The quest for Being is an essential questioning in modern philosophy[1]. Yet, this very attempt to unveil an ontological truth cannot but raise numerous issues. Man, as a thinking substance, engages in a deep reflection which aims at reaching the Absolute. This reflection entails a specific vision of Man and the world.

            This, our study shall try to examine – the reaction of the mind facing the manifold heaviness of Being, as well as the consciousness of Being, as an intellectual effort resulting in metaphysical anguish.

            Indeed, we will ponder the following questions : how far does our certainty of Being go ? The quest for Being is written in time whereas the ideal of human existence dwells in the desire of eternity. Such an incompatibility therefore points to the aspiration of consciousness as a nostalgia of Being.

            Is the nostalgia of Being the outcome of our thirst for Absolute or is it the by-product of man’s inability to define Being ?

            Is metaphysical anguish the result of man’s awareness of his finitude or is it ascribable to the limits of Reason ?

            The uncertainty of Being introduces a gap and opens the narrative. Science fiction is all the more concerned with a ‘willing suspension of disbelief’ since its narrative is relocated within an elsewhere, the latter granting space for reflection. The entailing disquietude of an unfamiliar location will lead us from ipseity to alterity.

            The resulting call towards alterity is thus dependent upon a Statement. The insight of Otherness is first achieved through the eye. We shall thus try to disentangle the theme of vision in Blade Runner, to develop the structure of cinema as a place of reminiscence, as a means to find a way towards the Open, as Rilke stated it.

            As a vital lead, the themes of memory and desire will implicitly guide our exploration, like Orpheus descending, on his way to find his Eurydice.

            A phenomenological approach to the quadripartite philosophy of Heidegger, Levinas, Blanchot and Derrida and its relation to Blade Runner will thereby prove necessary if we want our study to reach a successful conclusion.