<bq source="Wikipedia" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tears_in_rain_monologue" caption="Tears in rain monologue">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. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain... Time to die.</bq> <media href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoAzpa1x7jU" src="https://www.youtube.com/v/NoAzpa1x7jU" source="YouTube" width="560px" author="" caption="Blade Runner - Final scene, 'Tears in Rain' Monologue (HD)"> The Wikipedia article describes the origin of these few, sparse lines. <bq>[...] the original script, before Hauer's rewrite, was:<bq>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.</bq>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".</bq> 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.