‘BLADE RUNNER,’ THEN AND NOW
ALOT can change in 30 years.
The original “Blade Runner” was set in Los Angeles in the oh-so-distant future of 2019, and its sequel takes place three decades later. Here’s a look at the dangerous, fast-moving and rapidly morphing landscape.
The Car
Original: Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) drives a Spinner, a flying police car that can squeeze just about anywhere. It had a bold “Speed Racer” style and loud LAPD insignia.
2049: Officer K (Ryan Gosling) has a sweet ride that looks like a cross between a Batmobile and a DeLorean, with a stick shift that resembles a video-game joystick. It’s darker, scarier and more rough around the edges, like a jagged rock.
The City
Original : The Los Angeles of “Blade Runner” (above) made Gotham City look like Paris on a postcard. It was dark, smoggy and jam-packed. On the bright side, in Ridley Scott’s 2019, everybody was reading newspapers!
2049: La La Land in “2049” (below) is still bleak and crammed with advertising and Asian street food. But now there’s near-constant rain and freaky snow, which leads to some chilling throwbacks to the famous “Tears in Rain” death speech given by Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) in the original.
The Girl
Original: Rachael (Sean Young, above) was a replicant who was led to believe that she was human. After Deckard figured out her little secret, things got steamy. The nontraditional pair eventually went into hiding together.
2049: The Wallace Company has gone the Amazon Alexa route with its latest product — a companion hologram called Joi (Ana de Armas). She cooks, she cleans, she can be turned off with the press of a button! This supportive Wi-Fi wife is shacking up with Gosling’s Officer K.
The Replicants
Original: Deckard’s gig was hunting down the Nexus-6 replicants — slave androids who evolved and went rogue, killing off humans. They had four-year life spans, and were sneakily able to cover their artificial status, which could be revealed by eye-movement patterns.
2049: We’re all the way up to Nexus-9, after what appears to have been a war with the Nexus-8s. The upgrades, it seems, have natural life spans. Plus, the Wallace Company promises that the 9s will be more obedient and that they 100 percent will not lie. Good luck with that, Wally!