Fred Kaplan has written a moderately interesting N.Y. Times piece about Ridley Scott‘s Blade Runner, which has been re-cut and re-stored for the umpteenth time, and which will play in theatres prior to showing up on DVD on 12.18 as “The Final Cut.” The payoff is the narrated slide show about the origins and influences of this 1982 classic — worth clicking on.

“The clue to Deckard’s true nature” — the fact that he’s a replicant — “comes in a scene that was cut from the original release,” writes Kaplan. “[It was] only recently unearthed by Charles de Lauzirika, Scott’s assistant and the restoration’s producer. In the film, Deckard falls in love with Rachael (Sean Young), a secretary at the Tyrell Corporation, the conglomerate that makes replicants. She discovers that she’s a replicant too. Her memories of childhood were implanted by Tyrell to make her think she’s human.

In the last scene of Scott’s “Final Cut” version, “Deckard leads Rachael out of his apartment. He notices an origami figure of a unicorn on the floor. A fellow cop has often left such figures outside replicants” rooms. In an earlier scene, Deckard was thinking about a unicorn. Looking at the cutout now, he realizes that the authorities know what’s in his mind, that the unicorn is a planted memory, that he’s a replicant and that he and Rachael are both now on the run. They get into the elevator. The door slams. The end.”