"Blade Runner", released in 1982, became one of the greatest science fiction films in film history.
And "Blade Runner 2049", released in 2017, is also destined to be a great movie worthy of history.
Before the release of "Blade Runner 2049", Dennis Villeneuve invited three directors to shoot three short films to explain the passage between the two films.
Let's briefly review the plot of the "Blade Runner" series.
"Blade Runner"
At the beginning of the 21st century, Tyrael Company developed a replicator identical to human beings.
Chain 6 clones have better strength, agility and wisdom than humans. They are treated as slave labor in space colonies, engaged in dangerous exploration and colonization missions. In order to prevent them from having emotions, their life spans are all set to 4 years.
Later, a chain of Type 6 clones rebelled, causing the clones to be declared illegal, and they would be executed by Blade Runner.
In 2019, Tyrell’s boss was curious about how Blade Runner Dyke (Harrison Ford) distinguished the clones, and Dyke asked Tyrell’s secretary Rachel to find out that she was a clone. They talked. The audio has appeared in "Blade Runner 2049".
It is worth mentioning that Dyke's colleagues love origami, and he also appeared in "Blade Runner 2049".
Later, Dyke killed all the rebellious clone troops, but fell in love with Rachel, so he took Rachel to escape.
"Blade Runner: 2022 Dark Catastrophe"
The chain type 6 replicators have come to the end of their lives in the warehouse, and Tyrell has launched the chain type 8 replicators, canceling their 4-year life span.
Mankind found that clones had the same lifespan and emotions as themselves, but had better strength and wisdom. Therefore, the human supremacist movement rose up everywhere. Mankind searched for clones from Tyrell's database and hunted them down.
On the other side, during the Karan Star War, Ikki, the clone, discovered that the enemy soldier was also a clone, and understood that he was just a human pawn, so he cooperated with Sappor Morton and defected with a total of 5 clones.
Next, Ikky and Trixie, who are also replicators, bombed the replicator’s physical database, and at the same time had their associates launch nuclear missiles with fake authentication codes and detonate them in the air. The resulting electromagnetic pulses destroyed the world. Of electronic devices, unprecedented darkness descends.
This dark catastrophe, known as the "blackout", made the copying person banned from production, and Tyrael also declared bankruptcy.
Coincidentally, Liu Cixin's cyberpunk novel "China 2185" created in 1989 also has a description of "blackout".
"Blade Runner: 2036 Clone Dawn"
The collapse of the ecosystem led to the rise of Wallace, an industrialist. The synthetic agriculture he mastered prevented famine from happening. He acquired the remaining Tyrell and developed a new generation of clones: Chain 9 clones.
The Los Angeles Police Department used the Chain 9 replicators, and their duty is to hunt down the Chain 8 replicators.
"Blade Runner: 2048 Nowhere To Run"
After Sappor defected, he made a living selling bugs. One day, he revealed his identity in order to save a mother and daughter.
"Blade Runner 2049"
On October 6, 2021, Dyke and Rachel gave birth to a daughter, later Anna Sterling, with the help of Sapper.
Sappor buried Rachel's bones under the tree, and Dyke continued to flee for the safety of his daughter.
Anna's true memory was planted into the copy of K's mind. In 2049, as a Blade Runner, he killed Sapper. In the process of investigating clues, he took the next step to the orphanage. He accidentally saw the place where he lived when he was a child in his memory, and Anna told him that the memory in his mind was Really, K mistakenly thought he was the child of Dyke and Rachel, a real human who was born naturally.
Unfortunately, in the end K found that everything was a dream bubble, he was just a copy, only part of the whole plan. In the end, he gave his life to help Dyke and Anna meet his father and daughter.
Word of mouth is overwhelming but the box office is not as good as expected
Both "Blade Runner" are adapted from Philip Dick's 1968 novel "Do Robots Dream of Electronic Sheep?" Philip Dick can be regarded as the predecessor of cyberpunk genre works. In addition to "Blade Runner", there are also "Minority Report", "Total Memory", "Memory Rift", "Colonial Invasion" and other science fiction films based on his Adapted from a novel. Unfortunately, he was rarely recognized by ordinary people when he was alive, and he was gradually recognized by people after his death.
In the end, Philip Dick died on March 2, 1982, and missed the chance to see "Blade Runner" released on June 25 of the same year.
Cyberpunk is a branch of science fiction, with computer or information technology as the theme. It usually revolves around the contradictions between hackers, artificial intelligence and large enterprises. It is set in a dystopian planet in the near future.
Because the thinking of "Blade Runner" was too advanced, it was not received by the public in the year it was released, but gradually got its name justified over time; "Blade Runner 2049" has achieved a good reputation as soon as it was released. From this perspective, it is lucky.
On October 8, the film’s first weekend box office in North America was not as good as expected, but it still topped the North American weekend box office champion, and the second week’s weekend box office also ranked second.
But the film’s box office in China was crushed by the "Global Storm" released on the same day.
As of October 28, the global box office was less than 200 million U.S. dollars. It seems that like "Blade Runner" that year, it has not been liked by the public for the time being, and it is still too avant-garde for ordinary audiences.
Regardless of the science fiction part, it is also an excellent movie
"Blade Runner 2049" has a very high level of script, not only can it be better than 95% of science fiction films,
In my opinion, it is better than most suspense films.
It is an interesting idea to start the movie from K's perspective, because the audience, like K, doesn't know his true identity. As a result, we followed K to find the truth, and the movie was in the process of evasive and unraveling, and mysteries continued to be solved.
When K accidentally discovered the childhood residence in the memory, we suddenly realized like K: It turns out that he is the natural born human!
When Friza said "she" instead of "he", we and K went back to the original point again, and everything was empty and happy.
The whole movie is linear narrative, and it is carried out in chronological order. It is not less difficult than non-linear narrative. The movie never tells you directly what happened, but promotes the plot through lines, performances, and pictures. This is a test of the director's level, and has an extraordinary charm.
K saw the incinerator near the orphanage and really found the Trojan horse hidden here in his memory. There was no line in this segment, but it was more silent than the sound. Every picture hits the soul directly, making people feel mixed.
When Friza told the truth, K sat down again without saying a word.
There are still no lines here, but an action and an expression by Gosling are the best interpretation of "heartache".
The real pain is not to say "I am so painful", because the real pain is unspeakable.
In fact, the movie has already made a lot of ground, and it is easy to miss some details and foreshadowing when it is first brushed. Friends of the second brush may be able to notice that when Anna watched K's memory, she couldn't help crying, after all, this is her own memory.
She didn’t say anything except “this is a real memory”. The performance was very delicate. The director didn’t arrange any deliberate lines, nor did she explain a lot to worry that the audience would not understand it, so that you have to watch it again. Know why she is crying.
A good script does not necessarily mean that the plot is clearly explained through lines. The actions, expressions, expressions, and even inner activities of the actors are part of the script. Some movies always like to let the actors say "Who am I and where am I?" "What do I want to do?" I will say it completely. Even the villain’s death is due to the low level of the director and screenwriter. They can only arrange for the villain to explain their modus operandi and motives without omission. Can the audience know what happened.
In contrast, the quiet narrative of "Blade Runner 2049" is much smarter.
This reminds me of "Fatal Magic", as a science fiction film, aside from watching the science fiction part, watching the suspense part alone can kill most of the suspense movies.
By the same token, when you are marveling at the multiple reversals and unexpected endings of "Blade Runner 2049", you realize that this is actually a science fiction movie.
The World View of "Blade Runner 2049"
This future world has different levels, real humans, clones, and K’s holographic projection girlfriend Joey.
There are Type 9 clones headed by K, and Type 8 clones headed by Saper.
That's right, copy people also have a contempt chain and a food chain, which is enough to see that the worldview of the movie is very well built.
Type 8 clones are the target of hunting, and their right eye has its own serial number; Type 9 clones are higher than them and don't need to hide, but they will still be insulted as "fake" by humans.
And Joey is the lowest creature, at the bottom of the food chain. That day, she tried to touch the raindrops on a rainy night. It was the first time she left the room and also the first time she felt the experience of being a person.
Even if she wants to have a skin kiss with K, she has to use the body of a prostitute.
She was put into the visualization device by K, but she was crushed by Rufu's foot, leaving only the phrase "I love you". The irony is that this is the most "human" moment for her, after all, compared with before, she has at least the right to die.
But to the extreme of thinking about it, she doesn't know whether her love for K is a real emotion or whether the program is written like this.
K doesn't know, and will never know.
When K saw the huge holographic projection,
She was exactly the same as Joey, and she also said ambiguous things like Joey. As a result, K can no longer know that Joey really loves himself?
Who are we?
A series of science fiction films such as "The Matrix", "Prometheus" and "Minority Report" all have metaphors in this regard.
Maybe we are also clones, and our memories are implanted.
Do you feel familiar with what you are doing or what you see at a certain moment?
This is called the "flashback phenomenon", which means that when you see a new scene, you feel like you've known each other before, as if you've been there in the dark.
According to Baidu Encyclopedia's explanation, this is a temporary short-circuit of memory cells, which led to our wrong judgment, and the mistake that just happened was stored in the memory bank.
But if the memory implanted with artificial intelligence goes wrong as described in "Western World", the "flashback phenomenon" can also be explained. So, are we not the receptionists of "Western World"?
Even, we may never really exist at all. Like online games, it is composed of 0 and 1, and the whole world we feel is just a giant computer.
Perhaps we are like Joey in Blade Runner 2049, just a string of codes that survives on the computer.
To die to save the same is our most human choice
"Terminator", "I, Robot", "Western World" and "Machine Ji" are all about the potential crisis of artificial intelligence, indicating that once artificial intelligence generates ideas, it may cause harm to humans.
This is a very advanced idea. The science fiction films with this theme have been enduring for a long time. Some time ago, the governor also announced that he would continue to shoot "Terminator 6." It seems that such a movie is far from outdated, after all. The intelligence crisis is too far away from us.
In contrast, "Blade Runner 2049" is even more avant-garde. Perhaps the director felt that there are too many movies that harm humans by artificial intelligence. He went the other way and began to tell stories about humans harming artificial intelligence.
Wallace stripped the copy of the reproduction rights, because if the copy is the same as humans, they will be slaughtered by humans. This is why he does everything possible to find Dyke's child.
And all the clones related to it will be driven to extinction.
Duplicates seem to be able to live like humans, but they are still inferior to humans. Humans can harm the duplicates at any time.
This can already cause the audience to think deeply, but the director's madness is not limited to this.
The director used two major turning points to make K continue to have questions about "who am I", which further made the audience wonder if he was also a copycat.
Coupled with the repeated brutal poisoning of humans by humans, we cannot help but start to worry: Maybe one day we will find that we are humans and be chased by real humans...
This is the horror of the future created by science fiction films. This kind of spiritual fear is much more terrifying than the visual sensory fear of horror films.
They are more like humans than humans
In fact, human beings should not only be afraid of copying human beings. If reproductive ability is external evolution, then humans should be more afraid of copying human internal evolution.
In "Blade Runner: 2036 Duplicate Dawn", Wallace, in order to prove that the Type 9 replicator was "fully obedient", he asked the replicator to choose between killing him or committing suicide. The replicator unsurprisingly chose to commit suicide. .
So, is the Type 9 clone really completely obedient?
In "Blade Runner", the Type 6 leader is created to engage in dangerous exploration and colonization missions, and a small team rebels after being unbearable.
In "Blade Runner: The Dark Catastrophe of 2022", the Type 8 clone Ikky finds that he is used by humans like a toy soldier. The humans let the clones kill each other, so Ikky decides to resist.
Although he has a longer lifespan than the Type 6 clone, he realizes that he is not really alive. He chose to fight for the "really alive" of his kind. He ignited the tanker in front of the database. , To kill oneself and become benevolent, to shed light on the aspirations of death, to hide merit and fame deeply.
Although he knows that even at the expense of himself, the same kind may not necessarily become "real humans", but as long as there is a glimmer of hope, he will work hard.
Isn't any great achievement built on thousands of lives?
In "Blade Runner 2049", a major turning point made K spawn thoughts and emotions, made him human, and made him a "real human". At this time, he could not pass the benchmark test.
When he is willing to sacrifice himself in order to copy the future of man, he will reflect the glory of humanity even more.
The entire "Blade Runner" series tells us that cloners can never be completely obedient. Maybe they can evolve into humans by seeing or hearing something one day. They have spent their entire lives and never stopped thinking about the meaning of life. They are more human than humans, and they are more like humans than humans.
Being able to reproduce offspring does not mean that they are no different from human beings. They awakened because they produced thoughts, emotions, souls, and human nature.
The word "humanity" runs through the film, and every bit of the whole movie is the word "humanity".
From this perspective, I personally think that "Blade Runner 2049" has surpassed the original.
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Say some digressions.
The first thing to say is that the visual effects of the movie are very exciting, but the plot is even more amazing, so that I devoted myself to the plot and forgot the visual effects throughout the article.
I have always liked Warner Pictures movies, "Lord of the Rings", "Harry Potter", "Where are Fantastic Beasts", "Interstellar", "Gravity", "The Dark Knight", "V for Vendetta", and "The Matrix" "Inception"... the above movies are all classics.
This year Warner is also exceptionally strong. "Le Batman Movie", "King Kong: Skull Island", "Wonder Woman" and "Recall the Clown" are all well received. "Dunkirk" and "Blade Runner 2049" are even more commercial films. The best, and then there will be "Justice League" coming soon.
The production team of "Blade Runner 2049" is top-notch. Ryan Gosling just nominated the Oscar for Best Actor this year, and Jared Leto, who has few scenes, is also the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
Roger Dickens, who has been nominated for numerous Oscars, should really take the Golden Man this time.
As a fan of Hans Zimmer, I am very happy to see him have the opportunity to nominate the best original soundtrack for next year's Oscar twice with "Dunkirk" and "Blade Runner 2049".
The most important thing is of course the director Dennis Villeneuve. Many netizens even compare him with Nolan. In fact, "Blade Runner 2049" and Nolan's sci-fi movies are completely different in style. Both of them are very good directors. It is really unnecessary to step on one hand. I wish them all the greatest directors in the future. .
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