As a promotional tie-in leading up to Blade Runner 2049, Warner Bros. Pictures has released three short films bridging the gap between the upcoming release and the original film, Blade Runner, which took place 30 years earlier.
Not much information has been made available regarding the plot, the characters, or the setting for the upcoming Blade Runner 2049. The film takes place in a future where humanity is on the brink of destruction. Their estranged creations, the Replicants, are not helping humanity’s fate. A sequel to the original Blade Runner (1982), the new film features LAPD Officer K (Ryan Gossling), a Replicant hunting Blade Runner, searching for a disappeared former Blade Runner Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford). They have to work together to stop an evil plot K uncovers having to do with Niander Wallace (Jared Leto), the Wallace Corporation, and his Nexus 9 model Replicants.
In July at San Diego Comic Con (SDCC), small bits of in-world information were revealed, filling in the 30 years of history between the original film and the new film. Over the past month, three short films were released online to provide dramatic insight into some of those events. The first two were live-action shorts, 2036: Nexus Dawn and 2048: Nowhere to Run featuring Niander Wallace and Sapper (Dave Bautista) respectively. Both were directed by Luke Scott, the son of Ridley Scott, the original creator of Blade Runner and the producer of its sequel.
The third short film took an unexpectedly different direction. It was an anime feature from renowned director Shinichiro Watanabe entitled Black Out 2022. Each of the three short films serves to provide insight into timeline events revealed at SDCC. The reality, however, is that even a reveal as big as was made and an article as featured prominently afterward as Collider provided are insufficient. They are sources that even avid fans may never come across because to find them, you have to know to look in the first place. With Youtube as the main platform, as well as Warner Bros. Pictures’ collaborations with Collider and Crunchyroll, the short films could come straight to the viewers.
What the Films Reveal About the Lore
The first film, 2036: Nexis Dawn serves two purposes. It shows just how menacing Niander Wallace is going to be as a villain, and it explains the history of Replicant legality on Earth. Having already had been banned on Earth at the time of the original film, Replicants are entirely unpermitted to be produced at the time of this story. Wallace is there to convince the government officials he is speaking with to repeal that law. He shows off his “perfected” Nexus 9 model Replicant, complete with an ocular implanted serial number to negate any Voight-Kompff Test confusion. He does this first by stating that the Replicant feels pain like a human and has a natural lifespan, unlike older models. Wallace then “proves” the Replicant is entirely under his control. Wallace forces the Replicant to kill himself in front of the council. It is inferred that this brings about the repealing of the Replicant production ban.
The second film, 2048: Nowhere to Run stars an escaped Replicant running away from the authorities and his past. Sapper is kind and gentle until he finds himself defining an innocent family in a gruesome act of violence. Not much is revealed by this film other than Dave Bautista’s acting skills and this basic information about the character. It can be inferred though that while on the lam from the law, Sapper will serve to beg further the question, just like the original film, “what makes us human?”
The final film, Black Out 2022 is longer than the first two and does not feature characters from Blade Runner 2049. Instead, it is an action-packed iteration of the “Black Out” calamity that brought about the Replicant production prohibition. There are some fun cameos, the LAPD’s Harry Bryant and Gaff. He is even voiced by his original actor Edward James Olmos. There are also at least two beautiful homages in this film. The first is a shot of a rooftop ledge eerily reminiscent of the place where Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) died in the original film. The second is a white dove. During a firefight, a white dove passes overhead.
None of the three films are necessary to enjoy Blade Runner 2049. None of them reveal essential plot details that will not be made evident by exposition in the feature film. They do, however, serve as engaging means of becoming engrossed in the film’s lore before it drops.
What the Films Reveal About Storytelling
This mode of delivery should be the industry standard. This is not to say every film requires deep and spanning lore. But those that do should be considering this medium. The average film-goer is not likely to happen upon a convention panel or purchase a prequel book, even for their favorite series. Two of the years biggest franchises, Star Wars and Planet of the Apes have utilized those mediums. Star Wars does most of its film lore reveals in convention panels and magazine features. Both franchises have also put out prequel novels, as well as comics in the case of Star Wars.
All of that material and information is inaccessible either by its cost or by its medium to countless fans. A short film released on Youtube though may find its way to your homepage and is then but a click away. This format is reminiscent of the Animatrix shorts from the promotion leading into 2003’s The Matrix: Reloaded. They were directed by the franchise’s creators, oozed with lore, and most of them were available online for free.
It should by no means be a requirement that studios produce this type of material as part of their promotions for films. But, when hugely popular franchises consider making tie-in prequel material to flesh out the lore of their franchise, they should consider at least including the free online video medium. The casual fan and canon-monger alike are equally able to enjoy the fruits of a company’s labor that way.
Blade Runner 2049 is Coming October 6th
Based on what the three short films provide, it can be nearly guaranteed that Blade Runner 2049 will feature a daunting main villain, an intriguing and philosophically titillating side character, and a harrowing-as-ever backdrop. Blade Runner was not just about what it means to be human. It was about what it means to be free. In the eyes of that film, freedom is believing you are free. Blade Runner 2049 is poised to continue asking that same question and to complicate its answer.
The white dove in Black Out 2022, Wallace’s blindness versus the new Replicant’s implants, and Sapper’s uncertain future. Together, they are all indications the themes that made Blade Runner so powerful will continue to ring true today. Blade Runner 2049 is directed by Denis Villeneuve (director of Arrival (2016)). It arrives in theaters October 6, 2017. Watch all three short films on Warner Bros. Pictures’ Youtube channel.
Jason wants to tell you about his current job, but he’s afraid that it might be more trouble than it’s worth. When not writing, Jason works on food justice and sharing music with communities throughout the region. Or he’s unlocking Xbox achievements.