Today is the big day.
Blade Runner 2049 hits theaters and the whole world gets to see if this latter day sequel
lives up to the mystique surrounding the original.
Well we’ve seen it and wanted to explore some of the surprising connections between
2049 and the original blade runner.
And of course there are going to be some light to heavy spoilers dropped in this video
Now whether you are a replicant or a real person we would love it if you hit that subscribe
button and dinged that little notification bell as well.
1 - Overall Design Aesthetic -
In a world where movies are getting sequels and soft reboots 20 to 30 years down the line
one of the most difficult things to maintain is the design choices of a movie made in 80s
as opposed to how design for film is done now in the 10’s Which is why you get things
like Tron Legacy looking very little like Tron.
Or why the new Star Wars films don’t feel like the prequels or the original trilogy.
Which is why we were blown away by Blade Runner 2049.
The design choices and presentation in this film over all make the move feel like a living
breathing extension of the seminal 1982 classic.
From the opening set dressing on Sappers farm to the messy tube TV set up in Deckard's Vegas
hideout.
This movie really nails the little things that make it live in the Blade Runner universe
and that is something that is not only difficult to do but almost impossible if you consider
the other long run sequels that have been made.
2 - Rachel
As a nexus 6 replicant Rachel was a very big part of the original Blade Runner.
Not only as the love interest for Deckard but as the vision that a replicant can be
more Human than Human and that Tyrell had been building replicants with more memories
and emotions.
After Deckard finishes of Roy Batty and the rest of his nexus 6 gang he absconds with
Rachel into hiding and depending on the cut you see you get a potential Deckard replicant
revelation and it turns the ending into a bonnie and clyde robot on the run love story.
In 2049 this storyline is a central crux and plays a major part in the mystery of the film.
Without saying too much a miracle occurs for the replicants and Office K played by Ryan
Gosling has to track down the replicants attached to that miracle which leads him to Rachel
and the now defunct Tyrell corporation.
It most long run sequels this would be a small cameo style footnote but in 2049 it was incredibly
surprising that it was the backbone of the entire film.
3 - K’s investigation mimics Deckards
This is more of a story structure thing.
But in the way both of these films play out are very similar.
Many scenes involve the 2 characters performing different investigative tactics in very similar
ways.
In the original Blade Runner deckard scans and enhances and image by moving through quadrants
and going back and over again and again until he finds what he looking for.
This is mimicked by K in the 2049 by analyzing the bones of a dead person and zooming in
and going back and enhancing until he finds a microscopic detail which sends him off on
a lead that ultimately unravels his whole investigation.
Not unlike the original Blade runner.
These similar flourishes between the characters will no doubt help fuel the “was deckard
a replicant” rebate for years to come.
Well at least until the next Blade Runner film 35 years from now.
4 - Futuristic Caste system
In Blade Runner there is no mistaking the fact that replicants are slave labor, slave
warriors, and sex slaves.
Basically what we are saying is that they are slaves.
This slavery has lead to some rebellions in the new film and the replicants as we know
them are all shut down and eventually replaced by Ninander Wallace's obedient ones.
But the caste style system from the original film remains even after 35 years or progress
in society.
Officer K is often yelled at by his peers as a “SkinJob” or having the replicant
slur Skinner painted on his door.
So real people still don't like replicants all that much.
The most surprising thing though is that replicants also have a prejudice in this new film.
One which is aimed at AI lifeforms.
There is a moment in one of the coolest visual sequences of the film where a replicant girl
Tells Ana De Arma’s Joi that she shouldn't act so high and mighty because she is empty
and unlike Joi she is real.
It is a really small moment but it ties back into the lore of this universe and its predilection
for treating non-organic lifeforms poorly .
5 - Advertising everywhere
In the original blade runner LA is peppered with advertisements for Atari, Pan am and
Coke among other.
The adverts are always present and in your face urging you to consume and to buy things.
Which was eerily similar to how the world has actually turned out.
In Blade Runner 2049 advertising is still omnipresent from real products like Coke,
Pan Am and Atari to new things like the Wallace corporations Joi Ai lovers or energy drinks.
The new film takes the connection even further by having these adverts being projected straight
onto the windows of people's homes like a super neon sign but blasting directly into
you home at all hours of the day.
I mean we like coca cola too.
But come on no need to have ad playing on my window shades 24/7
6 - Synthetic stuff vs.Real things
In the original Blade Runner there are a few moments referencing synthetic creatures such
as Tyrell’s owl and Zhora's python.
With characters often referencing the animal and whether or not the creature is real or
fake.
The response to this is always something financially based.
In the case of the Owl is Rachel saying of course it's fake and Deckard responding must
be expensive due to how lifelike it is.
Or in Zhora’s case it is her referencing that she wouldn't be working as a GoGo dancer
if she could afford a real snake.
In 2049 there is a little connection to that bit of the original film when K finally meets
Deckard he encounters Deckard's dog.
During a moment of exposition K asks Deckard if the dog is real and in a break from the
previously established financially based retort.
Deckard flippantly says.
Ask Him.
It’s a neat little call back to the original that enriches the lore of the new world by
peppering it with small references to the original film.
7 - Gaff
In the original film Edward James Olmos plays a young detective for the LA police force
named Gaff he is the closest thing Deckard has to a partner in the investigation and
even that is kind of a generous statement.
But Gaff plays an important part in the film getting Deckard some expositional moments
of realization and laying down some amazing origami.
There has been some debate over the years to whether or not Gaff is a human or replicant
and like the Deckard debate there just wasn't enough information to go on.
Well it was very surprising to have a much older Gaff make an appearance in the film
during K’s initial investigation.
Now the debate will shift from is he a replicant to well if Sapper aged and he is a replicant.
Then why wouldn't Gaff and Deckard be able to age as well.
Sub-Reddits will be alive for years with these debates fueled by this surprising addition
from the original film.
8 - Memories
In the original Film the replicants are given memories.
Things that happened to other people and implanted in the replicants heads so that they feel
as though they are real people and not slave robots.
In 2049 the replicants still have memories but they are no longer ones that belonged
to real people but fabrications.
The film cites this change as necessary because the real memories worked too well and elicited
an all too real emotional response from the replicants.
This discussion of memory not only ties into the murderous rampage of Roy Batty in the
original film but also strengthens his diatribe at the end of the film where he talks about
his memories.
The impact of that scene is deepened now because he doesn't talk about old memories.
But the ones he has made since his creation and that his experiences are important.
This is echoed by K with his love for Joi and investigation turning oddly personal due
to his memories.
9 - Inverse Time selection
This one is more of an implied and amorphous connection to the first film.
The amazing Roger Deakins has shot some of the best and best looking films you will ever
look at.
So when they brought him on to shoot 2049 we were ecstatic and looking at the choices
they made for the time of day that they were shooting we can see why they needed the best
shooter in the world.
In the first film the movie takes place almost completely indoors or at night and the shots
are cramped and filled with people, buildings and things.
Basically all the elements of dystopia that we know and love were pretty much generated
by original Blade Runner.
So the to see the sequel to the film go almost the inverse for its shot selection is an amazing
nod to the first film.
In 2049 there are tons of sweeping shots that show large portions of the architecture of
future Los angeles and almost all of them are during the day time.
Sure there are still tons of noir style night shots and cramped angles but the connection
to the first film as far as shooting aesthetic is this beautiful inverse that ties the world
together giving us the other half of the Blade Runner world.
The shot selection in the film may actually be our favorite part of Blade Runner 2049
which is a great film.
But they will be studying Deakins angles and shot selection for a long time after this
film leaves cinemas.
10 - Deckard is or isnt a replicant.
The big mystery of the first film and let's be frank here.
Depending on which cut you see there is a very different telling of this mystery and
we aren't going to pick sides ahem he's a person.
But 2049 does an amazing job walking the line of is deckard or isn't deckard a replicant.
2049 revolves around a central premise of figuring out a miracle replicant baby whose
parents are Deckard and Rachel from the original Blade Runner which is crazy even if it's a
human and replicant having the child.
But there are small moments in the film where they say he is a replicant then there are
other characters saying things that contradict that and state he is a person.
Deckard's whole interaction with Niander Wallace at the Wallace head quarters goes back and
forth on the line between is he or isn't he.
This is the most surprising connection to the original mainly because in this day and
age of film sequels.
When one pops up 30 years later any mystery that the first film contains is almost guaranteed
to be just plopped in your lap and kill the mystique the original film cultivated.
Which is nice for some people to get the payoff but it was truly surprising to see 2049 tow
the line and keep up the mystery of is he replicant or is he a man.
While expounding on the series virtues of does it matter if you are or aren't when you
know that you are real.
And that's the list.
Was there some other connection we missed.
Let us know in the comments and make sure to subscribe to our channel and watch out
other videos.