Do androids dream of electric sheep? Or would they rather have a threesome with
their AI girlfriend and a sex worker? These moments are even better the second time around.
After the opening text crawl of "Blade Runner 2049," Officer K arrives at the farm home of
an older replicant model named Sapper Morton. This sequence moves at a slow, menacing pace,
as they talk around the fact that K has been sent to eliminate the older model replicant.
"If you don't mind… if you could just look up and to the left, please."
Sapper resists, the two brawl, and before K shoots him, the older model tells the officer one thing.
"You new models are happy scraping the s---."
"Because you've never seen a miracle."
Dave Bautista's Sapper is only in the movie for the opening sequence,
but he makes quite the impression. He’s a great character to introduce Denis Villeneuve's take
on the "Blade Runner" universe, and his final line has a hidden meaning. When you see the movie for
a second time, you'll realize the "miracle" Sapper references is the child Deckard and
Rachael have together even though one of them is a replicant, and therefore supposedly infertile.
"It's too bad she won't live… but then again who does?"
"Blade Runner’s” universe is indebted to sci-fi and literature. The original was
based on Philip K. Dick's 1968 short novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" But "Blade
Runner 2049" also contains a handful of direct references to other pieces of literature. The
most prominent example comes during the two baseline tests K is required to take during
the film. All Blade Runners must continually undergo post-traumatic tests to ensure they
are fit for duty. In both instances, the dialogue goes quickly enough that it borders on nonsensical
during a first watch. Early in the movie, K passes the test; later in the movie, he fails.
Both times, K is asked to recite and repeat passages from Vladimir Nabokov's "Pale Fire."
"What’s it like to hold the hand of someone you
love? Interlinked." "Interlinked."
The 1962 poetic novel also comes up when Joi brings the book to K,
asking if he wants to read it. Both works — "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"
and "Pale Fire" — explore the characters' mortality, but there is a lot more ambiguity
to it than that. The use of "Pale Fire'' is never explained, but it has spawned a great
deal of thought and writing on the connection between the novel and "Blade Runner 2049."
One of the best scenes in "2049" is a seemingly innocuous moment that ends
up being the key to the whole riddle. In the middle of the film, K visits Ana Stelline at
her lab. Stelline is a scientist who creates the false memories that get implanted in replicants.
K goes to her to ask about a memory of his.
"Can you tell if something… really happened?"
She watches it and nearly weeps.
"Someone left this, yes. This happened."
This scene really changes on a second watch, when you know that K is not actually Deckard's child.
At first, it seems like confirmation that K is human and not a replicant — a subversion of the
underlying twist in the original "Blade Runner" — but later, it’s revealed that
Rachael gave birth to a daughter. As K eventually discovers, that daughter grew up to be Stelline,
which is why she knew the memory was real and reacted to it so strongly; it was hers.
"I can't help your future, but I can give you good memories to think back on and smile."
The primary B-plot of "Blade Runner 2049" focuses on K's relationship with his AI girlfriend,
Joi. The subplot explores the boundaries of love and emotional connection without a way
to physically connect. Despite this lack of literal contact, K and Joi's relationship has
plenty of figurative substance and they love each other very much. This echoes the themes
of replicants and other AI expressing love, which are present in the story of Deckard,
Rachael, and their daughter. Early in the film, K meets Mariette,
a sex worker who is later revealed to be a part of the underground replicant resistance.
In a scene that made a lot of waves, Joi hires Mariette to be her physical body so she and K,
who she affectionately calls "Joe," can make love. In the provocative scene,
Joi projects herself onto Mariette's body in an uncanny special effect. The brilliant
CGI truly gives the feeling that there are three different people present in the scene despite it
being an intimate encounter between a couple. This sequence echoes many of the themes explored in the
movie "Her," a story set in a society where people are just beginning to date their AI OS companions.
The other mysterious literary reference in "Blade Runner 2049" comes when K breaks into
Deckard's abandoned Vegas hideout and the two Blade Runners meet for the first time.
After K finds Deckard, he steps out of the shadows and has some choice words.
"You mightn't happen to have a piece of cheese about you, now? Would you, boy?"
This is a quote from Robert Louis Stevenson's timeless adventure novel "Treasure Island." In
"Treasure Island," this line of dialogue is spoken by Ben Gunn to the first man he sees
after being marooned for years. The parallels to Deckard are obvious once you know this context.
This small detail is also a callback to a deleted scene from the original 1982
film. In this scene, Deckard visits Holden in the hospital after being shot by Leon.
"Whatcha reading?"
"Old favorite — 'Treasure Island.'"
This adds another referential layer to this scene, making it well worthy of a rewatch.
One of the coolest sequences in "2049" is the initial fight between Deckard and K in the Vegas
hideout. After setting off one of Deckard's traps, K stumbles into a lounge room where
a malfunctioning hologram plays a projection of Elvis Presley performing on a stage. The hologram
flickers between Elvis and Marilyn Monroe and back to Elvis before a gunshot rings out in the
club. The ensuing combat is chaotic and lit by strobes and projections of dancers on the
tables. It is incredibly dense, sometimes hard to follow, and definitely worth watching twice.
At the end of what devolves into a fist fight, Deckard says something important.
Elvis' "Can't Help Falling in Love" plays and the retired Blade Runner notices.
"I like this song."
This moment is full of symbolism, and later in the movie, Niander Wallace tells us why.
"Did it never occur to you that’s why you were summoned in the first place?"
"Designed to do nothing short of fall for her."
To what degree Niander is telling the truth is unclear, but using a song with that title
reinforces the idea that Deckard had little choice but to fall in love with Rachael.
At the end of "Blade Runner 2049," K fights to rescue Deckard from the Wallace Corporation and
becomes mortally wounded in the process. Having figured out Stelline is Deckard's daughter,
he takes the old man to her laboratory. K sits down on the steps outside the clinic for one
final bit of respite as the snow falls. It's a fate that upset and confused some fans, but it
is a very intentional moment... One that causes you to reevaluate the character upon rewatch.
For starters, listen and you will hear music playing that
is extremely similar to the soundtrack underneath Roy Batty's famous "tears in
the rain" dying speech in the first "Blade Runner."
"I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe."
These two moments draw a throughline between the characters. Both Roy and K ultimately save
Deckard in the end of their stories and allow him to have a happy ending. This
ending scene is a callback to the original, as well as a parallel that emboldens "2049"
as a sequel in conversation with the original. While Roy died looking downward in the rain,
lamenting both his short lifespan and his memories fading away; K died looking up to the snowy sky,
presumably fulfilled by bringing Deckard to his miracle of a daughter birthed by a replicant.