That first huge clue that he wasn’t the child, the fact that in his memory he had hair where all the other boys had no hair (only girls had hair), went right over my head. I still can’t believe I missed that one.

One of the things I really loved about 2049 is how it *feels* like *more* Blade Runner. It doesn't feel like a movie trying to recapture blade runner, it just *is* blade runner. So many decades later sequels wind up feeling like they're trying too hard to remind the audience of the original. They spend so much time recreating the original that they don't do anything interesting or new.

An absolutely beautifully shot film. Every frame is a work of art.

The stuff with Joi and K is so fascinating. That scene where he sees the giant hologram may be my favorite of all time. Just the heartbreak and realization at realizing that everything he though he ever had and cherished was never real. Joi was a program designed to make suit his every need. Even doing her job so well that he bought more Wallace products. Which was the whole point. To sell more merchandise. Then he decides to do the only real thing he could possibly do. Die in a way of his own choosing. Saving someone.

My favorite movie of all time. It takes everything cyberpunk, that its predecessor spawned, and made it its own. The existentialism told from K, JOI and LUV were heartbreakingly compelling

This was one of the best theatrical experiences I’ve had. The Thursday sneak in IMAX was incredible, and it was better than it had any right to be. It hit just as hard as the original for me. “More human than human” kept coming up in my mind, and it’s interesting to see how relevant that is through the film when you see the humans vs replicants in this world. The score is incredible as well. It was a must own and one I go back to often. Naturally Hans Zimmer had to do it.

Sylvia Hoeks' performance (as Luv) in this movie was just absolutely fantastic. Her scene with Lt. Joshi gives me chills every time.

Probably the best sequel ever made. I saw it 3 times in theatres because it was such an audiovisual masterpiece. So yeah, I definitely did my best to make this a hit, where was everyone else?? lol

If you're looking for "steampunk" vibes, you're in the wrong movie. XD This is cyberpunk.

Wallace outlines how Deckard *could* be a replicant, but also explains how it ultimately doesn't matter. One wonders how Deckard could survive in irradiated Las Vegas if he was human. Is the dog a replicant? Does the presence of the bees indicate the radiation has dissipated enough for life to take hold again?

I actually love this movie more than the original Blade Runner. I didn't check this out until after I'd seen Arrival, and realized that Villeneuve was someone working on a level that we haven't seen much of in Hollywood for decades. But once I did, I adored every second of it. The ending with K drifting off to sleep in the snow as he dies is absolutely perfect, as is the pregnant silence of Deckard and his daughter seeing one another for the first time. I love that you mentioned theme, because this is such a deeply, carefully thematic movie. It's very much a meditation on childhood and parenthood and dependence and upbringing and abandonment... Those are kind of soft spots for me as a topic, and I always love to see them done well. It's easy for them to hurt me in the wrong way, but when Villeneuve hurts me, he leaves me feeling like I've healed a little bit in the process. Regarding the original Blade Runner itself, there is some real magic in that last third, and Rutger Hauer deserved an Oscar for that monologue performance, but I kind of despise the pacing of film noir thanks to all the faster-paced derivatives I grew up on. Same as for Westerns, actually. I mean, why would I watch A Fistful of Dollars when I have Back to the Future 3 and one-off Western episodes in my 20 minute episode daily cartoons like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? I mean, I love Blade Runner, but when younger generations look back at the movies of my era and say they're "slow", it both makes me wince that something like Predator or Aliens now falls into that category, but it also makes me nod my head in recognition at that feeling of boredom and impatience. To quote 2013 Tumblr: "mood".

I love this movie. One of the best sequels ever made, despite that there is so much time between it and the original. It stands alone at the same time as it's continuing the story and themes of the original, both delving deeper and presenting new questions. Denis Villeneuve is a true master of his craft. He always brings great visuals, great score/atmosphere, great acting performances, and stories worth thinking about long afterwards. I highly recommend reacting to more of his films.

Villeneuve did the impossible with this movie and made a sequel to Blade Runner... what I like are the subtle nuances, especially the piano tone... if you notice, the key he presses in Vegas, is the same key he found the sock at Sapper's house. Villeneuve's movie Prisoners is a also fantastic look into the psyche of humanity and what it means to be right or wrong. I think the only thing Villeneuve needs help with is the marketing team. They revealed Harrison Ford in the trailers and posters, but they weren't meant to. It was meant to be a secret reveal... they did the same with his movie Dune and marketed Zendaya heavily as a main role, and she was only in the movie for about 45 seconds.

One of my early memories is watching blade runner with my dad in the 80s. I rewatched it with my dad before taking him to see this in theaters. Such a great memory and time with dad.

I loved the first movie and was scared that they will ruined it by making a awful sequel. But I was wrong. Somehow they get the magic from Blade Runner into a great film for the next generation. I love it ❤️

The entire film I was getting more and more angry in the cinema, wondering why it was taking them so long to discover he was the child... I love the film even more for that.

27:56 The billboard with JOI said "Everything you want to see, everything you want to hear". It's up for interpretation, but I took it to mean Joi is programmed to tell you things you want to hear and to be the things you need her to be. Which would mean "Joe" wanted to believe he was the child. It all goes to the theme that Blade Runner is all about which is basically what does it mean to be real?

You checked out during the battle between K and Luv..?? That was one of the most intense scenes! This film was one of the best ones to come out in the past 20 years. Easily one of the greatest sequels ever made.

I liked this movie. The element of at what point does an AI have a soul. To K, joy was real. Joy thought she was real, the telling line, I’ve been inside you, there’s not as much there as you think, and K seeing the giant Joy hologram ad, calling him Joe, but then the despair in Joys face at the car crash, and wanting to be real. Just fantastic, and echoes K also wanting to be real.

One of my favorite films of all time and absolutely on the short list of best sequels. I like it more than the original.

Blade Runner is my favorite movie of all time, so it was a big relief when this one turned out so well, because it didn't screw up the legacy of the original.

"That conversation around what's real and what's not" is kind of Philip K Dick's thing. All his stories are about real and fake and they link that theme to a moral judgement. For him fake worlds and fake people are always a bit dodgy, dangerous, sick, or outright evil. I think that's a difference between the book and films. For Dick the androids are absolutely unhuman and the story is more focussed on the danger of humans coming to act like machines as well. In the films, on the other hand, replicants come to be seen (by the audience at least) as something like an alternative form of life, rather than unambiguously inferior, and we come to feel some sympathy for them (even if they don't feel for us). So it's the same themes, but addressed from slightly different angles.

Top 5 of all time for me. Absolutely love this movie. So beautiful in so many ways. The idea of him feeling special, thinking it was him, discovering it wasn't, but then sacrificing himself for something greater. Truly defining what it means to be human. To feel love. Just, beautiful. It pains me so much that movies like this won't be financially successful for coming generations and therefor movies like this will become more and more rare.

IMO one of the very few movie sequels that stands up to the original.

Thank you for being my movie watching BFF and always doing such a wonderful job with your videos. SO EXCITED for his one, Blade Runner and it's sequel are so special to me, and this is one of the greatest sequels ever. I watched it in theaters and and in the big screen with the big speakers it just absolutely blew me away, I was transported and filled with emotion. Thanks for sharing your insights and attention to movie making details, because that's what we do here!

Whether you prefer the original or 2049, the world building and the central theme of what it means to be 'alive' is absolutely compelling and each film is just as worthy as the other.

The radioactive place in the desert is Las Vegas. Great twist. We all thought it was him. I love the slow scenes so much, the colors, music, atmosphere...

20:54 This moment gave me flashbacks to Heath Ledger as the Joker and the pencil trick

"we made the most expensive art house film in history" i'm okay with that :) my favorite movie. loved your commentary as well 🤠

This isn’t a movie. This is cinema. Cinema isn’t popular today. The art of storytelling through film isn’t popular now. I love how you see the colours, tones, nuances in the experience of true cinema. ❤

The song at the end as Joe lies on the straits dying is the same as on the original BR’s “tears in the rain” monologue by Roy. Cinematic perfection.

I've been anticipating you getting round to this one. Villeneuve is the GOAT!

Yesss, please do Minority Report! You’ll LOVE it. Old Hollywood storytelling but in a 21st century sci-fi story

Tony Scott was the star of Ridley's first short film 'Boy and Bicycle'. There are quite a few 'Philip K Dick' movies, even the not so great ones have good things in them. Adjustment Bureau, Pay Check, Minority Report, Screamers, and A Scanner Darkly are all worth a look.

"Lars & the real girl" is my favorite RG character. A sweet, quirky, funny movie with a great cast.

wait, the line cells within cells is from Pale Fire by Nabokov, the book that his holo girlfriend didn't like. So I mean I guess it was Gosling's idea to do the baseline but it's odd the trivia didn't mention that and just mentioned Gosling.

My all-time favorite movie, supplanting the original. I was so afraid that Villeneuve would screw it up, but he succeeded beyond my wildest expectations and cemented himself as a director you can trust (along with Nolan). The score is brilliant and the film itself is stunningly beautiful and perfectly realized. There is so much potential in the world of “Blade Runner” - hopefully we will see more of it.

I saw it in the theater. This was one of the very few films in my life that left me sitting in my seat for a while after it was over. The rest of the evening I just kept thinking about life - meaning, purpose, love, the difficult and complex nature of reality etc. I love this film and consider it the greatest sci-fi next to Terminator 2 and Aliens. The film score was magnificent too. I ended up writing a summation after having seen it a second time: There was no real decoy. It was purely on paper. K/Joe is utterly, completely, unequivocally unremarkable, thus his name, Joe... as in Average Joe. Joi does not possess a soul. She is completely fake. She is the other side of the Replicant coin and is made solely to please and coddle her owner/lover. Her entire branding scheme is that she'll be anything you want. Joi is K's fleeting dream of being special -- to be human, or as he put it, "to have a soul" -- so she always reinforced this to him. Just before Luv crushed her emanator she made sure in her final moment to tell him that she loved him. Wallace posed a question about whether Deckard was moved by love or by programming. To me there's no doubt whatsoever Deckard is fully human. The original movie is about a bad man finding his humanity through the grace of a machine. Wallace's question is not a literal "Are you human or machine?" question, but pondering what the difference is; if love is just neurochemistry, and if we are products of biological programming or something higher, like a soul. The ultimate takeaway is that it really doesn't matter. What matters is what we choose to do with our lives. We find and create our own meaning and purpose. In summary, 2049 is about dreams and delusions. K wants desperately to feel special so Joi tells him this constantly and he quickly assumes all the evidence points to him because it's his dream. He becomes deluded and forces himself into the situation even as it destroys him. He thinks this is what it means to be human - to grapple with one's humanity. Then upon meeting Freysa, K comes to learn that in fact he is not special after all. Not born but manufactured. He is torn between two sides telling him what his identity is and should be; the LAPD who informs his identity as that of a slave, and the resistance which informs his identity as that of a free Replicant. When K comes across the giant pink Joi on the bridge, she says to him "You look like a good Joe". He then realizes that not even the name his Joi gave him was special. Her feelings for him were never real... just programming. K, at this point an emotionally broken Replicant, it is in this moment that he chooses to follow his own path and not let anyone tell him who he is or what he should do. He makes the most human decision of all and takes his life into his own hands. He saves Deckard for the same reason Roy did in the first Blade Runner. He wanted someone to remember him, for his final decision that fully validates him as human to not be in vain. No one else gave him his identity, only he did, and his sacrifice ensured forever that he was by every metric a human being, even if the world would ultimately forget him.

RE: 2 big statues heading to Deckard. Every time I see them, I wonder if there's any nod to The Sphinx Gate from The NeverEnding Story. 🤔

Yes... That's Edward James Olmos in both movies... Maybe you could do the Battlestar Galactica pilot and treat it as a standalone movie... He's great in it.

The nature of replicants is, I think, sometimes misunderstood by people new to the story. The opening text of Blade Runner is largely to blame. By calling replicants the next phase of robot evolution, the impression is that Replicants are mechanical machines. The movie doesn't make it abundantly clear that replicants are genetically engineered life forms. They are grown, their dna designed by the genetic designers like the ones we met in the first film. The moral disconnect becomes that humans have learned how to design life, and in doing so have devalued that life to avoid the ethical responsibilities of that achievement. They aren't "really" alive because they were artificially made.

15:00 - God Shanelle, you're always so impatient! 😂

The poetic irony at the end, the "fake" boy outside in the real snow with the real girl inside with the fake snow. So a gorgeous movie, I worked at a movie theater when this came out and I burned quite a few free tickets to see this at least once or twice a week for it's whole run. Denis Villeneuve is such a masterful director, and everything he does has this "every frame a painting" feel. This, Sicario, Dune, Arrival, all incredible. Some of the best, and I usually hate to use this word, cinema in the last 20 years. Would love to see you check out Arrival and Sicario on this channel if you haven't seen them already.

Like I said in the first movie, Rachael was the Unicorn. Special and one of a kind.

A great way to do a sequel. One of my favorites of all time. Also, yes the score is amazing.

The visuals look stunning, a beautiful extension of the first film's aesthetic, brought to life perfectly by the magic touch of the legendary Roger Deakins (who won a long-overdue Oscar for his work on this film). Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch had the difficult job of following up Vangelis' seminal work on the first film, but they did a great job with the score, creating a brilliantly otherworldly sound and bringing back "Tears in the Rain" in perfect fashion. And the entire cast did a fantastic job, there's really not a single weak link here, everyone is perfect for their roles and all of them give fantastic performances. Doing a sequel to one of the most influential sci-fi films ever made 35 years after the fact could've very easily turned out terribly, but against all odds Denis Villeneuve accomplished that rare feat of making a sequel that's even better than the original. It sucks that it didn't do well at the box office, but I'm glad that it continues to get the acclaim and love it deserves.

Lol, don't feel bad that you didn't know his daughter was the dream maker Shanelle. But, and this may not be the best time to mention this but you also didn't pick up on the fact that they were in Vegas in the end. The elvis hologram was meant to be a dead giveaway.

This was one of the best movies to watch at the theater. I saw it in Dolby Cinema at AMC and the sound for this was *THE* best of any movie I've ever seen. It was phenomenal and my goodness was this movie beautiful on a big screen. It's about as perfect of a sequel as we could have hoped for 'Blade Runner'. This movie is a gem.

I saw the original in a rain storm in LA where it was dripping in the older theater in 1982. I've seen the various versions and it remains about my fave movie. This was a very worthy follow up that I found lovely. I cried when his GF halogram went away for ever. Interesting side note. That seen at the farm at the start of the movie, was originally a part of the 82 film that was cut. I'm glad you enjoyed these.

Sicario is a must watch.

Lieutenant Joshi has come a long way from her early years as Wesley's Buttercup and Forrest's Jenny.

34:27 - Oh yeah, I remember watching a video about that! He was like adamant that Deckard had to be a replicant.

Sylvia Hoeks, who plays Luv, does an amazing job at playing her villains with a unique craziness, and making her characters people you love to hate. She's the antagonist in the series 'SEE', and is wonderful in it. The series Blade Runner: Black Lotus is set between the original movie and the sequel, and features a younger Wallace in it. They do a good job of depicting the way that Wallace manipulates his replicants and plays them off each other so that you end up with Luv's "I'm the best one!" mentality. It's very possible that the main character in that series is meant to be an early version of Luv, and like Luv, doesn't have the programming to not harm humans.

I loved this movie and sobbed at the ending in theaters, no one else had the reaction around me and I’ve always felt like I’ve had to defend my love of this film. it’s so refreshing to see that other people loved this as much as I did ❤

I’m actually surprised you didn’t geek out over the transition in the film from the burning embers cracking above the fire to the spinners flying through the city. It’s my favorite transition in any film.

2 extra bits of trivia for you shanelle just incase you didn't see when you read them out: 1. While shooting the fight scene, Harrison accidentally punched Ryan in the face for real. As an apology, Harrison invited Ryan to share a bottle of scotch whiskey with him an then mooned him 🤭. 2. A visual effects company worked for a full year on the scene where Rachel appears exactly as she did 35 years ago in the original blade runner in 1982. Also you said you prefer Ryan gosling playing the part of a daft character, well you should check out the film "the nice guys" with Ryan, Russell Crowe and directed by Shane black (Hawkins in Predator).

"Can they actually physically f...touch?" That got me laughing a bit.

10:52 - Yeah, that and 1991 Æon Flux shorts on Liquid Television. 😉

This was so surprisingly good back when I saw it in the cinema, I called it "maybe the best sequel to anything ever?" And I think it's probably still holding that title. It managed to be new and at the same time have the classic Blade Runner spirit. I like it more each time I see it.

Something I think many people miss is that where in the first film, replicants have an artificial lifespan of four years to prevent them from becoming too emotional, Neander Wallace's solution is to come up with a way to make them obey anyways. They live plenty long enough to experience all the emotion of an angsty preteen and then some, but they're somehow psychologically programmed to swallow it down and move on with their lives rather than questioning what it means.

I second watching "Her". Great film.

@22:15 Between the sexual statues and the holograms of Elvis and dancing showgirls, I always interpreted this as being the Las Vegas strip.

When Ford threw a punch at Gosling during the fight in the casino showroom, Ford misjudged and actually punched Gosling. And it was a hard punch. Gosling stayed in character and the looking on his face after the punch was real too.

The first wasn't originally blue, that was a final cut revision

“Can’t they actually fffff touch” 😂

I prefer the sequel over the original

Woohoo, been waiting all day for this! 😃Sorry for the other 2 videos getting struck, looks like the other Bladerunner got taken down. 😕

Believe it or not this movie was part of Denis Villeneuve honing his skill in preparation for Dune which he has never been really shy about wanting to bring to the big screen. If you want to see more of his work before seeing Dune I strongly recommend Arrival which is also sci-fi and also very different from Blade Runner 2049. Don't want to spoil anything so I will stop here. Great movie and reaction, as always. Thank you much. See you again soon.

My favourite thing is the fan theory that Officer K (Ryan Gosling) in Blade Runner 2049 is Ken (Ryan Gosling) from the Barbie movie and that Blade Runner is a direct sequel in which Ken is trying to find his own path.

17:07 - And I'd reply: "Really? You look more like a Chuck to me..." 😆

Was thinking that the Wallace character was under developed here, but that led me to think how spare Tyrell's role was. No harm, no foul.

People complain, but this is a fine spiritual successor for "Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?"

I love the ending with Deckard's Mona Lisa-style quarter smile. It's not so much that Deckard is or isn't a replicant, but that he BETTER not be, or else much of the story is wasted.

Come for the existential angst and anomie , stay for the giantess imagery - oh baby - you so need to see this in IMAX because a 100 foot Ana de Armas needs to be experienced. Denis does a Herculean job in not only honoring the source film but in many ways surpassing it.

i also saw this in imax in an empty theatre and it was the most visually stunning and engrossing film i've ever seen

When K is dying that is the same music from the 'tears-in-rain' monolog from the first movie.

12:44 - We all wanna know. And the whole hydrate thing is overblown.

Best Philip K. Dick movie, by far, is A Scanner Darkly. All star cast (Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder, Woody Harrelson, Robert Downey Jr., etc), unique animation/rotorscope style. Super messed up ending. Totally worth checking out.

This took 35 years to make, and I think it was worth it. It took home Best Visual Effects and Best Cinematography.

"I hate this lady and her stupid bangs" that comment killed me and got the whole neighborhood hating me because of the laughter

Not only is this one of the best sequels I have ever seen, it is one of the best science fiction movies I have ever seen. Absolutely loved it and it surpassed my expectations. I want to marry Denis Villeneuve. lol Love that guy! :-)

00:27:49 JOI was linked by network to the Wallace Corp., as we see when Luv suddenly gets up from her console. Like a self-learning language model, I think that JOI learns from her interactions with her owners, so she recognizes the air cars when they fly by and she is able to recognize Joe when she sees him. Her pink/purple (I'm colorblind) advertising form is like an ascendant heavenly form free from Joe's preferences and limitations and she is telling Joe that "she can fix that" by reincarnating. "Joe" is a short transliterated form of the personal sacred Name of the Hebrew Deity.

Denis villenuave did such an awesome job on this film… really faithful in look and feel to the original

When Joi tells K she loves him right as Luv steps on her stick, destroying her breaks my heart every time.

13:29 - Whatever you say, JLo! 😂

Of all the Phillip K Dick adaptations, the one you’d probably love most is A Scanner Darkly. Such a wild trip.

There's some cool animated shorts (3 films) on KZfaq that the director had commissioned to show the time between the first movie and this one. Interesting connective tissue. Worth viewing.

33:17 - Yeah, I think so too. I suppose he got credited because they used his characters and settings and all, and extended the story.

Saw Blade Runner for the first time right before this in a Double Feature opening night, pretty amazing :)

12:03 - Well don't look at me, I couldn't make out what it was! 🤷‍♂

I saw the first film in the theaters and I hated it. A few years later it became one of my favorite films. I saw the second film in the theaters and hated it. Over the years since, it’s become one of my favorite films. I’ve had this reaction from very few movies so it’s really strange that I had it with both a movie and its sequel. There’s just something with Blade Runner movies.

39:29 - Oh yeah! Dude won't shut up about it! 😂

21:03 - Um...the Southern Oracle in Fantasia? 🤭

my ears were renewed when I watched this at the movie theater

It was heartbreaking when K realized that Joi's love for him was never real, he was just another Joe.

Shan, if you decide to watch Her, you will also have to watch Lost in Translation. The films are totally different from each other but they have a common purpose in that the filmmakers made each of these movies after they broke up and have said they made the films in response to their break up.

Definitely do Minority Report 👍

A milestone in cinematic history

Mind blowing special effects. Thanks for another awesome reaction. Love this channel ❤️ ❤❤. Hello from Pa USA 🇺🇸.

@30:15 no you're smart. They used the Kay's perspective to give false assumptions to the audience. I like how they don't spell everything out for us and leave things ambiguous like they did in the first film, "is the dog real? What do you think?".