What BLADE RUNNER 2049 Is Really About

Bladerunner: Do robots dream about electric sheep? Bladerunner 2049: No. They dream about electric Ana De Armas.

This is STILL one of my favourite movies. I watched it in cinema all alone and when I walked out of the mall it was raining. There's something surreal about that feeling that I remembered to this day.

Something I find interesting that I've seen nobody discuss was what a Sapper is. In classic military conflict a sapper is one that tunnels under walls of a castle or a trench and places explosives [or something else like piers of wood and a fire to destroy them] to 'tear down the wall'. Bautistas character is meant to knock down the wall that other characters in the film talk about. He is the first significant step for K to in other words become human. As if the idea of something metaphysical like a miracle is necessary to take steps to humanity. I.E. something that is so out of line of what you KNOW to be or be possible made manifest directly in your vision, keeping with the themes of eyes in the first film mainly, and lesser so in 2047. But 2047 also deals with touch, what you feel. And feeling anything might be enough to make you human.

Worked as a prison guard for the better part of 8 years. I can say with 100% certainty that some people have a LOT less empathy than the replicants presented in these movies.

It's good to see a creator skip the all too common trend of bombarding the viewer with background music. Listening to a voice alone is more impactful when the spoken word takes center stage with no distractions. Audiobooks speak to this as we keep up with multi-layered narratives unfolding over hours and hours. Those of us who enjoy excellent long form studies like this will stick around (probably more than once if we're passionate about the topic) and we don't need a synthwave beat to keep us engaged.

2049 is so badass. Ryan Gosling killed it.

Joi is a test of K's humanity, of the viewer's humanity. If you are heartbroken by her demise, you bear grace, you are humane. If her plight makes you a better person, then she is worthy, she is important, and regardless of whether she functions upon programming, she makes people better by evoking love and empathy. To me, this is incredibly human.

Good to see this movie still getting attention!

That scene of the giant hologram Joi calling him Joe broke the internet. Because it's not just about whether Joi or K is real. This isn't just about can synthetic humans be special. This scene makes the viewer question if they, or anyone is really special. Remember, this scene takes place right after Joi is destroyed and tries to say "I love you". Just like K, the viewer thinks she and K are different .But the scene with the hologram destroys that illusion the second she calls him Joe. Because the cold truth is, waaaay deep down, every married couple wonders where's the line where they can be replaced. An illiness? Old age? A job layoff (every guy I knew in a relationship before the Great Recession wasn't after it)? So what's the point of anything? I guess you have to ultimately find your own reason to feel special. K does this at the end. When Deckard asks why K did all this, he doesn't answer. He lived his life his way proving that, while not unique, he could still act like someone who was. And that's what this is all about. It's your actions define you. Was K just another replicant that could be replaced and maybe that replacement does the same thing he did. Hard to say. But the point is he made the choice to sacrifice himself to do the right thing.

One of the better analysis videos of 2049, thank you for the effort and perfect delivery!

I can barely put into words how highly I regard this film and its philosophy on life. Not many movies present such deep questions and even fewer have the balls to attempt to answer them. I'm thinking films like Barry Lyndon and Grand Budapest Hotel. Stories that reflect on what a life is, what's important, and why it's important. I'm sure if you asked 20 people they'd all have a unique list of what films do that for them, but BR2049 is probably the top of it for me.

Yes, I've always thought, "Is Decker a replicant?" was the wrong question. The deep question that resonates is pondering whether or not there's any actual difference between human and replicant.

"Remember, her eyes were green." That just changed my life dude.

With Joi ( literally designed to be a 'jerk off instruction' AI), K continually gave her free will, and had no intention of controlling her. He treated her as if she was real, and her programming adapted. I thought that their relationship was sweet, and that in a way, he was able to help her break her programming, just as he was able to break his own programming. When she sacrificed herself, she demonstrated selflessness, as a key aspect of sentient consciousness. When he sees the ad for Joi after his Joi has 'died', he does not see his Joi in her, because his version of her was unique to him. He is clearly grieving for his loss and cared about her. To them, their love and affection for each other was real, even if they were both technically artificial life forms. This point is also driven home by Deckard, when he asserts "I know what is real!"

Found myself tearing up at several points along the way... and, ultimately understanding it better than I had after watching the three shorts and feature three times each. Thank you!

You nailed the Joi character, bravo. With that nailed a major theme and your closing statement was also spot on. Good job but that's only half the story. The movie is about how someone transcends all that through humility, faith and sacrifice. The religious undertones are in your face. You had said, "To shake people from their reverie, it takes a miracle" and that moment for K, that you describe as his most human, happens in front of Dr. Ana Stelline. When Mr. Wallace first hears of Dr. Ana Stelline, he proclaims, "a child is born" and Freysa talks about her as a type of Messianic leader. So let's look at that. In the first half of this movie, which you covered excellently, K is a loser, unfulfilled with the equivalent of a sex doll for a girlfriend but the story is this. He is pursuing a meaningless life no bigger than himself and devoid of showing love to those around him. The world hates him for it. He starts to escape this in the discovery of a false narrative (fantasy) that he is special. You could say it's analogous to having visions of grandeur, having main character syndrome or just acting like all these tiktok kids. That fantasy is a lie that nearly breaks him. When he visits Dr. Ana Stelline the first time, he glimpses something beautiful but is not able to see it properly because he's looking through a perverted lens. He then loses everything until he finds himself standing in front of the Joi billboard with it's black soulless eyes. It is there that he casts off his bandages, literally, in that scene and accepts a framework of providence and humility and understands what he was not valuing the right things. He faces his final battle against Luv. I don't entirely know what to make of it but he kills her I would argue she represents the love of false things. When she says she is the best one, I believe this is intentionally someone who seeks validation in status like those people who think that whoever has the biggest toys wins, the guy with the most expensive car should go first etc. Her name after all is a diminutive but I believe Joi's is too and the dichotomy between joy and love is obvious. "Happiness is fleeting but suffering requires a sustaining meaning". Joi is analogous to a porn addiction, and in porn the acronym JOI stands for jerk off instruction which I find hilarious in her role as a hologram. I believe that where as Joi represents the placating forces that keep us from rising up, Luv represents the love of worldly things that sends us in the wrong direction. At any rate, K goes back to visit Dr. Ana Stelline, taking Deckard. K has found peace in the service to others. So to me the point of this movie isn't just a warning about consumerism but it's about developing enough humility to have kindness, love and sacrifice for the people around you despite any injustices. When faced with his own impotence, K could have become bitter and resentful but instead chose humility and sacrifice. In so doing so, returns to Ana able to see the truth. He has his soul intact. It's a beautiful movie and it is equally applicable to us all. Some people have accused this of being a Christian or even a Christmas movie because of the Christ themes present in Dr. Ana Stelline. While I believe she represents faith more broadly, living behind glass apart from the world. As the memory maker you could argue that she plants the seeds of a soul in each newly "born" replicant. It is worth noting that when Luv is getting her nails done, you can see Rudolph the Red Nose reindeer painted on one of them. There is also a slight wolf theme in this movie that I am not clear on. We just mentioned Rudolph. That name from it's origins means famous wolf. The name Love means female wolf and Joi's ringtone is from Peter and the Wolf. I am also of the opinion, which is pure conjecture, that they wanted Wallace to look somewhat wolf like. They're first choice was David Bowie and while I have no idea if the wolf theme is real, would wonder if it ties into the electric sheep androids dream of. Would love to hear people's thoughts. Edit, I wanted to add that the name Freysa is the name of the Norse goddes of love and being Norse with 1 eye, there are clear parallels to Odin. I believe she helps him understand what to love and why. Oh, and clearly Mackenzie Davis was the real catch the whole time. Honestly, I've never seen any other movie so layered, full of art and so resplendent in it's philosophy as this one. If you read this far, thank you.

Great take, I agree with the majority of your observations, I disagree that K was using Joi as a distraction like Instagram, I see it as a yearning and reaching for a human life, a striving for humanity. And the relationship in the beginning may have been like you say, but I see growth in both, as you said when she risks mortality by being disconnected so they can't make her talk, and at the end when she is destroyed she also in a sense sacrifices herself. I think the evolution of the 2 "artificial" life forms show us the melancholy/ sadness of life and death.

That is a great analysis. Made me think about it in a new way. Thank you for putting this together!

This film as a stand alone is one of my all time favorites, as a sequel it vaults into the unprecedented. The shear keen insight into culture and social conditioning is piercingly adroit. Couple that with the profound exploration of what it is to be human and the core contemplation of the nature of human awareness is unparalleled in my opinion. When you add to that, the fact that is is an extension of the initial expression of the original film in the form of a sequel... it occupies cinematic rarified air for me. Truly unparalleled. Thank you Mr. Scott for the gift of this study of human psychology and social conditioning. I shared it with my 17 year old son, who after three days returned to me and asked to watch it again after the notions it stirred in him had settled a bit. He was gobsmacked by the implications it brought up socially and psychologically.

A most excellent analysis. Thorough and accurate. Superb presentation.