Although both of them bombed at the box office despite critical acclaim, the Blade Runner movies are both regarded as revered sci-fi movie classics. Ridley Scott’s 1982 original defined the “tech-noir” subgenre, while Denis Villeneuve’s belated 2017 sequel Blade Runner 2049 managed the seemingly insurmountable task of living up to its predecessor.
The Blade Runner movies have a lot in common: mind-bending futuristic visuals, thought-provoking speculative storytelling, noir tropes pushed through a sci-fi lens, and rich, interesting characters. From Rick Deckard to Roy Batty, these are the franchise’s best characters.
10 Sapper Morton
Officer K’s mission to “retire” replicant Sapper Morton kicks off Blade Runner 2049. Played by Dave Bautista, Morton is an older replicant who leads a quaint, peaceful life as a protein farmer on the outskirts of L.A.
Morton was crucial to key off-screen events like the hiding of Deckard and Rachael’s “miracle” baby. He’s also not as overtly violent as the other replicants. He’s just a nice guy who just wants to collect antique books.
9 Bryant
Morally questionable characters are a staple of film noir, and in Blade Runner, this role is filled by Bryant, the captain of the LAPD’s Rep-Detect department. Bryant’s use of slurs like “skinjob” hints that he has a vicious prejudice against the replicants he wants to track down.
M. Emmet Walsh brings the same hateable quality to Bryant that he would later bring to the role of sadistic private eye Lorren Visser in the Coen brothers’ Blood Simple.
8 Niander Wallace
A large part of narratives about artificial intelligence is the danger of playing God. Jared Leto’s villainous megalomaniac Niander Wallace is introduced in Blade Runner 2049 as the inventor of a new line of replicants. However, he’s not happy with his creations.
Wallace is shown to be an absurdly intelligent person, but he’s also shown to be kind of a sadist as he takes pleasure in killing replicants and torturing Deckard. Jared Leto brought a lot of nuance to Wallace.
7 Lt. Joshi
Throughout the first couple of acts of Blade Runner 2049, Officer K has to answer to his direct superior, Lt. Joshi, played by Robin Wright. While she does admire K’s detective work, she doesn’t think of him as a real person because he’s a replicant.
Despite Joshi’s prejudices against K, she proves herself to be noble when Luv comes looking for K and she refuses to give away his location, which gets her killed.
6 Detective Gaff
Edward James Olmos’ most iconic sci-fi role is undoubtedly William Adama in Battlestar Galactica, but he gave an unforgettable turn as Detective Gaff in Blade Runner and even reprised the role for a scene in Blade Runner 2049 in which K visits him at a nursing home to inquire about Deckard.
Gaff is the detective who shepherds Rick Deckard through the case after he’s brought back on as a blade runner. Olmos is such a great actor that he can even make exposition dumps compelling.
5 Officer K
Officer KD6-3.7 – referred to simply as “K” – is the lead protagonist in Blade Runner 2049. Played brilliantly by Ryan Gosling, K flips the conflict of the previous Blade Runner protagonist. Whereas Rick Deckard thought he was a human and began to suspect he might be a replicant, K thought he was a replicant and began to suspect he might be a human.
K’s A.I. girlfriend Joi decides he needs a real name and calls him “Joe.” Both “Joe” and “K” are references to the Frank Kafka classic The Trial. Much like K’s own story, The Trial is an existential tale about an individual struggling against autonomous authorities.
4 Rachael
In Blade Runner’s recontextualization of film noir traditions, Sean Young’s Rachael character is introduced as a sort of femme fatale. However, this is later subverted when Rachael is revealed to be more of a victim.
After Deckard falls for Rachael and learns that she’s nowhere near as violent as the other replicants, his decision to spare her life makes sense.
3 Joi
Ana de Armas has quickly become one of the most popular up-and-coming actors in the world. She gave a fantastic performance as K’s A.I. girlfriend Joi in Blade Runner 2049. Unlike most of the Wallace Corporation’s customers, K treats his Joi copy like a real person and tries to have a genuine relationship with her.
Since he’s also a kind of artificial intelligence, K feels a kindred spirit with Joi. However, he’s conflicted about how real his relationship is, given that Joi was programmed to like him.
2 Rick Deckard
Harrison Ford brought an authentically cynical edge to Rick Deckard as he spends Blade Runner hunting down replicants and suspecting that he could be one of them. The question of whether Deckard is a replicant has since been discussed at length by fans for decades.
Deckard is a strong contender for the most iconic Harrison Ford character that isn’t Han Solo or Indiana Jones. Ford’s return to the role of Deckard in Blade Runner 2049 – which, admirably, maintained the ambiguity of the first movie – was more satisfying than when he reprised his roles as Han and Indy.
1 Roy Batty
Rutger Hauer gave one of his all-time finest performances in the role of Roy Batty in Blade Runner. Like all the best villains, Batty isn’t just bad for the sake of being bad. Ridley Scott actually frames him as a misunderstood victim who was programmed to be a slave and then did everything in his power to escape from his captors.
Batty is one of the greatest villains in movie history, and easily the most complex character in the Blade Runner universe. His final “tears in rain” monologue offers a glimpse at his own skewed perspective.
https://ift.tt/3gP9dIY
June 23, 2021 at 12:00AM
