Forget galaxies far away and Justice Leagues, there’s another big sci-fi film drawing major buzz. Blade Runner 2049 dropped a final trailer before it’s October release date, this time revealing a little more about the plot while still keeping the surprises intact. Starring Ryan Gosling as Officer K, with Harrison Ford reprising his role as Rick Deckard, the film is set 30 years after the original Blade Runner. It’s a sequel we never thought we’d get, yet Denis Villeneuve and executive producer Ridley Scott have delivered a film that so far feels as though it is a natural follow-up to. Here the stand-out moments from the trailer, ranging from new information about the characters to teases about the film’s mysterious plot.

California 2049…Not Just Los Angeles

The original Blade Runner was set in a futuristic Los Angeles, yet the trailer states that 2049 takes place in a futuristic California. Could the deserted city in which K finds Deckard hiding out be a ruined and abandoned Los Angeles, with the city action taking place somewhere else? It’s hard to say. A glimpse of one building does say LAPD, but the location card offers up a wider setting than just one city. It also defies the ending of the original cut of Blade Runner, which sees Deckard and Rachael escaping to a pristine wilderness. The trailer also shows a variety of locations, ranging from smog-covered urban scenes to vast, deserted plains. The scope is already far more epic than the original’s, and it’ll be interesting to see where exactly Deckard’s hideout is.

Dave Bautista’s Fugitive…or Replicant?

This trailer introduces us to Dave Bautista’s character, who is not named but who plays a key role. The character is tracked down by K, and asks whether he’s there to bring him in. K replies that he’d prefer it to the other way. He has some questions. Bautista’s character replies by trying to stab him then throwing him through a wall. It is unclear whether his character is just a fugitive or if he’s an escaped replicant. The fact he’s able to slam K through a fairly sturdy looking wall might point to him being a replicant. Either way, he’s a man on the run, similar to Deckard. It will be exciting to see his full fight with K, as it already looks to be an intense action sequence.

“Replicants are the key to the future.”

Here’s a new spin on Blade Runner mythos: instead of being fugitives that need to be hunted down and killed, Jared Leto’s villain seems to think they are the key to the future. This puts a unique take on the very backbone of the original. It seems as though Leto’s character is the one behind replicants, and in fact, many of those that work for him are probably replicants themselves. He also is not quite human himself. What this means for the culture of the sequel’s world is still unclear, but it throws into question everything we’ve come to understand about the film’s universe. Has the law about replicants been changed? Or is there something that they’re hiding that audiences will only learn come the film’s release? It’s still too early to say.

Next Page: [valnet-url-page page=2 paginated=0 text=‘What%27s%20With%20K%20and%20Deckard%3F’]

“I have the lock, he has the key.”

Leto’s villain purrs the above line over footage of K, so it’s quite possible that Leto’s character is referring to is K. It could also be Deckard, as a large part of the film seems to center on a race to find him first. Either way, one of these two men is apparently the key to solving Leto’s problems with creating more replicants. Maybe K himself is a replicant, especially given the footage the line plays over? Or is Deckard, as the original film hints at and as we discuss later in this article? There’s no clear answer and the scene is designed to leave fans speculating until the theater lights go down. Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen.

The Numbers on the Tree

This is the second time the marketing has focused on K’s discovery of the numbers 6-10-21 carved into the bark of the single lonely tree in the midst of a wasteland. It is unclear what these numbers are but K reacts emotionally towards them. Are they a date - perhaps the date on which Rachael died? This very well could be her gravestone. It could also be a clue to the fact K is a replicant - maybe this is his serial number. The numbers have shown up in two trailers now, so either they’re a red herring designed to increase speculation or they have a deep importance to the final film. But again, we won’t know until October.

Deckard’s Past

Everyone is looking for Deckard so it seems. Robin Wright’s character states that if he’s found, they’ve bought themselves a war. Leto and his minions seem to be hunting him as well. Deckard himself appears to be hiding something, stating that things were simpler in the past. As K questions him, he asks “what happened?” There’s a huge time skip to cover in the film since Deckard and Rachael first got on that elevator. Whatever has happened in the interim has driven Deckard to hide in an abandoned city. Could his past be the key to the future of the world? More importantly, does his past hide the answer to the question haunting audiences ever since the original was released? After all, this trailer does tease that perhaps…

Is Deckard a Replicant?

It’s been a question hotly discussed by film fanatics ever since the confusing multiple cuts of the film were released. Is Deckard himself a replicant? This trailer seems to imply he might be. He says that he - or rather “we” - was being hunted and that’s why he’s been covering his tracks. K asks who was hunting him, but that question is not answered. Given that everyone’s after Deckard, and the film seems to be centering on replicants being used as slaves, maybe Deckard’s model holds the key to building better replicants? Or maybe there’s something he discovered about replicants and Leto’s company that has thrown him in danger. Either way, the trailer seems to strongly imply that we’ll finally get an answer to big question from the original.

Next Page: [valnet-url-page page=3 paginated=0 text=‘A%20Global%20Significance’]

The World Outside the Cities

Goodbye pristine wildernesses that Rachael and Deckard escaped to. Hello post-apocalyptic grays and destroyed buildings. Compared to the city and the neon glow of the moving billboards, K is visiting places that look as though they’ve been blown back to the stone age. It’s interesting to see what the world does look like outside of the grit of the urban environments. It seems not everyone is as lucky as the city-dwellers. These new environments are a way to keeping things new and fresh in the sequel, as well as expanding the world so we get a better glimpse of what this society has wrought. It’ll be exciting to learn about how the world was destroyed, and whether there is anything that can be done to save it.

“This breaks the world”

Robin Wright’s character says the above quote towards the end of the trailer. It’s unclear what will break the world, especially since it already seems very broken. But this puts the stakes at global levels, rather than simply personal ones. The expanded settings also point to there possibly being larger consequences to the actions of the characters rather than just hunting down replicants. What could possibly be at stake? What does Deckard know that could possibly upset the entire world of the film? And what is Leto hiding? The final line of the trailer, said by Leto’s character, also points to global stakes….

“The future of the species is finally unearthed.”

It seems the fate of humanity is in question, and only what K and Deckard know can save it…or maybe destroy it. The stakes are certainly high, and the film could take a very nihilistic path and spell doom for an already ravaged earth and population. But there’s still the chance the film could strike a more hopeful tone and imply that K and Deckard’s knowledge could grant humanity a second chance. Either way, Villeneuve has crafted a story that is every inch as epic emotionally as it is visual. Will the film hold up to the hype? That we cannot say for sure. But the marketing for the film has been stellar, and this trailer has brought to light several incredibly exciting plot points.

What was your favorite moment in the trailer? Let us know in the comments, and keep following Screen Rant for more news on Blade Runner 2049.

  • Blade Runner 2 Release Date: 2017-10-06