The beginning of Blade Runner 2049. Officer K. at a protein farm, he retires Sapper Morton

The film’s beginning scene is very good, no arguments here, but fanatics of the first film know that the farm opening was actually taken from a scrapped scene in the original 1982 film. And it would have been far better in that film than it is in the sequel, where it introduces Officer K (Ryan Gosling). In 2049, bioengineered humans known as replicants are slaves. K (short for his serial number, KD6-3.7), a Nexus-9 replicant, works for the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) as a “blade runner,“ an officer who hunts and “retires“ (kills) rogue replicants. At a protein farm, he retires Sapper Morton and finds a box buried under a tree. Here is why: In the initial scrapped scene, Hampton Fancher, executive producer and initial screenwriter of Blade Runner and 2049, constructed a mesmerizing moment from a single image offered by Ridley Scott: a boiling pot on a stove in a little farmhouse. In that script, Deckard (Harrison Ford) would be sitting in the kitchen, and through the windows, the day would get darker and darker until a strange vehicle pulls up and a man in overalls arrives. The man ignores Deckard, walks into the kitchen and starts stirring the boiling pot. The farmer says, “Do you want any soup?“ Deckard doesn’t say anything. “Who are you with, anyway?“ Deckard gets up and says, “I’m Deckard, Blade Runner.“ And then he shoots and kills the guy seemingly for no reason. As the man slumps against the wall, falling to the floor, Deckard reaches to the man’s head and pulls his lower jaw out, on which is an aluminum construct displaying an ID number. This is the point when the audience realizes the farmer is not a person, but a robot. Deckard takes the jaw, puts it into his trench coat and walks out of the farmhouse. Now that would have been a hell of an opening. In the actual original film, the audience is introduced to Deckard while he’s sitting outside as it is raining, reading a newspaper before ordering some food. The first introduction to an android acting bizarrely happens when Leon Kowalski (Brion James) starts glitching after being asked about the tortoise in the sun by Holden (Morgan Paull) during an interrogation. The beginning of Blade Runner 2049 mirrors this, for the most part, but here are the differences: Dave Bautista plays the farmer, Sapper Morton, who is aware of Officer K’s arrival and immediately knows once they are inside the home that this Blade Runner is also a replicant, although a new model. So there is the “reveal“ to the audience that Gosling’s K is a replicant (unless you figured out from a scene in the trailer in which K bursts through a wall, something no human could realistically survive). There is a boiling pot on the stove, which is nice to see. There is also a lot more talk between the two than in the scrapped scene because the film must set up the “miracle“ of the child. Then, of course, there is a brutal fight, which ends with Sapper being shot and killed. It is his right eye, not jaw, that is marked and retrieved by Officer K. The 2049 scene is quite good and super intriguing, but it is a missed opportunity. However, there is one big innovation in the new version: the addition of a mysterious grave under a tree, which is not in the original script. In this sci fi movie the story opens in 2049, thirty years after the events of the first film. An on-screen text states that the Tyrell Corporation has collapsed decades before, in the wake of violent revolts involving their Nexus-6 through -8 Replicants, forcing the company into bankruptcy. After the world’s ecosystems collapsed in the mid 2020s, famine swept the Earth, killing millions. With his invention of synthetic farming, a wealthy businessman named Niander Wallace (Jared Leto) ended food shortages and acquired Tyrell’s remaining assets to form his own corporation. These Replicants have implanted memories and open-ended lifespans, and are still used for slave labor on the off-world colonies (the Moon, Mars, and the moons of Jupiter, Saturn, etc.), but some are also used as Blade Runner units, hunting down and “retiring“ the few remaining older model Replicants that are still at large. Director: Denis Villeneuve Writers: Hampton Fancher (screenplay by), Michael Green (screenplay by) Cast: Ryan Gosling, Ana de Armas, Wood Harris, Tómas Lemarquis, Edward James Olmos, Jared Leto, Harrison Ford, Lennie James Director: Denis Villeneuve Writers: Hampton Fancher (screenplay by), Michael Green (screenplay by) Cast: Ryan Gosling, Dave Bautista, Robin Wright, Mark Arnold, Vilma Szécsi, Ana de Armas, Wood Harris, David Dastmalchian, Tómas Lemarquis, Edward James Olmos, Jared Leto, Harrison Ford, Lennie James #bladerunner #bladerunner2049 #2049 #bladerunner2049endin #sceneending #ryangosling #sylviahoeks #anadearmas #harrisonford #denisvilleneuve #hamptonfancher #fi #fimovie #movie #replicant #wallacecompany #michaelgreen #davebautista #sciencefiction #scifi #cyberpunk #2049sylviahoeks