BLADE RUNNER 2049

Title : Blade Runner 2049

Language : English

Release Date : October 3, 2017 (Dolby Theatre)

October 6, 2017 (United States)

Directed By : Denis Villeneuve

Distributed By : Warner Bros. Pictures

Sony Pictures

Blade Runner 2049 is a 2017 American neo-noir science fiction film directed by Denis Villeneuve and written by Hampton Fancher and Michael Green. A sequel to the 1982 film Blade Runner, the film stars Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford, with Ana de Armas, Sylvia Hoeks, Robin Wright, Mackenzie Davis, Carla Juri, Lennie James, Dave Bautista and Jared Leto in supporting roles. Set thirty years after the original film, the story depicts a bioengineered human named K, who discovers the remains of a once-pregnant replicant. To prevent a possible war between replicants and humans, K is secretly tasked with finding the child and destroying all evidence related to it, leading him to discover that the child bears a connection to missing blade runner Rick Deckard.

Principal photography took place in Budapest, Hungary between July and November 2016. Blade Runner 2049 premiered in Los Angeles on October 3, 2017 and was released in the United States on October 6, 2017, in 2D, 3D and IMAX. The film received acclaim from critics, with some regarding it as one of the best sequels ever made.

Plot

In 2049, bioengineered humans called replicants have been integrated into society. K, a newer replicant model created to obey, works as a "blade runner" for the LAPD, hunting down and "retiring" rogue older model replicants. Meanwhile, his home-life is spent with his holographic girlfriend Joi, an artificial intelligence product of Wallace Corporation.

K's investigation into a growing replicant freedom movement leads him to a farm, where he retires rogue replicant Sapper Morton and finds a buried box. Forensic analysis reveals the box contains the remains of a female replicant who died as the result of complications of an emergency caesarean section. K and his superior, Lieutenant Joshi, find this unsettling as pregnancy in replicants was originally thought to be impossible.

K is ordered to destroy all evidence related to the case and to retire the child by Joshi, who believes that if the knowledge that replicants are able to reproduce is released, it could lead to war between humans and replicants. K, disturbed by his orders to kill a born individual for the first time, visits the headquarters of Wallace Corporation founder Niander Wallace, who identifies the body as Rachael, an experimental replicant. In the process, he learns of her romantic ties with former veteran blade runner Rick Deckard. Believing that reproduction in replicants can bolster his production and expand his off-world operations, but lacking the technology to give them this ability himself, Wallace sends his replicant enforcer Luv to steal Rachael's remains from LAPD headquarters and follow K in his investigation to find Rachael's child.

Upon returning to Morton's farm, K finds an inscription of a date that matches the date inscribed in the bottom of a toy wooden horse, the focus of a childhood memory of K's which he later finds at an orphanage, suggesting that his memories (which he thought were implants) are real. Joi insists this is evidence that K is in fact a real person. While searching birth records for that year, he discovers that twins were born on that day with identical DNA except for the sex chromosome; only the boy is listed as alive. K seeks out Dr. Ana Stelline, a memory designer who informs him that it is illegal to program replicants with humans' real memories, leading K to believe he might be Rachael's son. After failing a test of his replicant behavior upon his return to LAPD headquarters, K is suspended by Joshi. K he explains that he failed the test because he completed his mission in killing the child so Joshi gives him 48 hours to disappear.

When K informs Joi of his need to leave Los Angeles, Joi tells him that he needs to transfer her to a mobile emitter from her central console to avoid her memories of K being used by those pursuing him. Despite his reservations, knowing that should it damaged she will be permanently erased, K transfers her. Before his departure, K has the toy horse analyzed and finds traces of radiation that lead him to the ruins of Las Vegas, where he finds Deckard. Deckard reveals that he scrambled the birth records to cover his tracks and was forced to leave a pregnant Rachael with the replicant freedom movement to protect her.

Meanwhile, Luv and her men have murdered Joshi and tracked K's location. They arrive to kidnap Deckard, leaving a badly injured K for dead and destroying Joi's emitter. K is later rescued by the replicant freedom movement who were tracking him alongside Wallace Corporation. He is told by their leader, Freysa, that he is wrong to think that he has a unique role to fulfill in the movement, and that Rachael's child is actually female. K deduces that Stelline is Deckard's daughter, as only she is the other person capable of creating the memory of the wooden horse and implanting it into him. Freysa urges K to prevent Wallace from uncovering the secrets of replicant reproduction by any means necessary, including killing Deckard.

In Los Angeles, Deckard is brought before Wallace, who suggests Rachael's feelings for him were engineered by Tyrell to test the possibility of a replicant becoming pregnant. When Deckard rejects this idea and refuses to cooperate, Wallace has Luv escort him to an off-world outpost to be tortured for information. K intercepts them, fighting and eventually killing Luv before staging Deckard's death to protect him from both Wallace and the replicants. He leads Deckard to Stelline's office and laments that his best memories belong to her. Deckard cautiously enters the office and approaches Stelline. K finally succumbs to his wounds on the front steps of Stelline's laboratory.