C-Beams

Blade Runner − Final scene, 'Tears in Rain' Monologue (HD) (YouTube)

The Wikipedia article describes the origin of these few, sparse lines.

“[…] the original script, before Hauer’s rewrite, was:”

“I’ve seen things… seen things you little people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion bright as magnesium… I rode on the back decks of a blinker and watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments… they’ll be gone.”

“Hauer described this as “opera talk” and “hi-tech speech” with no bearing on the rest of the film, so he “put a knife in it” the night before filming, without Scott’s knowledge.[11] After filming the scene with Hauer’s version, crew-members applauded, with some even in tears.[6] In an interview with Dan Jolin, Hauer said that these final lines showed that Batty wanted to “make his mark on existence … the replicant in the final scene, by dying, shows Deckard what a real man is made of”.”

Rutger Hauer was right. His version is indisputably better. It’s one of my favorite scenes. Combined with the fruits of a lifetime of consuming science fiction, the few lines evoke entire swaths of history, the immense breadth of a system-girdling human empire. They never fail to give me chills, to give me hope that we are capable of making beautiful and meaningful things.