Blade Runner 2049 is the sequel to one of the most iconic films of the 20th century, the Ridley Scott-directed Blade Runner. The 1982 film that stars a young Harrison Ford actually failed at the box office when it was first released, but it later became a cult classic changing the style of science-fiction movies forever. Set in Los Angeles in 2019, one of the original film’s main attractions is its ambivalence; audiences leave the cinema unsure who to sympathize with: the humans or the androids – or ‘replicants’! And everything from the dystopian cityscapes to the rear-lit industrial fans has become familiar to us, as it is widely represented in pop culture today.
Thirty-five years after Blade Runner first came out, a 75-year-old Harrison Ford returns to the screen as ‘blade runner’ Rick Deckard. Ford stars alongside Ryan Gosling, who saw the original film as a child and found it to be transformative. The director this time around is the French-Canadian Denis Villeneuve, whose last movie, Arrival, – another science fiction tale –, was a massive hit.
AN INSPIRATION
Directing the sequel to an iconic film must have been intimidating yet Denis Villeneuve says he jumped at the chance:
Denis Villeneuve (French- Canadian Accent): It’s one of my favorite movies of all time. I grew up with this movie. When I decided to be a filmmaker, it’s [it was] part of the birth of that desire, that dream, it was ... the movie was there. And I couldn’t say no. I didn’t say yes spontaneously, it’s not an easy task, it’s a big challenge. But we had a lot of fun, I must say, doing it.
THE RETURN OF RICK
Thirty-five years after his groundbreaking performance in the original film, veteran actor Harrison Ford had no doubt at all about reprising his role:
Harrison Ford (Standard American Accent): We had a really good script and based on a really good idea, and it deepened the understanding of my character. The original film explored the ethics of the creation of replicants and their utility, and we further developed those themes in the story. My character had very strong emotional relationships to other characters in the film and I think I felt when I read the script that it had great depth and it was a fantastic opportunity. I was delighted to be involved.
A DREAM COME TRUE
Ryan Gosling plays blade runner Officer K in the new film. The actor says he still remembers the sense of awe and excitement he felt when he first saw the original Blade Runner as a child:
Ryan Gosling (Standard American Accent): I just remember when I saw it when I was a kid I was really – it was one of the first films that I’d seen that it wasn’t clear how I was supposed to feel when it was over, and it was very hard to distinguish the hero from the villain. There’s a moral ambiguity to it that’s quite a haunting experience, and of course visually and thematically and the performances... there’s just something really magical happening in that film. As a fan I was just excited to hear that they were gonna continue the story, and then to be a part of it was just an incredible opportunity and then to get to work with any one of these people, you hope to have that in your career, but to get to work with all of them at the same time! [It] was just... it’s like being on a football team with the Avengers or something!
Ryan Gosling is one of the world’s most popular actors today. Yet the opportunity to take part in a Blade Runner sequel was something he could never have believed possible, he says:
RYAN GOSLING
I’m not sure that it has sunk in yet. Honestly, it’s so surreal because you grow up watching this film, it’s such an iconic film. The [its] universe is not isolated to the film itself, it’s been borrowed from and inspired so many other movies, it’s so expansive and then... to the point where it sort of felt like it then enveloped us and we were in it and walking around in these... these incredible locations. And it’s really hard to describe that feeling and it really hasn’t quite sunk in yet.