Too Bad We Won't Live

Conditions: Freezing-Ass Cold

Film Review: Blade Runner 2049

Blade Runner has been around for so long it moved past the point of needing a sequel decades ago.  The convoluted, cramped and dark story of Deckard and the escaped Replicants that mutates into a think-piece over what life really is and who's living it ended on what was generally agreed was a solid point.  Deckard's small nod as he contemplates the origami Unicorn before striding away sparked so many ideas across a generation of moviegoers.  Ultimately, did we really need to see where he and Rachel went?  Did we need to see how much time they might have had together?  Wasn't that unknown ultimately kind of the point?

Blade Runner 2049 sets off, if not in a rush, certainly in a determined stride.  Meet Officer K, who I don't think it's a spoiler to say is a Replicant who is hunting other Replicants, a point made obvious early on when one bashes K's head through a wall with no side effects.  Thirty years have passed in this dystopian parallel world too, and it feels it.  There have been several new generations of Replicants come along, and K - the latest version - is employed by the authorities to hunt down the remaining previous generations.  What he finds is a box full of bones, and after some investigation it's revealed not only that the skeleton belonged to Rachel, but that she had given birth.  This creates a bit of a panic at police headquarters, and the film becomes a race of sorts between K and the new/old Tyrell corporation - now headed up by Wallace (Jared Leto) - both of which are after this baby, but for different reasons.  The police captain is desperate to stop even the idea of Replicants replicating by themselves getting out.  Wallace however simply can't build Replicants fast enough, and welcomes the idea of them creating new ones by themselves.

K has his own obsessions, namely a memory  From his childhood?  From his youth?  Whatever, he remembers a small carved wooden horse.  And when it shows up he starts to believe he is in fact the long lost child.  This leads him to break free from the authorities and seek out Deckard himself, who it turns out has been hiding out in Vegas for thirty years.  Ford is essentially the linchpin of the equation, because with Rachel gone he's the only possible key to how Replicants can get pregnant.  So Wallace grabs him.  Ford's involvement in the film really comes later on, as a character for others to talk to, and ultimately fight over, but it has to be said Harrison delivers a solid and thoughtful performance.  Really, despite deferring to Deckard at the end, this is K's film through and through, and his journey of who he is, is felt most poignantly.

It's a yearning, cruel and cold movie, full of both nuance and extravagant scale.  Villeneuve, a director who keeps impressing me, teamed with the legendary cinematographer Roger Deakins have delivered such an amazing and thoughtful film you can't help but fall for it.  Unfortunately it didn't make the money they were hoping for, and it's unlikely we'll see a sequel, but then they said the same thing about the first Blade Runner, so who the hell knows?  Five orphans out of five.

- Peace out