It is not often that I walk out of the cinema and wish that I could erase a movie from my mind, but this is what I felt after seeing the sequel to one of my all time favourite movies, the 1982 classic cult film Blade Runner. Now with a statement like this, I feel that I need to explain myself, after all this sounds pretty damning, but it really is not. I want to erase this movie from my mind so that I can see it again and revel in my time with this story.

You see, I absolutely loved this movie; I know that some have complained that with a run time of almost three hours, it is a bit long. But for me, it could have gone on even longer. I sat almost in rapture watching this movie; for me it was an experience, an epic in story telling that frankly is not only beautiful to look at, but has a narrative that explores our very nature as living beings.

First of let me discuss the main character within this story, Kay (played by Ryan Gosling), a replicant who faces bigotry and abuse every day from his colleagues in the Police force. He is also forced to endure constant checks to ensure that he remains on task and does not deviate from his programmed role. He is in every way other than name a slave and he functions in this world with a brutal clarity, taking out the escaped Nexus 8 replicants that escaped after the great black out destroyed all of the data records. Oh yeah, before you watch this movie, it really helps to watch the three short films that lead into it from the original film. Not only are they fantastic movies themselves, but they fill in some details that would otherwise be story gaps. This means that with these short films, Blade Runner 2049 does pass the three hour mark and to my mind this is not only acceptable, but should be encouraged. Fuck the short attention span and the low brow sci-fi that is a glorified war movie, with what ever kind of space race makes for eye candy on screen. No, this movie is something important, it has a depth to it that is going to require repeated viewings and frankly I cannot wait to see it again.

The first fight scene with Dave Bautista of Guardians of the Galaxy fame is horrifying and brutal. However these are not the over riding emotions that we feel during this scene, what we feel is ultimately the sadness of watching an innocent life snuffed out because it is deemed to be of less value than a real human being. From this point, the film sets out to discover what it means to be a real human being and there are moments when we are led along a path that would imply that our hero is more special than his brothers and sisters that come from the same factory. The reveal though that he is just another ordinary replicant is not heart breaking, but so poignant. All of the replicants share this dream of being real, but only one of them ever was.

As the story progresses we encounter the dusty world of post apocalyptic Las Vegas and it is here that something important is said to us in visual form. A simple comment on the nature of society, the bee hives. They mean so much more than the initial moment suggests. They too are slaves to their existence, with no plant life around them, they take only sugar water from feeders and create their honey for human consumption. If they are real or not is never discussed, but in this world it is safe to assume that they too are replicated. Shortly after this we discover Deckard and we find him to be even more of a derelict than he was. He is still a drunk, he is old and faded, weak and widowed following the death of Rachel. Kay and him come to an uneasy peace and the question on his humanity remains unanswered in real terms.

However, I feel that there are pointers here. We are told that the Nexus 8 replicants have unlimited life spans, unlike the old Nexus 6 models from the original film. There are hints that Deckard is maybe a Nexus 7, given that the Blade Runner units are mainly replicants. Then there is the comment from his old friend Gaff when he is asked why Deckard left. “There was something in his eyes.” Can they make the point any more ambiguous? Probably, but it would be unkind to do so.

There is one big reveal in this movie that is not only heart breaking, but gives us hope for all replicant kind. Rachel and Deckard conceived a child together, but Rachel unable to safely give birth died and the child was removed from her body and hidden. We meet her earlier in the film than we realise and she reveals a great truth that we are unaware of at that time and when we realise later on who she is, our hearts are broken once again.

I notice though that I have barely mentioned the main antagonist in this movie, the replicant Luv, the childlike assassin sent out into the world by her creator and designer of the new breed of replicants Wallace. She is as deadly as she is child like, she kills with the intensity of a child ripping the wings from dragonflies. There is a cruelty to her, that is not seen in any other character with in the film. She is the only replicant in this film who we do not route for, despite her childlike innocence. Given that she murders at least three people on screen, it is hard to say that she is innocent, but here again we know that she is simply a slave, doing the bidding of her master and god alone knows what else he requires of her to satisfy his misanthropic lustings.

The truth is that there is just too much here to discuss in a two thousand word blog post. Blade Runner 2049, set in an alternative universe to our own, is a bleak dystopian nightmare full of such sadness and horror, despite the technology. This is a story about loneliness and the search for truth, freedom and love. This is a critique of slave cultures, it is a critique of the capitalist system where the low waged are forced to survive at a level that borders on global poverty. This is a critique of our attitudes towards sex workers and how dehumanised they are. Most of all though, this is a visual essay on the philosophy of what it means to be alive, to be real.

Worthy of note is that it appears to be only the replicants who express emotion. They cry, reveal angst for the things that they do or the things that happen to them. The human characters never cry and here again, we see even Deckard, his eyes leaking tears. Was this another hint that he too is a replicant. Given that all of the humans are dehumanised emotionless monsters who will abuse their replicant slaves, I would suggest that this is the case. When Luv herself cries as she prepares to murder yet another victim, we know that she too is aware of the enormity of what she is about to do and yet, as a slave, she is powerless to do differently.

This was an epic, a work of art and a philosophical minefield that shows us humans to be the predatory monsters that we truly are. As I watched the end titles climb the screen I knew that I had not just watched a movie, I had witnessed something important. Two days before I had been sat alone in my office contemplating my own end and I had wished deeply to see something beautiful. Then I saw this movie and I got my wish and more besides. But this was not an easy on the eye beauty. This was a devastating beauty. I was not the same after seeing this movie, something fundamental in me had changed and my desire to see something truly beautiful had been sated. This is not an easy movie to watch, far from it, this is brutal and cruel trip through a world where children are sold to whatever person can afford to buy them from a Dickensian slave owner. It is never stated outright if the children are human, but we can pretty much assume that they are. The factory conditions in which they are forced to work is straight out of Oliver Twist, this is not subtle, this moment is blasted into us, the punches are not pulled when it is explained that the children can be bought for whatever purpose at a price. What kind of an awful world is it that children can be treated so? Well actually, this is taken straight from our own. The world of Blade Runner 2049 is soul crushing and vile, tragic and brutal.

So it was for these reasons that I wanted the movie removed from my mind so that I could go into the dark once more and be moved as I was. I want to feel that emotional attachment to this world once again. I want to be spiritually moved by this movie again, I want my heart to be split open and I want all of the torment to mean something again. This movie is important as a work of art and as a critique of our species. When I got home and thought about this film some more, my dam burst and just like our down trodden replicant heroes, I wept. Yet despite the over all sadness of this movie, despite the bleak world and the terrible things done to the people we are reliably told are not real people, there is a feeling of hope in this film.

I am sad to report that the movie going public have not embraced this movie as well as they should. But then this was always going to be the case. The action loving, beer swilling patrons in our showing that kept repeatedly leaving to buy more beer or use the facilities could not and did not sit there having the same spiritual awakening that I had. But then this movie was not made for them, this movie was made for the people who deconstructed the original and broke down every point of reference to our own culture. I heard a rumour that Philip K Dick was not overly fond of the film that his book inspired, which for me is a great shame. However, even if that rumour was true, I very much think that he would have looked at this film and seen it for the masterpiece that it is.