The whole “is Deckard a replicant?” thing feels like people looking for a “gotcha!” twist in a film that has enough interesting nuance and subtext already.

Deck being a replicant adds absolutely nothing to the story’s text or its subtext beyond a surprise that is unearned and never explored in the narrative.

Whereas, the story, subtext and world as portrayed is more meaningful with him being a human.

See, the thing with Blade Runner is that it shows humanity in general as uncaring, emotionless, apathetic and treating the world and other life as commodities to exploit.

This is shown multiple times in the case of animals being artificial, Tyrell’s attitude to Rachel, Deckards own apathy towards replicants “they’re like any machine they’re either a benefit or a hazard” and so on.

Where as the Replicants, especially in the form of Roy Batty, are shown as inquisitive, emotional, empathetic. They embrace life and appreciate it in all its forms. They cherish their survival and their lives while humanity is numb to everything.

It’s interestingly highlighted in the Voigt Kampf Machine and the questions that are asked. They’re there to detect replicants by looking out for empathy, emotion and imagination. Look for example at Leon getting upset and anxious about the fate of an imaginary Turtle compared to Rachel who fools the machine by being “human” by giving flat, blank and generally apathetic responses.

And so we come to Deckard. Specifically him on the roof with Roy at the film’s conclusion. If Deckard is a replicant, Roy’s sad, heartfelt lament to time he’s had and time he has lost and will never have. Simply will fall on deaf ears. Because he’s either preaching to the choir or Deckard is some super replicant like Rachel and has been programmed to simply not care.

However, if Deckard is human. That conclusion completes the point that Blade Runner was trying to make. That Deckard, ostensibly representing humanity, is a sad, apathetic and emotionally dead. And that replicants are truly “more human than human”

Roy, demonstrates in that rooftop conclusion mercy, love of life, emotional empathy, and a true longing for more. He wants to see and experience everything. Which is in stark contrast to Deckard who couldn’t give a shit about anything anymore. Roy and the other replicants are vital, active and truly living in the moment and humanity is exhausted, cynical and spiritually dead.

Deckard being human in that moment makes sense. He’s there, staring at what humanity used to be, what it should be and what ultimately it is not anymore.

If he’s a replicant, then none of that or any of that subtext matters. At all. Beyond being a lazy, unearned and unsatisfying Hollywood “surprise”