Mortality

“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.” - Roy Batty

Dear L,

I will always remember the monologue from the movie Blade Runner. It’s not only an idea of the inevitable but an adage to life itself. It was initially a monologue, much longer, with lot of grand poetic undertones, but actor Rutger Hauer who played Roy Batty, edited the screenplay and cut it down to its very essence. When I read parts of the original script, it seemed to me that the act of boiling the piece down to its bare minimum is not only masterstroke in movie history, but also neatly tie lot of the loose ends of the answers to the open questions of life.

Mortality is a very tricky subject to talk about, let alone thinking about our own. It’s something that we conveniently tuck away, until we can’t afford not to take a look at it; It’s a little lump that we can’t really swallow even though we know it’s there.

Let’s talk a walk around it today.

Blade Runner - Final scene, "Tears in Rain" Monologue (HD)

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When we lived with death, mummies were medicine and paint - Michael Press | Aeon Essays

Enjoy.

Best,
Arijit