Hey Charlie!
(It's been a long time since my last article)
In
my previous article on my favourite movies, I left a clue to let you guess
which movie I was going to talk about and there was many of you who
answered me ;). So the clue was
replicants and maybe you understand now: I'm going to talk about
Blade Runner and
Blade Runner 2049. I know this article is about two movies but they are complementary as one of them is the sequel of the other.
I will explore how these movies are vividly great(🤔
sounds like something I know...)
A Reminder: Blade
Runner was
a book by Philip K. Dick - one of the greatest sci-fi authors - which
is called Do
Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? before
being a film. I
haven’t read it but my father said it was quite different from
the film as there are some passages that have
been
removed. The novel has inspired many authors, but the movie (the
first one) has
inspired many directors. How the town looks like, the flying cars,
all sorts of objects that don’t exist, we can find them in many
other movies: The
Fifth Element,
Star Wars Episode
II: Attack of the
Clones…
However,
the plot of Blade
Runner 2O49 is
not taken from Philip K. Dick’s novel.
Blade Runner (the first
one)
The Plot:
It takes place in 2019,
and humanity already has begun
the universe conquest, and they (or we) has
installed
colonies on the other planets. New types of slaves have
been created, and now they're used for hard
or dangerous works, and so they are very strong. They are a mix of
robots and humans (sort of androids),
called replicants,
and they're so realistic
that almost nobody can distinguish a replicant from a human being.
Moreover, humans have
implemented
fake memories in the replicants as they have
wanted
them to be very realistic. But sometimes,
replicants escape, and the problem is, that they want to avenge.
That's why a job has been
created to eliminate the escaped replicants, called Blade
Runner. The
Blade Runner is a person whose job is to kill or destroy these
replicants.
The main character is Rick (not and Morty, please
stop) Deckard, and his mission is to chase 6 escaped replicants
through LA. So, here,
B.R.
seems to be a
stupid movie,
but throughout the film,
we sort of get the idea that the replicants have emotions, and feel
fear, for instance when
they are chased by
Deckard. More and more, we identify
with them, as they’re basically 6 runaway
slaves trying to survive without being killed. There’s
a very striking scene where Deckard runs
after a female replicant and
she’s scared
so she starts to run; and then you don’t want her to die but this
is Deckard’s job. However you don’t
turn against him, because he
has to do that or he’s fired, he’s like a policeman who must kill
someone because it’s his job. That’s why Blade Runner is so
great: it’s
not just a movie of chasing, it’s also about psychology and where
being human starts or ends
(this last point is even more emphasized in the following movie,
you’ll get why). And this
psychological aspect is even more highlighted when the last
dying replicant
makes a philosophical
speech. Besides, Deckard has
fallen in love with Rachel, who turns
out to be a replicant, but
has decided
to protect her anyway.
Blade Runner 2O49
The Plot: 3O
years have
passed
since
the first movie and
now the protagonist is Agent K. He’s also a Blade Runner but he is
a replicant. He must find a certain type of old replicants that have
escaped. But in his mission he discovers that a replicant (Rachel)
and
a human being (Rick
Deckard) have
had
a child, and his boss asks
him to find this child and kill him/her, as,
if people get
to know
that, there will be a crisis. Thus K begins to look
for
this kid and he retraces its
childhood: for
instrance
in an
orphanage.
And during his search, he begins to find out
that this child could
be
him, and that the
memories he
has could be true.
Thus he lies to his boss,
telling her that he has
killed
the child. However, the replicants manufacturer
has
learnt
that this child exists, and also begins to chase K.
The Analysis of the 2 movies (by
Antoine, THE
analyst): What is
interesting in these
films is that they explore the limits
of being human or not. In the first film as I explained, replicants
have emotions, they laugh, they cry, they fear, and they’re not
like Google Home: they are just
like human
beings. In the second movie, K, after learning he could potentially
be human, becomes human; at
the beginning of the film, he doesn’t do useless movements, he’s
more like a robot, but then after learning that he might not be one,
he begins to shiver,
and to do all sorts
of things a human being does and
to have human feelings such as fear, guilt...
Furthermore,
they’re beautiful visually speaking; they’re basically the most
magnificent movies I’ve ever watched, and all of these 2 are
incredible. In the first one, the lighting
effects, the dark atmosphere, the
costumes, all
sort of things like this make this movie visually
striking.
In Blade Runner
2O49,
there is a long orange
passage.
Yeah, it’s the only word that can describe it: it’s orange. It
is so BEAUTIFUL
to watch.
Besides,
the actors are great: Harrison Ford as Rick Deckard (I promise this
is not the same role as Han Solo or Indiana Jones, he’s playing
more seriously), Rudger Hauer as Roy Batty, Ryan
Gosling as Agent K, Jared Leto as the bad guy in the second movie (it
was supposed to be David Bowie playing this role, but as you can
suppose, there have been some Ch
ch ch ch changeeeeeees)...
However
(there’s always a however), I’m very angry that they made a
sequel of Blade
Runner,
thankfully
BR2O49
is great, but I’m still angry (I have had
the
same reaction with
Star
Wars Episode I,
even if it’s a very good movie). Furthermore I have
read
that Ridley Scott wanted to do another one, and this time I’m very
disappointed even if the film turns
out to
be great, because
now they
must stop. Ridley Scott is
known
for his lousy sequels (Alien:
Covenant,
Prometheus),
he only recycles
masterpieces (I wouldn’t be surprised if he’d do a sequel of
Gladiator).
Thankfully,
it hasn’t
directed
BR2O49,
it was Denis Villeneuve (Incendies,
Prisoners,
Arrival=Premier
Contact in
French...), one of the greatest director of the 2O1Os years. I
hope that he
will be the one to
make the sequel, but, even if he did it, how would it be called?
Blade
Runner 2O5O?,
Blade Runner 2O49 2?,
Blade
Runner 3?,
Blade Runner the one after Blade Runner 2O49 but we didn’t know how
to call it so maybe Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? 2O49
version?
Yeah, as you can
see, I’m angry.
But
these
films
are
GREAT,
and when
I say it I mean it.
