I had my 54th birthday a week or so back and this line (from Ridley Scott’s 1982 scil-fi classic, Blade Runner) kept running through my head. Replicant Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) goes to see Eldon Tyrell (Joe Turkel), the scientist that “designed” the not-quite-human Roy. Tyrell attempts to comfort Roy:

“The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long – and you have burned so very, very brightly, Roy.”

But Roy’s not having any of it and proceeds to poke Tyrell’s eyes out. As Roy observes,

“It’s not an easy thing to meet your maker”

…but I thought he handled himself pretty well. He came for some answers –if not a solution to his problem– and he was damn well gonna get them.

The replicants of Blade Runner only got four years (I think Sean Young’s character got more than that) but it wasn’t so much how many years they got as that they knew when they were going to die. Maybe in the end, Pris (played by Daryl Hannah) got it right:

“Then we’re stupid and we’ll die.”

We are and we will.