Blade Runner 2049 Parent Guide

The original Blade Runner from 1982 holds a justifiable cult following amongst the sci-fi fans. And certainly, as far as stories about a dystopian future go, it can’t get much bleaker than director Ridley Scott’s imagining of Los Angeles in the (then) far future of 2019.

Now, as we approach the date of the setting of that first film, Canadian filmmaker Denis Villeneuve throws us forward another 30-plus years and introduces us to “K” (Ryan Gosling). He’s a new “blade runner” who works for the LAPD and continues their work of hunting down the last remaining Tyrell Corporation “replicants.” These human-like beings are essentially robots who have advanced to the point of acquiring emotion, making them extremely difficult to detect from the real thing.

Originally engineered with superior strength to work as slaves on other planets, the androids also exhibit highly aggressive tendencies which makes it difficult for them to coexist with their human creators. For this reason, the latest Nexus 6 model was outlawed on Earth, however a few still managed to make the illegal trip and pose a serious threat to human existence.

K knows this topic well because he is a replicant—one from an improved product line that appears to be domesticated. Subjected to regular testing to ensure his emotional state stays on track with manufacturer’s specifications, he and many other replicants integrate with humans, even though they still face strong negative prejudice.

When K investigates and kills a rogue older replicant running a worm farm on the California desert he unearths a disturbing discovery. Buried beneath a dead tree is a box containing what initially appears to be human remains. But upon laboratory examination, K and his human commander Lieutenant Joshi (Robin Wright), determine the death happened during an emergency caesarian section. Even more alarming, a serial number on the skull identifies the body as a replicant.

Feeling it’s dangerous for anyone to know that replicants can reproduce, Joshi orders K to destroy all evidence of the case, including wiping his own memories. But when K returns to the farm to incinerate the remaining structures, he finds a clue that activates a childhood memory in his own brain. This sends him on a quest that will ultimately lead to the former blade runner Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), who disappeared decades earlier.

Artistically, Blade Runner 2049 may rank as one of the greatest sequels created. Using technologies not available thirty years ago, Villeneuve has deftly crafts visuals and sound to create an environment that is one of the most immersive ever seen on screen. Ranging from mountains of rubble on the Los Angeles outskirts to a hazy, orange desert enveloping what used to be Las Vegas, the audience’s eyes will be constantly exploring the fantastical sets and surroundings. The soundscape is just as breathtaking. Perhaps the quietest action film ever made, the use of silence, ambient noise and a subtle musical score will demand viewers keep their candy wrappers silent.

With all that praise comes the all too often bad news for parents considering sharing with their teen-aged children what, for many of them, was an adolescent experience. Of course, violence is a concern with many scenes of hand-to-hand conflict that turn into a bloody mess. One individual, a replicant, but still very human, has an eyeball removed after being taken down by a blade runner. Another female replicant stands naked after her “birth” and her male creator runs a knife across her abdomen (not directly seen) and blood drips to the floor. Yet the altercations would still likely squeeze into a PG-13 rating if it weren’t for at least six sexual expletives and several more nude moments.

Los Angeles 2049 offers few recreational escapes. The non-human element of an android population offers a greater tendency to embrace casual sex and true “human” prostitutes market themselves as being a superior experience over services from a robot. While there is only one sexual moment involving our main character (his favorite companion is a holographic being called Joi (Ana de Armas), there are frequent visuals of larger-than-life advertisements of holographic women and erotic female statues. The nudity is mostly breasts and buttocks, the exception being a short display of disrobed androids that look like store mannequins with somewhat more detail.

This Blade Runner offers valuable discussion points as to the nature of humans and what constitutes a “soul”. As well, it journeys into tough questions about the ethics and responsibilities we share in how new technologies are used. Our overall grade also reflects the unfortunate creative decisions of this talented filmmaker to include more sexual detail and profanity than what is necessary to tell this otherwise powerful story.

About author

Rod Gustafson

Rod Gustafson has worked in various media industries since 1977. He founded Parent Previews in 1993, and today continues to write and broadcast the reviews in newspapers, on radio and (of course) on the Internet. His efforts also include writing and researching media in all its forms and observing how it effects society and culture. He and his wife Donna have four children.