Voigt-Kampff test on Phil Resch
After the death of Luba Luft in the elevator of the War Memorial Opera House, Rick Deckard and Phil Resch drove to the roof where Resch's hovercar was parked. There, in the car, Deckard prepared to administer the Voigt-Kampff test to Resch, who had requested it himself, tormented by the possibility that he might be an android. Resch had earlier killed Inspector Garland, his superior at the Mission Street Hall of Justice, after Garland had drawn a laser tube on him; Garland had told Deckard that Resch was an android with a synthetic memory system. Resch, desperate to know the truth, handed his laser tube to Deckard as a gesture of trust, saying he would kill himself by holding his breath if the test proved him an android, since androids lack the automatic vagus-nerve cut-in that prevents humans from doing so.
The Administration of the Test
Deckard set up his Voigt-Kampff apparatus in the car, attaching the adhesive pad to Resch's cheek and training the pencil-beam light on his eye. Resch, tense and talkative, observed that the test measured a "flinch reaction" to verbal questions, not a physical stimulus, and acknowledged that the initial amplitude of the response was outside conscious control. Deckard selected questions from memory and asked them rapidly, timing the responses. After a brief series of questions, the needles on the dials registered within the human range. Deckard then gathered his gear and told Resch he could have his gun back. Resch exhaled in "absolute, weightless, almost convulsive relief."
The Revelation of Resch's Humanity
Deckard told Resch that Garland had lied to split them apart, and that Resch was human. But he added that there was a defect in Resch's empathic role-taking ability that the test did not measure: his feelings toward androids. Resch had killed Garland and Luba Luft with a coldness that disturbed Deckard, and Resch himself admitted that he enjoyed killing. Deckard realized that Resch's attitude toward androids was not pathological; it was the normal stance of a bounty hunter. The difference between them was that Deckard had begun to feel empathy for at least some androids, such as Luba Luft.
Deckard's Self-Test
Still in the car, Deckard decided to test himself. He attached the adhesive disk to his own cheek and arranged the light beam into his eye. He asked Resch to watch the dials and report the readings, excluding time lag. Deckard said aloud, "I'm going down by elevator with an android I've captured. And suddenly someone kills it, without warning." The needles registered 2.8 and 3.3 — a low response. Then Deckard added, "A female android." The needles jumped to 4.0 and 6.0, a high empathic response comparable to what a human subject showed for most questions. Deckard concluded that he was capable of feeling empathy for at least specific androids, and that his feelings for Luba Luft — her voice, her career, her connection to The Magic Flute — had triggered this response. He realized that his emotional reaction was the reverse of what was intended and required of him as a bounty hunter.
The Aftermath and Its Significance
Resch, amused, told Deckard that he was "in a spot" and attributed the feeling to sex: Deckard had been physically attracted to a female android. Resch advised him to go to bed with an android first and then kill it, not the other way around. Deckard stared at him, recognizing that Resch's attitude proved he was a good bounty hunter, but questioning whether he himself could continue. For the first time in his life, he had begun to wonder about the morality of his work. The test on Resch confirmed that the Voigt-Kampff scale could distinguish Nexus-6 androids from humans, but Deckard's self-test revealed a deeper crisis: his own empathy for the androids he was paid to destroy. This moment marked a turning point, leading him to call Rachael Rosen for help and ultimately to his decision to quit bounty hunting after retiring the remaining androids.
