Analyzing the greatest film ever made

Analyzing my favorite movie of all-time is no easy feat, but why not give it a try? I guess I have to do it for the God of Filmmaking, Denis Villeneuve, at least.

SETTING THE SCENE:

It’s California, 2049. Nature and all of its grand beauty has been reduced to a tired memory and has been conquered by the evil of mankind. Greenfields have been replaced by ugly dirt, metal, and plastic to create a distinctively atmospheric setting for the perfect dystopian movie. Man once had a true connection with Mother Nature, a spiritual and beautiful one if you will, and throughout the time we have chipped at it until Earth had been reduced to nothing but her most basic elements and remnants of once eternal existence. Through the need for capitalism and human evolution, the world is run by a man who’s gone blind with greed. A man who can only see through the perspective of his futuristic technology. Without the distinctively human, the world has gone mad, turning into an unforgiving hellscape bereft of life. This man may be a literal God, yet the miracles of creation still elude him.

WHAT IT MEANS TO BE HUMAN:

Possibly the most major question this movie asks is what it actually means to be human. What is the distinction between man and robot? Right from the opening, Denis Villeneuve gives you that answer. Officer K (Ryan Gosling) is sent to retire Sapper Morton (Dave Bautista), a replicant. Remember when I explained the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis in my analysis on Arrival, well take a look at that first name. Seem familiar? Sapper’s name is likely a reference to Edward Sapir, who created that hypothesis so prominent in that movie. If you hadn’t read that article, let me explain what it means once more. The structure of a language, or what language a person speaks, can change the native speaker’s perception of experience. It was changing how we looked at time in Arrival, but here it’s how we look at being human. Who we are is shaped by past experiences. Language is simply a piece in the puzzle that happened to be explored in Villeneuve’s previous effort. Sapper’s backstory may seem like unimportant details, but you have to focus on it. He used to fight as a soldier, but after seeing a miracle, which in this case was birth from a replicant (robot if you haven’t seen the first movie), he gave it all up. He now lives a happier, simpler life as a farmer, and this also contributes to solidifying one of the major themes in this movie, searching for the distinctively human. For the entire film, K searches to be more than what he was created for. He yearns to be special, unique, and, yes, a miracle.

Early on in the film, Villeneuve portrays him as a mindless robot who does what he’s told to do, with no profound respect for the remains of life around him. As a replicant, he’s obviously constantly oppressed by society and treated like an object, not a human being. I was confused about this, but the reason he, a replicant himself, so easily murders others of his kind is because he’s been programmed to do it. He’s a killing machine with no remorse, at least in the start of his journey. Throughout the film, K wants to believe that he has a soul, and that to be human means to have one, but when he begins to fail the baseline test, his entire reality is shaken. Don’t worry readers, this is the same person as before, but the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis has kicked in. His self-perception has switched massively, leading him to bending the rules, going against programming. Ryan Gosling’s performance is so brilliant because his subtle pain and suffering up until his glorious breaking point makes it so that his small emotional bursts feel that much more effective. It tugs at your heartstrings, and to anyone who thinks this movie is emotionless, pretentious garbage, at least attempt to look at it from a different perspective. He begins to feel anger, love, hopelessness, and ultimately…Human. He still isn’t necessarily a miracle, but at least he has developed some sort of a soul. He makes the rules from now on, and not even the menacing Joshi can keep him under control. Hell, he even sacrifices himself so that others, miracles, can feel the same love he felt. That’s possibly the most human thing you can do, give yourself up so others can experience emotion.

JOI: THE ULTIMATE BREAKING POINT

But who starts this chain reaction so that K can eventually find his soul? It’s obviously Joi, who is possibly one of my favorite characters in all of cinema. Not just their relationship, but her purpose is gorgeously incorporated into the movie. She was made to fulfill the desires of her owner, and make him feel better. In this case, in every possible situation, she encourages Joe (it’s K, but I’ll call him by his fake name now) and tries to make him the absolute best version of himself. It’s off the point, but this is what really made this sequel miles better than Ridley Scott’s original for me, the romance. It was cheesy and uninteresting in the first, but now it makes up an entire theme in the second. Even when she’s about to be disabled by Luv, her last words are “I love you”. No matter what happens to her, she will still care for Joe. What’s interesting about this, however, is that it truly means nothing to him. Literally right after her death, he sees an advertisement for another Joi. He initially thought his Joi was unique, real and human, but all of that has been pre-programmed into every single model. You can tell when the ad version of Joi says, “What a day”, which is the exact same think Joe’s Joi said to him. What’s most devastating is the fact that the one in the ad even knows his name. It’s all generic and artificial, and it breaks both our hearts and Joe’s. I would say this pushed him to the breaking point, giving him the final call to go against his own programming.

Similarly, Luv had the same belief as Joe did under her circumstances. She’s a replicant, and Wallace (the son of the creator of replicants) even named her. When Joe meets up with her eventually, he points out this, giving her a newfound sense of confidence and pride. It re-enforces her mindset that she is unique and special. Her perfectionist tendencies and rigorous orders from Wallace are not always achievable despite her high standards. What’s so damn brilliant about Villeneuve’s screenplay is the fact that he doesn’t write off Luv as the generic bad guy who kills everyone with ease. In impossible situations, she shows genuine human fear. The fear of failure, that is. In the final action scene, she is less worried for her own safety than her ability to enact the orders from Wallace. In fact, she shows feeling in several scenes. When she kills Joshi, for example, she shows anger and distaste.

EVOLUTION OVER LIFE:

There have been criticisms that Jared Leto’s Wallace was too underdeveloped, but he’s actually one of the most intriguing characters in the movie. His role in the film is a parallel of sorts to Luv and Joe’s respective arcs. He feels the constant need to fill the massive shoes of Tyrell. To create and think the impossible. While he does improve on his predecessor’s replicants in some ways, he has failed in many other places due to his lack of understanding. Interestingly, he isn’t necessarily evil, but he only sees from the perspective of the big picture at the expense of noticing the minute details of life. It’s something small, but notice how Wallace forgot Rachael’s eyes were her green when he showcases the remake of her to Rick Deckard. His motives lie not with human life, but human exploration. His capitalist tendencies make him blind and ignorant to the intricacies of life. This makes it impossible for him to be a good successor to Tyrell. Like Wallace, Deckard also has these inherent restrictions that hold him back from ever seeing his daughter. I legitimately got excited when I noticed this, but remember when Deckard says to K “To love someone, you got to be a stranger.” That’s his philosophy, and as flawed as it may be, his beliefs are front and center for audiences to see.

THE ENDING:

The ending of this film is my number one scene ever, so it would be a disservice if I didn’t include it in the analysis. We first see a stark contrast between Joe, who’s accepting his death, and Anna, watching her fake snow fall on her hand. Anna, although born naturally, is inside a chamber. She doesn’t experience anything truly human. It’s all artificial and non-unique. On the other hand, while Joe is a replicant, his death is heartbreakingly human and real. Reverting back to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, Joe has been shaped by his past experiences, and so has Anna. As Mariette explains, replicants are portrayed as more human than actual humans. This contributes to my argument that Blade Runner 2049 is one of the most emotionally powerful movies of all-time. Joe’s journey is so painful and beautiful at the same time, and despite not seeming like it on the surface, if you notice his every facial expression, it becomes clear. It’s as small as something like him finding out that every Joi is pre-programmed to something as big as discovering he isn’t a miracle. Remember, no matter where he come from, it’s always our decisions in life that impact us the most. Now that is the answer to this film’s question. What does it mean to be human?