Passage from John Milton’s Paradise Lost (Book I: 61-69)
A Dungeon horrible, on all sides round
As on great Furnace flam’d, yet from those flames
No light, but rather darkness visible
Serv’d only to discover sights of woe,
Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace
And rest can never dwell, hope never comes
That comes at all, but torture without end
Still urges, and a fiery Deluge, fed
With ever-burning
Sulphur unconsumed
This excerpt related to the film in more ways than one. Film Noir is very dark, of course, as well as the whole LA atmosphere. Torture without end relates to Rick Deckard, the androids, and Sebastion. Deckard is constantly tortured by confusion: mostly about his identity. The androids are constantly tortured by living in fear and also by the fact that humans will not listen to them when they can see the world in omniscience. Hope never comes for the androids because they do not have time to speak of what they know before they are murdered. Sulphur unconsumed can relate to the masses of old unused "kipple" left on earth, while earth is a fiery Deluge: Hell on Earth.
