35 years after Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner hit theatres, Denis Villeneuve takes the franchise’s reins with Blade Runner 2049. The film marks the third collaboration between Villeneuve and 13 time Oscar nominated director of photography Roger Deakins, following Sicario and Prisoners, so you know you’re in for a phenomenal visual experience. The film stars Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford, Ana de Armas, Sylvia Hoeks, Robin Wright, Mackenzie Davis, Carla Juri, Lennie James, Dave Bautista, and Jared Leto.
Three decades after the events of the first film, a new blade runner, LAPD Officer K, unearths a long-buried secret that has the potential to plunge what’s left of society into chaos. K’s discovery leads him on a quest to find Rick Deckard, a former LAPD blade runner who has been missing for 30 years.
“I vividly remember seeing ‘Blade Runner’ for the first time” says Villeneuve, “and being stunned by what I think is amongst the most powerful openings in the history of cinema—flying over the Los Angeles of 2019, and seeing that landscape of oil factories. Ridley Scott presented such a strong image of what could be our future that was at the same time so seductive and so frightening. Aesthetically, ‘Blade Runner’ was a revolution, blending two genres that, at first glance, don’t go together—science fiction and film noir. It was something never seen before, and it deeply influenced me.”
Blade Runner 2049 is rated 14A.
