Both Blade Runner and 2049 refused to confirm or deny, and while the evidence for Deckard being a replicant was always compelling, the ambiguity - and the sense even he wasn't sure - is what made the query so involving.
Creator opinions. Harrison Ford, who played Deckard in the film, has said that he did not think Deckard is a replicant, and that he and director Ridley Scott had discussions that ended in the agreement that the character was human. According to several interviews with director Ridley Scott, Deckard is a replicant.
And yet, despite the nature of his job continually confronting him with the truth of how identical humans and replicants are (to the point that some, like Rachael, don't even realize they're not human), Deckard himself displays no concerns regarding his identity.
Deckard was a human in the 2019 (the 1982 film) and through a Herculean effort survived his encounter with Batty and fled Los Angeles with Rachael at some point after Batty's death. Deckard was a replicant and fled with Rachael, another replicant, after Batty's death.
The humans in Blade Runner 2049 fail to look beyond themselves to recognize that they are living with a species not fundamentally different to themselves. Replicants like K are capable of feeling sensations, and emotions, and having thoughts similar to humans.
Why Blade Runner’s Rick Deckard Is Objectively Human | YBOC
Is K Deckard's son?
Because of this memory, K became convinced that he was Rachael and Deckard's child, but was eventually informed by Freysa that he was not and that the child was female. With this revelation, K soon determined that Stelline was the child. K took Deckard to Stelline's lab as she interacted with a snowfall hologram.
I believe that the film is telling us that one does not have to be born to have a soul, for K certainly has a soul, rather it is just that a subject must become a person for it to be demonstrated that a subject has a soul, and it is certainly the case that K is a person…
That seems pretty definitive, but even so – the film remains open to interpretation, and Denis Villeneuve's 2017 sequel “Blade Runner 2049” does nothing to confirm or deny Deckard's replicant nature.
During the final fight with K, after subduing him, she smugly kissed him and retorted "I am the best one!", as if trying to prove her superiority over not just K, but all other replicants, further hinting at her deep-seated insecurities that she kept well-hidden.
Deckard is presumably part of a police squad of blade runners that includes Holden and others. When the film starts, Deckard is an ex-cop – he quit blade running because he was tired of killing, but as the movie begins he is re-assigned to track down and retire Roy Batty and his friends.
Plot. In 2049, 30 years after the events of Blade Runner, bioengineered humans known as replicants are slaves. K (short for serial number, KD6-3.7), a Nexus-9 replicant, works for the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) as a "blade runner", an officer who hunts and "retires" (kills) rogue replicants.
On top of that, Roy saving Deckard proves that Roy believes that all life has value, not just his. Roy realizes that Deckard is in the exact same position he was in, with Deckard wanting to be saved, thus extending his life. Although Tyrell couldn't extend Roy's life, Roy knows that he can extend Deckard's life.
However, he later learns that, even if the memory is real, it was not his own but Dr Ana Stelline's. Through her work, Dr Stelline shared her memory with K, and this allowed him to understand what it was like to walk in her shoes, but most importantly, to believe himself a free, loved replicant.
As K investigates further, he discovers the deceased pregnant female Replicant is Rachel (Sean Young) created by the acclaimed scientist and founder of the Tyrell Corporation Dr. Eldon Tyrell (Joe Turkel) who vanished along with the retired Blade Runner Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) following Dr.
Later at K's apartment, he informed Joi of his conclusion that his memory was indeed real. This overjoyed her, as she always believed him to be special, insisting that he now be called "Joe." Unsure, K sought further information and Joi suggested finding the one responsible for creating memories for replicants.
Her name is Joi and she is an illusion in every sense, right down to her holographic countenance made up of ones and zeroes. But in the world of Blade Runner 2049, nobody is perfect, and she is both the fantasy and reality of Ridley Scott's haunted future made flesh. Digitally speaking, of course.
When K was meeting with Ana and she confirms for him that the memory was real and that it happened, K shows his first bout of strong emotion in the movie by yelling god damn it and storming out.
In short, if Deckard is a replicant he is physically weaker becuase he wasn't designed to be physically stronger than other replicants as that is not what his job requires necessarily.
The big twist in the final act of the movie is that K isn't the son of Deckard and Rachael at all, but just another cog in the machine that might lead to the child's discovery.
Thematically, 2049 is an extension of the original, continuing to ask questions about life, humanity, the nature of the soul, and free will in a world that's now completely past the point of saving. The story centers on an almost entirely new cast of characters dealing with the consequences of what has come before.
K started the movie believing he was made, with implanted memories. He then thought he was born, and that the memories were real. In fact, as revealed by the end of the movie, he was made and the memories were implants – but they were real, implanted memories from the actual daughter of Deckard and Rachael.
Blade Runner 2049's Joi is an A.I. designed by the Wallace Corporation to cater to the desires of customers, telling them what to want to hear. K's Joi is depicted in this way, providing loving warmth when he returns home and when he learns he's might have been born from a replicant, she encourages his wish.
We make people better than others and try to raise ourselves up by putting others down. Blade Runner 2049 shows the other half of that coin. Whereas the first implored us to recognize humanity in others, the second asks us to not try and think anyone is better than anyone else.
