Blade Runner

Talk about depictions of the future in science fiction and other sources
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MythOfProgress
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Blade Runner

Post by MythOfProgress »

My timing is a little finicky considering the date at which the Blade Runner 2022 short film takes place in(May 2022, it's September 2022 as of posting this) but suppose better late than never.


As for the original/sequel, suppose i'd have to give a bit of long-winded review of them.
Blade Runner
Plot/synopsis
When it comes to the general plot of the franchise that codified cyberpunk stories and their ambience, i'd say the pacing is something of a slow burn which means you probably watch with a careful eye and absorb the details of what's going on-but in short it's about a semi-retired officer(Deckard) who hunts replicants(bio-engineered humans with varying degrees of physicality, with a lack of empathy that differentiate them from normal humans).

Deckard is brought along unwillingly by a partner before his boss, who tasks him with hunting down several replicant slaves who have escaped from an off-world colony on Mars. in his last quest to hunt down and neutralize the replicants, he finds love with a replicant(not part of the original escapees) and realizes they have the capability of developing empathy and a sense of identity as he's saved by one of the escapees in the climax/finale.

in the sequel, we follow a new protagonist(Officer K/Joe), who unveils himself to be a replicant blade runner, which means he hunts his own kind. here we get to witness his quest to hunt for the original protagonist(deckard) in an effort to determine if he is the long-lost offspring of Deckard and the replicant he fell in love with(Rachel) after being tasked by his commanding officer to find this lost child and kill it upon the realization that replicants can turn the tables on their human oppressors with the act of reproduction,

as well as if he is the "chosen one" that the replicant resistence(made up of both replicants and human sympathizers in response to the mistreatment of replicants and their usage as slaves) seems to hold dear as their ace in the hole in their fight against the oppressors.

upon realization that he is not the chosen one, Officer K is despondant but torn between being a corporate cog(bring deckard's true offspring to luv- his evil replicant counterpart and by proxy Wallace), a terrorist assassin(assigned by the resistance to kill deckard before Wallace, the billionaire industralist figures out the secrets to replicant reproduction so he owns and controls all of replicant activity) or a gutless pawn(bring in deckard and his offspring to be neutralized), instead chooses his own path and saves deckard, not before being mortally wounded in the process and accepting his fate.

The plot(s) isn't necessarily a masterpiece, as i suppose this isn't the particular reason why most folks enjoy the movie though that isn't to say it's not enjoyable, so much as it is the world-building, soundtrack and visual storytelling- overall it's a slow burn with a somewhat fitting conclusion for a description.
World-building
Having mentioned the world-building before, it's not quite rich in lore like Star Wars or Harry Potter, but for what exists it's enough and does the job well of conveying interesting information about the world to the viewer,

this can be seen in the aforementioned Blackout 2022 short i've posted or the other short films, 2036 and 2048 which respectively establish grounds for the 2049 plot; detailing the evolved nature of replicants and setting up a loose end that gets tied up in the introduction of Blade Runner 2049.

The introduction in both films give information to the setting(2019 LA & 2049 LA) and it's nature in a short reading, which is simple if not a little plain.
Plausibility
Using mohs scale of sci-fi hardness(which is a lazy way of evaluating the scientific principles behind a story)and the real world as a baseline,

it's safe to say this is mostly in the speculative science category, there's nothing too physics-defying but we still haven't progressed much in the department of creating bio-enigneered humans with enhanced physicalities, artificial intelligence/neural networks capable of serving as companions(be they platonic, sexual or romantic),

being able to survive the collapse of ecosystems and food webs solely with the mastery of synthetic farming- something that Niander Wallace; the billionaire antagonist of the sequel was able to perform based on the introduction reading(which admittedly is a little unbelievable if not stretching things a bit considering the interdisciplinary knowledge required).

Flying cars;which remain to this day an impracticality if not dangerous, interplanetary/interstellar travel continuously eludes us as the technologies required are extensive, expensive, with the trips often being long and hazardous to one's health although it's not technically impossible as there nothing that says the laws of physics forbid us- still doesn't mean it's gonna be an easy path to escaping our world.
R.I.P Ziba.
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alibabaghanouj
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Re: Blade Runner

Post by alibabaghanouj »

I can't explain why, but I largely gave Blade Runner a miss when it came out, but these last couple of years, it's become my go-to "Me Time" film. The first one, not 2049 which I'll probably come around to in about 15-20 years.
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funkervogt
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Re: Blade Runner

Post by funkervogt »

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