Roy Batty

Rutger Hauer's Roy Batty is cinema's most sympathetic antagonist — a replicant, an artificial being with superhuman strength and a four-year lifespan, who comes to Earth to demand more life from his creator. Ridley Scott's Blade Runner asks whether an artificial being with memories, emotions, and a fear of death is truly alive, and Hauer's performance answers the question definitively: Roy Batty is more alive than most of the humans in the film. His desperation, his rage, his final act of mercy are recognizably, heartbreakingly human.

The 'Tears in Rain' monologue — largely improvised by Hauer the night before shooting — is the most beautiful death scene in cinema. '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 Tannhauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.' In five sentences, Hauer captured the tragedy of mortality more eloquently than most philosophers manage in a lifetime. The moment transcends its genre entirely.

Roy Batty is the villain who makes you question whether the hero is on the right side. Deckard hunts replicants because they are 'not human.' But Roy's final act — saving Deckard's life as his own expires — proves that humanity is not a matter of biology. It is a matter of choice. Roy Batty chose compassion in his final moment, which is more than most humans manage.