The "Kinship" Question: Rutger Hauer's Answer
by Javier Moreno, exclusive for BladeZone

Blade Runner is a film so rich in contents, be them manifest as in the dialogs or more subtle as in the set decorations, that it gives way to analysis at multiple levels and from various point of view. From the strictly cinematographic study of this film to the most exhaustive revisions of symbolic imaginary, or through the thorough analysis of the characters under the light of psychoanalysts, marxist theory or feminism, there is no doubt that this science fiction masterpiece offers, to those who pay attention, the possibility of watching and listening the very same film in many different, unique ways. More than twenty years after its initial release, it is clear today that when watching Blade Runner, two persons —one sitting right next to the other— most certainly aren't going to get the same out of the film. This has been stressed out to no end thanks to the ample opportunities for communication that the Internet has brought.

The main question of debate that has come out around Blade Runner, maybe responsible in no little part for the achieving of its present cult film status, focuses on the Deckard character. Is Deckard a replicant? And if we assume he is,  is he the (in)famous Sixth Replicant from Roy Batty's unit? Not even director Ridley Scott's "final" verdict stating that Deckard is a Replicant indeed, has put an end to the discussion. Those words were part of an interview Scott gave in 2000 [1], after many years of saying that the intention was always to give hints and suggest he might be a replicant, but leaving no straight answer and keeping the ambiguity [2]. While some people take the latest statement as definitive, others think it reflects the current opinion of the director, which is not necessarily the same opinion he had during the shooting of the film, despite he might think in retrospective that indeed it is.

For some admirers of the film, a point in favor of the Replicant Deckard theory is apparently present in the final minutes of the film, when Roy saves Deckard in the last second, from a long and deadly fall. When he catches Deckard by the arm, several sounds can be heard, some come from Deckard and some from Roy, and amongst them what appears to be the exclamation: "Kinship!" coming out from Batty's mouth. It is indeed hard to discern what's exactly heard in that moment. Some subtitles and captions show no text, some do, and Roy's face is not in frame, so we can't see his actual lip movements. It's such a quick thing that consensus is not possible.

Rutger at his book signing earlier this year.

As a result of a debate on this subject in the BladeZone forums (edit: in late 2004), in which it was stressed out the importance of research and the need of backing up opinions with adequate sources, I wanted to take the issue in my own hands, and decided to ask the only one person who was able to give a reliable answer to this question: Rutger Hauer, the actor who brought to life the character of replicant Roy Batty.

Rutger Hauer has been known for a long time now as an approachable, warm person, not only to the beneficiaries of the Starfish Foundation, which he presides over, but to his numerous fans all around the world. In his web site he addresses the fans and general public to tell not only about his artistic projects and charity work, but also to share stories and moments from his daily life. The www.rutgerhauer.com pages attest to the closeness of Mr. hauer to his fans.

Q+A time

While I thought I had good chances to get an answer, I was ready to wait weeks or even months for it, and I was willing to send my question not one but many many times before it could get noticed amongst all the emails Mr. Hauer gets daily. The following is the transcript of the message I sent. The shorter and clearer its purpose, the better, I thought:

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 Dec. 21, 2004

 Dear Mr. Hauer:

 I am writing you to make a little question. There's this debate among Blade Runner fans about what Roy says (if he says anything) when he catches Deckard before he falls. Some people say they hear Roy saying: "KINSHIP!", while others hear "GOTCHA!" and many more (me included) just hear a grunt noise. Can you help us resolve this? If someone can tell, that's you.

 I know I could fill pages telling you how much I admire you, but I  won't, better keep this short. Thank you very much, and have Happy Holidays.

 Javier Moreno (Centauro)

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To my great surprise, I got an answer the next day. I guess it was a lucky thing that I sent it so near to Christmas, maybe he was checking out the holiday season mail and mine just stuck out. His reply seems to have been written in a hurry, as we can see in the following transcript. (Notice that I dated my message Dec. 21, but the Time Zone difference made it show as sent in the early hours of Dec. 22):

Dear Mr Moreno

I`ll just get this back to you otherwise i forget about it. "Kinship" was never used. Gotcha is a small possibility. Tiny. I tend to remember quite well what i said in my performances. And i hardly improvise. So a grunt is most likely to be there. Bye. Rutger Hauer

Well there's not much more I can say. Mr. Hauer say he didn't say "kinship", and remotely likely that he said "gotcha". The only thing left after this, besides a great excitement, was frustration for not having asked more questions. But then if I did, I think it would've taken much more of Mr. Hauer's time, and was the message to be perceived as time demanding, he might have opted to leave it unanswered or "for later". So that's it, let's be glad that we have this little point of controversy about Blade Runner solved.
 
Finally, I want to point out that as this debate was directly about Deckard status as Human or Replicant, I'm not trying to establish as fact that the in existence of "kinship" is proof for the Human Deckard side. The simple conclusion is that Roy doesn't say what some people thought he said, which proves correct the subtitles and captions an internet transcripts in which no text appear in this moment of the film. Kinship is just a mishearing, and it shouldn't be used to favor any theory on the Deckard question.

Many thanks to Rutger Hauer for his time and kindness to all Blade Runner fans and BladeZone visitors. I'll be glad to have the chance to contact him some other time.

[1] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/825641.stm
[2] http://scribble.com/uwi/br/br-faq.html

Javier Moreno R. © 2004. Edited by Gary Carden