Directed by: Denis Villeneuve
Starring: Harrison Ford, Ryan Gosling, Ana de Armas, Robin Wright, Wood Harris, Jared Leto, Mackenzie Davis
Rating: R
Plot
A young blade runner's discovery of a long-buried secret leads him to track down former blade runner Rick Deckard, who's been missing for thirty years.
Verdict
This an engrossing movie that builds upon every thing Blade Runner (1982) did. While it completely stands on it's own, seeing the original adds a lot of value. I like the way the mystery and revelations unfold better in this as it focuses on what purpose and meaning add to life. This isn't just asking what it means to be human, but what it means to be alive.
You could freeze any frame and have a gorgeous image. Care and detail is apparent in every aspect of this film, and the world just feels bigger as we explore outside of L.A. too. As I watched this I thought surely it can't be better than the original, but I have to conclude it is. I did just see the original too so this isn't recency bias. 2049 is a fantastic movie that manages to expand on the themes of the original while not being a copy. It's approach is completely engrossing and unique.
Watch it.
Review
I'll provide a general spoiler free review first, with a big disclaimer and spoiler talk at the end. As long as you don't scroll too fast, you won't see any spoilers.
Villeneuve commissioned a prequel trilogy of shorts. This includes 2036: Nexus Dawn, 2048: Nowhere to Run, and Blackout 2022. They aren't required viewing, but expand on a few points in the movie. The third, the animated Blackout, is the longest and most informative, providing an important bit of history about "The Blackout" which is mentioned in the movie. The other two shorts feature Sapper Morton and Niander Wallace, characters in the movie.
This is an amazing movie. Having watched the first one again (read my review) just a few days ago, I like this one more, though it's hard to divorce the two. They are both great movies. This is the other side of the coin to Blade Runner (1982) and the questions it present in some ways. It's difficult to get into the plot without spoiling this, but 2049 builds upon 2019 using it as a foundation to grow. With the original taking place in 2019, I'll simply refer to the two films by their year.
Once again we follow a blade runner K, who retires replicants, This is set 30 years after the original. A replicant rebellion in 2022 caused replicants to be outlawed, so a new version of replicants are now more obedient. They can't disobey orders, so targets the old Nexus versions for retirement.
A startling clue after a retirement propels him through the movie as he searches for answers. The plot of the movie occurs because K doesn't destroy all evidence and forget about the case. His actions bring attention to this impossible clue he discovered.
I like the mystery better in this. It's just a bit more focused and thought out. The tone remains consistent between 2019 and 2049. L.A. is very much the same with an Asian influence, though not quite as strong as 2019. It's always dark and corporate logos remain.
The story sprawls at times, but it all serves a purpose and everything we see is directly connected. It makes this world feel so much bigger. In 2019 we never left L.A., in 2049 we venture into San Diego and Las Vegas. Outside of L.A. it's not perpetually night time. You could almost spin off a couple more movies from this one, though it definitively tells a complete story.
While 2019 asked what is it to be human, 2049 focuses on meaning and purpose. It's only with a goal greater than himself that blade runner K begins to feel alive. Just existing isn't life. He's no longer going through the motions, this case gives him a purpose. His goal and momentum propel him towards his objective. He has to know the truth, because that truth could give his life meaning, meaning for not only himself but many people.
This is a beautiful movie, the type of film that you could freeze any frame and have a nice looking image. From composition to colors and shadows, it's obvious painstaking care was taken with each shot. I will be shocked if this doesn't get a lot of recognition for the cinematography.
The production design and technology depicted does an amazing job of feeling derived from 2019 while also building on top of it. It's apparent the world has advanced, but it's not a mirror of reality with tablets and smart phones.
Throughout this movie i was amazed and impressed. I just can't find much fault in this. In the first few moments the synth beats began to play and I realized this was going to mimic the 1982 soundtrack. That makes this feel like a continuation of 2019, and for the most part it is. This captures a lot of the same mood and it just feels the same. That's derived from the pacing, style, images, music, and production.
This is a fine piece of film making. As I watched this i began to wonder if I liked it more than 2019 and I do. While you really need to see 2019 to get some of the finer points on this, they really are book ends. You can still enjoy this movie, but this doesn't plant the seed that questions the definition of humanity quite like 2019. You need that base. The thematic exploration in 2049 is built upon the foundation of 2019. You can continue reading, but beware of spoilers as I delve into plot details.
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From the jump this informs us that K is a replicant. He's shunned at home and work, slurs painted on his door. He's good at his job, and at home he has a seemingly intelligent hologram with which he converses. She has some amount of agency as well. He treats it as a relationship, even though this hologram isn't real. This is as close as he gets. This hologram is the only 'person' that doesn't constantly remind him he's just a replicant. While 2019 questioned whether replicants were real, this makes an apt comparison with a replicant and a hologram that's even less real. It's not completely one sided, but it's not a full relationship either. It's K's charade. The hologram seems intelligent and does have some agency, but K is manufacturing a reality, a normal. He knows that he can never quite get there. This is the only form of acceptance he can manage, where he's not looked down upon or treated like an instrument of destruction. His desire is to have meaning to someone, and that's a big theme of this movie.
K hunts down a replicant but finds a box of bones that at first is dismissed as human but shockingly are a replicant. What's more, this replicant apparently had a baby. When his boss tells him to remove all evidence and forget about it, he doesn't. Despite his boss's warnings that if this truth became public a war could erupt, he looks up the serial number of the bones and this puts the entire plot of the movie into motion. If he hadn't looked up that serial number, it would have been business as usual.
Looking up that number at Tyrell Corp. triggered a notification because Niander Wallace knows that serial number belongs to a very special replicant. We're told in 2019 that replicant is special, and if you've seen 2019 you realize these bones were Rachael's. K hears an audio clip from the serial numbers fragmented memory. It's the test Deckard administers to Rachael.
Niander Wallace is the head of Tyrell Corp., the same company who manufactured replicants in 2019. After a replicant uprising in 2022, replicants were outlawed and Tyrell went out of business. Wallace bought Tyrell Corp. and developed a new subservient replicant. Despite his advances, he can't make repliants reproduce. He claims its necessary to make the number of replicants required. He wants global domination of the market. I don't get why he can't just produce more, but autonomous making would relieve him of the effort. Wallace is a megalomaniac that perceives replicants as his progeny so he may just want universal domination.
In his search for an answer, prodded by his boss who wants to bury this secret, K discovers an intersection with his memory, a wooden horse, and a date. He begins to wonder if his memory is more than an implant, a real memory. Could he be the lost child of Rachael and Deckard? This is all but confirmed when his search takes him to an orphanage and he finds that very same horse, aided by his memory of where he hid it. This fills him with purpose, but the amazing thing the movie does is that it sidesteps that. Another replicet tells him the background of the missing child, and K realizes it's not him. The other replicant quickly picks up on his disappointment and offhandedly remarks all the replicants hope the lost child is one of them. That single plot point stopped this from traveling down the same path so many movies before it have. It's unique, confidant, and puts this movie on a different trajectory. This isn't the story about the comeuppance of the chosen one, but it is a crucial moment that could be a lynch pin of a future replicant rebellion. K is putting all of that into motion.
K runs into Deckard by following the clues. The through line on the clues worked much better for me in this than 2019. The last couple jumps in 2019 just seemed too convenient.
Wallace tracks K and finds Deckard. Wallace asks Deckard whether it was coincidence or if he was designed to meet Rachael and fall for her. The love story was what I didn't like in 2019. It just seemed too easy, but this provides a plausible explanation. This all but states Deckhard is a replicant. Also, I don't know how you interface human replicant reproduction. Human systems vary, but with two replicants you control the variables. It's easier to buy than a human replicant child.
Wallance wants the child so he can dissect it and implement reproduction technology. Other replicants want the child to elevate as a leader. This makes them more than slaves. This moves them into being a self sufficient species.
K asks Deckard if his dog is a replicant. Deckard tells him to ask the dog. That's a reflection on the movie. The dog doesn't know the difference and doesn't care, it just exists. In 2019 and 2049 replicants put so much effort into figuring out what is real, that they don't live. Of course in 2019 replicant lives are cut drastically short.
Towards the end Deckard asks K why he went to so much trouble to help and save him. K just waves him off, but the answer is that K thought Deckard might be his father. He hoped he was the chosen one. If that's not human i don't know what is.
So many movies would have focused on Deckard's child, the savior of the replicant species, but we've seen those types of movies before. As this movie says, to be human is to die for a cause greater than yourself, in that regard, K achieved humanity.
Is humanity biological? Can you be manufactured and human? K stated that a replicant being born would possess a soul. Being born has an inherent sense of wonder. To be a born replicant is a miracle.
2019 had Roy Batty who had all the experience, having lived a lifetimes in just a few years, but he couldn't reconcile that with being built to die. All his experience would just disappear. His life was dictated by the Tyrell Corp. K has the time, but nothing which which to fill it. He's a second class citizen, who discovered he might have meaning and purpose. While he definitely had a purpose, it wasn't as grand as he thought though he will be a key figure in the rise of replicants even if he's just a footnote.
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