Coastal View News
Times have changed. They’ve changed in reality between 1982, when “Blade Runner” first came out, and
the present. And they’ve also changed in the fictional world of the movie
between 2019, when “Blade Runner” takes place, and 2049, when the more recent
tale is set.
Times have changed. But some things are the same. The
people of Earth are still crowded into cities, bombarded with salacious
advertising, manipulated by rich overlords, and, to a large extent, have no
idea who they are or why they are doing what they are doing.
I’m talking about the movie, of course. And, just like
the last movie, the current installment focuses on one particular “blade
runner”—a cop (LAPD) whose job it is to “retire” (i.e., blow to bits)
bioengineered, human-looking beings called “replicants”. The thing is, a
certain generation of replicants wasn’t too great at taking marching orders.
They didn’t always obey their overlords. So they needed to go bye-bye.
K (Ryan Gosling) is the man for the job. He himself is a
replicant (“K” is short for “KD6.somethingorother”). But he obeys. Replicants
were once outlawed because of their slight propensity for not-so-civil unrest.
But a new corporate bigwig—Niander Wallace (Jared Leto), who figured out a new
way to farm despite a recent ecological collapse—is in charge. And he managed
to design a new generation of replicants, like K, who do as they are told.
And K, for one, is good at what he does. Take, for
instance, the giant, hulking man of a replicant he has to take down in the
beginning of the movie. Pretty shortly after they say their hellos and get
other pleasantries out of the way, K is punched in the face, bashed through a
wall, choked, and stabbed in the arm. No problem. Pop back up. And … replicant
retired.
But, as we’ve learned, some replicants are more curious
than others. And when K notices a tree outside his latest victim’s farm (trees
are rare these days), he becomes fixated. He ends up discovering a coffin
filled with bones buried under the tree. Now, lots of people die, especially
the apocalyptic wasteland K inhabits. But, in this case, the deceased had some
particularly striking features. She was a mother. In fact, she died in
childbirth. But here is the real kicker: She was also a replicant.
Not possible, they say. Replicants cannot reproduce. So
everyone—not just the police—wants to know more. Why? Well, the police—and the
authorities more generally—are worried about a replicant uprising. So they
don’t want replicants reproducing, and they don’t want replicants thinking they
are on a par with humans.
The replicants also want to know about the mystery mother
(and child). Why? Well, because they want to rise up and be more fully human.
K is caught in the middle. He is a replicant. But he is
also LAPD. His instincts push him in one direction, but his “programming”, so
to speak, pushes him in another. You might think this is about the
human/replicant divide. But it isn’t. Not really. For we all fight these battles
from within. We feel the power of emotion, intuition, and reason, but are also
pulled by baser, hard-wired biological urges. We see the value of freedom and
know the wrongness of oppression, but we also dislike unruliness, messiness,
and anarchy. Our better angels want to help others; our demons desire only
self-satisfaction. We’re all of mixed race here.
So the real question of this movie, and that which came
before it, is: What is it that makes
a being human? The capacity for reason or reflection? Or free will? Is it the
capacity to feel love, or some other social/relational trait? Or maybe it’s
something to do with morality—with our ability to do the right thing, even if
it costs us something?
“Blade Runner 2049” meditates on these themes with
patience and gravity. It’s a slow burn. This movie isn’t fast paced or action
packed. It is methodical and atmospheric. Each formal element—from
cinematography to music to staging—presses the point with such persistence and
clarity. The drama unfolds, not just as a series of events, but as something
closing in on you, weighing on you, and pursuing you.
This, in short, is a beautifully done movie.
