Rick Deckard
The cop whose job is to tell humans apart from the beings he must kill.
film · 1982
A former blade runner, Deckard is forced by his old boss to go back to work and hunt down four replicants who have returned to Earth. He does the job with no visible qualms: to him, replicants are machines like any other. The film follows him from one lead to the next, and it is through what he does, more than what he says, that we see him lose his certainty about where the line runs.
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Justification
Before he tests Rachael, Deckard explains that replicants are like any other machine: either a benefit or a hazard, and if they are a benefit, it is not his problem. His words reduce replicants to their function: not a theory of essence, but the logic of his trade, which locates what one is in what one was made for, on the side of . He never again states his views on replicants; his position shows in what he does, which is why it stays moderate.
The conversation with Rachael at Tyrell's, before the test · The final scene, the unicorn and the departure (Final Cut)
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Justification
At first Deckard kills, on orders, beings who are afraid and who suffer, without asking what he owes them: in practice, in his line of work, only humans count. His acts move him toward without his reaching it: his concern goes first to one particular replicant and to the one who spared him, not to every being that can suffer. His early remarks, inferred here rather than stated as a principle, placed him on the opposite side.
The pursuit of Zhora · The rooftop · The final scene
Justification
Deckard uses violence as a tool of public order: he kills whoever the administration points him to, and the word "retire" spares everyone from saying "kill". This is , with a share of defensive justification: the fugitives have killed, and they attack him.
The briefing in Bryant's office · The pursuit of Zhora