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Tears in rain monologue

speech in the film "Blade Runner"

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 17, 2026
Entity authorityQ623245 ↗
Source-derived summary

"Tears in rain" is a 42-word monologue, consisting of the last words of main antagonist Roy Batty (portrayed by Dutch actor Rutger Hauer) in the 1982 Ridley Scott film Blade Runner, as he dies during a thunderstorm. Written by David Peoples and altered by Hauer, the monologue is frequently quoted. Critic Mark Rowlands described it as "perhaps the most moving death soliloquy in cinematic history", and it is commonly viewed as the defining moment of Hauer's acting career.

Context

The monologue is near the conclusion of Blade Runner, in which detective Rick Deckard (played by Harrison Ford) has been ordered to track down and kill Roy Batty, a rogue artificial "replicant". During a rooftop chase in heavy rain, Deckard misses a jump and hangs on to the edge of a building by his fingers, about to fall to his death. Batty turns back and lectures Deckard briefly about how the tables have turned, but pulls him up to safety at the last instant. Recognizing that his limited lifespan is about to end, Batty talks to Deckard, reflecting on his own experiences and 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.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Tears in rain monologue” is speech in the film "Blade Runner". The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Tears, rain and monologue, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1982—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1982. For this dossier, Tears, rain and monologue is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “speech in the film "Blade Runner"” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q623245. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1982.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Tears in rain monologue”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Tears in rain monologue primary sources, Tears in rain monologue archive and Tears research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Tears in rain monologue”?
  2. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
  3. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Tears in rain monologue” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.