Rick Deckard
Deckard is the Blade Runner, a bounty hunter who tracks down and kills (retires) replicants. Whether he is human or not is debateable, director Ridley Scott recently said that Deckard was a replicant, but actor Harrison Ford claimed that he had previously agreed with Scott that Deckard was definitely human. The novel is equally ambiguous, but by the end the impression is that Deckard is human as he is able to use the empathy box, which replicants cannot do.
In the film we get the impression that Deckard gave up his job originally because he was no longer comfortable with killing replicants. He is a more moral man than in the novel. He feels bad about shooting Zhora and seems to experience a full blown epiphany whilst watching Roy die. His sensitivity toward the replicants culminates in his relationship with Rachael.
Phil Resch
Phil is another bounty hunter that Deckard meets in the novel. He contrasts with Deckard in that he has no feelings at all towards the replicants and has no remorse whatsoever about killing them. When faced with the possibility that he himself is a replicant he claims he will kill himself if he discovers that he is.
Rachael Tyrell/Rosen
Rachael is a very different in the film from how she is in the novel. In the film she genuinely believes she is human, and she and Deckard fall in love. In the novel she pretends to be human at the beginning but eventually reveals she is part of a plan to put bounty hunters off their jobs by sleeping with them.
In the film Rachael serves the purpose of Resch in terms of the questions about memory and its reliability. She has a programmed past, complete with photos.
Roy Batty
Roy is another character who plays a very different role in the film. In the novel he is still the leader of the androids but he goes through no transformation, and he doesn't save Deckard's life, he just gets killed like the rest of them. But in the film he becomes more and more human throughout. He loves life to the extent that he kills his creators when they tell him they can't give him more, and by the end of the film he loves life so much that he saves Deckard from certain death, even though Deckard was trying to kill him.
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