Blade Runner 2049
With epic sci-fi visuals, superstars Harrison Ford and Ryan Gosling, and robots gone rogue, the sequel to the iconic ’80s film is set to blow up the box office
2019 Based on Philip K Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, the original 1982 film is set in 2019 in a dystopian Los Angeles complete with giant moving billboards, pollution and flying cars. Police officer Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) has retired from his job as a blade runner, a special operative who hunts down replicants – genetically engineered replicas of human beings who’ve gone rogue.
But he’s forced to come out of retirement when four replicants escape from an off-world colony and make their way back to Earth.
During his investigation he comes across Rachael (Sean Young), a replicant capable of human emotion, and their relationship makes him question his identity and what it means to be human.
Harrison (now 75) says he enjoyed getting back to the world of Blade Runner. “I think it’s kind of fun to play a character again 35 years later. Like trying on old clothes and happily finding that they still fit.” a box-office flop when it was released, Blade Runner has become hugely influential within the sci-fi genre and gained a significant cult following. But director Ridley Scott – who passed up the chance to direct the sequel and serves as a producer – doesn’t care that it took people years to praise the film.
“No, I don’t give a s**t,” the Alien: Covenant filmmaker replied when asked if he felt validated that the world finally saw the movie’s value. “The important thing to do is move forward and never look back.”
PULLING PUNCHES Harrison accidentally punched co-star Ryan Gosling during the filming of the sequel, but claimed it was 90% Ryan’s fault. “My job was to make sure I pulled the punch; his job was to be out of the range of the punch.” But the two actors have nothing but admiration for each other. ” He was fun to work with,” the Star Wars star says of Ryan. “I like him a lot. He’s a smart guy.” Ryan ( 36) jokingly called his co-star’s punch “a privilege”. “If it’s going to happen, let it be delivered by Harrison Ford,” he said, adding that the Oscar nominee apologised in his own way. “He came by afterwards with this bottle of whisky . . . and he pulled a glass from his pocket, poured me a glass and walked away with the rest of the bottle. So I guess he felt like he didn’t connect enough for me to earn a whole bottle!”
2049 Ryan is such a fan of the original film that years ago while living in Los Angeles he and friends would pretend they were saving the world from vicious androids. “There were more than a few nights when we’d wander around half-pretending we were blade runners,” the Song to Song star says. In the new movie, which is set 30 years after the first, Ryan plays blade runner Officer K, who unearths a long-buried secret that has the potential to plunge what’s left of society into chaos. His important discovery leads him on a quest to find Deckard, who’s been missing for 30 years.
ON HARRISON “He’s a cool motherf** ker,” Ryan says of the Indiana Jones star. “To get to work with him was an incredible opportunity – not only because his movies have meant a lot to me but because it was an opportunity to see how it’s done, you know?”
Ryan says that even after 30 years in the industry he felt he could learn a lot from the Hollywood veteran. “Normally I’d say there are hundreds of ways to play any scene. Unless you work with Harrison and you realise there’s only one great way and he’s already figured it out.”
COMING FULL CIRCLE For the Canadian actor, starring in the highly-anticipated sequel – which also features Robin Wright and Jared Leto – was a dream come true. “Blade Runner was one of the first films where after watching it I really wondered what happened after it was over – what happened to the world and those characters?” the two-time Oscar nominee says. “So to have the opportunity to be able to physically enter that world and learn the answers to those questions myself was wonderful.”
‘It’s a film that haunts you because that future feels possible’– RYAN GOSLING