The etymology of "Snatcher"

[Discoalucard]

I just got this e-mail:
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www.theatredance.com/hipster.html

look, "snatcher" in swing-era slang meant "detective". Blade Runner
combined the fashion of the 20s and 30s with techno and the future.
Snatcher came from Blade Runner. In Blade Runner the origami unicorn
means Harrison Ford is an android. Maybe if "snatcher" means
"detective," that is a hint that Gillian Seed is a robot, too.
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Far fetched, if only because I don't expect the Japanese to be familiar with century-old slang - I mean, us natives certainly aren't.

But awesome nonetheless. Makes it sound like less of a porn.

[Kishi]

Considering what the Snatchers actually are, I'd think the term would have more to do with Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

[ed]

In Blade Runner the origami unicorn
means Harrison Ford is an android.

I like how this is a complete break in the line of reasoning. I get their meaning though. It's a distinct possibility.

Anyway, there are now plenty of online resources for gangster slang, but it's hard to imagine there would've been any dictionaries available at the time.

Yet Kojima is a big film buff, and was one long before Snatcher came about, so it seems possible that he could've searched the term out.

The definition doesn't seem that mainstream to me, and I don't know if it's entirely fitting in this case - Picture Snatcher, a '33 movie starring James Cagney, has our man playing a reporter, sure, but the "snatching" is literal - he gets into an execution and takes a picture for the news (based off a real event). Does that square with events in Snatcher?

[Neo Rasa]

Yeah in this case I think it's more a reference to Invasion of the Body Snatchers given what they do in the game and the obvious Terminator influence on their design.

[Shinigami]

How does the origami unicorn mean Harrison Ford is an android?

[Discoalucard]

Well, in Blade Runner, replicants all had common memories/dreams instilled in them. At one point, Decker dreams of a unicorn. At the end of the movie, that one bounty hunter dude makes him a unicorn, which shows that he knows what Decker dreams about, which implies that he's a replicant.

Make sense?

[Neo Rasa]

Yeah the movie is made so you can interperate it as Deckard/Harrison Ford being a replicant also. Ridley Scott intentionally made much of the evidence something of a stretch though (outside of the origami unicorn Gaff makes at the end) so that it would get you to think about what makes him human/inhuman rather than to have it outright say that he is or is not a replicant. Easily my favorite movie ever.

There's finally a special edition of it coming out this fall and then the insane four disk uber-edition I've been waiting for is supposed to come out next summer along with a limited theatrical run. One of the major themes of the movie is how the replicants in it act more human than the actual human characters. This is reflected in a subtle way in the script too, with the replicants always being referred to by their first names (more personal) and the human characters always being referred to by their last (more cold and efficient).

In some scenes the replicants eyes glow VERY faintly, you can barely notice it even if you look, they have Harrison Ford's eyes do that for a second at one point where the Deckard character is being particularly callous.

The use of eye imagery and dialogue and amazing too.

[Deleted]

I was thoroughly enticed with BR when I first saw it... I didn't understand every single nuance of the plot, but sometimes, it's better if you don't get everything. That's an interesting interpretation to hear about Deckard!

Batty's ending speech was just beautiful, man.

.......... DAMMIT! I have yet to find a copy of Snatcher! Too friggin' expensive!

[megatronbison]

sotenga said:

.......... DAMMIT! I have yet to find a copy of Snatcher! Too friggin' expensive!

Did I ever mention that I found a copy of it for £1.50?
At the same time I also found a copy of Shining Force CD for £2.50- sometimes you just luck out huh?