Cinematic Cyborgs: Futuristic Hybridity

by Ash Kestler


Science Fiction operates in the same mythological realm that Disney has occupied for years. This “fantastic world” (Nishime 36) allows socially and racially disturbing films to be brought to the fore without hesitation. In “The Mulatto Cyborg: Imagining a Multiracial Future,” LeiLani Nishime argues that the Replicants in Blade Runner are good cyborgs, because they do “not want to eliminate humans. [They] want to be human.” Nishime insists that the androids escape slavery and attempt to “pass” as humans, the same way a mulatto may try to pass as white.

Essentially, Blade Runner gives the audience the ideal American hybrid- a white one. The android’s bright white skin, contrasts the background of hyper-multicultural L.A. The cyborg’s physical appearance challenges the stereotypes of mixed-race people as exotic, tan and ‘foreign looking.’ The replicants are bleach-white with pale blue-eyes; they would have won prizes for Eugenics, and even J.F. tells them “you are perfect.” However, whiteness isn’t enough. The “retirement” process, conjures a deep history of slavery, assimilation and then the mass violence perpetrated on the assimilated and non-assimilated, hybrid and non-hybrid ‘Other.” Blade Runner is pointing to innate aspects, that render cyborgs, even emotional ones, dehumanized “skin jobs.”

This cinematic discourse fits in a larger critique on paranoia and xenophobia, not only viewing the racial ‘alien’ as an invasive outsider, but technology as well. The cinematography accentuates an over- technologically fertile metropolis, with slow pans across chaotic streets, unfamiliar objects of the future and visual disruptions- like fog and smoke. These visual disruptions, paired with intense focus of the camera on the eyes of the characters, asks the audience to question what they see. Roy looks white, but is he. He looks human, but is he?


Questions for thought:

What is the significance of nebulaic-cinematography? Hazy, smokey shots- Why is the director trying to impair our vision? How does your answer fit in to the larger discourse of hybridity?

Why are the cyborgs white? Does their 'color' fit into Nishime's assessment of "Blade Runner" as an assimilationist piece, or are you able to challenge her argument?