The unicorn scene in Blade Runner occurs towards the film's end when Deckard is in his apartment. Reflecting on his existence, the blade runner picks up an origami unicorn made by police officer Gaff.
What is the significance of the origami in Blade Runner?
In the Director's Cut and The Final Cut, there is a sequence in which Deckard daydreams about a unicorn; in the final scene, he finds an origami unicorn on the floor outside his apartment, left there by Gaff, suggesting that Gaff knows about Deckard's dream in the same manner that Deckard knows about Rachael's ...
What does the unicorn symbolism in Blade Runner mean?
From a symbolic standpoint, the unicorn most probably describes Deckard's subconscious mind, in which he yearns for unbridled freedom like the majestic creature, which, however, is akin to a myth in the blatantly capitalistic and autocratic world of Blade Runner.
After Blade Runner, the motif of the origami unicorn had almost become the symbol of the film itself in the wider culture of cinema, but also the central idea of the film in which the fantastic element of the thought-process can become a part of the transformation of a replicant in a human being.
According to Ridley Scott, he is a replicant. According to Harrison Ford AND the original novel, he is not. There are subtle clues in the film that COULD indicate that he is a replicant. The most notorious of which is the little origami unicorn he finds on the floor at the end of the film.
An unnamed replicant—"Hodge" in early versions of the screenplay—killed in an electrical field at the Tyrell Corporation. The sixth replicant was named "Mary" in early versions of the screenplay.
Blade Runner 2049 revealed that Rachael was the first replicant to get pregnant. Deckard is the father, and it's suggested - though never stated aloud - that the only way a replicant could get pregnant is by another replicant.
One interpretation is that the unicorn was simply a message to Deckard to say I know you've got Rachael, but I'll let her live. Another interpretation (based on the script) is that the unicorn is Gaff's gauntlet and he will hunt them both down.
Gaff could have caught Deckard and Rachael, but his sympathy for their cause influenced him to allow them to escape, and that's exactly the type of person Cal was looking for.
Legend has it that only a king could overpower and command a unicorn. If you look closely at royal coats of arms, you will see that the unicorn wears chains around its body and a crown around its neck, which means it has been brought under the command of the monarch.
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.
What does the wooden horse represent in Blade Runner?
On a thematic level, it represents K's yearning for humanity, a soul, and freewill. He wants to be "born, not made." Also, like the film itself, the wooden toy horse evokes nostalgia. It turns out that the wooden horse memory is Ana's and that it was embedded in K's memory as a safeguard to hide her identity.
Deckard's bees are replicants of a different form. They are a shell of their long history, a history much deeper than that of human beings, and one that will inevitably come to a silent end. When the colonies outside of Deckard's desert home die they will not be noticed as they were never truly alive.
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.
What is the mythical origami creature in Blade Runner?
In the film, the mysterious character of Gaff(Edward James Olmos) leaves his trademark calling card of an origami(Japanese paper folding) figure at three points during the film directed toward Deckard(Harrison Ford). The last one, a unicorn, may be a significant clue as to the very nature of his character.
Rachael wasn't a human as her eyes glowed as only a replicant's eyes do and she failed the Voight-Kampff test when Deckard tested her, although it took more questions over a longer period of time for the test to determine that Rachael was, in fact, not a human.
After over 100 questions, Tyrell asked Rachael to leave him alone with Deckard. Deckard determined that Rachael was a replicant, to which Tyrell revealed that Rachael was implanted with memories to provide a cushion for her emotions.
In a 2023 interview, Ford stated that he "always knew" that Deckard was a replicant, but wanted to "push back against it", adding that a replicant (or at least, Deckard) would want to believe that they are human. Ridley Scott stated in several interviews that he considers Deckard to be a replicant.
Still, when it comes time for Roy to die, he flips out and drives a nail through his hand. After this, he achieves the fullest expression of his humanity by letting a dove go and showing mercy towards Deckard. Symbolically, the nail may represent all the suffering and the difficulty he's gone through in his life.
What is the significance of Gaff leaving a unicorn figure for Deckard in Blade Runner? Gaff is showing Deckard that he knows about the unicorn dream that Deckard has had; he is showing Deckard that he is privy to Deckard's thoughts and memories.
The horse, with the inscription "6.10. 21", establishes the connection between the dead female replicant who gave birth and died on 6.10. 21, and K himself, implying that the memories were not in fact "implanted" but are rather genuine after all.
Ana Stelline (Carla Juri), who is Deckard and Rachael's daughter but has no idea of this and now works as the world's best memory fabricator. We don't know if she planted that memory in only K's brain or in the brains of hundreds of replicants, hoping one of them would follow this message in a bottle. Maybe others did.
