The Humanity of ‘Blade Runner 2049’ (2017).

TRIGGER WARNINGS: Mention of rape in Blade Runner (1982).

What makes us human?

Our souls? Our memories?

The capacity to love and hate? To fear and feel? To touch? To desire?

To be born?

To die?

Blade Runner 2049 (2017) answers all these questions with a beautiful, resounding “yes.”

Not too long ago, I watched the original Blade Runner (1982) in order to prepare for this film. The concept was solid, with its goal being to question what it is that makes a human. I was not prepared for how much better Blade Runner 2049 explored that concept. This film flawed me, which shouldn’t have come as such a surprise given how highly regarded the film is by cinephiles.

K (Ryan Gosling).

The film follows K (Ryan Gosling) as he questions his entire identity as a replicant (a humanoid construction designed to be a slave) after finding out that another replicant fell pregnant and gave birth- something thought to have been impossible. He sets out on a dangerous investigation to try and solve the mystery of the miracle child, with ever-growing evidence that it could be him.

There is very little I can think of to criticise this film. It is visually stunning and emotionally haemorrhaging. K is maybe the sweetest, purest cinnamon roll with a gun I’ve ever seen and is, by far, “more human than humans.” K and Joi’s (Ana de Armas) romance had a vice-like grip on my heart, and I would feel lucky to receive a fraction of their love and care for each other. There are so many more female characters than in the first film, all of whom have diverse presences on screen. Most of them die, but in fairness, a lot of people are dead by the end of this film. I also seem to enjoy watching Harisson Ford on screen more now that he’s aged into his grumpy on-screen personality, and his and Ryan Gosling’s onscreen chemistry was off the charts- all of their interactions were either amusing or heartbreaking.

K (Ryan Gosling) and Joi (Ana de Armas).

I have only 2 critiques of the film. The first is for the continued narrative that Deckard (Harrison Ford) had love for Rachael (Sean Young) even though we saw him harass and rape her in the first film (which you can read about in The Misogyny of Blade Runner (1982)). That being said, the execution of the Deckard-Rachel romance narrative in Blade Runner 2049 was much more successful. I find Harrison Ford’s performance as Deckard far more emotionally rich in this film than in the original, which makes the scripted love feel believable this time around. Obviously, I would love it more if romance were present in the first film instead of cruelty, but this film did what it could to correct that. My second critique is that I miss Roy (Rutger Hauer). He was an iconic antagonist, but as we all know, “to die for a cause is the most human thing we can do.”

K (Ryan Gosling).

The film, as a whole, is widely considered the more favoured of the two Blade Runner instalments. Both films explore the concept of humanity, and both have the same Sci-Fi themes, but Blade Runner 2049 completes the more compelling half of the narrative that Blade Runner started: It is not mere skin and bones that make us human.

In the first Blade Runner film, we watched from a human Blade Runner’s perspective, a slave hunter who believes the constructs he is hunting are not comparable to humans, treating the replicant he is attracted to as an object to be dominated and trying to kill a replicant who loved, grieved, and felt more than he did.

Blade Runner 2049 gives us the other half of this narrative, the perspective of a replicant Blade Runner slave forced to hunt his own people against his will. He feels pain for every person he is forced to kill. He loves and feels deeply. He endures discrimination for his nature and fights against the structures designed to keep him and his kind under the boot of humanity. He is the underdog.

There is a reason that the underdog is present in so many stories. We have a natural inclination to root for the character whose odds are stacked against them and a desire to see the downtrodden succeed. K is a far more emotionally complex and sympathetic character than Deckard by design, a softer, more likeable character to contrast against Deckard's coldness. They are two halves of the same whole, in a way, much like Roy and Deckard were in the first film, but this sequel improves on that contrast because K is not inclined to violence the way Roy was. He uses violence when he has to, as a last resort. He exercises mercy and kindness. That is a key feature for highlighting the difference between a humane replicant and a human without humanity.

K (Ryan Gosling).

Blade Runner 2049 is a beautiful film, both visually and narratively. It does a brilliant job of breathing new life into a sci-fi classic, not only bringing it to a new generation but improving upon it. I recommend watching it if you need mental and emotional stimulation after a lacklustre day. This film will have you questioning humanity, and you will definitely shed a few tears, but it will be worth it.