Blade Runner - NIETZSCHE / HYPERREAL

NIETZSCHE’S ÜBERMENSCH IN THE HYPERREAL FLUX:

SHORT ANALYSIS OF INTERESTING THEORY IN BLADE RUNNER, FIGHT CLUB, AND MIAMI VICE


This analysis applies Nietzsche’s philosophy of the Übermensch and Baudrillard’s ideas about simulation and hyper-reality to the films BladeRunner, Fight Club, and Miami Vice. In doing so, these films can be understood thematically in terms of their respective narrative progressions. In each, the protagonist under takes a journey in which he is subjected to numerous challenges and obstacles that test his strength, toughness, and resolve. Through processes identified by Nietzsche as the overcoming and the becoming, these challenges and obstacles are surmounted and the protagonists learn to master themselves and their reality. In each film, reality is a complex and mercurial concept, as there are powerful and ever-present elements ofsimulation that threaten to overwhelm and consume the protagonists.
This omnipresent simulacra (described as a state of hyper-reality by Baudrillard) represents a critical obstacle in all three films, and is the most formidable factor that the protagonists must contend with and overcome.
When Blade Runner, Fight Club, and Miami Vice are examined through the critical lenses of Nietzsche and Baudrillard, they can be understood as lessons of self reliance and self-improvement through the overcoming of hardships. In narratives in which reality has become a fluid and indefinable concept, this loss of stability and the confusion that results from it are the key dynamics that must be overcome by the protagonists. When this is achieved, the protagonists reach a higher plane of self-awareness and self-mastery, and are thus able to master their demanding hyper-realities.