It's a boy! It's a Roy! For Blade Runner fans, 8 January 2016 is a date of major significance. It's the "day of activation" for Roy Batty, one of the most charismatic and significant characters in this landmark movie. He's a replicant, or android – and, although he might not be flesh and blood, he certainly makes us think about what it is to be human. He's arguably the heart and soul of the movie, even more than its putative hero, played by Harrison Ford

Blade Runner, directed by Ridley Scott, is one of the most influential films of the 1980s, a philosophical science fiction-action work set in the near future that's steeped in a sense of the past, a reflection on memory, identity, emotion, creation and invention that takes place in a dazzling yet downbeat neo-noir urban landscape. Loosely based on Philip K. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, its events begin to unfold in November 2019, in a world in which highly realistic androids, known as replicants, have been built by a company called the Tyrell Corporation.

Rutger Hauer as Roy Batty in Blade Runner.

Batty (brilliantly played by Rutger Hauer) is a replicant from the Nexus-6 class, and he's looking for answers to questions about his own past and future: how he was made, and how he can prolong his life and that of his Nexus-6 comrades. Ford plays a character called Rick Deckard, a bounty hunter. His job is to hunt down and kill replicants, who are illegal on Earth.

Batty, one of Deckard's targets,is a rebel with a cause. He and his fellow-androids have been built for dangerous or menial work in places beyond Earth. He has been given superior strength and agility – yet he's only intended to have a four-year lifespan. He wants more from his existence, and he's prepared to go to any lengths in search of it.