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Snakes in Movies   Blade Runner (1982)   Spoiler Alert ! Some of these pictures and descriptions may give away plot details that you might not want to know before watching the film.   This is the classic neo-noir science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott. The setting is a dystopian future overcrowded Los Angeles where the air is full of smoke and it's always raining. Harrison Ford plays Rick Deckard, a "blade runner," a policeman who hunts and kills illegal replicants - androids that are used as slaves in off-Earth colonies. Because the latest generation of Nexus 6 replicants are equal to humans in appearance and intelligence but stronger and more agile, they have been declared illegal on Earth under penalty of death. Six of these "skin jobs" escaped, killed 23 people, stole a shuttle, and returned to Earth. Four are still alive and hiding in Los Angeles. They were built with a four-year lifespan and they are hoping to find a way to live longer. Deckard had quit the police department, but they force him to come back, hunt, and kill all of the replicants. A clue from a snake leads Deckard to find one of the female replicants. Leon, a male replicant being tested to find out if he's not human, shoots the bladerunner who tested him. Deckard replaces him. He's sent to search the hotel room where Leon lives. He finds a scale in the bathtub that he thinks comes from a fish, and he finds several pictures in a drawer. One of the pictures shows a man in a room with a mirror on the wall in an adjoining room. Deckard goes home, then uses his computer to zoom in and enhance an image in the mirror on the photo. He eventually sees a woman with a snake tattoo on her face, and he prints out her picture. Because there are few real animals left alive on the planet, there is a market for artificial animals served by artisans who specialize in making specific animals. Deckard takes the fish scale to an artificial fish maker who identifies it as a very high-quality snake scale. She reads the maker's serial number inscribed on the scale and tells Deckard that Abdul Ben Hassan made the snake. He goes to see Hassan who has a snake crawling around in a glass cage in his window and a Boa Constrictor wrapped around his shoulders. Deckard forces Hassan to tell him that Taffey Lewis is a customer of his who is one of the few people who can afford to buy snakes of such high quality. Deckard finds Lewis in his nightclub, but he says he doesn't recognize the woman in the picture. As Deckard drinks at the bar, we hear a man announce: "Ladies and gentlemen, Taffey Lewis presents, miss Salome and the snake. Watch her take the pleasure from the serpent that once corrupted man." Unfortunately, we don't get to see the show, so we don't know what pleasure she's taking from the snake. Deckard waits backstage until he sees Salome walking in the hall covered with glitter and carrying a Burmese Python on her bare shoulders, but without a snake tattoo on her face. He follows her to her dressing room where she removes the python and puts it on a coat rack as he questions her, telling her he's with the Confidential Committee On Moral Abuses investigating her management to find out if they asked her to do anything lewd or unsavory to get her job. She's suspicious of him immediately. He asks her if the snake is real and she says she wouldn't be working in a place like this if she could afford a real snake. When Deckard gets near the snake it makes the exaggerated hissing sound we hear in most movies, even though most snakes can't hiss in real life. After the snake dancer takes a shower and washes off the glitter and makeup, we see a snake tattoo on her face. She beats up Deckard and starts to strangle him to death with his necktie, but when other dancers enter she runs away. Deckard now knows for sure that she the rogue replicant named Zhora, designed for an off-world murder squad. He chases her through overcrowded streets where she tries to hide, but he finally shoots her dead next to store windows lined with mannequins. There are lots of mannequins and statues and other replications of humans in this movie's world where artificial humans show more humanity than the real ones.