: Roy Batty, model number N6MAA10816, is the leader of the renegade Nexus-6 replicants and the main antagonist of Blade Runner. He is very intelligent, fast, and skilled at combat, and yet still learning how to deal with developing emotions. He blew a few of his fellow replicants on what is inevitably a fruitless search for more life. As hope slowly fades away and his friends are eliminated one by one, it is his experience that brings up the question of “What is human?”
The “Prodigal Son ” of Eldon Tyrell, Roy returns to his “father” by hijacking an off-world shuttle with the assistance of some other replicants (Leon, Pris, Zhora, and two others). They then kill the crew and set a course for Earth. First seeking a longer life, then asking forgiveness, he ultimately destroys his own maker. After a failed attempt to break into Tyrell’s home and company headquarters (which results in the deaths of the two unnamed replicants), Roy and Leon had previously been investigating ways that they could lengthen their lifespans by viciously interrogating Hannibal Chew. Chew directs them to J.F. Sebastian, and Pris goes to meet J.F. first. Later on that day, Zhora is killed by Blade Runner Rick Deckard and Leon is killed by Rachel.
Roy arrives the next morning at J.F.’s home, the abandoned Bradbury Building. He tells Pris about Leon and Zhora’s deaths, and is overwhelmed by emotion and barely able to share the news. Learning that J.F. is playing a lengthy game of chess with Eldon Tyrell. Roy shares the winning moves with J.F., who takes him to the Tyrell Corporation to meet with the man himself. Roy and Tyrell briefly debate the possibility of extending the lives of replicants, and Tyrell concludes that it is impossible. Roy asks Tyrell for forgiveness of his sins, but Tyrell seemingly does not, telling him that he’s also done wondrous things; it does nothing to comfort Roy. Roy then kills Tyrell, and then kills J.F. before retreating back to the Bradbury Building. Deckard arrives at the Bradbury Building and “retires” Pris. Roy, arriving moments later, begins to play a cat-and-mouse-game with Deckard, frightening and taunting him until he finds Pris’ body, and he breaks down into tears. Roy begins to taunt Deckard more violently, breaking two of his fingers as vengeance for Zhora and Pris, then encourages Deckard to join him in fits of violence after Deckard hits him with a pipe. Roy then forces Deckard to retreat to the roof of the Bradbury Building.
On the roof, Deckard attempts to escape Roy by jumping to another building, but fails. Deckard is now trapped, hanging onto the roof as his hands slip and he is about to fall to certain doom. Roy then performs an act suggesting perhaps that he has gained the empathy that is the thin dividing line between the Humans and the Replicants: he grabs his adversary and helps him up. Moments later, as his four-year lifespan draws to a close, Roy reflects on events of his short life such as fighting at Tannhauser Gate, and then dies calmly. MORE