Why does Rachael smoke?

It gives Rachel a character trait and shows Replicants are exactly like humans in that they even have vices. Deckard drinks and in Ridley's version of Blade Runner he is a Replicant too. Also Cigarettes make a great prop. I suspect Ridley chose to make her a smoker to show off her lips, hands and the smoke effect against the light is really pretty and we all know how much Ridley loves smoke effects (just ask the cast and crew off the 'Alien' set). Great question btw.

Oh I agree! I love the smoke effects as well, it REALLY adds more realism to the film itself and the characters too. And yes I actually like the fact that Rachael smokes since like you said it shows off her lips, hands, smoke effect against the light, pretty, etc. that stuff is just great and I love it. yeah the question came to my mind when I was re-watching the movie again a few weeks ago when Rachael asked if she could smoke while Deckard replied by saying it wont affect the test.

Tis an excellent question. I have never thought of this before. Could be a small trait programmed into a replicant to throw off anyone going to test them. Wouldn't do anything to the machine in the Voight-Kampff test but rather the person using it.

it gives her another trait that belongs to 1930-40s femme fatales you see in film noir heres a question though, how come Tyrell is unethically trying to fool everybody with how human the nexus range are when he knows how much trouble it takes for the police to spot and track one i suspect it is to do with trying to ressurect himself and his grand daughter, purely selfish reasons FKB :)

Yes, great question & great replies! I'd just add that Tyrell said Rachael was special. She thinks she is human, so smoking being a human vice as Svanya said, emphasises this. All of the old great noir movies are filled with characters smoking. It does look atmospheric, particularly in black & white. The whole scene in theTyrell building reminds me of the Thatcher Library scenes from Citizen Kane, with the expressionistic lighting. Ridley is influenced by the best of past noir cinema. Although smoking is pretty much demonised nowadays, in the context of noir it looks very cool. Remember Blade Runner is Future Noir! Yes FKB, Tyrell is on a futile quest. Just like Charles Foster Kane & Peter Weyland.

Very interesting question Tetris!, BR is a film noir, so I think it gives some touch to this film genre, like smoking, Gaff s hat, nocturnal enviroment, etc...

wow more replies! I didn't think this question would be worth debating but it certainly makes you think! fishkettlebanana asked: "heres a question though, how come Tyrell is unethically trying to fool everybody with how human the nexus range are when he knows how much trouble it takes for the police to spot and track one" that is pretty damn interesting and the only thing I can think of is what you said for "selfish reasons" and that pretty much took the words out of my mouth as well but maybe someone else can chime in on this as well. ========================== I guess it pretty much sums down to having Rachael look/act more human to others by having her smoke or the fact that Ridley Scott just added it cause film noirs have smoking all the time to make it look awesome/beautiful/etc I mean if you were a robot maker and you were in charge of programming yer robot, would you want it to smoke? I guess it depends what type of robot it is because like others have said it makes her look more human. Imagine if a robot was an undercover cop and they needed the robot to smoke cigarettes but I'm sure the criminal underworld would have some type of device or make the undercover cop bleed to make sure that cop is human instead of a robot.

"More human than human"

Tetris, you inspired me to change profile pic. :P

hahahaha I just noticed it! well I mean I think everyone here can agree that the smoke/cigarette from Rachael just really brings her character out beautifully well done and awesome as well. It's crazy cause I would still marry her if she smoked cigarettes all the time even though I don't smoke cigarettes LOL