Since the sequel to Blade Runner was announced a few years ago, fans wondered why we should rewatch this classic movie. Finally we have our first glimpse of Blade Runner 2049 and can judge for themselves.
Set 30 years after the action of the first film, the film stars Ryan Gosling as Officer K, an LAPD officer with the same job Harrison Ford’s Rick Deckard once had. As the action begins in the trailer, we see that virtually nothing has changed in LA since Deckard’s time – the streets are wet and shrouded in smog, the neon lights seem to bleed into the atmosphere and the dilapidated Bradbury building still stands. the focus of our action.
As the camera guides us through these familiar scenes, we hear Deckard’s famous lines from the first film in voiceover: “A replicant is just like any other machine. They are either an advantage or a danger. If they are an advantage, they are she’ it’s not my problem.”
Then the scene shifts to a glowing red landscape, perhaps in a heavily polluted desert outside LA. We see Officer K of Ryan Gosling, tough and cool in his knee-length leather jacket, because global warming can’t stop the fashion train. There’s an eerie image of a giant (replicating?) head on the ground, which seems like it’s a reference to some of the footage from the famous 1973 trippy sci-fi movie Fantastic planet.
Officer K tries to solve a mystery that takes him straight to Deckard’s mysterious lair, which has apparently been missing for decades. It almost looks like Deckard lives in a refurbished version of Sebastian’s home for broken replicants in the first movie.
It’s hard not to love the atmosphere in this clip, even though we get virtually no dialogue or feel for the plot. Director Denis Villeneuve, whose recent film Arrival was a mesmerizing, beautiful exploration of first contact with aliens, sure knows what it is doing.
I am cautiously optimistic.
List image by Alcon Entertainment