In a rainy future city, a man must find robots that look human — and one of them does not know what she is.
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These are the new words. Match each word (1–8) to its meaning (A–H). Say your answers out loud — "I think 1 is D" — then check.
1 = E (a robot) · 2 = C (a detective) · 3 = A (rain) · 4 = D (a memory)
5 = F (a test) · 6 = G (a machine) · 7 = B (a city) · 8 = H (to hunt)
Ridley Scott's Blade Runner (1982), from a 1968 book by Philip K. Dick. Read each part. Then try the questions from memory, and talk about the last one. (There are spoilers — that is fine, we want to talk about it.)
In the future, a big city is dark and full of rain. Companies make "replicants" — robots that look exactly like humans. Replicants are not allowed on Earth. Some replicants escape and come to the city. Rick Deckard is a detective. His job is to find replicants and stop them.
Deckard has a special machine: the Voight-Kampff test. It watches a person's eyes while he asks strange questions. He uses it on Rachael, a woman at a big company. Rachael thinks she is human. But the test takes a very long time, and Deckard discovers something strange: Rachael is a replicant. She has memories of a childhood, but that childhood never really happened. She does not know this about herself.
Deckard feels strange too. If a false memory feels so real, how can he be completely sure who is human and who is not?
1. What is Deckard's job?
2. What is strange about Rachael?
1. He finds and stops replicants — robots that look like humans.
2. She thinks she is human, but she is a replicant. Her childhood memories are not real — someone put them in her mind.
Deckard looks for the other replicants. He finds Zhora and stops her. Then Leon, another replicant, attacks Deckard and almost kills him. Rachael saves Deckard's life — she stops Leon herself, even though Leon is a replicant like her.
Meanwhile, Roy — the leader of the replicants — finds Tyrell, the man who made him. Roy has a problem: replicants like him only live for four years, and his time is almost finished. He asks Tyrell for more life. Tyrell says it is not possible. Roy is very angry and sad, and he kills Tyrell.
1. Why does Rachael help Deckard?
2. What does Roy want from Tyrell?
1. Leon is trying to kill Deckard, so Rachael stops Leon to save him.
2. Roy wants Tyrell to give him more years of life. Tyrell says he cannot do this.
At the end, Deckard and Roy fight on a rooftop, high above the city, in heavy rain. Roy is stronger than Deckard. Deckard is going to fall and die. But Roy saves him instead of letting him fall. This is a big surprise, because Roy is the "monster" Deckard is trying to stop.
Roy is dying now — his four years are finished. He sits in the rain and talks quietly about amazing things he has seen in his short life. Then he dies. Deckard watches, and he does not know what to think.
Deckard leaves the city with Rachael. But the film asks one more question, very quietly: is Deckard human, or could he be a replicant too? The film never gives a clear answer.
1. What does Roy do at the last moment, and why is it surprising?
2. What question does the film leave unanswered?
1. Roy saves Deckard instead of letting him fall — surprising, because Roy is the replicant Deckard came to stop.
2. Whether Deckard himself is human or a replicant. The film does not say clearly.
This film is full of people describing what someone is and what someone is doing right now. English uses two different tenses for these two ideas.
Read the meaning in brackets and complete the sentence.
1. Deckard (be) a detective. (a fact about his job)
2. Right now, Deckard (look) for the last replicant. (happening now)
3. Replicants usually (live) for only four years. (a general fact)
1. is (a fact)
2. is looking (happening now)
3. live (a general fact)
Put the verb in the correct present simple or present continuous form.
1. Rachael (not / know) that she is a replicant.
2. At this moment, Roy (hold) Deckard's hand on the roof.
3. The city (rain) almost every day in this film.
1. does not know (a fact about her)
2. is holding (happening now)
3. rains (a general fact about the city)
Fill each gap with the present simple or present continuous. Read it aloud when you finish.
Rachael (work) at a big company. Right now, she (sit) in a room with Deckard. She (not / understand) why he is asking so many questions.
works (a fact about her job) · is sitting (happening now) · does not understand (a fact about her right now)
Use present simple for facts and jobs, and present continuous for actions happening right now.
The test in the film is not real. But it comes from a real, much older idea in science.
In 1950, a British mathematician called Alan Turing wrote about a test for machines. He asked: can a person tell the difference between a machine's answers and a human's answers? This became famous as the Turing Test. The test in Blade Runner is like a film version of this real idea — but instead of words, it watches the body for real feelings.
Rachael's story asks a real question that philosophers have asked for hundreds of years: are we the same person because of our memories? A philosopher named John Locke said yes — he believed our memories are what make us "us." If that is true, then even Rachael's false memories make her feel like a real person, even though they never really happened to her.
And today, scientists and philosophers are still asking a very similar question about real AI: can we ever really know if a machine truly feels something, or if it is just very good at seeming like it does? Nobody has a final answer yet.
Do all three tasks out loud. Use the timer to keep talking.
Tell the story of Blade Runner in your own words. Use these steps to help you: a rainy city with escaped robots → the strange test and Rachael's false memories → Deckard's hunt and Roy's meeting with Tyrell → the rooftop, Roy's death, and the question about Deckard.
Try to use some key words (robot, detective, rain, memory, test, machine, city, hunt) and present simple / present continuous.
The replicants only want to live longer, just like humans want to. But Deckard's job is to stop them. Do you think this is fair? What would you do if you were Deckard?
Talk about robots and machines. Use present simple and present continuous.
Not sure what to say? Choose one: