The glossary of dystopia
Late in Blade Runner 2049, Denis Villeneuve’s sequel to Ridley Scott’s now classic cult hit, a gigantic, naked, neon pink and blue hologram approaches Ryan Gosling’s K. “You look like you’ve been a good boy” she says pointing at him. As she retreats back to her original position on the side of a building, a product placement for an AI companion, her tagline appears under her, something along the lines “Joi, everything you want to see”. The grand dystopian cityscapes of a Los Angeles permanently in the dark, the artificial lights illuminating the crowded streets and the sterile scorched earth outside the city walls are all there. In a similar fashion, that’s what fans of the original want to hear.
Thirty years down the line from the original film, we learn that power dynamics have shifted. Tyrell company, the original creators of the “androids” have gone bust after their rebellious product was banned following an uprising in an off world colony. A new powerhouse controlled by Jared Leto’s character has risen in its place, controlling the supply of food and eventually re-introducing androids that are of a more docile variety. The difference between the lives lead by the hoi polloi down in the crowded alleys and those enjoyed in the babylonian towers by the powerful is explicitly pronounced by this vast difference in available space.
Much like its predecessor, Blade Runner 2049 starts down the path of memory and reality perception, what it means to be human and lingering deep doubt about what’s actually real. And it might prove to be a very challenging viewing: the lingering shots that make up the three hours runtime allow for a much deeper introspection then we’re used to in the era of TV shows clocking in one hour at the most. There’s hardly any plot twists or action scenes. The film’s narrative is much more novelistic in nature than you’re average indie flick, let alone blockbuster.
Through it runs a very loyal adaptation of the glossary of dystopia Phillip K.Dick created to shows us his strange and twisted vision of the world, which has proven eerily prophetic in too many ways to recount here. And it’s no mere accident: “Electric Dreams” — a series of mini-films adapting various of his short stories — hit Channel 4 back in September, this film now and the upcoming third season of “The Man In The High Castle”, they all show just how much his reading of the dark underbelly of our world is relevant today.
It’s not merely a device that in the world of Blade Runner the major theme seems to be slavery. As soon as humans could create artificial life, they re-introduced slavery. A detail that is often lost on casual viewers of the first film and its sequel, is that the “androids” are not in fact robots. They are essentially clones whose genome has been modified and their physical abilities stretched to the maximum of human potential. The words used to describe them — android, skinjob etc — are a dehumanisation mechanism for people to accept that they have slaves working for them.
It is this mechanism of stripping people of their essence that is the focus of the film.
As K, Gosling’s character who is played with his usual deadpan sincerity, gradually comes to an awakening, a revolt of the human spirit — and despite a massive missed opportunity with Sylvia Hoeks character ‘Luv” to come to its own (or to be honest its failure not to either show every female character as either vulnerable or dying a horrible death) — we arrive at the very Dickian question asked by the first film too: what does it mean to be human? And this exactly the problem of this film.
In it’s scope, Blade Runner 2049 is astonishing. It’s pacing, narrative, philosophical pursuits and stunning visuals, are all worthy successors of the first film. It might well be the best sci-fi of the last decade. It showcases a true grasp of the original’s vision and legacy and does well navigating the perilous waters of its imaginative. But leaving the cinema I did have a rather annoying question: what is the point of it?
Because the unfortunate truth is that it doesn’t advance the mythos significantly. It broadens our gaze slightly, showing us other elements at work in the universe of the film, but it’s very telling that unlike the first film, this isn’t based on a book. Lacking more original material, this script jumps deeper into the world of the original film, only to take a better look at the same ocean floor.
Blade Runner 2049 is however redeemed by it’s qualities. It doesn’t miss a beat despite the heavy legacy it has to live up to. And despite the lack of original pursuits, it’s a great reminder that the “empire never ended”, just like Dick would have wanted.
