This document provides a summary and analysis of the differences between the novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" and the film adaptation "Blade Runner". It notes that while they share the core concept of a bounty hunter pursuing escaped humanoid robots, the film changed many aspects of the novel to reflect different historical contexts and the capabilities of different mediums. Some key differences discussed include the post-apocalyptic setting of the novel versus the overpopulated megacity of the film, and the more sympathetic and humanizing portrayal of androids in the film compared to the novel. The document analyzes how these changes reflected the differing fears and societal issues of when each work was created.

1. Patrick McGerr
6/29/12
The Historical and Artistic Contexts of the Similarities and Differences of
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and Blade Runner
Twenty-four years after Philip K. Dick’s science fiction novel Do Androids Dream
of Electric Sheep? was published in 1968, Ridley Scott’s film adaptation, Blade Runner,
was first watched by moviegoers. Those who had read the novel would have noticed
major differences between Dick’s original work and Scott’s cinematic interpretation.
While Blade Runner maintained the core concept of a bounty hunter pursuing and
“retiring” escaped humanoid robots, many aspects of the book were changed or done
away with entirely. These differences reflect not only the different challenges and
capabilities of filmmaking versus literature and the expectations of their audiences, but
also the different historical contexts in which the book and the film were made. As is so
often the case, these elements are interconnected, each affecting the other. These
differing contexts are evidenced by the differences in the light in which androids are
viewed, the focus or lack thereof on the environment, the social settings, and the general
states of the worlds created by Philip K. Dick and Ridley Scott. Though they use
somewhat different means, the novel and film both raise important questions about the
relationship of human beings to technology and the definition of what it is to be human.

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One of the chief differences between Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and
Blade Runner is the state of the world in which the story takes place. In Do Androids
Dream of Electric Sheep?, Earth has been ravaged and irradiated by a global nuclear war.
Humanity’s numbers have vastly dwindled due to the initial war and the resulting
fallout. Earth’s post-war government encourages people to emigrate to off-world
colonies in an effort to preserve humanity and its genes. Those who remain on Earth
stick together in cities, gradually succumbing to radiation poisoning, their genes
warped by radioactive dust; yet they attempt to maintain traditions they associate with
pre-war life (such as neighborly conversations and attending the opera). Blade Runner,
on the other hand, takes place in a vastly different world. There is no mention of any
devastating nuclear conflict, no fallout poisoning the Earth’s occupants. Instead of a
desperate bid to maintain the human race, overpopulation and a desire for a better life
fuel extra-terrestrial colonization efforts. Instead of the novel’s cities in ruins, Blade
Runner takes place in a futuristic, dystopic megacity.
These different views of the future of the Earth and human society represent the
very different historical contexts in which the two works were created. When Philip K.
Dick wrote Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? in the 1960s, the world seemed as if it
were on the brink of destruction. The Cold War with the Soviet Union was at its coldest
and seemed as if it could turn hot at any minute. Though the Cuban missile crisis had
not resulted in nuclear war, the Vietnam War raged on and nuclear weapons

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proliferated. The specter of nuclear devastation constantly hung over the heads of
Americans, who could do nothing but hope that no leader would make a rash decision,
for it would almost surely mean that the other side would respond and doom the
world. This was the prevailing fear of the time, one seemingly shared by Dick and his
audience and projected onto his novel: for example, the narrator describes the
devastation brought about by nuclear war as coming about, despite the predictions of
the Rand Corporation and Pentagon (444), whose leaders supported the military
strategy of nuclear deterrence through mutually assured destruction. A post-nuclear
environment seemed like an eminently realistic eventuality and would have been
immensely effective and compelling for readers of the time.
Fast forward to the 1980s, when Blade Runner was made and released, and the
state of affairs had changed dramatically. The war in Vietnam was over and relations
between the United States and the Soviet Union, while not cordial by any means, were
improving. Nuclear destruction through world war seemed much less likely and no
longer weighed as heavily on the American consciousness. Nevertheless, technology
was developing at an ever-increasing pace. Americans began to take note of and
perhaps even fear a resurgent, Westernized Japan, whose economy was gaining
strength on the back of technological advancements and international trade, and some
Americans began to worry that Japan might gain economic supremacy. Cities around
the world grew larger than ever, and concerns about pollution and overpopulation

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increased. These real world conditions are reflected in the setting of Blade Runner. The
nuclear-war ravaged, crumbling cities of the novel are replaced by a vast, dystopic
megacity. While the rich upper-class business magnates, like Eldon Tyrell, live in
comfort high above the city, the less fortunate masses live lower down on the pollution-
filled, overcrowded streets. While massive Asian corporations don’t play a major role in
the film as they do in other movies of the time such as Die Hard or Alien, another of
Ridley Scott’s works, there is a definite Asian presence in this film. As the camera
sweeps down on the streets of the megacity, it appears that a large portion of the
denizens are of Asian descent. We also see Rick Deckard partaking of a meal at an
Asian eatery, which appears to be typical of the kind of food offerings of this megacity.
Even the language spoken on the streets, known as Cityspeak, is a mixture of languages
including Japanese and Chinese. Gaff, a character the film presents as a sort of opposite
of Deckard, mainly speaks Cityspeak and makes origami figures, a traditionally
Japanese practice. The stereotype of Asian technological prowess is demonstrated most
clearly in the film by the character of Mr. Chew, the scientist who designs the eyes of
the Nexus-6 androids. The film presents technology as international, however, with
other parts of the android bodies designed by J. F. Sebastian and Eldon Tyrell.
Another major difference between the novel and its film adaptation is the way in
which androids, and by extension technology as a whole, are depicted and viewed by
the audience. In Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, androids are viewed as extremely

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dangerous, with no real redeeming qualities. They are revealed to be getting smarter
and harder to detect, with the androids that Deckard must retire being the most
advanced yet. One seriously injures Deckard’s superior, the senior bounty hunter Dave
Holden (495). Deckard himself is later attacked by the same android, who pretends to
be a Soviet police officer, before Deckard manages to kill him instead (500-501). Deckard
is also outsmarted by one of the androids who gets her comrades to arrest him and take
him to a phantom police station run by androids (510-13). Androids are portrayed as
being entirely without empathy, almost to a comical extent, such as when Pris Stratton
cuts off a spider’s legs, just to see how it will react (581), even though animals are
cherished by this society because of their increasing extinction: even human beings
considered marginalized from society (such as J. R. Isidore) because their genes have
been degraded by the radiation retain empathy for animals (549). The only life the
androids seem to truly care about is their own. This lack of empathy is particularly
damning in a novel that posits empathy as the key difference between humans and
androids, as evidenced by the Voigt-Kampff test, which measures empathetic responses
to determine whether someone is human so that the android hunters like Deckard will
not “retire” a human being by mistake (455). Nor can androids use empathy boxes,
which connect humans by allowing them to share suffering. Rachael Rosen, an android
legally on Earth, offers to help Deckard track down his target androids and has sex with
him, but turns out to only be doing it for the good of the company that made her. The

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fact that the android Pris Stratton looks exactly like Rachael Rosen further takes any sort
of human uniqueness away from Rachael.
This contrasts rather sharply with the way androids are presented in Blade
Runner. They are still undoubtedly violent, as evidenced by Leon’s killing of his
interrogator and Roy Batty’s brutal murder of Eldon Tyrell. But, unlike the androids in
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, the androids in the film have redeeming qualities
that elicit some favor with viewers. These androids demonstrate a definite sense of
kinship among them: as we see in Leon’s response to Zhora’s death and Roy’s response
to Leon and Zhora’s deaths, the androids are fiercely loyal to one another and mourn
their deaths. Yet the android Rachael also saves Deckard’s life by killing another
android. What is even more striking is the way in which the film engages the audience
in focusing on the details of their deaths. While the deaths of the androids in Do
Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? are dealt with rather matter-of-factly and celebrated by
Deckard and his colleagues, their deaths in Blade Runner seem to carry more
importance. When Deckard kills Zhora, her death is slowed down as she breaks
through pane after pane of glass. It almost seems a tragedy that Deckard defeats her. He
certainly isn’t shown to be happy about it. In addition, the character of Rachael is very
different in Blade Runner. She seems to genuinely care about Deckard and even saves
him from death at the hands of Leon. Nevertheless, Roy Batty demonstrates the most
stark difference in the depiction of the androids in the film. While he is the most

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dangerous and brutal of the androids, Roy seems to evolve at the end of the film and is
depicted in a very positive light. When he chases Deckard, Batty demonstrates his
absolute physical superiority; yet the film also associates him with spirituality and
empathy. For example, during the chase, Batty gets a nail stuck through his hand,
firmly recalling images of Christ. In addition, though Batty captures a dove, he does not
kill it or torture it, as androids did in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. In the most
powerful example of empathy in the film, Roy saves Deckard from falling to his death,
even though he had wanted to kill Deckard just minutes before. In a final speech, Roy
tells Deckard that he has “seen things you people wouldn’t believe,” perhaps implying
that Roy has accomplished more than most humans. As Roy dies due to the flaw built
into most androids, the dove escapes his grasp, flying up into the sky, evoking imagery
of a soul ascending to heaven at a human being’s death. Overall, Blade Runner seems to
depict androids, and by extension technology, in a much more positive light than Dick’s
novel provides.
This major difference in the depiction of the androids and attitude towards
technology can also be explained in the context of the time in which the works were
created. When Dick was writing the novel in the 1960s, Americans had very complex
feelings about technology. While they appreciated many of the benefits that the
improving technology brought, Americans were quite apprehensive about some of its
negative effects and how they would affect society in the future. At this time, the

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ultimate example of advanced technology just happened to be the very thing that
caused them the most anxiety: the atomic bomb. Technology had provided a way for
man to destroy the world. People were also concerned that technology was making life
more and more artificial. This apprehension is reflected in Do Androids Dream of Electric
Sheep?. Technology has proliferated and taken over much of life. For example, since
human emotions can be controlled by a dial on a Penfield mood organ (436), people’s
moods and desires seem to have become artificial, rather than a mark of their human
nature. With the advent of advanced androids, humans in the novel seem even less
different from artificial life, which causes them anxiety and leads to attempts by the
police to find better tests in order to identify the androids.
By the 1980s, however, our understanding of technology had greatly developed
and many Americans’ fears had been assuaged. Humans were very much still people
and society remained very much the same. Technology had not replaced human life, as
people feared, but instead had been shown to be quite beneficial in prolonging it and
making it easier. This less-anxious attitude is reflected in the film’s more positive view
of the androids and the less dangerous depiction of technology as a whole in the film.
Another notable difference between the novel and the film is the significant role
that animals and pet ownership plays in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, while
animals hardly feature at all in Blade Runner. In Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, the
animal population of the world has been decimated by the nuclear war. Most of those

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who survived the initial blasts succumbed to radiation or the destruction of their
habitats. As a result, animals are very rare and are cherished by the remaining humans
on Earth. Consequently, owning and caring for a pet is seen as a sign of one’s status and
important for emotional fulfillment. Those who cannot afford a real animal often resort
to purchasing robotic imitations of animals and going through the rituals of caring for
the synthetic animal. At the start of the novel, Deckard owns a fake sheep that he
bought to hide that his real one had died. He longs for another real animal and takes on
the job of killing the escaped androids in hopes of getting the funds to buy one. His
purchase of a live goat ends tragically when Rachael kills the animal in retaliation for
the killing of the other androids.
In Blade Runner, on the other hand, the animal element disappears almost
entirely. Deckard has no pet to care for. The audience only sees two or three animals
over the course of the entire film, and only one is real. At the Tyrell Corporation
building, Deckard encounters an owl and enquires whether it is artificial, to which
Rachael replies, “Of course it is,” implying that most animals are artificial. This is
reinforced when Deckard visits a synthetic animal maker. The one seemingly real
animal that appears in the film is the dove that Roy Batty grabs. In this case, however,
the android’s care for the animal seems more empathetic than the care shown by
humans.

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Again, one needs to look at the context of the times. When Dick wrote Do
Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? in the 1960s, the United States was in the midst of the
first real push for greater environmental responsibility. In 1962, Rachel Carson’s Silent
Spring was published, revealing the effects of pesticides on the environment, and on
birds in particular. This began to open Americans’ eyes to the dangers of animal
extinction and would eventually lead to the banning of the pesticide DDT. When Do
Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? was published in 1968, such concerns were firmly
planted in American society. Dick reflected this in his novel, warning of a time when
animals could no longer be taken for granted. When Blade Runner was released in the
1980s, many of these concerns remained, yet they were not as fresh in American culture.
Furthermore, Scott had to contend with the time and story limitations of Hollywood
film. While animals played an important role in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?,
they were not the most crucial aspect that Scott chose to highlight. As a result, animals
have a much more diminished presence in Blade Runner, as they would have required
more time and actually taken away from the main narrative of the film: Deckard’s
pursuit of the androids. While animals might receive less focus, environmental concerns
are touched upon in the film. Visuals of dirty streets and fiery smokestacks above a
grimy Los Angeles remind viewers that pollution is a very real issue, and is one of the
contributing factors to colonization efforts.

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We can see a particularly striking example of the role of medium in the
differences between the novel and film in the way that the film highlights the role of
vision and its place in concepts of human nature. Though the novel refers to measuring
eye responses in the test that blade runners use to distinguish human beings from
replicants, the film shows many close-up shots of eyes during the scenes that depict this
testing and in other scenes as well. The references to eyes and differences between
human and non-human vision expand in the film’s plot and imagery. The film adds the
character of the designer of android eyes, Hannibal Chew, and shows his workshop,
when the androids visit it and discuss a flaw in his design. While there, Roy plays with
the artificial eyes and also comments on what he has seen through Chew’s eyes, playing
on the question of how the artificial eyes created by human beings relate to human
vision. The film’s close-up shots of the eyes of the owl in Tyrell’s office also raise
questions about the qualities of human vision: though some animals have greater
powers of physical sight than human beings, human vision has links to intellectual
understanding and ethics that animals may not have. Deckard illustrates that human
beings can benefit from technologically enhanced vision when he uses the Ester
machine to find evidence in a photograph. Finally, the film highlights the role of eyes
when Roy kills Tyrell by gouging out his eyes before crushing the rest of his skull.
Differences in medium, historical context, and audience help explain many of the
differences between Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and Ridley

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Scott’s Blade Runner. Concerns about technology, nuclear war, and the environment
and their effect on human beings differed in significant ways between the 1960s and
1980s, shaping depictions of these issues in the two works. Both works raise important
questions, however, leaving the audience with much to ponder, and both works have
made major contributions to the genre of science fiction, gaining wider audiences over
time.