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Film Continuity

Abdul Ben Hassan was a designer of animoid snakes, originally from Egypt. Hassan had a reputation for designing animoid snakes of the highest quality, selling them on Animoid Row. He sold one of these replicant snakes to Taffey Lewis for Zhora to use in her acts.

Biography[]

In November 2019, Rick Deckard found a snake scale at an apartment inhabited by a group of replicants led by Roy Batty. Deckard initially thought it was a fish scale. However, he was corrected by a Cambodian woman when he went to Animoid Row, who told him that it was a snake scale and of the "finest quality". Further examination revealed the maker's serial number, that of Hassan, whose shop was just down the street. Deckard visited Hassan and, after a brief banter where Hassan was very reluctant to reveal his high-paying customers, Deckard decided to get faster results by threatening Hassan, who then quickly told him that Taffey Lewis bought the snake.[1]

Hassan later had a short interview with Ray McCoy, giving him advice on where to find different mechanical animals and complained that the Los Angeles Police Department continued to interrogate him. He also revealed that he was afraid of Bullet Bob, an extremely aggressive and paranoid veteran of the Phobos wars who owned a large ammunition surplus shop, and suspected that he would sabotage others' stores.[2]

Hassan's shop, Abdul Ben Hassan's Reptiles, remained open as of 2037.[3]

Behind the scenes[]

For reasons unknown, Hassan's actor was uncredited for the role until The Final Cut, where the role is credited to Ben Astar. However, Charles de Lauzirika has suggested that there was a paperwork mixup and that Astar instead played Herman Schlect, a character cut from the film, leaving Hassan's actor still unknown.[4]

The character is referred to only as "The Egyptian" in the shooting script. In the 2017 edition of Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner, author Paul M. Sammon theorizes that Hassan's actor came up with the character's name himself. In the video game, the character's surname is spelled Hasan and he was voiced by Stephen Sorrentino.

The "snake scale," when seen on the Cambodian woman's microscope, is actually an extreme close-up of a marijuana bud.

References[]

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