Rutger Hauer, perhaps most famous for his portrayal of Blade Runner‘s Roy Batty, has passed away. Although he spent his long acting career appearing in all sorts of films, it was his portrayal of Batty, and more specifically Batty’s dying scene, that he will be most remembered for.
Hauer’s Batty was a replicant, an android built by the Tyrell Corporation. Because they were so realistic – so, frankly, human – they were designed with internal lifespan. At the end of it, the replicants were retired, a euphemism for dying. Batty’s goal is to turn this killswitch off, so he escapes his life of servitude on the off-world colonies, returning to earth to find his maker to force the issue. He is hunted by Harrison Ford’s Deckard.
The movie itself was a flop, although it lives on in popular culture owing to its technical achievement and to its characters’ fundamental humanity. This humanity included Hauer’s portrayal of Batty. The end of the movie sees Deckard catching up to Batty before being bested by the android; instead of letting him die, Batty saves Deckard, asking him if he knows what it is to live in fear, before offering a parting goodbye before his lifespan ends.
“I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.”
This is Batty’s humanity on full display: perturbed at his own experiences being discounted, heartbroken at realizing his own end, and yet also ultimately accepting of it. The most remarkable part about this is that Hauer was not repeating a line that had been fed to him; he improved this speech after being underwhelmed at what had been written on the page. Hauer found his lines to be insufficient so he concocted his own, and although he was extremely modest about having done so – he claimed only to have slightly readjusted what was on the page – earlier drafts show something far more inhuman. To have not only rewritten his own ending but to have so expertly delivered it is a testament to what Hauer was truly capable of.
Hauer was 75.
My favorite Rutger Hauer performance was in Ladyhawke, which is one movie I’m really surprised has been forgotten. (I think a lot of people hated Matthew Broderick in it.)
I will also always remember Hauer’s performance in The Hitcher. He said that he stopped playing villains after that movie, because he didn’t know how to play anyone more evil than that character.Report
The soundtrack totally didn’t fit Ladyhawke. I’ll never be able to forget the movie because of it.Report
I loved that soundtrack. Maybe I would have had a problem with it if the movie were more historical, but in a fantasy realm it worked for me.Report
That’s a good one; Ladyhawke is one of my wife’s favorites.Report
Isn’t Ladyhawke the one where Matthew Broderick has a really bad English accent, but only in half of his scenes?Report
There was someone other than Michelle Pfeiffer in it? News to me.Report
Well, yeah.
It’s like when people think that George Lazenby’s being the worst Bond made any difference.Report
Seemed to me there was a lot of love for Ladyhawke on the Twitters, maybe even more than for Blade Runner, which surprised me a bit. Maybe it was because he was the good guy?Report
Ladyhawke is… not as good as Blade Runner, but once you get past the fact that it doesn’t clear that extremely high bar, it’s a great movie in its own right. It suffers a bit from a wildly inappropriate ’80s soundtrack, tho.Report
My favorite Hauer movie is Flesh & Blood, an utter bonkers Paul Verhoeven-at-his-unbridled-80’s-best that you could never get made today. He’s the lead, and carries all the insanity with self-aware aplomb.Report
I love that movie. The total disregard for audience expectations is brilliant though both Hauer and Verhoeven are probably lucky it didn’t cost them their chances of Hollywood careers.Report
I think the experience kinda went to his head, though. He later did a beer commercial that he tried to rewrite into a philosophical SF-sounding epic. (The producers fired him and got Alexander Godunov.)Report
I think those lines should be on his memorial.
Farewell, Soldier of Orange.Report
In point of fact, Soldier of Orange is the film I first became a fanboy of him in. Also Paul Verhoeven and Edward Fox.Report
Blade Runner came out the summer between my freshman and sophomore year in high school. I love this movie I love the soundtrack. I can’t count how many times I put on the soundtrack, grab a bottle of wine, a good book and have a long bubble bath.
Set me up for a lifelong love of Harrison Ford and Rutger Hauer. And then of course was Ladyhawke which I also loved. Rutger was just a really amazing actor. The world is a lesser place without him.Report
Hauer, like any great character, always brought it all to his parts whether he was a lead or not. Along with his natural intensity that made him always worth watching.Report
Hauer is a better person than I am. If I had been in his place, at some point, someone would have managed to catch me saying, “Yeah, Blade Runner, Harrison Ford was the star. And the scene that everyone remembers is all me.”Report
Fun fact: Rutger Hauer’s daughter Aysha was married to Thomas Jane, who plays detective Miller in The Expanse.Report
I knew that I knew that name, but it took a while to figure out why. Thomas Jane played Mickey Mantle in 61, and he was great (as was Barry Pepper as Roger Maris.)Report
Thanks for writing this.Report
It’s too bad he didn’t live.
But then again, who does?Report
This is a particularly good comment.Report