Science fiction has often been used to make a point about its host societies through the use of extrapolation. As a result, it should come as no surprise to learn that dystopias are much more common in the genre than their utopian counterparts, with an excellent example being the 1982 movie Blade Runner, which was based in a loose sense on the 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick.
For people who are unfamiliar with the movie, it is set in a future in which off-world colonies are staffed by near-human replicants that are forbidden from setting foot on the Earth. Those that do so are hunted by the titular “Blade Runners,” who are responsible for separating replicants from humans via the fictional Voight-Kampff test that relies on the respondent’s emotional response. In particular, the plot of Blade Runner is remembered by people because of the unsettled debate over whether its Blade Runner protagonist is a replicant or not, which remained unsettled for decades and decades. However, that could change now with the upcoming release of Blade Runner 2049 in October 6 of 2017.
What Do We Know about Blade Runner 2049?
The new Blade Runner movie is set 30 years after the events of its predecessor. As a result, it focuses on a new Blade Runner called LAPD Officer K, who is played by Ryan Gosling. However, it is interesting to note that Harrison Ford will be reprising his role as Rick Deckard, who was the Blade Runner protagonist from the first movie. Based on these two characters, it should come as no surprise to learn that the plot of Blade Runner 2049 will consist of LAPD Officer K’s search for Rick Deckard as well as the secrets that will be uncovered in the process.
Besides Ford, it should be noted that Ridley Scott was the one who spearheaded the return of Blade Runner to the movie screen. However, he won’t be the director for Blade Runner 2049 but rather the producer, while the directing will be handled by Denis Villeneuve, who is best-known for a couple of crime thrillers called Prisoners and Sicario as well as a sci-fi movie called Arrival. Unsurprisingly, Villeneuve is a huge fan of the first Blade Runner movie, so much so that he has claimed that it was the reason that he went on to become a movie director. Regardless, people who are concerned about the new Blade Runner movie will be nothing like its predecessor might be comforted by the fact that it was written by Hampton Fancher, who was the same man who wrote its predecessor.
What Happened Between Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2049?
With that said, it is interesting to note that some huge changes have taken place in the Blade Runner setting since the events shown in the first Blade Runner movie. For example, there was a huge blackout in the early 2020s, which didn’t just cause the financial markets to crash but also resulted in widespread food shortages. Since replicants were blamed for causing the incident, they were banned in 2023, which forced them into hiding until the ban was reversed by a man named Niander Wallace after solving the food shortages. Ever since then, replicants have become more and more common, with the result that the setting in the new Blade Runner movie will be both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time.
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