blade runner

The Blade Runner sequel is expected to make it’s debut on October 6th. The first of the three Blade Runner 2049 shorts dropped in order to bridge the gap between the events of the 1982 film and the upcoming film.  The original film actually left off in 2019, and the new film will be set 20 years later.  The new film will be directed by Denis Villeneuve and follows Niander Wallace (played by Jared Leto).  Wallace has created a new series of replicants, the Nexus 9, which are a step above those in the original movie.  It’s been 13 years since the replicant prohibition has been enacted and Wallace wants it repealed.

blade runner

The above video, however, isn’t that short.  But it provides a great glimpse into the upcoming film.  During a presentation made by Warner Brothers during Comic-Con, they flashed a fun timeline showing key events between both Blade Runner films.  The timeline, as seen below reveals the following about the road to 2049:

2018: Replicants are declared illegal under penalty of death following a bloody mutiny.

2019: Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) and a prototype Replicant named Rachel abscond from Los Angeles together.

2022: Replicants are blamed for the Blackout, which shuts down cities for weeks, crashes financial markets, and leads to food shortages.
2025: Niander Wallace (Jared Leto) brings an end to the global food crisis.

2030s: Wallace, who now owns the Tyrell Corporation, uses genetic engineering to make Replicants more obedient and easier to control.

Early 2040s: LAPD expands its Blade Runner unit in order to track down illegal Replicants and “retire” them.

This pretty much sums up how we get to 2049.  So what’s going to happen during the movie?  Essentially, a young blade runner (played by Ryan Gosling) discovers a long buried secret, which leads him on a quest to track down a former blade runner.  The former blade runner, Rick Deckard (played by Harrison Ford) has been missing for 30 years.

The trailer puts the viewers back in that futuristic, cluttered Los Angeles, as Officer K (Ryan Gosling) seeks to unlock a mystery that could catalyze a war between humans and the lookalike beings (replicants).  The trailer opens with Jared Leto’s silver-eyed character Wallace kneeling at the slimy end of the birth canal process for the replicants.  Leto’s character says “every civilization was built off the back of a disposable workforce, but I can only make so many. Happy birthday.”

blade runner

Meanwhile, Officer K unearths a long-buried secret that has the potential to plunge what’s left of society into chaos.  K’s discovery leads him on a quest to find Rick Deckard, a former LAPD blade runner who has been missing for 30 years.  Deckard has actually been in hiding, and isn’t happy when Officer K finds him.  Officer K tells Deckard that he wants to ask him some questions.  Which is a nod to the infamous Voight-Kampff test used by blade runners to distinguish man from machine.  It’s unclear why Officer K seeks out Deckard, but the former blade runner is needed to help unlock the puzzle that is at the heart of this film.

This looks like it’s going to be a pretty good sequel.  Which is not always a given.  But Leto’s portrayal of the “bad guy” is a thing of beauty.  He plays the part very well, in my opinion.  Which makes this movie a must see.  I also like the fact that it’s a sequel to a movie that was made 35 years ago.  Sure, this happens on occasion, but the sequels don’t always hold up.  In this case, I really think it will.  According to the film’s director, the film is about empathy and what it means to be human.  And maybe that’s a reminder that we all need.

 

By Staff Writer

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