If you love the “Ryan Gosling Quietly Wanders Through Neon Spaces” subgenre like I do, then welcome to your new obsession. This teaser for Blade Runner 2049 does all the right things. Atmosphere? Check. Beautiful Roger Deakins cinematography? Heck yeah. Harrison Ford? Of course. Check it out below.
Oh, man. That shot of Gosling walking through the streets of rainy Los Angeles is pure nostalgic cool, especially with the classic Vangelis music. In the director’s chair for Blade Runner 2049 is Denis Villeneuve, whose Arrival is one of the best sci-fi flicks in years. The story for Blade Runner 2049 comes from Hampton Fancher, the screenwriter of the original film.
But how does Ryan Gosling’s character fit into all this? Now we know, thanks to the official synopsis:
Thirty years after the events of the first film, a new blade runner, LAPD Officer K (Ryan Gosling), unearths a long-buried secret that has the potential to plunge what’s left of society into chaos. K’s discovery leads him on a quest to find Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), a former LAPD blade runner who has been missing for 30 years.
What secret could they be talking about? I’m willing to bet it’s that certain models of replicants don’t have to die after four years. Ridley Scott has already confirmed that Rick Deckard is a replicant. I don’t see any reason why this film wouldn’t acknowledge that. It’s hardly a mystery anymore. Despite that, Director Denis Villeneuve was a bit cagey about the question in a recent French-language interview with Allocine (translation on The Playlist).
Even if Blade Runner 2049 doesn’t address the issue of Deckard’s humanity head-on, you can bet it’s important on a thematic level. From the looks of this dreamy teaser, I think it’s safe to say that the Blade Runner look hasn’t aged a day. It’s still gorgeous. Let’s hope the story holds up just as well. We’ll find out on October 6, 2017.