Blade Runner 2049 is a science fiction film by the world famous Denis Villeneuve. It is a sequel to Blade Runner in 1982. A relatively recent picture has already managed to collect a considerable amount of conflicting reviews from a hundred viewers. The message and meaning of the film is incredibly deep and complex, maybe that’s why the film is so controversial?
What is Blade Runner 2049 about?
Actions take place on the Earth of the future 2049. Society is made up of humans and replicants. Ordinary people treat Replicants with suspicion and dislike. A new model of replicants, the main character, Kay, is the same “blade runner”, or policeman. His job is to hunt down and capture deviant replicants who break the peace. He lives with artificial intelligence, which is a hologram without a material body.
On one of the missions, after catching a criminal, Kay finds on his site the remains of a replicant who managed to give birth to a child. This finding proves that replicants are able to reproduce naturally. In order not to unleash a war, Kei’s boss orders him to find the child born from this woman and kill him. The head of the corporation, Wallace, is also interested in finding this miracle, as it can help him create new modified replicants.
The hero is constantly haunted by memories of a wooden horse toy. It may at first seem that these are fragments from his childhood. But Kei is aware of his replicant nature, so he understands that in fact these memories are fake and not real. Kay goes to the orphanage, where, judging by the documents, the same born boy lived after. Documents could not be found on the spot, but among the ruins and debris, he managed to find the very figurine of a horse from his dreams. Kei approaches the memory developer, and she confirms the truth of the fragments from his dreams; Kay is convinced that he is the miracle.
Kay goes in search of his father, Rick Deckard. Wallace’s subordinates find them, kidnap Deckard, injure Kay and leave him for dead. He is rescued by members of the Replicant Freedom Movement. As a result, Deckard and Kay escape and go to the creator of memories after Kay learns that the deceased woman gave birth to a girl and that his memories are not unique. The film ends with Kei lying on the snow-covered steps, badly injured and tired.
The meaning of Blade Runner 2049
Initially, the problem of the social system is raised: a dystopia with obsolete morality, overpopulation, the artificial creation of people, false feelings and life. Tyrell pyramids as a symbol of slavery, in which the masters of life use people as resources for production.
Even in the first part of the film, the question of the essence of Deckard was raised (the audience was left with the opportunity to decide whether he was a replicant or a person). In the new film, it is made clear that he is still a human who is forced into hiding after a female replicant gives birth to him, although this was previously considered absolutely impossible. A huge question that comes up while watching is how Rachel managed to give birth, given her replicantism. Whereas in the first film the replicants were created in the form of tin cans, in the second part they have subtle differences between man and machine. Fans speculate that Rachel was the result of an experiment to create a half-human, half-replicant. You could say she was the only one of her kind.
Kei himself changes as the story progresses. In the beginning, he is an exemplary policeman, with an excellent reputation and results. Everything begins to crack just when it begins to seem to him that he is Deckard’s son and that his memories are real. This idea begins to absorb him completely, and he no longer doubts it at all. But all his memory is just the memories of Deckard’s daughter, the creator of Anna’s memories, entered into his program.
One of the main storylines touches on the theme of love. Kay lives with Joe, an artificial intelligence who creates the illusion of a real happy life for his client. Surprisingly, it does not at all create the feeling of an empty and one-sided toy. But an important question remains open: is it of her own free will that she cares so much for Kei, or is she simply programmed? Her peculiar death is experienced by Kei hard. after all, it is love that gives him strength for life; he thinks Jo is alive and he loves her.
Summarizing, we can say that the film is devoted to two topics at once – love and faith. The second part gives the audience an answer to the question of the difference between a person and a replicant. In the 80s, the film asked “What does it mean to be human?”, and in 2017 a new film answered: “To be human means to feel love and believe”
The meaning of the ending
The ending is left open: Deckard flies to his supposed daughter, and Kay bleeds on the stairs. This gives the audience an opportunity to think about the continuation of the story. It is not known whether Kay will survive, there is a high probability that he will not. He is betrayed by everyone, abandoned, abandoned, but still he feels free from this artificial world, of which he himself is a part. Perhaps in a few years we will wait for a new story about these heroes.
