Beloved film actor Rutger Hauer has passed away at 75-years-old.
Rutger Hauer lives on through his iconic performances, most notably that of renegade android Roy Batty in Ridley Scott’s 1982 sci-fi noir, Blade Runner.
Arguably one of the most sympathetic antagonists in movie history, Batty’s lasting impact as a character largely hinges on his famous death soliloquy.
The setup is that Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) is a bounty hunter tasked with locating and killing “replicants”––androids who have gained human emotions and rebelled against their masters. Roy Batty is leader of a small band of killer replicants and, at last, Deckard has caught him. Deckard wounds Batty, but Batty knock him off the rooftop of a building. Then, just before Deckard falls to his death, Batty rescues him. As Deckard stares at his opponent in confusion, Batty delivers this monologue:
Blade Runner – Final scene, “Tears in Rain” Monologue (HD)www.youtube.com
“I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.”
Hauer’s performance is absolutely flawless, but most people don’t realize that he also changed the line completely.
In the original screenplay, the line was: “I’ve seen things… seen things you little people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion bright as magnesium… I rode on the back decks of a blinker and watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments… they’ll be gone.”
Hauer felt that the line was too much like “opera talk,” so he cut the line apart the night before filming and added the concluding sentiment about “tears in rain.”
The resulting performance portrays a character who, even though we’ve spent the entire movie rooting against him, displays an appreciation for life far beyond the protagonist’s capacity. In his dying act, Batty proves his right to live and the folly of our hero’s entire quest. Hauer is almost entirely responsible for this moment, truly one of the best film scenes ever.
A great artist will be missed but never forgotten.
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