{"id":238,"date":"2018-05-21T13:47:36","date_gmt":"2018-05-21T18:47:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/academics.winona.edu\/povwinona\/?p=238"},"modified":"2018-05-21T13:47:36","modified_gmt":"2018-05-21T18:47:36","slug":"blade-runner-2049-revisiting-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/academics.winona.edu\/povwinona\/blade-runner-2049-revisiting-the-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Blade Runner 2049: Revisiting the Future"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>While many aging actors struggle to land the starring roles of their youth and are instead relegated to small cameos or ridiculous B-movie sequels, one actor who has had seemingly little trouble in this area is Harrison Ford.\u00a0 Not only has Ford managed to land new roles in films such as <em>42<\/em> and <em>Ender\u2019s Game, <\/em>but he has also reprised his most famous roles some thirty to forty years after the initial films\u2019 release dates, with his outing as Indiana Jones in 2008 followed by his return as Han Solo in 2015.\u00a0 It only seems fitting then that Ford should revisit yet another of his iconic roles: that of Rick Deckard, revived for 2017\u2019s <em>Blade Runner 2049.<\/em>\u00a0 While the original 1982 <em>Blade Runner<\/em> was a critical failure, subsequent revisions helped it to develop into the landmark film we know it to be today.\u00a0 Being as it took twenty-five years for the original film to reach director Ridley Scott\u2019s final cut in 2007, it seems remarkable and much overdue to have a sequel released on the film\u2019s thirty-fifth-year anniversary.\u00a0 Just as the original effectively combines the two genres of science fiction and film noir into an entirely unique hybrid\u2014securing its legacy as a neo-noir\u2014director Denis Villeneuve\u2019s <em>2049 <\/em>takes care to revisit the world of the original rather than reboot it, all the while revising it for the next generation of film-goers.<\/p>\n<p>Part of the original allure of <em>Blade Runner <\/em>was the intricately designed cinematography, much of which drew heavily from classic noir.\u00a0 <em>2049 <\/em>places the same emphasis in its scenes, albeit in more subtle ways with plenty of nods towards the original.\u00a0 This becomes immediately apparent in the scene from the beginning of the film where Ryan Gosling\u2019s Officer K confronts Dave Bautista\u2019s Sapper Morton.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bbX5KM0tFVk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The wall-busting action is clearly a nod towards the original film\u2019s fight between Deckard and the replicant, Roy Batty, as played by Rutger Hauer, who smashes his head through a wall.\u00a0 This <em>2049<\/em> scene also nods toward the fan theory that Deckard was not a human, but a replicant, with the reveal that the new blade runner, Officer K, is, in fact, the latter.<\/p>\n<p>Cinematographer Roger Deakins makes several interesting stylistic choices within this scene.\u00a0 Sapper\u2019s house is very darkly lit with bright diegetic light from the window, creating a chiaroscuro effect reminiscent of the classic noir technique.\u00a0 Small, diegetic splashes of color, like the warmly lit hallway in the background and the brief flashes of K\u2019s Voight-Kampff machine, occur in this scene and will continue as cinematographic motifs throughout the film.\u00a0 These splashes of color offset the picture\u2019s bleaker tones and seem to be Deakins\u2019 way of creating a new style of chiaroscuro that uses color instead of light.<\/p>\n<p>Another interesting inclusion is the steam rising from a kettle in the background.\u00a0 Classic noir often included smoke and other air-obscuring components like fog as a cinematic staple, which added to the mystery and murkiness surrounding the characters and story.\u00a0 The original <em>Blade Runner<\/em> fully embraced this style, and <em>2049<\/em> doggedly continues the motif, even down to such small details as steam rising from a kettle.<\/p>\n<p>One of the main sources of the smoke motif in both films is the exhaust from the spinner vehicles, which is present in the scrapyard crash scene featuring K and Ana de Armas\u2019 holographic character, Joi.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZjEnS3hA1B4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The color splashes motif also reappears in this clip with the brightly colored glow of the monitors within the vehicle as well as Joi\u2019s yellow jacket.\u00a0 The bright, digital colors stand out cleanly in contrast to the otherwise dirty, monotone scene that matches the gray of the smoke from the exhaust and the missile explosions.<\/p>\n<p>The entity behind the missiles\u2014the deadly replicant, Luv, the femme fatale of the film, as played by Sylvia Hoeks\u2014makes her appearance on the scene in a clever cinematic way.\u00a0 The smoke from the missiles\u2019 explosions reflects in Luv\u2019s glasses, bringing to mind scenes from classic noir such as Mike Hammer\u2019s glance in a mirror behind him towards his follower from <em>Kiss Me Deadly<\/em>, where mirrors frame and highlight the important information in the scene.\u00a0 <em>2049 <\/em>gives this a technological update, however, with the information not being a reflection that Luv is directly seeing but instead one she is remotely viewing and controlling.\u00a0 These new technological glasses also nod at the original <em>Blade Runner\u2019<\/em>s ESPER machine that Deckard uses to investigate a photograph with the same verbal commands that Luv speaks: \u201cCloser, stop.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Another noteworthy noir trope appears in this scene: the presence of water.\u00a0 Droplets appear on the windows of the spinner distorting the image and manipulating the lighting within the vehicle.\u00a0 The watery theme also occurs in the reflections on the walls within Luv\u2019s room, although where the reflections are coming from is unclear, adding to the sense of artificialness in this dystopian future.\u00a0 It is also reminiscent of the classic venetian blinds and other distorted lighting effects.<\/p>\n<p>While water frequently appears in film noirs, bringing to mind scenes from films such as <em>Sunset Boulevard<\/em> and <em>Touch of Evil<\/em>, rain holds a special place in the <em>Blade Runner<\/em> canon with the famous \u201cTears in Rain\u201d scene at the end of the original film.\u00a0 This scene is alluded to within <em>2049<\/em> when the hologram, Joi, steps outside to feel rain for the first time.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/nL3o4MGY9NQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>This scene on the urban rooftop at night is an especially effective case for how <em>2049<\/em> revisits the original world while updating it for the current times.\u00a0 Stylistically, it stays true to the original, featuring murky, foggy air lit up by passing searchlights and giant billboards of sensual women.\u00a0 The setting is again Chinatown, just as it was in the original\u2014perhaps an allusion to the neo-noir film\u2014but with these elements also comes the color splashes motif, notably framing Joi and K with the green light from the door and the blue from the billboard. \u00a0While the characters\u2019 silhouettes are barely discernable from the dark background, the framing draws the viewers\u2019 attention to the relationship between the two characters\u2014the heart of the scene.<\/p>\n<p>Just as the love story between Deckard and Rachael explores the authenticity of an organic being caring for a synthetic one, the love story between K and Joi takes it one step further and features a physical being loving a holographic one.\u00a0 Viewers are likely very familiar with the media\u2019s saturation of emotive robot stories already but featuring a character who is digital and has no physical form restores the sense of the uncanny that the original <em>Blade Runner<\/em> possessed, and this time it\u2019s for 21<sup>st<\/sup> century viewers living in a world of computers and personal-assistants.<\/p>\n<p>While it appears that the world will not have synthetic beings walking the Earth by November, 2019 as the original <em>Blade Runner<\/em> predicted, it is fascinating to see how timely many of the film\u2019s ideas remain.\u00a0 We are still questioning how artificial intelligence will fit into our world and we are still trying to comprehend how nature will be affected. \u00a0Larger than these themes, however, are the deep soulful questions that both <em>Blade Runner<\/em>s pose.\u00a0 2049 may seem like the distant future, but if we\u2019ve learned anything from the thirty-five years between the two films, it\u2019s that while technology changes, the questions concerning our existence will remain the same.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While many aging actors struggle to land the starring roles of their youth and are instead relegated to small cameos or ridiculous B-movie sequels, one actor who has had seemingly little trouble in this area is Harrison Ford.\u00a0 Not only has Ford managed to land new roles in films such as 42 and Ender\u2019s Game, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[28,14,27],"class_list":["post-238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-criticism","tag-2010s","tag-brynn-artley","tag-neo-noir"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/academics.winona.edu\/povwinona\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/academics.winona.edu\/povwinona\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/academics.winona.edu\/povwinona\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/academics.winona.edu\/povwinona\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/academics.winona.edu\/povwinona\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/academics.winona.edu\/povwinona\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":347,"href":"https:\/\/academics.winona.edu\/povwinona\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238\/revisions\/347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/academics.winona.edu\/povwinona\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/academics.winona.edu\/povwinona\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/academics.winona.edu\/povwinona\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}