Latest / All The Right Movies / Blade Runner 2049 (2017) | Ep. 61 - Part 1

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Blade Runner 2049 (2017) | Ep. 61 - Part 1 · All The Right Movies

0:04
All the right movies. You're a cop, what do you want?
0:11
I need your help. Replicas are the future.
0:15
We should own the world. 'S worst plan.
0:20
We have to stop him. Buckle up.
0:23
Where is he? Blade Runner, 2049.
0:36
Blade Runner 2049 was released in 2017 as one of the most
0:39
ambitious sequels ever. The follow up to a science
0:42
fiction classic, The navial nerves tale of a man made person
0:45
exploring what it means to be real became a critical triumph
0:48
that pushed the boundaries of visual storytelling.
0:50
My name is John, and the more human than humans with me are
0:54
Westy. That's not a name, that's a
0:56
serial number. And Matt?
0:58
Many is the night I dream of cheese.
1:01
It's 2049 and 80. Or ever investigating memories,
1:04
questioning reality, and asking what makes us human.
1:07
You might be happy scraping by with a movie podcast, but that's
1:10
because you've never heard a miracle.
1:31
Hello and welcome to All the Right Movies Cells interlinked
1:35
within Cells interlinked within cells Interlinked and the
1:39
podcast on classic in his films. Cells.
1:42
Whatever. Perfect.
1:46
You're listening to ATRM classic where we tell the story of
1:48
Hollywood 1 movie at a time, and this time out we're heading back
1:52
to the most famous rain soaked disturbing feature there is,
1:56
aren't we? We are indeed, yeah.
1:58
And snow as well this time. Oh yes.
2:00
A little bit, yeah. Yeah.
2:01
Every cloud, yeah, yeah. It's the new Veil, Nerve and
2:06
Ryan Gosling versus the Impossible, following up one of
2:09
the most acclaimed science fiction films ever made as we
2:12
talk Blade Runner 2049. Nice.
2:18
Sounds like a boom and score in the background as soon as every
2:20
time I say the title, yeah. Well, before we start the future
2:24
no investigation, let's talk about our own little digital
2:27
enterprise, should we? Absolutely.
2:29
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So if you love science fiction, we've got the original Blade
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3:05
You'll need the memory capacity of a replicant to process it
3:08
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3:10
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3:15
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Spotify or YouTube as well. Yeah.
3:24
Back to this episode, Door and Blade Runner 2049.
3:28
Wester, you put this one up. Why are we talking about it?
3:30
Why do you think, why do you think I put this up?
3:33
I mean, a massive, massive fan of the original, as we know.
3:36
And I was so, so excited to say this.
3:38
It was one of them ones that I was kind of just really hoping
3:41
the word can mess it up. I was like please.
3:44
And then I saw the first trailer and I thought I've got such high
3:46
hopes for this or the second trailer and I thought I'm
3:49
booking the tickets now. It was first shown on the Friday
3:52
that it came out, was an afternoon shown, left work early
3:54
to go and say it. And I was not disappointed.
3:57
What an experience that was. I was absolutely blown away.
4:00
It's kind of easy and me top five cinema experiences of all
4:03
time. So there's like Dark Knight,
4:05
Inception, Fury Road and blame 2049.
4:08
It was just such a feast for the eyes.
4:10
It was just incredible as deacons at the top of his game,
4:13
Vilni, but the top of his game. Loved Goslin at the time,
4:15
obviously still do adored Harrison Ford.
4:17
It just couldn't get any better for me.
4:19
Like I say, I love the first Blade Runner and it's the only
4:21
film that's pretentious enough to have a commercial art house
4:24
sequel and nothing is makes me happier than having that.
4:30
It's people going to say and being disappointed.
4:32
I couldn't wait. What the fuck was that?
4:36
So I was very excited then. I'm very excited now.
4:38
I've wanted to talk about it for a long time, but it's just very
4:41
daunting because there's so much in here.
4:43
But yeah, I'm really excited to hear what you guys think about
4:46
this one and I'm very excited to talk about it as per.
4:48
Hugely ambitious sequel, like we said.
4:50
And what is any sequel? The sequel to a film regarded as
4:53
one of the masterpieces of science fiction in Blade Runner.
4:56
I remember this being announced and feeling Ridley Scott's big
4:59
shoes. There was always going to be
5:01
trepidation, and for me, it definitely was.
5:03
I didn't want to do it at first, to be honest.
5:05
Yeah. But then I heard Harrison Ford
5:07
returning alongside Ryan Gosling in the lead.
5:10
Directed by Denis Veal, nerve shot by Roger Deakins, scored by
5:13
Han Zimmer. I was like, oh go on then.
5:16
Why? Not right as well.
5:19
And on that first watch, I was kind of blown away as well, to
5:22
be honest, with how it looks, how it sounds with the theme it
5:25
explores. It takes on the first film in
5:27
the writing, which I wasn't really expecting, but delighted
5:29
to say. So we'll talk about all that
5:32
stuff where it matches up and maybe doesn't with the first
5:34
film, as well as how it was all made, of course.
5:37
So massive creative talents behind the scenes on this.
5:40
So it should be a brilliant one to dive into I think.
5:42
Definitely, yeah. And Matt, what's your
5:44
relationship with BR2049? My relationship with this one is
5:48
that I'm really intimidated by it.
5:51
It must be big then, yeah. Huge.
5:54
When I saw Wesley put it up, I say, oh, it's great, but Oh my
5:57
God, I hope it doesn't win because I'm.
5:58
Having to. Wrestle, listen to some kind of
6:01
shape is a task and 1/2, and I mean the film itself is 1, I
6:05
never thought would actually exist or see the light of day.
6:08
Because why would you revisit this particular world when it
6:11
was done to such perfection in the 1st place but also done to
6:14
pretty much zero financial success or critical acclaim at
6:18
the time? It felt like a lose, lose
6:21
situation because he either follow the Ridley Scott path,
6:24
which didn't have that kind of success, or you go a completely
6:27
different rate but risk losing the originality that Blade
6:30
Runner had to make it a cult success later down the line.
6:33
But here we are. It does exist and it 100% is a
6:36
Blade Runner film for better. So Knives may be worse in some
6:40
respect, which will get a new, but it definitely is when you
6:43
need several attempts with this to really get your head around
6:45
it. Yeah.
6:47
But yeah. Blade Runner 2049 was produced
6:49
by Arcon Entertainment, Columbia Pictures, Scott Free
6:52
Productions, Bud Yorkin Productions, Toradon Films and
6:55
1614 Entertainment, distributed by Warner Brothers Pictures and
6:59
Sony Pictures Releasing and released on October the 6th,
7:01
2017. Filmed in multiple locations
7:04
including the US, Hungary, Spain, Mexico and Iceland.
7:07
The film was directed by Denis Villeneuve, written by Hampton
7:10
Funcha and Michael Green, based on characters from Philip K
7:13
Dick's novel Do Android Dream of Electric Sheep, and it stars
7:17
Ryan Gottling as Kier, Harrison Ford as Deckard, Anna de Armas
7:20
as Joy, Sylvia Hawkes as Love, and Jared Leto as Neander
7:24
Wallace. Los Angeles, 2049.
7:27
Then should we go? Let's go, Let's go now.
7:30
No, turn them back. We're talking replicants and
7:33
what it means to be born and made, but starting at the
7:35
beginning of Blade Runner 2049. The beginning.
7:45
Blade Runner 2049 sets us up in a world that's even more broken
7:48
than the one we left 30 years earlier in 1982.
7:51
Yeah, some strange bus there, but it checks out.
7:54
Yeah, yes. We'll talk about the not so
7:56
brave new world when we head to LAPDHQ and Wallace Corp But
8:00
first, the opening. Yeah, let's do it.
8:02
So we start a board, a spinner, a flying car with our new Blade
8:06
Runner officer key on route. His latest assignment?
8:09
He's heading to a protein farm outside LA to retire.
8:11
Sapa Morton, a rogue Nexus Aid replicant played by dear
8:14
protester and once thought as a routine job, turns into a brutal
8:18
confrontation, a Berry box, and a discovery that Will Rock Kay's
8:22
world. What rocks your world, Matt?
8:26
Well. We'll talk about the armies
8:28
later on. John, we'll get to you.
8:30
There very nice. But for now, though, I mean,
8:34
this opening, it's got such a great film in the wall vibe when
8:38
that sort of care to sitting there in the shadows waiting for
8:41
Sapa to enter. He's got there before him.
8:43
And I do love that visual metaphor you've got at the start
8:46
with that pot boiling away in the oven, because that's
8:49
something I've said quite a few times about other films, like
8:52
certain performances, certain scenes are like watching a pot
8:55
bubbling the way and you're waiting for it to boil over.
8:58
And that's absolutely why you get here with the sound of it
9:00
constantly in the background, is the tension is rising between
9:04
these two characters and you know it's going to kick off.
9:05
And when it does, I mean, the sheer force with which Sapa is
9:10
slamming K into the wall is incredible.
9:13
I mean, it's obviously not a film big on laughs, but I do
9:16
think when V left cuts to the other side of the wall so you
9:19
just see the vibrations before they come crashing through,
9:22
that's pretty funny. That's terrifying, I think.
9:25
Yeah. Well, I'll tell you what is
9:27
terrifying. That punch to the throat that
9:28
all starts laying in room. I mean, that always makes me
9:31
feel crazy. So yeah, very, very arresting
9:34
opening to say the least. It really is.
9:36
I mean, I think one of the purposes of a good opening scene
9:38
is to set our expectations of what's to come in somewhere.
9:40
Yeah. And Vilia does that in the very
9:42
first shot, the close up of that eye, the same way the original
9:46
Blade Runner opens, but it's a different eye, obviously, and
9:48
lit very differently as well. So it's like we're in the same
9:51
world. We're going to be exploring
9:52
similar themes, but we do have something new to bring to it as
9:55
well. Yeah, obviously we're talking
9:57
about what that is. But then we pull out of the
9:59
establishing shot for the opening sequence, those huge,
10:02
like, synthetic forms, and it's clear it's not quite the same
10:05
world we last saw. But how stunning are those
10:07
aerial shots? Absolutely ridiculous.
10:10
Yeah. Really one of the narrative in
10:12
Sapa's home. I think it's a great opener as
10:14
well. I would say when Sapa walks into
10:16
the kitchen, I've no idea how he doesn't see K sitting there
10:20
perfectly silhouetted against the window.
10:22
Yeah, amazing. But the fight's brutal.
10:24
I love how they come through the wall as well.
10:26
Great. And it does show us K's
10:27
abilities as well. Sapa literally slams him through
10:30
a wall. K hits him once and he's done.
10:32
Yeah. Shows us the Nexus 9, which K
10:34
is. Or something else, Something
10:36
new. Yeah.
10:36
So and even us back into the blade from our world and letting
10:39
us know there's new things as well as well as being engaging.
10:42
I think it's a great opening, 10 minutes or so.
10:44
Yeah, it really is. And Westie, you opening for you?
10:47
I mean, just before we get to that bit, we'll get this
10:49
incredible write up, which is reminiscent of the first one.
10:52
Yeah, great. And what's the first thing we
10:53
see on the screen? Just says replicants in red.
10:56
Yeah. Which is in the top left corner,
10:58
so the whole audience has to look up and to the left, which
11:01
is how you identify a replicant. Oh.
11:02
Nice, yeah. So where we're all looking up
11:05
and to the left as if we're all replicants and we're all
11:07
following this whole story. It's brilliant touch, and I
11:10
absolutely love that. Yeah, like you said, all of that
11:12
close up of the eye. Obviously it's not blue like the
11:14
first one. It's green.
11:15
And there's reasons for that, which we'll get at you later on.
11:17
But it's just, again, these aerial shots are fantastic.
11:19
The fact the case is sleeping the spare and he just kind of
11:22
wakes up. You then put in the position of,
11:23
yeah, I know what kind of guy this is.
11:25
And it's the lightning, the sequence, the way that they are
11:28
silhouetted, the way that it is just exposed.
11:30
We're just seeing what's going on.
11:32
And like you guys have said, that fight is absolutely
11:34
incredible. But what I get from this is that
11:36
SAP has actually given up. He knows he's beaten in case
11:39
hitting him once and he's gone down.
11:40
He's kind of admitted defeat and he's tried to go from one more
11:43
time. He's almost killed himself.
11:44
He could have given himself up, but he just runs at the gun.
11:47
And then when he falls and there's that camera shake, like
11:49
you said, it's just a wonderful, wonderful moment.
11:52
The sound design on this is absolutely amazing.
11:55
And I was just so, so happy to see that overhead sink shot that
11:58
Dickens seems to get everywhere. He gets it like nearly
12:01
everything. And about, Yep, the Roger
12:03
Dickens is here. It's just the, the quality of of
12:06
the shots, the quality of the lens choice is just the quality
12:08
of the movement. Everything he has absolutely
12:10
fantastic. It's just these all these
12:12
amazing intricate details. You know, you've got the Russian
12:15
writing on the tents transferred to to Virgin Islands, which was
12:19
the USSR of Russia. They would develop these high
12:22
fertility farms where there was low populations.
12:25
Obviously there were real things.
12:26
And then Japan obviously won the first nuclear war and then
12:29
Russia has won this one. So there's a lot of nods to
12:31
Russia in this, and it just adds this brand new spin on this
12:34
already familiar genre that could have just gone down the
12:36
same route. I certainly would have Japanese
12:39
iconography, that's Blade Runner bit, but what else can we do?
12:41
What's next, What's different? All of this sequence brings all
12:44
of that in and you don't even realize the first time you watch
12:46
it. It's fantastic stuff.
12:48
Yeah, and it's when K finds that box under the tree and we
12:50
realize what's in it last time. The film really starts to become
12:53
its own thing. I think this isn't going to just
12:55
be a rehash like a replicant who gave birth.
12:58
That does change things quite a lot.
12:59
Amazing as well, when he goes back to the spinner and he's
13:01
writing the card out, but it's not on paper, it's on plastic
13:04
because paper's so expensive. And then we see trees, just
13:06
little things like that. That's a 1920s camera replay as
13:10
well, from like an older 20s camera that it slid into.
13:13
Yeah. So it's kind of like rehashing
13:14
old things from the past. Fantastic.
13:16
They've thought the back story feel today like the NTH degree.
13:19
So to create a more authentic look, we only have wanted to
13:21
shoot at real locations on real sets as much as possible.
13:24
The solar farms we see at the start of the film were filmed at
13:27
the Gemma solar Thermal power station near Seville in Spain.
13:30
The scenes on Satmars Farm were filmed in Iceland, and the tree
13:34
where Kid discovers the box wasn't a real tree, it was
13:36
actually made out of concrete. Heavy tree.
13:38
Really heavy. Yeah, all the all great shots.
13:41
I mean there is digital work there, but it's mainly
13:43
relocations with digital enhancements rather than just PY
13:46
green screen. Yeah.
13:48
And it was frame store that we've interviewed who did the
13:50
effect shots in the open. Amazing, right?
13:52
Yeah, all right. Real landscapes of the inserted
13:53
elements into digitally. I mean, I think isn't it a blend
13:57
of technologies? Definitely, yeah.
13:59
And Dave Artista got the part of Saba through his standard custom
14:02
process, but Veiler didn't want him at first because he thought
14:05
he was too young. But the makeup supervisor Donald
14:08
Norwatt had about Easter made it to look older, and he managed to
14:11
win Veiler over with his performance.
14:13
I'm surprised because watching him now, I think it's a great
14:15
piece of casting. He's really, really good.
14:17
Does Batista ever look young? He looks about 50 all the time.
14:23
He does, yeah. But I think you might just bring
14:25
something to the character and just a couple of minutes, which
14:28
I think is really important, which is like, I have sympathy
14:30
for him, I feel like. Massive, massively.
14:32
It's them glasses and the way he puts the glasses on, they're
14:34
just so fragile and he seems like such a fragile character.
14:36
He does, yeah. It's like he's just living his
14:38
life. He's not hurting anyone.
14:39
And I feel it in the portrait. Yeah, he's like John Coffey.
14:45
We don't see it in the film, but the events that lead to the
14:47
opening were filmed in prequel short called 2048, Nowhere to
14:51
Run. In that a little girl and a
14:53
mother are attacked by muggers. Saba saves them by killing three
14:56
muggers. Sean, he's a replicant and
14:58
that's how care tracks him down. Yeah, so he's not hearing
15:01
anyone. Quite the opposite.
15:02
But that's why I think replicants are so great as a
15:04
piece of writing that they can represent any kind of like real
15:07
world oppression, because what it boils down to is kind of just
15:10
leave them alone for God's sakes.
15:12
Yeah and the studios who made the film created 3 short films
15:16
separate training, the original Blade Runner and this one.
15:18
And that gives the back story between the films.
15:21
Wesley just mentioned there nowhere to run about supper
15:23
Martin. And there was an animation
15:24
called Blackout 2022 and that explains the blackout mentioned
15:28
in the film where the data about replicants was destroyed so they
15:31
couldn't be tracked and replicant production was banned.
15:34
And then there was also 2036 Nexus Dawn, and that shows how
15:38
Neander Wallace brings about the end of Prohibition on replicant
15:41
production. Yes, that's kind of everything
15:43
important that's happened between the first film in this
15:45
one, which is quite a lot. Yeah, quite a bit, yeah.
15:47
And the animation was made by Shinichiro What Nabia famous for
15:51
the Animatrix? Do you remember that?
15:53
Yeah, and Cowboy Bebop as well. He did.
15:55
Cowboy Bebop, who directed the other two short films, was Luke
15:59
Scott, Ridley Scott's son. All right, keeping you in the
16:02
family. Absolutely.
16:03
Yeah, the old interesting, though short if you like.
16:06
Yeah, they're really good. Really, really good, actually.
16:08
Bridge the gap beautifully. Yeah, they do.
16:10
The opening that we've just talked about was inspired by an
16:12
opening that was written for the first film and rejected by
16:14
Ridley Scott, which is crazy. In that version, Rick Daggart
16:17
was in a countryside house waiting to retire, a replica
16:20
dressed in a protection suit and a gas mask while the pot of suit
16:23
was boiling in the kitchen. All elements that are included
16:26
in the 2049 version. Instead, Scott just went, let's
16:29
just have meetings and noodles. Yeah, of course.
16:32
Yeah, yeah. Well, it's nice to use that
16:33
original idea, I think. I mean straight away the right
16:36
as a tapping into the headspace that were in 40 years earlier.
16:38
Yeah, I think that original opening as well, he just shoots
16:41
the replicant in the back, right?
16:42
Cold blood. So he didn't want to introduce
16:44
the character that way. He wanted to have a little bit
16:46
more mystery and just rhyme as such a hard ass.
16:48
Yeah, fair enough. So then after this bit on the
16:51
farm, K gets called back and just bear in mind he's had the
16:54
shit kicked out of him and now there's people in the corridor.
16:56
Just tell them to fuck off. I know he's awful.
17:00
He's having the worst possible day.
17:02
There's like me at school every day.
17:05
Want to school? Best to get up my way home.
17:06
Sorry. Well, well, just like our school
17:10
days, best seat. Then there's this really
17:11
aggressive test coming up. We will go.
17:14
You know, I don't know what's going on here.
17:15
I mean, it's really disoriented, which is the point.
17:18
But all the cells, cells, interlinked cells, like
17:21
obviously it's talking back to the test in the original film,
17:24
but it's so in your face, you know, it is like the worst job
17:27
interview where you're like, yes, no, I don't know, Like
17:29
whatever the right answer is, I've said it hopefully.
17:32
But I like how the visuals change up here.
17:34
It's so starkly white. And that contrasts to how we say
17:37
the original test in the first film.
17:39
But it's just like unnecessarily stressful.
17:41
And I'm just really glad when this bid is over, because you
17:45
know when you have to select like which 3 squares in this
17:47
picture I have a traffic light in them.
17:49
I'm panic over that. I'd be.
17:50
Useless doing this kind of. Thing Oh, you were relevant.
17:54
Yeah. Sells in Daling, but it's
17:56
Mendel. But I love it.
17:58
I like the vastness of the California landscapes to this,
18:01
like, claustrophobic booth where chaos that kind of proved that
18:04
you're still working properly. Yeah.
18:05
And we talked about how this film develops themes from the
18:07
original. I think this is a pretty good
18:09
example of it because this is like the void comp test from the
18:11
first film. Yeah, but tuned on its head.
18:14
I mean, the baseline test isn't testing for empathy like Void
18:16
Camp, it's testing for like the absence of emotion.
18:19
It was the opposite of more human than human in the
18:22
original. And I think that's the point.
18:24
The whole thing is about keeping Key like literally in his box,
18:27
making sure he's still a good little replicant doing his job.
18:30
And it sets up the moment later when he fails the baseline test,
18:33
which is really good. So agree with the show.
18:35
Key is like Arc developing as well I think.
18:37
Yeah, the original screenplay had the baseline test at the
18:41
very beginning of the film, but they'll only have moved it to
18:43
open with the landscape shots instead, which I think is miles
18:46
better. And at first it was on key on a
18:48
bed with a machine scanning them over.
18:50
But through storyboarding it changed to the booth, which I
18:53
think, again, that's a better choice.
18:54
The scanner in the scene was designed by storyboard artist
18:57
Sam Hudecki. It looks great I think really
18:59
like impersonal. Yeah.
19:02
And what sounds like a medical exam or something to more like
19:04
an interrogation, I think that works much better as well.
19:07
Is that kind of like oppression? And the dialogue of the test,
19:10
the cells in the link within cells in the link, which we've
19:12
been talking about, that's taken from a Vladaby and Nabokov novel
19:16
from 1962 called PL. Fire.
19:18
But this changed as well. Originally it was written as a
19:21
mantra that Kay recites, but Ryan Gosling said they should
19:24
use an acting method he knew called a dropping in.
19:27
And this was developed by two acting quarters called Tina
19:29
Packer in Chris and Linklater and was designed to help actors
19:32
learn Shakespeare. Yeah.
19:34
Yeah, Dropping in is apparently done.
19:35
So the Shakespeare actors form like an emotional connection to
19:38
what could obviously be pretty challenging text.
19:41
And I guess it reminded Gosling of dropping in, and I gave him
19:43
the idea. I think it works great because
19:45
it's kind of like he's reprogramming himself.
19:48
Yeah. And there's an appeal fire
19:50
reference coming up a bit later on as well.
19:51
Yes, there is. Yeah.
19:52
Two versions of the Baseline test were filmed, the original
19:55
as it was in the script and the one we see.
19:58
What we see was written by Goslin and filmed on 1/8 minute
20:01
long take and edit. The Joe Walker cut it down to
20:03
about 40 seconds. Go on, Joe. 8 minutes.
20:08
That whole scene is the first thing we see.
20:10
Mental. I think that would be great.
20:12
I would have kept that in the open, yeah.
20:16
And the cityscape shots we see just before the baseline test
20:19
where we see Kay returning to LAPD.
20:22
They were filmed to Mexico. And the helicopter shots of the
20:24
fellas in urban areas around Mexico City.
20:27
Yeah, I've been used miniatures as well, like the first film and
20:30
again, everything then enhanced with digital effects.
20:32
I think it all just looks great. Yeah, it looks fantastic.
20:36
And that's the opening scenes, synthetic forms and retired
20:39
replicants. We've met Kay, seen him do his
20:42
job and discovered an impossible pregnancy.
20:45
Time to see where that leads, I think.
20:46
Let's do it. From there Kay's boss Lieutenant
20:51
Joshi, played by Robin Wright, KET Kay on the case and the
20:54
investigation into a replicant baby kicks into gear.
20:58
Kay heads to the Wallace Corporation, who now manufacture
21:00
the replicants, where we meet blind God Neander Wallace, his
21:04
right hand replicant love, and a demonstration of Wallace's
21:07
twisted relationship with his own creations.
21:10
Indeed. So, Matt, how are things in
21:12
Neander's place? Outrageously or TT.
21:16
Like absolutely no need for that massive desk for one file clerk.
21:22
Just give him a little table in a chair.
21:23
That's all he needs. I mean, no, the set design is
21:26
incredible. And just when you think this is
21:28
already very accomplished in terms of what they want this to
21:32
look like and for how they wanted to be lit, you meet love
21:35
in her office just bathed in those reflections of the RIP
21:38
water. Like there's no practical need
21:40
for any of this to look like this.
21:43
But if you're going to make these creative decisions, follow
21:46
through with them and make them look as good as this does,
21:48
because there's no holding back here.
21:50
If you're only ever going to make one beard run a film, you
21:52
can't do half measures and this scene absolutely doesn't.
21:55
And I think there's some really good world building the heel as
21:57
well. The mention of the blackout,
21:59
which is really intriguing and it is a bit like the supper
22:02
Morton See, not many laughs, but again, there's one here.
22:04
When the final clerk says his mom cried off the lost baby,
22:07
pictures and Care replies, well, it's a shame.
22:09
You must have been adorable. Yeah, it's funny that yeah.
22:13
That might be the only joke in the whole film.
22:15
It definitely is, yeah. It definitely is, yeah.
22:18
And yeah, when Joshie drops the bombshell at LAPD about the
22:21
replicant remains, she was pregnant, she says.
22:24
I'm always kind of waiting for Kay to go pregnant, you might
22:27
say. But.
22:28
Never goes. He's not a podcast man.
22:33
That's what I would do. Of course you would have been a
22:35
get out John baseline test again.
22:41
But yeah, Wallace Cope. That is where the world building
22:43
really kicks in. We do learn about the blackout,
22:45
how records were lost, how Wallace saved the world from
22:47
starvation with his farming. It's pretty heavy exposition,
22:50
but it's done quite elegantly. We're learning as K does.
22:54
And it's weird. The file clear guy is absolutely
22:57
nuts, but I like him. And we do know glossy guys
22:59
comedy chops, right? They succeed him.
23:01
Use them here. Yeah, but something I think this
23:03
film actually does better all the job of than the first film
23:06
is tapping into the film wall style detective side of it
23:09
because carries out like a proper investigation.
23:11
Yeah, with the box news to Wallace leading to the horse.
23:14
He's like a real detective and it all came to start here.
23:17
The file clerk is played by Thomas Lamarck we, a French
23:20
Icelandic actor who built his career starring in Icelandic
23:23
films, and he has alopecia universalist, and that's a
23:26
condition that left him hairless by age 14.
23:29
And so he's often cast and wrote to use a strike an appearance.
23:32
And the year before Blade Runner, he was an X-Men
23:34
Apocalypse. Right.
23:36
He's Calabar in X-Men. That's the same character
23:38
Stephen Merchant played in Logan, if you recall that.
23:41
All right. Yes, Yeah, yeah.
23:43
Yeah, yeah. Imagine Merchant showed up here.
23:47
Yeah, you would have, you would have fit the look.
23:52
So after all this visual ecstasy that we've seen, but there's a
23:56
wonderful moment where this repplingen is born and you just
24:00
start shot through the door and it's in the bag and that moment
24:03
that it's birthed out of it. I'm watching it again now going
24:06
yeah, I think the Neville news definitely going to do June.
24:09
Isn't he just for. That it could be from June, That
24:13
it could. Be that shot.
24:14
It's just absolutely brilliant. It's such a blueprint for it.
24:17
But this is, again, it's such an interesting scene because we've
24:20
gotten going in, he's realised about the birth of the child.
24:23
He knows that what he's creating now isn't good enough.
24:25
He wants something else. And the way that he just kind of
24:28
treats this reppling, it is just a thing now.
24:30
It's not good enough. And the fact that he can't
24:32
really see and these drones are such a good idea, these 6 camera
24:36
drones that come out and are plugged into his neck and he
24:38
sees through technology. So he hasn't got a soul.
24:41
He hasn't, he can't. His eyes don't work necessarily
24:44
through himself. He has to use technology to see,
24:47
so he's not using his soul to see anything, which I think is
24:49
really important. The fact that he puts one on
24:51
love just to see her reaction to it, I think it's really
24:54
important. And the way that he cuts the
24:55
replicant's stomach the same way that Sapa did to get the baby
24:59
out for of Rachel of just slices out to be sure that that's
25:03
emptiness. You're not good enough.
25:04
Then I want something else that's going to give me
25:06
something from that procedure. I love the way he kisses her as
25:09
well, the way, same way as, but he kissed Tyrell before.
25:12
He pushes his eyes in the first film.
25:14
That's all in there. That comes back later with love
25:16
and care when we get that at the end.
25:18
And I think she's just upset that he's not impressed.
25:20
She's not upset that this replicants died.
25:21
She's just upset that he's not pleased enough, which is why you
25:24
get that single tear and that real emotion in her face.
25:27
But you just get the menace of this character of Wallace.
25:31
He always wants more. And I got that feeling he's
25:32
always going to outdo himself and always going to put himself
25:35
into the grave trying to get better and better.
25:37
He wants trillions of these things.
25:39
What the fuck's he on about? Like how much, how much power
25:42
does one person need? I think it's just an incredible
25:45
scene and sets up loads more. There's lots of foreshadowing in
25:48
this, lots of foreshadowing. And I think on your second and
25:51
third view, and this film just gets better and better and
25:53
better. The amount of layers that are
25:54
put into it and this scene is just testament to that.
25:58
It is, yeah. I find all pretty dark and
26:00
disturbing this scene. This definitely feels like the
26:02
original Blade Runner to me. We see this like, newborn
26:05
replicant. It just seems frightened, which
26:07
is awful. You just got no idea what's
26:09
going on. And then Wallace just kills
26:10
that. So he creates life but seems to
26:12
have no respect for it. Yeah.
26:14
And love, we'll talk about her more, obviously.
26:16
But yeah, she's watching crying, which is a bit weird as she's
26:19
sad. I mean, there's a few times that
26:21
would say, love do things in the film where the reason behind it
26:23
isn't totally clear, which is surely intentional to add depth,
26:26
I guess. And this is one of them.
26:28
But it's like a beautiful place where awful things happen, which
26:31
I think is very Blade Runner. And the production designer was
26:35
Dennis Gastner and they built the set for Wallaces layer in
26:37
Budapest. He based the design on one of
26:39
the rooms in Kayumi Zudera, the 1200 year old Buddhist temple in
26:43
Kyoto, Japan. And the floor type is called the
26:45
Nightingale floor, where the floor chef from a people walk on
26:48
it to prevent intruders. Well.
26:50
Obviously because walls are blind, but chirping floor would
26:53
drive me mad. Yeah.
26:55
Turn it like when you need to change the batteries in your
26:57
fave a lot. Like, yeah, I'm actually going
27:00
off. Well, the production design is
27:02
great. Everything is clean and
27:03
minimalist, which is like the opposite of the outside world.
27:06
And it is like a temple. Wallace has built himself this
27:08
like, kind of palace, while the rest of the world seems to just
27:11
rot. Yeah, and Speaking of Neander
27:14
Wallace, he's played by Jared Leto.
27:16
He seems to be a bit of a divisive performance, what some
27:19
people say about it. What do you think?
27:21
Let's see Paul Allen's replicant.
27:25
No can. Do sergeants of Iche I.
27:29
Mean I'll be honest letter or the only performance like of his
27:32
is American Psycho, mainly because he gets an axe in the
27:34
face. So I'm glad he isn't in this too
27:36
much. I do find him a bit
27:37
insufferable, a bit previous, yeah.
27:40
I can't stick them at all. But also, why doesn't Wallace
27:43
just build himself some new eyes?
27:44
Like, doesn't he live with the own?
27:45
Like an eyeball factory basically.
27:47
Replicant eyes. Replicant eyes.
27:49
Yeah. Yeah, I.
27:50
Don't know if there's different ways to do things I guess.
27:52
I mean, I'm not explaining his behavior.
27:54
He's doing the problem he wants. We've got the money, yeah.
27:58
Exactly. Yeah, I mean, I think he's a big
28:00
talent, Jared Leto, a huge acting talent, and there's other
28:03
performance that's a problem. For me.
28:05
It's kind of the choices from Leto unveil nerf, presumably.
28:09
Wallace is so serene and so calm, which will be fine, but
28:12
I'm not sure it works. Yeah, because Kay is already
28:14
reserved, following us from Deckard.
28:16
He was also reserved. So I'm not sure it works.
28:18
Having a bad guy who holds back as well like Wallace does all
28:21
you could do with a bit more variation maybe.
28:24
I kind of think so, yeah. But I personally think we've got
28:26
everything we need and love I don't think we need.
28:28
Was love great? At all.
28:30
I think it's like having Tyrell in the first one.
28:32
We don't need them. When you've got Batty, you know
28:34
when she's getting her nails done and the bombs are coming
28:35
down, boom, That's it. She's a real badass, and she is
28:39
the badass through all of the film.
28:40
And she really does over Shadow Letter, to be honest.
28:43
To me, he does feel like maybe second or third choice.
28:46
And when he's on the screen, it doesn't feel like he's the first
28:48
choice at all for the director. And they've just went well, this
28:51
guy will do at the minute, but it doesn't matter because we've
28:53
got love as a character. So she outshines for me,
28:56
definitely. I would agree.
28:57
I think she does. So when Velnie was casting as
29:00
part of Wallace, he considered Ed Harris and Gary Oldman, but
29:04
the person he originally wanted was David Bowie.
29:06
That would have been fucking unbelievable.
29:09
Would have. Been great.
29:10
Bowie looking for a baby yet again.
29:12
Forget about the babe. It would have been amazing.
29:15
Same here. Imagine just that in silhouette.
29:18
It would have been a massive codpiece.
29:20
He's allowed. I would have really would have
29:23
given anything to say that, but unfortunately, he passed away in
29:25
2016 and Letter was cast. Yeah, if only you've said that
29:28
he had an underlying menace, that he wanted the musical
29:31
background. Like Bowie.
29:32
It's a thin connection, isn't it?
29:34
Like. Very thin connection.
29:35
Yeah, the musical background. I mean 30 Seconds To Mars
29:39
exactly. The menace?
29:40
Yeah, that can do that. But I'm not sure you can compare
29:42
30 Seconds To Mars the Boy. Yeah, it's, yeah.
29:46
I mean the kills. Not exactly hunky Dory, is
29:47
there? Let's be honest.
29:52
And to get fully immersed in the fact that Wallace is blind, LED
29:54
a war, Opaque contact lenses that made it impossible to see.
29:58
And they were especially hand painted by an expert.
30:00
And apparently there's only two people in the world that can do
30:03
that. And he wore them for the
30:04
beginning of the day until he left the set.
30:06
Really. Method.
30:07
And I guess that ties back to Eldon Tyrell from the first
30:10
film, who created the replicants and then had his eyes gouged out
30:13
for it by Roy Batley. Yeah, yeah, there's another Roy
30:16
Batley reference in Blade Runner.
30:18
Batley quotes a William Blake poem and says fiery the Angels
30:22
fell, and here Wallace refers to his replicants as his Angels.
30:25
Also a nod to the fact that I mean as far as Walter is
30:27
concerned, the angels, and I don't know about you, but I
30:30
think he might have a bit of a God complex.
30:33
Or just maybe a little ones. Yeah, I think so.
30:36
Yeah. That's too obvious to even talk
30:38
about, isn't it really? Yeah, just a bit.
30:40
Yeah, and it's around this time we see Kia's apartment for the
30:43
first time as well. The XTVS and NTVS were also shot
30:46
in Budapest, and the set was built on the soundstage and
30:49
filled with mist to create the look of fog outside Kia's
30:52
window. Nice.
30:54
Yeah, add some technology and a bit of mist and you've got to
30:56
disturb your future. That's all you need.
30:58
I mean a little bit more than that, John, I think.
31:03
I don't know Budget. He wasn't still being a future
31:06
in tonight's set. I think it's pretty good.
31:08
It's wonderful, yeah. And that's where we meet our
31:10
Master's joy for the first time as well.
31:12
Yeah, definitely. We'll have more enjoy as we go,
31:15
but that's the beginning of Blade Runner 2049.
31:18
We've seen a miracle. The replicant who gave birth,
31:20
met most of our main players and seen the kind of world the
31:23
inhabit. Yeah.
31:24
Should we talk about the man orchestrating all of it?
31:27
Let's do it. Got 2.
31:31
The director. The director who played from the
31:36
2049 was Denis Villeneuve. This was his ninth feature film
31:40
and coming off the back of Prisoner, Sicario and Arrival,
31:43
his second foray into science fiction, taking on a sequel to
31:47
one of the most beloved science fiction films of all time.
31:50
Not an easy gig, Matt, no. How did Villeneuve handle the
31:53
pressure? Well, we've covered a rival, and
31:55
I said on that episode, I do think he's very similar to
31:58
Ridley Scott anyway in that he's all about the visuals, not
32:01
necessarily the storytelling. So it makes perfect sense that
32:05
he's the one that picks up this particular baton.
32:08
And it has to be said that confidence to do that is
32:11
something else, because it's not just one of the most revered
32:13
films of all time. He's doing the sequel to he's
32:17
making a sequel to a film that was a famous commercial flop.
32:20
But The thing is, he's not changing a single thing about it
32:23
that made it flop. It's downbeat.
32:25
The plot is very obscure for the most part.
32:28
If anything, he double S down on everything that people didn't
32:31
respond to in the action of Blade Runner.
32:33
And that takes confidence to do that.
32:36
That's amazing. Such confidence.
32:37
Like he doesn't feel the need to inject it with action sequences
32:41
just to hurry it up a bit. If you compare him to Spielberg,
32:44
Spielberg looks a Blade Runner, loves it, but he goes, it makes
32:47
Minority Report, which is a great film but much more
32:50
straightforward action app VLF looks at later, and it goes,
32:54
I'll just do more with that because I can.
32:56
So while this will always be the world that Ridley Scott has
32:59
created, VLF is right at home in it, and he understands it to an
33:02
extent I don't think anyone else did at the time.
33:05
Yeah. Yeah.
33:06
I mean, I think when we say something is a great sequel,
33:09
we're not just saying we enjoyed it as a salary.
33:11
The great sequel, like traditionally is something that
33:13
fits in with the first film but also goes in a different
33:16
direction a bit, maybe going back to The Empire Strikes Back.
33:19
And I think this definitely ties into that tradition of what
33:22
makes the great sequel. The tricky thing I think is you
33:25
want to do your own thing but you can't move too far away.
33:28
What Veal Nerve does, it still has to fit in Ridley Scott
33:30
world. So it's like where do you pitch
33:32
it? I think Veal Nerve goes with
33:34
what he knows. He grew up in Canada in the
33:36
1970s where apparently it could snow for like 7 months of the
33:39
year. So that's why bring Snow here, I
33:41
think to put it through the lens of something he's familiar with
33:44
and totally, I think this has a feel of 70 science fiction, like
33:47
silent running or Solaris, like intense and hard hitting.
33:50
I think all those influences there and what he brings that he
33:53
always does. I mean, there's not many
33:55
directors that treat the audience as intelligent as Denis
33:57
Villeneuve does and explains thing.
33:59
But once you expect it to keep up and if you don't, that's on
34:02
you. The way that he handles the
34:04
reveal about Kay's memories, the way he builds up to the twist
34:06
about who the child really is. You're blinking, you'll miss
34:09
something. And that's a good thing for me.
34:11
I don't want to be told something four times.
34:13
Exactly. How it looks, I'll say that for
34:15
when we get into the visuals, but it's astonishing.
34:17
And by viewing those high standards, but I think you
34:20
understood that if you want to make something that lasts, you
34:22
can't just remake Blade Runner. You have to find something new
34:25
to say. And I think he does.
34:27
We're the original asks what makes us human.
34:29
This one asks, does it matter if you're special?
34:32
And for me, that's how you deal with Legacy Sequel, which is
34:33
what this is. Respect what came before, but
34:36
don't be like enslaved by it on the original, but in your own
34:40
voice. And that's what Viola does.
34:41
That's what Viola always does, and it's not perfect.
34:45
I'll talk about some nitpicks that I have, but to follow up a
34:47
huge film like Blade Runner, it makes something worthy of the
34:50
original, which I definitely think this is.
34:53
That's some achievement in my eyes.
34:55
Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think the original
34:57
Blade Runner is fantastic. It's it's a work of art and
35:00
always has been and there always will be revered in such a way.
35:02
That's a Nexus 6 for me and this is a Nexus 9.
35:05
I think that's that's what Villeneuve wanted to do.
35:07
It's just slicker, it's faster. It just has, he has such a
35:10
command over the tone, but with such a love and respect for
35:13
Ridley Scott's vision at the same time.
35:14
It all kind of paints together. This is perfect for me.
35:17
It sits perfectly between arrival in June.
35:19
You can see the step between them this that step up the
35:23
ladder to like right out and grab this.
35:25
Now I'm next. I'm ready to go to the next
35:27
level. You can see his career
35:28
progressing through this film. For me, Villeneuve, there's just
35:31
enough of his personality to cut through this.
35:34
There's a lot of layers here. It's got its own tone, it's its
35:36
own world, but he still manages to put a little bit of
35:39
personality in there just enough to cut through and make it his
35:42
own, which I think is the hardest thing to do, especially
35:45
with the sequel, especially with the legacy sequel as well.
35:47
If I'm evil you've despite who his DP is, he always has this
35:50
look. It always has this elegance.
35:52
It always has this style that ticks all the boxes.
35:55
There's three different DPS between these three films.
35:58
So it just it shows that he's got a real command over Arrival
36:02
to this to then June. That just shows the command that
36:05
he's got of everything in the tone that he brings and the
36:08
personality that he brings to his films.
36:09
And I remember what Matt said on the Arrival episode and he also
36:12
said on Prisoners is that Villeneuve is a very cool
36:15
director. And we said it in Sarkari as
36:17
well. And I think he is a cool
36:18
director, but that's exactly what this film needs, A. 100%
36:22
yeah, yeah. And he absolutely.
36:24
Nails. I think he's the perfect choice
36:25
for this, yeah. Well, as we've been saying, the
36:28
original Blade when I was a box office flop when it's released
36:30
in 1982. Over time, the word reputation
36:33
grew to the legendary one that it has today, and there were
36:37
many near attempts to make a sequel over the years.
36:40
Yeah. I think you know a bit more
36:41
about that, Matt. I do, somehow.
36:43
It's a hell of a story. So.
36:46
Memories. The Unicorn running through the
36:48
woods. So it starts back in 1995, where
36:54
kW Jeter wrote an authorized sequel to Blade Runner as a
36:57
novel called Blade Runner 2, Edge of Human.
37:00
A screenwriter called Stuart Hazeline adapted that into a
37:03
spec screenplay called Runner Down, but the film's rights
37:06
owners But York and and Jerry Panicio weren't interested.
37:10
Yeah, it's said about 10 years after the original, and
37:12
apparently it's about Decor trying to hunt down a replicant
37:14
who learned the secret of long life so he can prevent Rachel
37:17
from dying, right? Sounds like a decent idea.
37:20
Yeah, I like that. Yeah, definitely does.
37:22
And then Ridley Scott and Warner Brothers started talking about a
37:24
Blade run a sequel in the 2000s, but had problems to the
37:28
licensing disputes over do Android stream of Electric
37:31
Sheep, which is the Philip K Dick novel Blade Runners based
37:34
on. Yeah, Jerry Parentio, you
37:36
mentioned there, he was like a billionaire and he didn't want
37:38
the sequel to be made. So any sequel talk went no way
37:41
for years because apparently he would just say no.
37:44
Right, right. Yeah.
37:45
So then Scott came up with an ID for a sequel only vaguely
37:48
connected to the first film called Metropolis.
37:50
Bit unoriginal, yeah. Yeah, no one's heard of that
37:54
one, really, have they? Yeah.
37:55
Yeah, yeah. Well, yeah, apparently it was
37:57
going to be heavily inspired by like the fret line classic,
38:00
which is why it was called that. Right.
38:02
But Metropolis stalled. So then in 2009, Scott worked
38:06
with his son Luke and his brother Tony Scott on Purefold,
38:09
and this was going to be a web series of shorts set before the
38:12
events of the first film, but that stalled due to lack of
38:15
funding. Yeah, apparently the narrative
38:16
for the whole series was going to be shaped by ideas that
38:19
people had on social media platforms, and they would kind
38:21
of follow that. So that could have been like,
38:24
interesting. But by this time, but Jochen had
38:27
bought Jerry Pinitio's Chef the rights to the book and producers
38:30
Broderick Johnson and Andrew Kosov, who owned Alcon
38:33
Entertainment. They struck a deal with him for
38:35
film rights to sequels and television.
38:37
So they approached Ridley Scott and he signed on to direct in
38:40
2011. Yes, the deal said that they
38:42
weren't allowed to remake the original.
38:44
I mean, why would you that exactly anything you'd have the
38:48
green light, hence the prequel show to the television series
38:51
that we've had. Yeah, So the had a script at
38:54
this point and Harrison Ford was interested in returning, but
38:57
Scott then dropped out due to clashes with Alien Covenant.
39:00
But he did stay on his executive producer to oversee the creative
39:03
direction you went. Through everything Scott doesn't
39:05
he? Alien Blade Runner, Gladiator of
39:08
it. Salman Louise, They're just
39:10
going to float, Turns into a spinner.
39:14
Blade Runner, 2050. So Scott left, but Alcon you who
39:19
The Wanted to take over that worked with Denny Villeneuve on
39:22
Prisoners a few years earlier and knew we now had science
39:25
fiction experience in Arrival so approached him.
39:28
He loved Blade Runner, obviously, and all initially
39:30
hesitant, eventually signed on. Nice.
39:33
Yeah, he said that he didn't think a sequel should be made,
39:35
but also he didn't want anyone else to do it in case they
39:37
fucked it up. Because he put it, Yeah.
39:39
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Villeneuve said that he felt
39:42
under a lot of pressure to do the first film justice.
39:45
Obviously, he said. He said what made it worse was
39:47
that Ridley Scott was on the set all of the time, and eventually
39:51
Villeneuve asked him how he would feel if his favorite
39:53
director, Ingmar Bergman, was looking over his shoulder while
39:56
directing. Scott said he understood and
39:58
then just left the second here. I understand.
40:01
You can imagine. I mean, it's not like you won't
40:02
voice his opinions, Scott, is it?
40:04
But no, no. On the set was to be just in
40:07
there. Yeah.
40:07
Just in the background. Yeah.
40:09
Two shot. That's a two shot.
40:12
Exactly. And V Love did have his own
40:16
vision for the film. Renee April was costume designer
40:18
and she said she designed some out there outfits in her words.
40:22
But V Love told her to rein it in.
40:24
He said with the world being decimated by the blackout and
40:26
famine, fashion had become secondary and clothes were just
40:29
functional. They're awesome.
40:30
Not to the original, though. Joy has a transparent court
40:33
similar to the one that one of the replicants saw her wears in
40:36
the first film. She does.
40:37
I mean, function of a fashion does make sense, but still, I
40:40
love keys. Court.
40:43
Yeah, absolutely awesome. One of the best chords ever.
40:46
He's just, it's a heartbreak and you just kind of pull off can
40:48
you say this, the drive jacket with the scorpion on the back
40:51
drive wearing that. Unique any chord look great Ryan
40:53
God. Really does.
40:54
Yeah, yeah. And the production designer on
40:57
arrival was Patrice Fermat, but he was unavailable for Blade
41:00
Runner. So Veena hired Dennis Gassner.
41:02
Like we mentioned, he'd worked with the Corn Brothers and the
41:04
three James Bond films before this and said when he met Veena,
41:07
he said, describe the world recreating in one word.
41:11
And Veena said brutality. Nice.
41:14
Yeah, it's a bit of a harsher world in the first film.
41:16
So brutality works. And you see that in the building
41:18
is like Key's apartment block, which is kind of a brutalist
41:21
architecture. Yeah, yeah.
41:22
And I think the spinners as well, they're designed to be a
41:24
bit more striking. You're a bit more angular, I
41:26
think. So things have changed and
41:27
developed a bit, so they put thought into it.
41:29
And Gastner said that he and Vilni have both only like using
41:32
green screen when absolutely necessary, so they won't make as
41:35
many sets as they could. They couldn't get into London to
41:37
film and Ridley Scott's jested Budapest where he just shot The
41:40
Martian and that's where shot most of the film.
41:42
Yeah, the bill, just about everything.
41:44
So Kay's apartment, Wallace Corp that we talked about or filmed
41:47
in Hungary and I think Budapest has that brutal less
41:50
architecture style as well. So, yeah, yeah.
41:53
Yeah, Yeah. Beautiful.
41:54
Yeah. Before we finish Underneath the
41:56
Nerve, we have our first ATRM patron question.
41:59
So as well as all those benefits that you mentioned in the start
42:02
of the show, if you sign up to become an ATRM patron, we'll
42:05
answer your questions as well. Yeah, we have one now about
42:08
legacy sequels, so. Lovely.
42:11
Lucas is here, not George Lucas, I don't think.
42:14
Oh. OK, right.
42:15
I bet he's got an opinion on legacy sequels.
42:17
I bet he had fucking houses. Less of them, please, George.
42:20
He invented them. Unfortunately, yeah.
42:23
Yeah, but hello Lucas, either way.
42:26
Hello. Lucas and he says lads, I'll
42:28
never forgive you for choosing this over the Thin Red Line.
42:31
Just kidding. I love you boys and appreciate
42:33
all the work you do. 10 out of 10.
42:35
That's very kind. It'll come back round another
42:37
poll. It will.
42:38
It will. Eventually I'll end up doing it
42:39
by myself when I'm like 98 or something that'll.
42:42
Be fine, but Lucas question is seeing as Blade Runner is a
42:46
legacy sequel, do you guys like legacy sequels and are they
42:49
necessary? Personally, Lucas says when they
42:52
don't write they're fantastic. A high point being Top Gun
42:55
Maverick. So if you were not familiar with
42:57
the term, a legacy sequel is a film that continues the story
43:00
after like a big time gap. Usually it reduces new
43:02
characters alongside returning legacy ones.
43:05
Or believe in the 2049 does fit the bill.
43:08
What do you think about legacy sequels in general?
43:10
I mean in general I'll just treat them like any other film.
43:13
If the good the good, if the bad the bad.
43:15
The concept is fine. I think it comes down to is the
43:18
genuine reason for them to exist.
43:20
This one, yes, because there was a whole world to explore in
43:24
there. I mean, he mentions Top Gun
43:26
Maverick. The weird thing about that is
43:28
there wasn't really reason for that to exist.
43:30
It didn't have that world, and yet it did succeed.
43:32
And I think through that combination of the nostalgia
43:35
people had for the original and just Tom Cruise being a madman
43:38
and getting up there in an actual plane.
43:40
Everyone getting up there an actual plane.
43:42
Everyone getting up there, which we hadn't really seen.
43:44
That was a big sell. Yeah, that was.
43:45
The big and that thing, you've got to find the big sell and
43:48
then you get others. I mean, we talked about maybe
43:50
Poppins a few episodes ago, maybe Poppins Returns.
43:52
I guess that would be a Lexi sequel.
43:53
That's pretty good. Yeah.
43:55
But then then you'll get stuff like Beetlejuice.
43:57
Beetlejuice where it's fine but you'll never think about it like
44:01
after you've watched it. Yeah.
44:03
I mean, I think Lucas is kind of given the only real answer there
44:05
was questionnaire. When they're done right or well,
44:07
legacy sequels, yeah, great. When they're doing wrong, they
44:11
can be pretty terrible. I think the problem we've had is
44:13
that most of them I would say have been done wrong.
44:16
The good ones like 2049, understand the account.
44:19
Just give people the same thing. Again.
44:20
Like we said, I think Top Gun Marvin works because it's about
44:24
aging. It's about passing the torch.
44:25
It uses the 30 odd year gap between the films as part of the
44:29
story right into the story. The bad ones to me.
44:32
Just trying to remind you of the original without adding anything
44:34
new. Remember this line?
44:36
Remember this spaceship? Yeah, he has a.
44:39
Bit of music, yeah. Exactly.
44:40
Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's not interesting
44:42
storytelling. That's just like nostalgia
44:44
mining to me. And there's plenty of examples
44:46
of it in the big IPS. Star Wars, The Terminator, The
44:49
Matrix, Alien, they've all done it.
44:51
Does that better. We do get an early reference to
44:53
the first film when Kane, the view of Gaff about Deckard.
44:57
It's good to see Edward James almost again.
44:58
So it does have that aspect, but it works.
45:01
It doesn't feel shoehorned in because it makes sense as part
45:04
of the investigation that he would go and talk to him so.
45:06
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It does all legacy.
45:08
Sequel is necessary. I mean, no, probably not later.
45:11
I didn't need a sequel. But I think the question we
45:13
asked, maybe you shouldn't be do we need this?
45:15
But do you have something worth saying?
45:17
If the answer to that is yes, I think we do, then I'm all for
45:20
legacy sequels. Yeah, I don't have a problem
45:22
with the Legacy sequel over a sequel itself, to be honest.
45:26
I mean, I can take either of them as long as there's passion
45:28
behind it and as long as there's a reason for it to exist,
45:31
similar as what you guys are saying.
45:32
And I think the ones that really work have an emotion and have,
45:35
like Yousef said, a reason to be made.
45:38
There's a fortune in nostalgia. People will go and see anything
45:41
once, oh, I remember Indiana Jones, I'm a sucker for that.
45:45
I'll go and see it and there's another one out tomorrow.
45:47
I'm still going to pay money and go and see it on the big screen
45:49
because there's this money in it.
45:51
And you can see the films that have done that and are being
45:54
made for that reason. The stand out a mile.
45:56
But the ones that have been made through passion because they
45:58
don't care about the money coming in, they stand out a mile
46:00
as well. So the bad ones for me are some
46:02
that just don't need to be made. And then the ones that really
46:05
stand out for me, the ones that really work with the passion
46:07
behind them, are Mad Max Fury, Rd., The.
46:09
Creed. Definitely Creed and one that
46:12
nobody talks about was a legacy sequel and everyone's forgotten
46:15
about It is The Colour of Money, which is a legacy sequel of The
46:18
Hustler. Yes, it is.
46:19
Yes. And I think that's probably,
46:21
that's probably me favorite legacy sequel of all time, if
46:24
I'm honest. Scorsese taking the mantle.
46:26
It's moving the story. It's exactly how it should be
46:29
done. Yeah.
46:30
Well, for his work on Blame No 2049, Denivial Nerve wasn't
46:33
nominated for Best Director of the Oscars.
46:35
The film was nominated for Best Picture, though losing of the
46:38
same film that won Best Director.
46:40
Do you remember what that was? Parasite No.
46:43
It was the shape of water, Diego del Toro.
46:47
Best. Director.
46:47
Yeah. Right.
46:48
Yeah, that really forgettable Oscar winner.
46:51
Yeah, it is. Absolutely.
46:53
Yeah, but for us in creating a sequel to a Stone called Classic
46:56
that respects the original and finds its own voice.
46:59
So I'm impressive work from the Navy on Nerve on Blade Runner
47:01
2049. 100% the cast. Denis Villeneuve assembled an
47:11
eclectic cast for Blade Runner 2049, established stars, rising
47:15
talents and some big supporting players.
47:17
We'll be talking about House and Ford as Deckard, Anna De Almas's
47:20
Joy and Sylvia Hawks's love in a bit.
47:23
Let's start with our lead. Should we?
47:26
So Ryan Gosling plays Officer KKD 6 Dash 3.7 to give him his
47:31
volume. Yeah.
47:33
A Nexus 9 replicant who works as a Blade Runner for the LAPD.
47:36
We follow K's journey from obedient officer to someone who
47:39
discovers he might be special, only to learn he's not, but
47:42
chooses to do the right thing anyway.
47:44
Yeah. Yeah.
47:45
A complex arc for a complex character.
47:47
So I'm handing off to a complex man.
47:50
OK, Matt Howard. Ryan Gosling has right.
47:53
Going to be me. Well, you went for that, though.
47:59
I mean, Goslin, I mean, he's just consistently great anyway,
48:02
So no surprise that he's great here.
48:03
And he's always had that ability to go from something where he's
48:07
really funny and he's really charming, like the nice guys are
48:09
Barbie. But then he can go really
48:11
buttoned up and quiet and intense like Drive.
48:14
But he's really happy with very little dialogue.
48:17
And this definitely fits that kind of Goslin performance.
48:21
Kate thinks he knows who he is and who he is says very little.
48:24
He'll be his commands and he goes home at the end of the day
48:26
and he knows his place in society.
48:28
But then he goes through that slow awakening of realizing
48:31
there's more to him and his back story and there's more to this
48:34
world, which is such a classic character arc.
48:36
And Gosselin plays it really, really well.
48:38
And he's completely on board with keeping that movie star
48:41
charisma that he has. The way, for the most part, it's
48:44
a very internalized performance. I mean, we've said it, but he
48:47
looks amazing in that leather course.
48:50
He just fits into the world and he fits into the vibe of the
48:53
film. I don't think it would be in the
48:55
conversation for my favorite Gosling performance, but he's
48:58
great all the same. Yes.
49:00
I mean, I think he's a really good protagonist and he has a
49:03
really interesting arc at the start.
49:05
He's exactly what Wallace and the LAPD want them to be, a
49:08
Blade Runner who passes baseline tests, followers orders, goes
49:11
into his holographic girlfriend. He's accepted that he's less
49:14
than human, but then comes a wooden horse key to scores.
49:17
His memories might be real and he basically turns into like
49:20
Pinocchio. So it's interesting because he
49:25
wants it. He wants to have been born a
49:27
special, which is a pretty fundamental, like, human
49:29
impulse. We all want to believe that we
49:31
matter to some extent, surely. Yeah.
49:33
So you go from thinking that he's nobody to believing he's a
49:35
miracle child to discovering he's this in that replicant
49:38
after all. And what's great is that it's
49:40
that journey that changes him. At the end.
49:43
He makes the choice to reunite decor with his daughter instead
49:46
of following orders or joining the resistance.
49:48
So what makes Case special isn't that he was born Italy chooses,
49:52
and he makes the most human choice that you can.
49:54
He chooses to help people. Well, actually, that might not
49:57
be the most human choice, but I think we all wish it was.
50:00
It is probably more human than human, and that's what he
50:02
represents for me. They're telling us that humanity
50:05
isn't about where you come from. It's about empathy and choosing
50:08
to do what's right. And that's what he does.
50:11
It sets up this chosen for narrative and then flips on his
50:14
head for the better. I think it's really fantastic
50:16
writing, and I think it's pretty classic Ryan Gosling, like
50:20
you're saying. Matt, ever since Drive, one of
50:21
the things he's been known for is playing like the silent
50:24
protagonist, where he does a lot without many words, and that's
50:27
what he does with care. Even at the start, when he's
50:29
pretty emotionless, there's always something going on behind
50:32
his eyes, like when he sees to Joshie.
50:34
I've never retired something that was born.
50:36
There's just enough there to make you kind of lean in a bit,
50:39
I think. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
50:40
And he carries the film. He's in almost every scene.
50:42
And when you're following a Pete Harrison Ford, which he is, and
50:45
you kind of don't miss Ford too much, that tells you how good
50:48
this is. Great character, great arc and I
50:51
think great from Gosling as well.
50:53
Yeah, I think he's a complete package.
50:55
To be fair. He brings the physicality to the
50:57
role. It's just absolutely complete.
50:58
It's just everything that you need.
51:01
And he's like you guys have said.
51:02
I mean, he's always been very solid, but to me, a very robotic
51:05
actor. But like, in a good way.
51:07
Yeah. He's not wooden.
51:08
He's just like, he's malleable, but he can be like even when
51:12
he's dancing in La La Land, he looks precise.
51:14
You know what I mean? He's got this kind of precision
51:16
to his performance where you know that he, he thinks about
51:18
it, he cares about it and every line is just being thought
51:21
about. I mean, doing that baseline test
51:24
and doing the dropping in and dropping in basically means to
51:26
learn the lines. So you don't, you're not reading
51:28
the lines, you'd read the emotion of the line.
51:31
So to do that over, like, cells, cells, interlinked cells, and
51:35
just to read it back and know what's happening and then
51:37
deliver that to that level, you can tell it's just this depth
51:40
that everybody's involved. To be fair, everyone kind of
51:43
brings it. But I think Gosson leads the
51:45
way. It's the believability of this.
51:47
Like, you believe this guy. And he really had me doubting.
51:50
Even after everything we've seen in the opening, even after we've
51:53
seen him asleep in the spinner, waking up crashing through a
51:55
wall, doing a baseline test, we know that he's got no soul.
51:59
He's lieutenants taught him that.
52:00
I'm still kind of doubting whether it's a replicant or not
52:03
halfway through this film. Yeah.
52:05
Same as he is. Like, I'm like, is there a
52:07
chance that everyone else is kind of taking him for a ride
52:09
because he plays it? So can Vincently so well, but so
52:13
quietly? I think he's just one of the
52:14
best actors of his generation and this really shows it.
52:17
I would agree. I think he's great.
52:18
Yeah, and Gosling was the only person ever really considered to
52:21
play a care. Hampton Fancher said he was
52:23
thinking of Gosling in the lead when he was developing the
52:26
story. Yeah.
52:27
When he told Ridley Scott that was who he wanted to cast, Scott
52:30
said he got it. But when he was off the pot,
52:32
Gosling accepted straight away. He said he looked the script,
52:34
but the chance work of feeling from Roger Deakins is 1 made it
52:37
for him. Yeah.
52:38
Yeah, apparently when Harrison Ford was told he was thinking of
52:40
Gosling, he was like, yeah, great.
52:43
And then when Villeneuve came and he just went Ryan Gosling,
52:45
yeah, great choice. It does seem like a bit of a no
52:48
brainer but his character. Yeah.
52:50
Yeah, yeah, definitely. So it's the first time that
52:53
Gosling have played the lead in a big blockbuster film, So he's
52:55
a bit nervous, but we only have calmed him down.
52:58
And then Goslin said if you made a list of all the
53:00
characteristics you hope for in a director and send it to Santa
53:03
Claus, they'd be done evil. You've sitting under the tree
53:05
Christmas morning, maybe a little drunk on eggnog, but he'd
53:08
be there. I love that.
53:11
Yeah, it was his first blockbuster, and he said he was
53:13
overwhelmed by the scale of the set at first because he wasn't
53:16
used to it. Yeah, I mean, not that you can
53:18
tell it or think. Seems right at home.
53:19
Exactly. And Lenny James, who plays Mr.
53:22
Cotton, the orphanage manager, he said the cast had to follow
53:25
really strict real estate in production.
53:27
When they were offered the part they had to accept within 36
53:29
hours and the scripts were incomplete that mostly just get
53:32
the pages for scenes and their character was involved in right.
53:35
Yeah, they got digital copies of the scripts and they get deleted
53:38
immediately after they finished filming their scenes, so wow, no
53:41
leaks on this one here. Right.
53:43
Wow. No Oscar nominations for Ryan
53:44
Gosling for his performances. Gabe, when of that year it was
53:47
Gary Oldman for Darkest Hour. Oh yeah.
53:50
But for us, carrying a huge blockbuster, bringing humanity
53:52
to a replicant and holding his own against Harrison Ford,
53:56
Pretty good stuff from Gosling. Oh yeah, top draw.
54:01
The second male lead is Harrison Ford, returning as Rick Deckard
54:05
30 years after the events of the first film.
54:07
We find Deckard hiding with his dog in the ruins of Las Vegas,
54:11
right back into the story. He's captured by Love, rescued
54:14
by Kay and Ben, reunited with the real Miracle Child, his long
54:18
lost daughter. Yeah, just when he thought he
54:20
was out, they pulled him back in Westie.
54:22
Absolutely. Deckard and Harrison Ford.
54:24
So how does he handle the return?
54:25
I mean, he's always in for me. Let's be honest.
54:28
He's never heard the equation. He's always, he's always got a
54:31
seat at the table. It's another classic turn from
54:33
Ford, but the great thing is this film does not depend or
54:36
rely on him whatsoever. He is just there and it really
54:39
works. There's a great, great subtle
54:42
into this, a real subtle anger that he plays and he portrays it
54:45
really well. There's no ego here to this
54:47
performance whatsoever. It's just young Gossen and they
54:50
share it. They share the space and they
54:51
really work off each other and it works really well.
54:54
What I love about this performance is that he's not
54:57
necessarily trying to do the physical role.
54:59
You can see that he cannot really do it and he's playing
55:01
into that because we know he can.
55:03
They look probably a little bit better than he's doing, but he's
55:05
acting tired. He's acting like he's had
55:07
enough. And then that's adding to the
55:09
question, is this guy a replicant or isn't he?
55:11
And he's just adding to the pot. All these different ingredients
55:14
that keep coming up keep coming up.
55:15
But for me, it's just the really emotional ending beats that he
55:19
has. He's got these real emotional
55:20
moments when he's talking to Wallace and says our eyes were
55:23
green. Broke my heart in the cinema.
55:25
That's great. I was like, oh, that's
55:27
incredible, and it's from Harrison Ford.
55:29
It was just such a good punch and beautifully delivered.
55:32
But one of the things I've noticed watching it yet again,
55:34
so it must be like fifth, maybe sixth time I've seen it doing it
55:37
again. For this is when they're
55:38
drinking in the office of the Whiskey, right?
55:40
And they're sitting at the bar and you've got Ker, who puts his
55:42
full hand around the glass, drinks it and puts it down.
55:45
But then it cuts back to Ford and he's on his right hand and
55:47
he's got his two fingers and they're just underneath the
55:50
Tumblr, just supporting it as if he kind of gripped it properly.
55:53
And then when he's holding the binoculars, he's got the same 2
55:56
fingers aren't gripping the binoculars.
55:58
Now if you go back to the original Blade Runner, but he
56:00
breaks them two fingers on his right hand.
56:02
Oh. Yeah.
56:03
Yeah. Yeah, so he kind of used them
56:05
properly in this. He kind of grabbed the glass or
56:06
the binoculars. So it's really sort of bits in
56:09
the performance where he's just, he's bringing something else to
56:11
it and everyone's like he's just wearing a grey T-shirt.
56:14
Yeah, watch it 6 times and they'll say what he's bringing
56:15
to it. It's it's Harrison Ford and it's
56:18
absolutely fantastic stuff. I agree.
56:20
I mean, we talked about legacy sequels before and bringing back
56:23
classic characters, and I think the way they handle Deckard here
56:26
might be one of the gold standards.
56:28
When you see people returning big roles in big series years
56:31
later, I sometimes don't feel like I'm even watching the same
56:34
character. Not here at all.
56:35
This is totally Deckard. What's good is I've aged him.
56:38
Like realistically, this isn't the Deckard who was hunting
56:41
replicants. This guy's been in hiding.
56:43
You've lost Rachel, you've lost his child.
56:46
And I feed all of it. I'm by that.
56:48
He's been sitting in a Vegas casino drinking and listening to
56:50
Elvis for 30 years. I mean, there's worse ways to
56:53
live in exile to. Be there.
56:54
Oh, absolutely. GB is it?
56:55
No. Millions of bottles of whiskey?
56:59
Fine. And I think Ford plays it really
57:02
well. He could have easily formed this
57:04
in. He couldn't.
57:05
He cares about it, doesn't he? He really does.
57:07
He can tell. He.
57:08
Can tell that he does. Yeah.
57:09
A sense of desperation there. I mentioned some more specifics
57:12
when we get to the end, but an excellent turn from Ford for me.
57:15
Proper movie star, obviously, and this is his best in years, I
57:18
reckon. Yeah.
57:20
Yeah, I think there's an irony that out of all three classic
57:23
characters that Ford has revisited, it's the one where he
57:26
had the most miserable experience first time around,
57:29
that he gets the most interesting material with.
57:31
I mean, there was nothing left to do within.
57:33
The only thing left to do with Solo was to get killed, which
57:35
he'd always wanted anyway. But there's somewhere else to go
57:38
with deck art, you know? What was his future like with
57:41
Rachel? We see ultimately was a tragic
57:43
1, and he had to sacrifice a lot to keep their daughter safe.
57:46
And we see the effects of that. We see the effect of the years
57:50
and years of isolation and loneliness that he's put himself
57:53
into, and we see what that's Dundrum.
57:55
And to bring in his couch rock about finding some kind of
57:59
redemption with his daughter. Just when we think the whole
58:01
film is about key finding out who he is, which actually tends
58:05
to be mostly relevant, that turn works really well and I think
58:08
Ford is just so engaged with this material and completely
58:12
responds to it. You can do it, isn't he?
58:13
You can tell that he's. Yeah, hugely.
58:15
Yeah, and when Ridley Scott first pitched the idea to
58:17
Harrison Ford about a Blade run a sequel, he said the talked at
58:20
length about what the role would be until they read on storyline.
58:23
And then when he was happy with it, that's when Ford agreed to
58:25
come back as Deckard. Nice.
58:27
I want to be in it as little as possible, yeah.
58:30
Whiskey. Exile Elvis.
58:33
And I mean, well, this is how they do a legacy character, I
58:38
think. The best example that I've seen
58:39
and all the recent ones anyway. Yeah, yeah.
58:42
The final scene Harrison Ford filmed was his final scene in
58:45
the film, and apparently he enjoys his time on set so much
58:48
that he got emotional when they're finished and some crew
58:50
members began to cry. I mean, it's an emotional scene
58:52
anyway. Yeah, You know, just a hand on
58:54
the glass. So I can imagine he's just.
58:56
I would. That's been wonderful to say.
58:57
Wonderful for the crew as well. I think from the Ford as well.
58:59
He hated the first making of Blade Runner.
59:01
Yeah, but I think he sat in the theatre and watched it and just
59:04
went, oh fucking hell, Ridley Scott's right.
59:09
I need to make it up to him now, so I'll do that again when that
59:12
ask us to. And he's waited this long, so
59:14
he's really made it up to him, I think.
59:15
He has, yeah. He's only grumpy when it comes
59:17
to Star Wars, I think. Anything else, he loves it.
59:19
Now he is, yeah. No major award recognition for
59:23
Harrison Ford either, but for us returning to a famous franchise
59:26
and adding newly as while delivering what came before.
59:30
A good return from Harrison Ford.
59:31
Really necessary, yeah. As well as the two way listers
59:36
in the leads believe in the 2049 has a pretty impressive
59:39
supporting cast as well. We've talked about Jared Letto
59:42
was Neander Wallace on a now going to turn our attention to
59:45
the 2 core female cast members and that all masters Kay's
59:49
holographic companion Joy and Sylvia Hawks as well as his best
59:53
Angel and the film's main antagonist love.
59:56
Yes, two very different kinds of artificial ladies.
1:00:00
How would they do it for you, Matt?
1:00:01
I mean, the thing about the Amos is I'm always a little bit
1:00:05
uncomfortable talking about it because I can't look at this
1:00:07
performance without thinking. John, if you found a genie in a
1:00:10
lamp who only gave you one wish, your wish would be joy.
1:00:15
Absolutely. And a Domas holographic form
1:00:18
cooking you dinner. That's your life.
1:00:21
You know me too well, Matt. Yeah, you know you do.
1:00:23
Well think it's all the way through Megan.
1:00:24
I'd be honest, you sit there with the brownies head like
1:00:27
weird science. You rumble me.
1:00:32
Yeah, I make websites. I bet you do.
1:00:39
Joy though, just such an interesting concept because
1:00:42
there's so much fuss in the film about replicants developing and
1:00:45
procreating. No one seems that bothered about
1:00:47
AI and holograms who've developed to the point where
1:00:50
they can physically interact with people now and see me have
1:00:53
developed their own emotions and their own desires, which I think
1:00:57
is a really interesting thing we've just put in the background
1:00:59
there. I think if I was honest, if I
1:01:01
was to from this film down a bit, it maybe it's a bit long.
1:01:04
I think you could lose some of joy scenes, particularly the
1:01:07
really weird 1. I don't know, Wesley's going to
1:01:09
talk about that, but yeah, I bet you are.
1:01:12
But that's nothing on Damos. I think she's really good in
1:01:15
this. Yeah, she is.
1:01:16
I mean, with Kay being so reserved because he is great at
1:01:19
Joy, being so exuberant and, like, full of life, like a
1:01:23
breath of fresh air. When she's on the screen, she's
1:01:25
really warm. And again, I like how she's
1:01:27
written. She's a hologram programmed to
1:01:29
fulfill people's desire. She tells us that herself.
1:01:31
Everything you want to see, everything you want to hear.
1:01:33
So you buy a Joy. And if you want that, a dance.
1:01:36
She'll be a great dancer. If you want that to read, she'll
1:01:38
be a bookworm. And Kay wants to be special, so
1:01:41
she wants that as well and pushes him down that path.
1:01:44
He's Pinocchio. And she's like Jiminy, crickets
1:01:47
chirping away in his. Yeah, Joy Mini cricket.
1:01:51
Very good. But what's great is that unlike
1:01:53
here with Joy, I think it turns out to be a lie.
1:01:56
She ends up almost being like the femme fatale, a beautiful
1:01:58
woman who turns out to be kind of all wrong.
1:02:01
The moment that the giant hologram Joy calls him Joy.
1:02:04
The end is the bit that's the reveal that it was all kind of
1:02:07
porn of a programming. And it's brutal.
1:02:09
He's got. It Yeah.
1:02:10
I'd rather be called key anywhere much cooler than Joe.
1:02:13
Definitely. Yeah, I'm an armat.
1:02:15
Excellent at reading some much needed life into things and Joey
1:02:18
adding more. Yes, there's some already pretty
1:02:20
complex themes. I think she's a great supporting
1:02:23
character. To make Joyce seem more
1:02:25
artificial, the editor, Joel Walker, experimented by freezing
1:02:28
her image for 9 frames before she responds to a question.
1:02:31
So it looked like her program paused for a split second just
1:02:34
before answering. And Villeneuve wasn't convinced
1:02:37
though and just said I just have a respond normally please.
1:02:39
Yeah, it's a nice idea, but doesn't need it.
1:02:42
I like how the show she's a hologram of the star Winter
1:02:44
changes outfits about five times in a few seconds.
1:02:47
Yeah, which is like, really? Well, and the giant Joy in the
1:02:50
hologram advertisement, that's supposed to be her default
1:02:53
setting. So they're idea as K customized
1:02:55
her voice and appearance. The advertisement version of Joy
1:02:58
was voiced by an assistant editor called Mary Lucas which
1:03:01
and she was meant to be dubbed by Anna de Armas, but Vila just
1:03:04
decided to keep the voice over as.
1:03:06
Is oh nice. Yeah, which again ties in the
1:03:08
idea that Joy isn't real. She was just programming I
1:03:11
guess. Yeah, I'll go into the second
1:03:14
female member of the cast and probably one of the most
1:03:16
important and overlooked of the film.
1:03:18
I think it's still your hoaxes look lovely.
1:03:19
I think should, like I've said before, totally out trains
1:03:22
little for me. It makes them, to be honest,
1:03:25
pretty unnecessary. Yeah.
1:03:27
I think it's a fantastic performance and it's a brilliant
1:03:30
villain. It's almost like a Bond body and
1:03:33
a real troubled character. There's a lot here to her
1:03:36
programming, which is kind of bounces off joy.
1:03:40
It's that kind of counterbalance to that and the fact that she's
1:03:42
dressed in white all the time, the fact that she denies her
1:03:45
name, the fact that she's just got all of these really
1:03:47
brilliant moments and plays the brutality brilliantly without
1:03:53
overplaying it, though, when she goes in and gets Rachel's bones
1:03:56
and kills the scientist. Oh, yeah, yeah.
1:04:00
It's just brutal to bang. He's out and that's all she
1:04:03
needs to do. And she never, ever seems hammy
1:04:05
as a bad guy. I'm excited when she's on the
1:04:07
screen. So I'm thinking something's
1:04:08
going to happen here. Something bad's going to happen
1:04:10
here. You know, when she just takes
1:04:12
Rachel out, Bang, just cold blood.
1:04:14
Does she want to do she not? But just.
1:04:16
It's just a performance from Sylvia.
1:04:17
Sylvia Hawks. I think she's just absolutely
1:04:19
fantastic and disappears into the rule.
1:04:21
I think much like Sean Young did, she just kind of disappears
1:04:24
into this replicant and you just, you can just see her and
1:04:27
she kind of personifies that role.
1:04:28
Wonderful, wonderful bad guy for me and Lease Leto in the wings.
1:04:32
Absolutely amazing. I agree, I like love as well.
1:04:35
She's just kind of a female Terminator basically.
1:04:38
So I mean going on maybe, but I think Sylvia hoax is great.
1:04:42
I love a line delivery when she kills Joshi and she sees to a
1:04:45
your tiny thing in the face of the fabulous knew your only
1:04:47
thought is to kill it. I mean, I imagine The Fabulous
1:04:50
You is not an easy line to deliver, but you don't even
1:04:52
notice. She totally nails it.
1:04:54
And when she scans Joshi to get into the computer and let's her
1:04:57
head just bounce off the desk. I think my main criticism of the
1:05:02
film comes around Love in that if anything, I agree.
1:05:05
Wesley, I think she's underused and the film might have
1:05:07
benefited from her Bay plot and that could have been Love
1:05:10
carrying out her own investigation into the child.
1:05:12
At the same time Cares there's some definite parallels between
1:05:15
Love and care and that they both want to find the child to
1:05:17
further out their own race. That could have been made more
1:05:20
of maybe. Yeah.
1:05:21
Which is excellent. And when she kills Joy by
1:05:23
stomping on the emanator, I really know she's got to go and
1:05:26
get, like, bad dog. That's great.
1:05:29
As well. Brilliant.
1:05:31
So yeah, a bit under. Use for me, but what we do get
1:05:33
is really good. Yeah, yeah, fantastic.
1:05:35
But in the first drafts of the script, Love was named Fraser,
1:05:39
and Nyanda Wallace would call her Love, LOVE as a term of
1:05:42
endemment and this change to Love LUV becoming her name.
1:05:46
Like aura, love and then I guess.
1:05:49
Love and joy. Is the idea it's like inside out
1:05:52
characters? Yeah, yeah.
1:05:54
Imagine these two and inside, I mean, it's punching sadness in
1:06:00
the back of the head. Sylvia Hogg said that when she
1:06:05
was describing Love's back story villain, you have said that she
1:06:07
was made 12 years ago. So Hawks had this idea of making
1:06:11
a behave like an immature and petulant 12 year old.
1:06:13
That explains the tantrums and I guess.
1:06:15
Yeah. And when she pushes Josh's hand
1:06:17
into the glass, that's horrible. Yeah.
1:06:20
Yeah. So that's our main cast.
1:06:22
Ryan Gosling carrying the film as Kate Harrison Ford bringing
1:06:25
it all back home as Deckard, and the top supporting work from
1:06:28
Armas and Sylvia Hawks. Whether human, replicant or
1:06:32
hologram, they all bring something to the film.
1:06:35
Absolutely the middle. Heading into the middle, actor
1:06:43
played from the 2049, and Kay's investigation leads him into
1:06:46
darker territory. We're going to be looking at the
1:06:48
scenes where Kay discovers he might be the chosen one when he
1:06:51
visits Dr. Anna Staline. But first, it's a journey to an
1:06:55
orphanage, isn't it? It is.
1:06:57
So, having discovered the Miracle Child's DNA records, he
1:07:00
traces the trio to San Diego's Moral Co Orphanage, building the
1:07:04
ruins of a satellite dish. But he's not alone.
1:07:07
Loves tracking his every move from Wallace Corp K shot down by
1:07:10
scavengers, love bombs the hell out of them, and K discovers
1:07:13
something they've all changed. Understanding of life.
1:07:16
So, Westie, how does this play out for you?
1:07:18
It plays out beautifully for me. I love that moment.
1:07:20
Obviously he's a replicant who has to crash when it rains
1:07:23
because when rain happens, it's going to be a negative turn for
1:07:26
a replicant, isn't it? So let's let's put that in
1:07:27
there, which is great, but I love the way the scam just fire
1:07:30
that thing. It's like really Mad Max and it
1:07:32
slows them down a bit, but then the AMP goes off and everything
1:07:35
shuts down. And more importantly, Joy shuts
1:07:37
down. Joy glitches out, which I find
1:07:39
heartbreaking because you can't just like reaches out and then
1:07:41
disappears and the whole thing crashes down.
1:07:44
But it's when he comes out of the spinner, it's the lightning.
1:07:46
This sequence, it's just so consistent and just so
1:07:49
beautifully done. There's no real direction of
1:07:52
light from anywhere, which just shows you that he's just out in
1:07:54
a wasteland. It's just so flat, but again, so
1:07:57
beautifully done. And here we have an action
1:07:59
sequence, but we have a Denny Villeneuve action sequence.
1:08:02
It's that good. You don't know when there's an
1:08:04
edit, you don't see the cuts at all.
1:08:07
So I've counted this. So from when the first explosion
1:08:10
goes off, there's explosions. By the way, we're talking about
1:08:13
3 big explosions, people blowing up, 7 cuts, that's it.
1:08:18
Then it cuts to love doing her nails looking up, which is
1:08:22
perfect. Our eyes are covered again.
1:08:24
She doesn't have a soul, it's a lack of humanity and nails are
1:08:27
getting done. She doesn't care, they're just
1:08:29
killing people. She's having a great time to be
1:08:30
honest. She's just getting the job done.
1:08:32
Cuts back to Key, another seven cuts.
1:08:35
So we've got an action sequence with explosions and there's only
1:08:38
14 cuts. It's on a shot on a single
1:08:40
camera. It's just so well thought
1:08:43
through, so well refined. We've got stunt work in the
1:08:46
middle of that. We've got people flying over the
1:08:47
camera, we've got people, we've got Key getting fired against
1:08:50
the spinner. None of it's really wide.
1:08:52
Everything's considered in like a mid shot to know exactly who's
1:08:55
going where and what's going to happen.
1:08:56
But it's Villeneuve, just his control over an action sequence.
1:09:00
It's so Nolanesque. And then you know that scene in
1:09:03
Dunkirk where he's just covered and you know exactly how many
1:09:05
explosions are going to hit before the camera cuts.
1:09:07
It's just got that exact kind of vibe to it.
1:09:10
And to be honest, I looked at it and I was kind of like, please
1:09:12
turn this into space under a little bit, but it didn't, which
1:09:15
is a bit of a let. Down.
1:09:17
Imagine. I inside turning up.
1:09:22
Yeah, perfect opportunity you could have had that, you know,
1:09:24
the pirate ship on the real track over the top.
1:09:26
That would have been great, but yeah, it's just so, so well
1:09:29
thought through and it would have been so distracting from
1:09:32
the story to have a massive set piece in here with Kay behind
1:09:34
the spinner and shooting all the scandals, the falling down and
1:09:37
the spinning out all over the place.
1:09:38
Doesn't need it. Explosions 7 cuts, Back to love
1:09:41
humanity story, 7 cuts. Kay wakes up on with the story.
1:09:44
Perfect. I mean those wide shots showing
1:09:47
the leaving LA going to the orphanage in the spinner
1:09:50
stunning again. So San Diego is now like a
1:09:52
desolate wasteland basically the only was using every inch of
1:09:55
like the post apocalypse textbook.
1:09:57
You're right Wesley, this is Mad Max style dystopian future.
1:10:00
All space under if you prefer. Thank you.
1:10:04
So the visuals are great and much is the cinematography, but
1:10:06
there's some great visual ideas. I love that bit as well after
1:10:09
the crash where joy's like blinking in and out over.
1:10:12
Here. She's checking that he's all
1:10:13
right, but then she vanishes to reveal the scavengers behind
1:10:16
her. Great.
1:10:17
And I know I mentioned Foley Towers way too much.
1:10:21
I can't believe he stood it. You haven't got it in Blade
1:10:23
Runner 2049. You cannot have.
1:10:25
With another Armas Cuban accent, she reminds me of Manuel, the
1:10:28
way she's like over over again. I learned it from a book.
1:10:38
I can speak English. But hammer, hammer, hammer
1:10:41
sandwich. Well, yeah, it's the visuals all
1:10:45
together and using imagery to develop a world.
1:10:47
That's something you first played when it does amazingly
1:10:49
well. And I think the sequence does
1:10:50
the same thing. It's great you've.
1:10:53
Got folly towers in there every. Time.
1:10:55
Every time. Yeah, and after this we go into
1:10:58
the orphanage itself. I think Lenny James is great
1:11:01
here. Yeah, yeah.
1:11:03
Like if you US audience, he might not know him, he's mainly
1:11:06
British TV, but he's always excellent whatever he's in and
1:11:09
he's really good he's. In The Walking Dead as well.
1:11:11
I think he's pretty. Big, that's true, yes.
1:11:12
He was in The Walking Dead for a few series, wasn't he?
1:11:15
This scene I think breaks a lot of people.
1:11:17
You either end at this point or this is where you're.
1:11:19
This isn't for me because it gets so drawn out.
1:11:22
It slows down so much because the tension if K finds in the
1:11:26
book with the pages torn out, that agonizingly slow walk to
1:11:30
the furnace to find the horse. So it's very sore.
1:11:33
But it's so compelling and a lot of clues are being drawn
1:11:36
together. And I think the biggest clue
1:11:37
though, and you know, do correct me if I've got this wrong, but
1:11:40
in the orphanage, all the boys have shaved heads.
1:11:43
Yes. Whereas in case implanted memory
1:11:46
where he thinks he's being chased by the other boys, he has
1:11:49
a full head of vests. That's not actually a young boy.
1:11:52
That's a young Anna. Yeah, we.
1:11:54
Discovered later and in is playing on the fact that you
1:11:57
know, she looks slightly androgynous.
1:11:59
She's gender neutral, just kind of rat really to disguise that
1:12:03
fact. Now I'm not going to claim, you
1:12:05
know, I'll discover that in the first watcher was only probably
1:12:08
like 5th or 6th. It was like, Oh my God, that's
1:12:10
Anna. That's not clear, but that's the
1:12:12
kind of clue that I love like discovering on future like re
1:12:15
watches. Yeah, it's just not necessary.
1:12:17
It's. Not.
1:12:18
Necessary. Just.
1:12:19
Extra. It's extra, bit extra, yeah.
1:12:21
Yeah, and you would never notice the first time round.
1:12:23
It's always definitely, didn't I?
1:12:25
Noticed it first time round of. Course you didn't.
1:12:27
Yeah, no, of course I didn't shut up.
1:12:30
And surely the guy who played by Lady James who leaves the
1:12:32
orphans is inspired to some extent by Fagin from Oliver.
1:12:36
He's. Got Oh, he's very Oliver.
1:12:37
Yeah, yeah. It really is all these stuffy
1:12:39
kids doing his bidding. I'm waiting for him to burst
1:12:41
into song or something. He's called Mr. Cotton as well,
1:12:44
which is a pretty defensive sounding name.
1:12:46
It is, yes. Yeah, yeah.
1:12:48
But again, this is a proper investigation film, and we'll
1:12:50
see more of it. Yeah.
1:12:51
Kay finds record that shows two children with identical DNA on
1:12:54
the wooden horse hidden where he remembers hiding it.
1:12:57
And the way it got him plays that moment.
1:12:58
It's great. No word what you get the find
1:13:01
that piece together in his head what's going on always feel that
1:13:03
he's like holy moly. I mean he doesn't say it
1:13:06
thankfully worst line ever. But again, the production design
1:13:14
of the orphanage. How good is that top class?
1:13:17
Amazing. A great place to take us on D2
1:13:19
or two. Yeah, and the wastelands around
1:13:21
the orphanage? They were filmed with a
1:13:23
combination of miniature models, a custom built set and green
1:13:26
screen by Frame Store and Rodeo FX did the orphanage itself.
1:13:30
Again, the filming was stood in Budapest, with many of the sets
1:13:33
only a minute's walk from one another.
1:13:35
It looks great. It's expertly doing the way the
1:13:37
weave these like different practical effects and digital
1:13:39
effects together. It's like Christopher Nolan
1:13:41
level. Yeah, the original Blade Runner
1:13:44
was Co written by David Webb Peoples, and there's a bit of a
1:13:47
nod to him in this sequence. Peoples also wrote Soldier in
1:13:50
1998 and said that in his mind, the film was set in the Blade
1:13:55
Runner universe. No one else's mind just did.
1:13:58
Stone, Kurt Russell, if we can remember that one.
1:14:00
The design of the big garbage dump as we see here, almost
1:14:03
identical to the ones we see in Soldier.
1:14:06
Yeah, Kurt Russell is the redeeming feature, I think.
1:14:09
I mean, people just like, I recognize them.
1:14:12
And then Villeneuve was like, Oh yeah, we're just found about the
1:14:14
back. No one else has used them since
1:14:17
98. So yeah, Blade Russell should
1:14:20
have called it. Blade, Russell.
1:14:23
But those big dumper things as well, those big dumper things as
1:14:28
well, the design and the way they're framed in the shot, it
1:14:30
really reminded me of June, which we'll never, obviously.
1:14:33
Went Oh yeah. So that's key of the orphanage.
1:14:35
Missile strikes, childhood memories and more impossible
1:14:38
discoveries. He's starting to believe he
1:14:40
might be the miracle child. Should we see if he's right?
1:14:43
Let's see if he's right. From there, Kay's investigation
1:14:48
leads him to Stelline Laboratories and Dr. Anna
1:14:51
Stelline, the replicant memory maker played by Carla Jury, and
1:14:54
what he discovers about confirming suspicions his
1:14:57
memories are real. Around the same time, Kate takes
1:14:59
Joy off grade with an emanator and in a scene that pushes all
1:15:03
kinds of boundaries, she arranges a get together with
1:15:05
replicant prostitute Mariette, played by Mackenzie Davis.
1:15:09
Indeed, a get get together. Lovely.
1:15:13
Are you taking Anna Stelline or the apartment encounter?
1:15:16
I'll go for Stelline because this is another scene that
1:15:19
repairs a lot on repeat viewings because knowing what we know by
1:15:23
the end, that reason she gives have been isolated because the
1:15:26
parents put her in this dorm basically because she has a
1:15:29
compromised immune system. We know that's a lie.
1:15:32
That's not what happened. And I think Called Jury is so
1:15:35
good here. She's got this very light,
1:15:38
ethereal quality to this performance, which I think
1:15:41
Congress so well to like the tension you get in Gosling's
1:15:44
performance and she should be miserable just stuck in this
1:15:47
dorm, but she's making these memories.
1:15:50
She's playing with imagery and sound like this character.
1:15:53
To me, it almost feels like this is the one that V Love most
1:15:56
empathizes with. You get the impression that
1:15:58
like, he'd be all right if that was his existence in a way, just
1:16:01
making like visuals and sound to people.
1:16:04
But this is obviously when you start to get the ambiguity of
1:16:07
this memory that Kia has, her reaction to it, when she sees
1:16:10
it, she clearly recognizes it as her own memory, which will all
1:16:14
eventually tie in with the revelation that she's Deckard's
1:16:17
daughter. So, so many seeds are being
1:16:19
planted here, but they're not hammered home.
1:16:21
And you're also getting the scene, one of my favorite images
1:16:24
of the film, where she's looking through the view Finder and we
1:16:27
know Keir's on the other side, so he's looking at her, but his
1:16:30
reflection is behind her, so it's like he's looking over her
1:16:33
shoulder at the same time. So there's a lot that's packed
1:16:36
in the scene, but it's just played with such a lightness of
1:16:38
touch. It really is.
1:16:40
I mean, the director has to have some level of expertise in,
1:16:43
like, lots of different kinds of creativity, I think, in
1:16:45
overseeing a film. And one of the things I would
1:16:47
look for is how they handle exposition scenes.
1:16:50
Yeah. Moments where, like, the most
1:16:51
important thing is the word being said.
1:16:53
That's kind of the case. Yeah.
1:16:54
Where. And I explained who she is,
1:16:56
which is obviously important later, and how memories work.
1:16:59
And they do it sitting in a big MD room because she's in
1:17:02
quarantine for The challenge we only have has is to make it not
1:17:05
dull. And I don't think it is at all.
1:17:08
Quite the opposite, no? No, definitely not I.
1:17:10
Like how subtle the visuals are. There was like birthday party
1:17:12
memories and holograms around them.
1:17:14
Yeah, great. And.
1:17:16
I agree, Matt. Carla's.
1:17:17
You use Anna. She doesn't have much to do, but
1:17:19
I think she's really good. She's got this real warmth,
1:17:21
like, isolated from the world, but creating connection for
1:17:24
others, like this great lady. Yeah.
1:17:26
And after being reserved for the entire film, how great was it
1:17:29
when Kay and Gosling let loose? When he's like.
1:17:32
God damn it. It's amazing.
1:17:34
I love it. So so good, really powerful.
1:17:37
It's her delivery as well as just crying knowing the truth.
1:17:39
It is. It's fantastic.
1:17:41
Great character, I really remember him.
1:17:42
I agree. I think she's great.
1:17:44
And it's an exposition scene that doesn't really feel like
1:17:46
exposition, which is how it is done well.
1:17:48
But I think yeah. Yeah, it's an introduction
1:17:50
scene. That's actually exposition.
1:17:51
Yeah, and after working with Fela von Sicario, it was
1:17:54
reported that Emily Blunt had been offered a part and played
1:17:56
runner but had to say no, she was pregnant at the time.
1:17:59
It's not been said what the role was, but it must have either
1:18:02
been and Stelline or Love. You could do either, I think,
1:18:04
couldn't you, Emily? Blue.
1:18:06
Easily. Yeah, easily.
1:18:07
Easily. Would have been great as either.
1:18:08
So Carlos, you got the part after auditioning, and
1:18:11
apparently because the script was so secretive, she auditioned
1:18:14
by doing a scene from X Buckner. No nice.
1:18:16
The dance. Question, right?
1:18:17
The dancing one. Yeah, the dancing.
1:18:19
Was it? So leave me with this scene.
1:18:22
Obviously it's the threesome between, you know, the the
1:18:27
prostitute and you've got joy and you've got care and they're
1:18:31
all coming together and you have this incredible moment case
1:18:33
apartment. But I think the visuals and the
1:18:35
idea behind this sequence is absolutely incredible.
1:18:39
This is an episode of Black Mirror in about 8 minutes.
1:18:45
Imagine flash art comes in wolf, this kicks the door down.
1:18:53
That'll be amazing. I'll be up for that.
1:18:55
But not, I mean, it's not even 8 minutes is that, let's just say
1:18:57
like 4 minutes, but just the idea behind it.
1:19:00
So you've got an AI and then you've got a replicant, which is
1:19:03
the step up, and then you've got a human.
1:19:04
So the AI wants to be a replicant.
1:19:06
It wants to be able to go wherever it wants.
1:19:07
The replicant wants to be human. Yeah, everybody can't and it
1:19:10
can't be human. But the human just wants to be
1:19:12
loved and wants connection and can't find that.
1:19:14
So there's all these steps of this kind of need and the three
1:19:18
levels of being that are coming together to try and find some
1:19:22
kind of necessary connection between all three of them.
1:19:25
None of them can find it. Yeah, I don't think they get any
1:19:28
PC. I don't think they get any
1:19:29
pleasure out with this whatsoever.
1:19:31
I think that's the whole point. And I'm so pleased that will you
1:19:34
have played this the way he did, because there's a real subtle
1:19:37
poetry to this, especially when they get both getting undressed.
1:19:40
I mean, when they come together, they have visuals that are just
1:19:42
absolutely breathtaking. I was like, I was just, I was
1:19:46
welling up in the cinema going there.
1:19:47
It's just fucking excellent the way that's coming together.
1:19:50
It's so beautifully done and so kind of tastefully done.
1:19:53
It is, I think it really, it really works on that level that
1:19:56
he doesn't go all the oven on it.
1:19:58
Imagine, I mean, imagine what he would do.
1:20:02
He'd be crashing through walls. All right, I'll tell you that,
1:20:04
bud. But it's it's the whole point.
1:20:08
It's like it's is Joy breaking a program in here?
1:20:10
Is she going, you know, off kilter?
1:20:12
Is she going too far? Is she now in love?
1:20:15
Is Kay a human? Is he not routing it anymore?
1:20:18
It's all of these ideas that I think, well, we are now more
1:20:21
than ourselves. Especially when she's getting
1:20:22
undressed, when they're both getting undressed in that way.
1:20:25
And you get one layer and then the other.
1:20:27
And then it's that slow walk towards Kay.
1:20:29
And then what does it do? It cuts to the Billboard.
1:20:31
And you just have everything you want to hear, everything you
1:20:34
want to see. Enjoy.
1:20:36
Yeah, that's her programming. And that's exactly what she's
1:20:38
done for Kay. Just give him everything he
1:20:40
wants to hear and everything he wants to see.
1:20:43
Let's just say it works on the emotional level as well as it
1:20:45
does as a physical one, and they've actually going to think
1:20:47
they're going to achieve that. And do they?
1:20:49
I don't think they do. Like it says on the Billboard,
1:20:51
it's everything they want to hear, everything they want to
1:20:53
say, but that doesn't make it true.
1:20:55
Yeah, I mean, when I heard they were making a Blade without
1:20:57
sequel, there were a few things I was expecting to say, but a
1:21:00
threesome probably wasn't one of the.
1:21:02
I agree, Wesley. I think it's really like
1:21:04
tastefully done. It's not quite.
1:21:05
Sure, Beautifully done. Yeah, it's like relevant to the
1:21:08
themes of the film. And it's quite sad, really, if
1:21:10
you think about it. It's just this real need and
1:21:12
this desire for something that's never going to satisfy any of
1:21:16
them. Yeah, there was a sign of the
1:21:17
sewers, but I think the effects were kind of joining Joy and
1:21:19
Mariotte together. Oh, that beer in the face is a
1:21:22
line, and it looks like a third person part Mackenzie Davis,
1:21:27
which that's no bad thing, obviously, but also works as a
1:21:30
metaphor for what's happening. Case trying to create something
1:21:33
real out of two people who get called artificial.
1:21:36
But maybe most interesting to me is when Mariette is a joy.
1:21:39
I've been inside of you. Not as much there as you think,
1:21:41
because Mariette seems to look down on joy the same way.
1:21:44
Humans doing replicants a bit. So yeah, exactly.
1:21:46
And replicants behaving like humans.
1:21:49
It's all well shot. And by the way that two women
1:21:51
face in and out of sync, I find it all quite mesmerizing to
1:21:54
watch. I think it's great.
1:21:55
I think it's really it's just visually poetic.
1:21:57
Yeah, it is. And this threesome scene was
1:21:59
shot for real, without any green screen and minimal CGI.
1:22:03
Fiendlerf didn't want them to be perfectly In Sync, so they
1:22:05
filmed Ryan Gosling and Mackenzie Davis 1st and she had
1:22:09
freedom to do what she liked. They then filled her with Anna
1:22:11
de Armas and the effects supervisor John Nelson directed
1:22:15
her from behind the camera. So Joy is close to mimicking
1:22:18
Mariette, but not perfectly annoying.
1:22:20
Yeah, I think they've. Recorded it with four goal poor
1:22:22
cameras in the corners of the room to ensure that every angle
1:22:25
and from that they could like triangulate.
1:22:27
Howard should then look on Roger Dickens camera, the main one
1:22:29
pretty. Clever.
1:22:30
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we made it through the
1:22:33
middle of Blade in the 2049 kids discovered his true identity.
1:22:36
Or he thinks he has joy, is trying to become a real girl.
1:22:40
OK, Thinks she is time to talk about some of the crew behind
1:22:43
the camera I think. Yeah, let's do that.
1:22:49
The crew. As we've been talking about in
1:22:53
EV, and I've worked with a huge crew to bring Blade from our
1:22:56
2049 to life, we're going to be talking about Hans Zimmer and
1:23:00
Benjamin Wallfish, who created the soundtrack, as well as the
1:23:03
stunning visuals from DP Roger Deakins and the effects teams.
1:23:07
But first, let's talk about the screenplay.
1:23:09
Should we? Let's do it.
1:23:11
The credited screen rails on Blade when the 2049 were Hampton
1:23:14
Fancha and Michael Green Fancha Co wrote the original Blade when
1:23:18
I'm 1982 so it was brought back by Ridley Scott and Michael
1:23:21
Green with less experienced but had a notable CV of his own with
1:23:25
credits on Alien, Covenant and Logan.
1:23:28
Right. How did they do with the right
1:23:30
as he had? Oh man.
1:23:31
I find there's this like real tension in the writing because
1:23:35
the original is so much about the atmosphere that the plot
1:23:38
takes a back seat. In this one, it goes right back
1:23:40
into that atmosphere, but it also tries to be more plot
1:23:44
driven at the same time with this mystery.
1:23:46
And I think just occasionally there's this tension where it
1:23:48
doesn't quite get the balance right.
1:23:50
So the atmosphere is slow and languid, but the plot kind of
1:23:55
wants to get a move on. And it can be a bit hard to
1:23:57
follow at times. And there are moments where I
1:23:59
think, is this being deliberately vague or did I miss
1:24:02
something? You know, why does K have the
1:24:04
horse memory? Is that just a huge coincidence?
1:24:07
Is it there on purpose? Is it just left for you to make
1:24:09
your own mind open? Which case, fine, But it's
1:24:11
something that just stands out a little bit.
1:24:13
And I think this is the occasional plot hole.
1:24:15
Stands out like love not once, but twice.
1:24:18
To see him in these thoughts in the police headquarters and
1:24:21
straight up brutally murder someone and gets out again with
1:24:24
no problem, which, again, because there's so much to take
1:24:26
in, those things don't hit you at first, but when you come
1:24:29
back, you think, oh, hang on, that doesn't quite hang
1:24:31
together. Yeah.
1:24:32
What it wants to talk about what it what it means to be human.
1:24:35
What do memories mean? What's it mean to being?
1:24:37
That's fantastic, all that's great.
1:24:39
So how it talks about it though, where I think it just chained
1:24:42
itself to this plot where afterwards you go hang on a
1:24:44
minute. The oddest least wants me that
1:24:47
it doesn't quite tell. So it's really good, but only up
1:24:50
until a certain point with the plot where it just gets a little
1:24:53
wobbly at times. I agree with you, I think when I
1:24:55
first saw the film, like I said, I was pleasantly surprised with
1:24:58
the writing because like the first one, it explores pretty
1:25:00
deep themes around existentialism and what it means
1:25:03
to be human like you're saying. Where was a little disappointed
1:25:06
though was that I thought when exploring the same themes as the
1:25:08
first film. As I've watched it more though,
1:25:10
I couldn't appreciate it more because I think it does what the
1:25:12
first film does but does spin it a bit and comes in from a
1:25:15
different angle. I said before in the first film
1:25:18
asks what makes us human and this as does being special make
1:25:22
you human and the answer through key is no.
1:25:24
It's the choices you make that make you a good human.
1:25:27
I like the subversion of the Chosen 1 narrative.
1:25:29
We think he is the chosen 1, he thinks he's the chosen one and
1:25:32
then he's kind of not. I could have been deflating, but
1:25:35
here it's the point. K becomes special, not through
1:25:38
birth or through the choices that he makes.
1:25:40
And there's a couple of things I've seen in the film get
1:25:42
criticized for in the writing. One is being too slow.
1:25:45
I don't mind the piercing, but I get the criticism.
1:25:48
What doesn't help, like I mentioned, is there's no B plus.
1:25:51
It's all K. And I think it might have
1:25:52
benefited from seeing more of 1 loves up to all the replica
1:25:55
resistance. We'll see in the end.
1:25:57
Something they couldn't wait to the ties in.
1:25:59
Yeah, but another criticism I've seen that I don't agree with as
1:26:02
people saying. So we still don't know if Decor
1:26:05
is a replicant or a human, then what's the point?
1:26:07
But not revealing that is the right choice for me.
1:26:10
Yeah, it's one of those things where the question is way more
1:26:13
interesting than the answer could ever be.
1:26:15
Not revealing that is the point. Exactly.
1:26:18
We don't know that is the point, because we can't tell the
1:26:20
difference between human replicants.
1:26:22
How come we see a bit of difference?
1:26:23
Exactly. So on the whole, I think this is
1:26:25
how you write a sequel to a classic.
1:26:27
You don't try to recreate it. I'll go for a lot to nostalgia.
1:26:29
You continue the discussion in a way that's interesting with some
1:26:33
new ideas. Ideally, that's what this does.
1:26:36
It could have been more going on plot wives maybe, but I think
1:26:38
the hardest bit exploring the themes, I think it does that
1:26:41
really well. Yeah, I think bringing the whole
1:26:43
world back to life, like you said, is the hardest thing to
1:26:47
do. And Hampton Fancher wrote the
1:26:48
original, but I think he does a really good job of the world
1:26:51
building again, but the evolution of that world and the
1:26:54
evolution isn't positive, which, again, could have been a massive
1:26:57
downer and they could have played on that, but they don't
1:26:59
really. Again, it's the human elements
1:27:01
of it, the push through, and there's elements to the puzzle
1:27:03
that are confusing. But then again, it's supposed to
1:27:06
be you're not supposed to know what's going on.
1:27:08
You're supposed to be kind of pulled from pillar to post a
1:27:10
little bit, and you're supposed to be in the same shoes as Ki,
1:27:13
guess. And there's this real ambiguity
1:27:15
and there's this real mystery that still exists in the Blade
1:27:18
running universe. And that's the whole point is
1:27:20
that you're trying to create humans.
1:27:21
Well, how do you do that? What does it mean to be human?
1:27:24
What does it mean to be real? And I think that's what's really
1:27:27
strong in the right and that they didn't ham that up or
1:27:29
overplay that. They found another way to tell a
1:27:32
very similar story, but it's very, very different in its
1:27:35
approach. Yeah, I think that's excellently
1:27:38
done in the screenplay. And I think a lot of people
1:27:40
reading this would have been very, very excited about it
1:27:43
because it seems very fresh. It seems very new, but it seems
1:27:46
very familiar. And that's what they've done.
1:27:48
They've taken the familiar beats and they've kind of upgraded
1:27:51
them a little bit. Like I said at the top, like
1:27:53
Label has a Nexus 6, and they've just written the Nexus 9.
1:27:56
They've written the next version of that screenplay.
1:27:58
And in the world of cinema, especially since 2017 to now,
1:28:02
you need to have a lot of questions thrown in, but you
1:28:05
need to have a lot of answers thrown in as well.
1:28:07
And when you don't have the answers, it's frustrating.
1:28:09
But what this does is it raises more questions than it does
1:28:12
answers. But the answers you get are
1:28:14
really satisfying. And the questions that you get,
1:28:16
I'm quite happy to leave as questions.
1:28:18
And I think they did all of that in the screenplay and it really
1:28:21
comes together. Yeah, I think it's all doing
1:28:23
intentionally, isn't it? Seems like as well.
1:28:24
Very much so. I feel like when I'm watching
1:28:26
the film, I'm watching the screenplay.
1:28:28
Yeah, yeah. So when Blade Runner 2049
1:28:30
started moving forward, Fancher was invited back to Rider by
1:28:33
Ridley Scott, and Scott said Francis's response when he asked
1:28:36
him was, oh shit, not again. So Fancher ended up writing the
1:28:40
story as a 110 page novella, and that was then handed to Michael
1:28:44
Green, who had worked the Scotland Alien Covenant to turn
1:28:47
it into a screenplay. Nice.
1:28:49
Or she's not again for I was thinking it first as well.
1:28:51
Yeah, exactly. Thanks for everyone was
1:28:53
thinking. Yeah.
1:28:54
Michael Green said the fun to the original draft was called
1:28:57
Acid Zoo and the Deckard died at the end, so that was swiftly
1:29:00
changed, I imagine. So Speaking of crazy titles,
1:29:03
let's see if there's any others. So the other titles were
1:29:05
considered as well. One working title was Queensboro
1:29:08
after the bridge that Andrew Kosovo had across when he met up
1:29:11
with Fancha to keep it secret. The production title was Triboro
1:29:15
after another bridge, the love bridges.
1:29:17
These guys like just the suggestion for the actual title
1:29:23
was Android's Dream, and the one that came closest to being used
1:29:27
was Blade Runner. Time to live.
1:29:29
Rise. Yeah, Roy Banney's final words
1:29:31
are time to die in the first one on there.
1:29:33
A little bit on the nose maybe? Maybe it sounds a bit more like
1:29:36
a computer game. It does.
1:29:38
It really does. Yeah.
1:29:39
Label on 2049. Not massively original, but it
1:29:41
works for what it does. Oh yeah, I like it.
1:29:44
Like it's really good. And the new characters were
1:29:46
given names to tie into the themes as well.
1:29:48
So Nyander Wallace's name comes from Neanderthal species of
1:29:52
humans that lived alongside Homo sapiens for dying out about
1:29:55
40,000 years ago. Right.
1:29:57
Well, tying into replicants living alongside Homo sapiens in
1:30:00
the films, I guess. Which nice idea.
1:30:03
Yeah. And then the name Anasteline,
1:30:05
that's similar to Anastelin, which is a peptide studied for
1:30:09
its anti cancer properties. Although there's no evidence in
1:30:12
the film this was intentional. Right.
1:30:13
Seems like a bit of a coincidence though.
1:30:15
If not, yeah, I think. Yeah, I guess so, yeah.
1:30:17
We mentioned Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov earlier as
1:30:21
being part of the baseline test if you remember, and we see it
1:30:24
in the film as well. Yeah, we do, yeah.
1:30:26
Kay's reading it in his apartment, and Joy picks it up
1:30:28
and makes it very obvious watches hold nothing.
1:30:31
It really does. Yeah, Navika also wrote Lolita,
1:30:34
unless you'd be reading that. Let's leave that there.
1:30:40
Imagine if Kubrick did Pale Fire.
1:30:44
And when Kane Joy go on the roof of Kay's apartment is a pretty
1:30:47
big sign seeing Mobius 21. Then there's gas, now added as a
1:30:51
reference to the artist Mobius, whose illustration to the
1:30:53
influence the look of the original.
1:30:55
Yeah, that's right. OK.
1:30:58
They do like a reference in this film.
1:30:59
Nice. Before we finish on the right as
1:31:01
we have our next ATR MP, one question.
1:31:04
It's on the themes of the film and comes from Gareth Bin Moore.
1:31:07
Hello, Gareth. Hello, Gareth.
1:31:09
So, Gareth asks, do you think Blade Runner 2049 ultimately
1:31:12
argues that humanity is defined by our memories or choices or
1:31:16
something else entirely? And how does that compare to the
1:31:19
message of the original film? Question from Gareth.
1:31:23
Yeah, it's a deep one. What do you think that?
1:31:26
I think I feel like I need to deliver a 5000 word essay by the
1:31:29
end of the week. What do we define buying this
1:31:33
one? I think it's choices for me
1:31:35
because this film explicitly says that memories can be
1:31:38
created in the one, necessarily be your own, and they can be
1:31:41
manufactured by someone else for their reason like yours.
1:31:44
Whereas people can try and force you to make a choice, but it's
1:31:48
ultimately up to you to make it, which care does at the end.
1:31:50
And maybe humanity is making a choice that's a difficult one as
1:31:54
opposed to an easy one, which again, I think is what care does
1:31:56
at the end. And then compared to the
1:31:58
original 1, I feel like the original 1 asked the question
1:32:01
and this is the one that answers it really.
1:32:03
So the first one does kind of say what does it mean to be
1:32:05
human? And I think this one answers
1:32:07
that. Well, yeah, I think I was kind
1:32:09
of hit on what makes this work from a writing point of view
1:32:11
that we're talking about. It develops the questions.
1:32:14
The original, your first blazer when I framed humanity through
1:32:17
like, empathy, an experience where the void camp test
1:32:20
literally measures empathy. Do you feel sorry for a torn
1:32:22
line back? It asks.
1:32:24
That's what makes you human. But 24 United says, yeah, it's
1:32:27
about choice. The baseline test measures
1:32:29
obedience. It's making sure that Kate
1:32:31
doesn't choose. And he goes on to make choices
1:32:34
that define him and the narrative.
1:32:36
What I know is as well is what's not said, and neither film even
1:32:40
suggests that it's biology than they see human.
1:32:43
It's what's inside you, spiritually and psychologically,
1:32:45
they both say, which is interesting.
1:32:47
Yeah, I'm like you just touched on The Edge, and I don't think
1:32:49
it's about anything physical, but for me, it's about free
1:32:52
will. And I think Garrett's question
1:32:54
answers itself, is it defined by our memories or our choices?
1:32:57
But I think our choices then define our memories.
1:33:01
So it's what you choose to do then gives you the memories.
1:33:03
And I think what Batty does at the end of the first one, he
1:33:05
says I've seen things you people wouldn't believe.
1:33:07
And he lists all the things he's seen, but that wasn't his choice
1:33:10
to see them. Somebody else's choice to put
1:33:13
him in that place. And that's not a place he wanted
1:33:15
to be. And that's the whole point of
1:33:16
this is that Kay puts himself in places that he wants to be and
1:33:20
he makes a choice at the end. That deck had died out there.
1:33:22
You drowned out there. Now I'm going to take you to
1:33:24
your daughter. I'm going to, I've made a choice
1:33:26
and that's my memory. And that's his last memory and
1:33:28
what leaves him to ultimately be the hero and to die a human in
1:33:33
his own mind because he made a choice and created his own
1:33:35
memory of that choice. So I think that what that's what
1:33:37
this film is saying is that you have, you have to make choices
1:33:40
in life that then defines your memories and that then defines
1:33:43
who you are. Because your choices can either
1:33:45
be to help somebody or to hurt somebody, or to help yourself or
1:33:48
to hate yourself. So it's about really thinking
1:33:50
about what choices you're going to make and making them for the
1:33:52
good of yourself and the good of humanity.
1:33:55
And that way you become human and everybody works together.
1:33:58
That's what care does. Exactly.
1:34:00
Yeah, it all comes together that way, yeah.
1:34:02
Or for their work on Blavery 2049, Hampton Funchi and Michael
1:34:05
Green were not nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay of the
1:34:07
Oscars. Michael Green was nominated for
1:34:09
Logan or lost out to James Ivory for Call Me By Your Name.
1:34:13
Oh, right. Yes, OK.
1:34:15
Yeah. For Rosie, though, in writing a
1:34:16
sequel that explores new ground in a familiar world, some good
1:34:20
science fiction writing who found here in green.
1:34:22
I think it's lovely stuff. Lovely stuff.
1:34:26
Not my words. From the writing, it's on to the
1:34:33
music. And the composers on Blade
1:34:35
Runner 2049 were Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfish.
1:34:39
Zimani's no introduction, legendary composer behind
1:34:42
counters major films. And Benjamin Warfish had
1:34:45
composed for 21 films before this, the most well known,
1:34:48
probably the unique of it in 2017.
1:34:51
Yeah, OK. Yes.
1:34:52
Following on from Vangelis in the first film.
1:34:54
No easy task question. So how did Zimmer and Warfish
1:34:58
do? Pretty well, didn't they?
1:34:59
I mean, they did. All right.
1:35:00
Let's be honest. Yeah.
1:35:03
I've never listened to this in its own right prior to this
1:35:07
podcast. Actually, just now I thought,
1:35:08
well, I need to actually dive into this soundtrack because it
1:35:11
is so intertwined with the visuals.
1:35:14
It is like a tapestry where it's it's like putting threads
1:35:18
through leather and it's just kind of just tied together.
1:35:21
All of it is and it just wraps itself around it where you can't
1:35:24
actually differentiate from what you're seeing to what you're
1:35:27
hearing. It is a beautiful meld of them
1:35:29
both the visuals and this sensory exploration.
1:35:33
And that's what I mean, there's no real themes.
1:35:35
There is just soundscapes and they create these huge
1:35:39
soundscapes, these big booms, these big sound effects that
1:35:42
kind of tie into it. And then you get them nods to
1:35:45
Vangelis, but just in the sound, them synth sounds and they're
1:35:49
all got these sweeping mortars, all sounds like the water that
1:35:52
we get at the end. It all sounds like the the whole
1:35:55
soundtrack is crashing against that seawall.
1:35:57
It's all spinners, it's all in the air.
1:35:59
It's all just this big imposing sense of doom and sense of dread
1:36:04
that's just hanging over the whole place.
1:36:06
And then other times it's the clouds and it's just, you know,
1:36:09
the the actual lack of rays of sunshine.
1:36:13
There's nothing definite punching through.
1:36:14
There's not a definite instrument punching through.
1:36:16
There's not a definite score or a theme or anything you can
1:36:19
cling on to. It is just a really beautiful
1:36:21
mass of soundscape and feel. I mean, there's a track that's
1:36:25
just called Wallace. It's just so you know, Leto
1:36:30
didn't have to do anything. Just play that and have anyone
1:36:32
stand there and you know exactly what that character is.
1:36:35
So I think between the two of them, what Zimmer does is he
1:36:37
brings that real musicianship of Vangelis.
1:36:41
And then what Wallfish does is he just adds this texture.
1:36:44
And I'm so surprised that this was such a big seller.
1:36:46
Like people buying this on vinyl.
1:36:47
I'm not going to stick this on like on a Sunday night and just
1:36:50
let's get that Blade for a 2049 soundtrack on.
1:36:57
It's trying to relax, but it's it really works.
1:36:59
It's fantastic because you get lost in it.
1:37:01
It is because of just these wonderful soundscapes and these
1:37:03
emotions and landscapes that it makes everything about this film
1:37:06
is visual, including this. Yeah, I mean, when we see a
1:37:09
soundtrack where typically mean like an album, all the pieces of
1:37:11
music in a film, you see the name comes from being the track
1:37:15
in the mix which has the sound on it.
1:37:16
And when I think of the score in this film, that's what I think
1:37:19
of. It's a soundtrack.
1:37:21
Is this like crossover between the sound design and the score
1:37:24
with some names? I'm not sure which one which I'm
1:37:25
listening to, whether I'm not sure if it's diegetic or non
1:37:28
diegetic. Yeah, that big kind of booming
1:37:31
foghorn sound that we hear all the way through.
1:37:33
That is classic Zimmer he loves. That yeah, he's done that since
1:37:37
your dot, hasn't he? It's really jarring, though, if
1:37:39
you're listening to this and you're driving and then
1:37:41
Suspicious Minds comes on. What?
1:37:46
Really jarring. But that's to me, that noise is
1:37:49
like the noise of this world and they take a lead from Vangelis
1:37:52
in terms of the future sounding sins.
1:37:53
We had the tears and Ram using a couple of times as well.
1:37:56
Yeah, but do yeah. They do their own thing as well,
1:37:58
which is why you hire Hans Zimmer, isn't it?
1:38:01
And it's got his classic wall of sound kind of approach, which
1:38:04
reflects that brutality. That's the only wonder, I think.
1:38:07
Subtle. He's not really required here.
1:38:09
I mean, I'm not sure I'd call this top tier Hans Zimmer.
1:38:12
Well, it does do what the best film music tends to.
1:38:14
It doesn't just accompany the images, it kind of completes
1:38:17
them I think. Well, you're back in the Blade
1:38:19
Runner universe. You do need to still follow that
1:38:21
Vangelis cue. Don't you really like about
1:38:24
this? Yeah, you do.
1:38:25
You need it. And it is very, very handsome of
1:38:27
that boom and noise which is so patented by now.
1:38:31
You know, it's almost become like a parody of itself in some
1:38:33
other films. But he combining that with the
1:38:36
influence that he does take from Vangelis, You listen to it and
1:38:39
you just think, yeah, there's only one universe would have
1:38:43
this music and it would be Blade Runner.
1:38:45
It's perfectly done. The first composer I had to work
1:38:48
on the film was Johann Johansson, who worked with Vin
1:38:50
Nuvon, Prisoners and Sicario and Arrival before this.
1:38:54
But after he started delivering the first samples film, you've
1:38:56
wasn't massively impressed. He wanted to move closer what
1:38:59
Vangelis had done on the first film, so brought in Hans Zimmer
1:39:02
instead. Well, for your hands and three
1:39:04
films revealed there and then kicked off the biggest one you'd
1:39:06
be got it wouldn't. You bless him, I.
1:39:09
Yeah, and Zimmer was scheduled to go on tour in the middle of
1:39:11
production, so he brought in Benjamin Wolfish as his Co
1:39:14
writer and they'd already worked together on Hidden Figures,
1:39:16
which is where his involvement came from.
1:39:18
Yeah, doing research for this, I realized that you wrote a track
1:39:21
for Zimmer score for Dunkirk as well and all.
1:39:23
Right. Yeah, OK.
1:39:25
Slightly different subject matter, they believe or not, but
1:39:27
it's a huge sound, obviously. Yeah, of course.
1:39:30
Yeah, the loud noise that appears throughout the score
1:39:32
began as a male choir sample that Benjamin Wolfish ran
1:39:36
through a series of electronic filters again and again until it
1:39:39
sounded mechanical. Like human voices made inhuman,
1:39:42
which is kind of the theme in audio so.
1:39:44
That isn't it? Yeah, I love for.
1:39:45
A few years, yeah. Ran it through electronic
1:39:47
builders again and I mean how many times just left it going
1:39:52
overnight by the sounds. Yeah.
1:39:54
And there was some deliberately chosen sound effects as well.
1:39:57
The Wallace Corporation's alert sound is the Prokofiev's 1936
1:40:00
Peter and the Wolf. Yeah, that sounds really
1:40:03
authentic. I love it.
1:40:04
That's the thought. I would do like a little Jingle
1:40:06
when Joy powers on. Yeah, it's great.
1:40:08
That nods to the Russian as well, that Russian theme that
1:40:11
the dogs. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
1:40:12
And the sound designer Mark Mangini said that he took the
1:40:15
sound of the spinners from a bull roarer, which is an
1:40:18
instrument Indigenous Australian cultures would swing above their
1:40:22
heads to make a distinctive sound.
1:40:23
Which is featured quite heavily in Crocodile Dunde 2 if you want
1:40:26
to check that out. Yeah, I think Mark Mangini said
1:40:32
that he uses visual metaphors to find the Sonic metaphors.
1:40:35
That's a good example of it. Like the spinning ball roar for
1:40:38
the spinner vehicle works really well.
1:40:39
It sounds great as well. Yeah.
1:40:41
And feel of like the sound of the spinner, but told Mangini
1:40:44
that it needed to sound old. So Mangini recorded his wife's
1:40:47
Honda in the cockpit of that into the sound of the spinner as
1:40:50
well. Yeah.
1:40:54
And then the manipulated that to give a different versions, like
1:40:56
the spinner flying past camera or the spinner when we're inside
1:40:59
it with case which sounds different.
1:41:01
All worked really well. Yeah, it's amazing.
1:41:03
Alexander Displa won the Oscar that year for Best original
1:41:06
score for The Shape of Water and creating a huge soundscape.
1:41:10
It follows Vangelas while giving Vilnios something new.
1:41:13
We're fans of what Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Walker Studio.
1:41:15
Yeah, absolutely. The more I listen to it, the
1:41:17
better get. From the soundscape to the
1:41:21
images and the director of photography and visual effects
1:41:24
studios, the DP was Roger Deakins.
1:41:27
Yeah, that industry legend. He shot the short swing
1:41:29
Redemption, The Assassination of Jesse James Skyfall, among lots
1:41:32
of others and just were revealed live on Prisoners and Sicario.
1:41:36
Yeah. And the effects team was had a
1:41:37
look by John Nelson and Paul Lambert working with multiple
1:41:40
studios like Frame Stall, What a Workshop, NPC and Double
1:41:44
Negative, among others. So Westie, how does the film
1:41:48
look, Deakins for you? Is it?
1:41:50
I mean. Yeah.
1:41:52
That's it, isn't it? That's it.
1:41:54
Of course, it's just it was the first shot.
1:41:57
I'm done. I'm in 100%.
1:41:58
It's absolutely flawless work. I mean, the just the lighting
1:42:01
design alone is so Deacons, but it's so much more intricate and
1:42:05
so much more well designed. I mean, so if you look at some
1:42:08
of the lighting rigs put on this, it's just incredible.
1:42:10
Just in the Wallace Temple, there's just rows and rows and
1:42:13
rows of LA days just put inside each other and the control each
1:42:16
level of them and they bring the, you know, they bring them
1:42:18
up and down and then control everything that's happening on
1:42:20
the walls. And just, he uses light as a
1:42:22
character in this. It's just incredible.
1:42:25
The light and the shadow all play a part.
1:42:27
It's shot on the Ari Alexa again.
1:42:29
And the amazing thing about this, he always shoots on a
1:42:31
single camera. There's always a single camera
1:42:33
setup. They're not doing explosion
1:42:35
sequences with like 3 or 4 different cameras everywhere to
1:42:37
get different angles. So everything is just so well
1:42:39
considered. And the other thing, the note as
1:42:41
well, for anyone who's really bothered and you know, kind of
1:42:44
listens to what I say on these, this wasn't shot anamorphic,
1:42:46
which the first Blade Runner was, which gives a lot more
1:42:49
depth to the frame. There's a lot more of a
1:42:50
cinematic feel. The book is different.
1:42:53
It's got like it's it's less spherical where this is shot
1:42:55
actually spherical on size Master Primes.
1:42:58
So it gives it more of an architectural photography look.
1:43:00
It's very, very symmetrical and you've got this.
1:43:03
The lines are straight, there's no convergent verticals.
1:43:06
There's nothing at the side of the frame.
1:43:07
Everything is absolutely pinpoint straight and that's
1:43:10
what you needed. And it just works so well for
1:43:12
this film to shoot its spherical.
1:43:13
So it has a fresher feel. It has like an upgraded field in
1:43:16
the cinematography because that was shot on film.
1:43:18
This was shot digitally and you know from the light and design,
1:43:21
even if you look at the Wallace Temple and then look at Vegas,
1:43:24
but then look at the opening on Sappas farm.
1:43:27
Now Sappas Farm, there's two lights and windows and
1:43:29
silhouetted, but the blacks are just as as beautiful.
1:43:32
The light is just as considered. It tells the story just as well
1:43:35
as Vegas does. That's silhouetted, that's
1:43:37
beautiful, but you don't look at 1 scene and go.
1:43:39
That really stands out. Every single shot of this is a
1:43:41
screensaver. Every single element of this
1:43:44
film is is you can pause it and hang out on your wall.
1:43:46
It's a beautiful, beautiful piece of work and taken nothing
1:43:49
away from Greg Fraser. But June wouldn't look half as
1:43:52
good if Deacons hadn't done the work he did on this.
1:43:55
Yeah, I mean, like what we've been saying about lots of
1:43:57
aspects of the filmmaking. Yeah, I think the cinematography
1:44:00
managers a time with the first film by also doing its own
1:44:02
thing. Yeah, the original is really
1:44:04
dark, really rainy. Yeah, there's loads of bright,
1:44:07
striking colours. We get snow.
1:44:09
So it does look different, but still fits somehow.
1:44:12
And visually, I just love it. I mean, where is the original
1:44:15
with lots of cramped interiors and closets?
1:44:17
Probably because of the smaller budget.
1:44:19
Yeah. Deacons opens it right up.
1:44:21
Huge farms, massive wastelands like we talked about.
1:44:24
I mean, it is beyond something to look at.
1:44:26
Every frame is like a painting. And the use of color always
1:44:29
stands out. The neon pink of the Joy Yards
1:44:32
and that outrageous orange Las Vegas that we'll talk about is
1:44:36
incredible. But I think the use color to
1:44:38
tell us where we are emotionally and tell the story.
1:44:42
Ellie is like dog and dingy. And then when we go to Celine
1:44:44
Laboratories, that's more like white, sterile white.
1:44:47
So it's snowing outside, which I think represents Anna's kind of
1:44:50
purity as a miracle child, I'm guessing.
1:44:52
So each environment does have its own kind of visual language.
1:44:54
Yeah. And wouldn't reveal Nerve, who
1:44:56
loves a long take. Deacons create these moments
1:44:59
where I always just kind of want to pause the film and just stare
1:45:01
at it, but it never feels indulgent either.
1:45:04
No, when key is walking away from that tree on fire, I pause
1:45:08
it every time. Yeah, yeah.
1:45:09
Because. That shot is unbelievable, but
1:45:11
it's about 8 seconds long. Yeah.
1:45:13
I would have held that for three days.
1:45:15
Are you getting any spare? Goes up the trees made of
1:45:18
concrete. I would have waited until it
1:45:20
burned away for three days. I'm holding that.
1:45:23
It's just unbelievable. It is a master class in
1:45:26
cinematography. I think.
1:45:27
It is one of the best examples of big scale science looking
1:45:30
cinematography we've ever seen surely?
1:45:33
I mean, I just think sometimes aspects come up in these
1:45:36
podcasts where you almost have to admit defeat and go, there's
1:45:39
nothing that I could say that sheds illumination on this.
1:45:42
Like I've got nothing insightful to say about this because it
1:45:45
speaks for itself on such a level.
1:45:48
Like you don't need to listen to me.
1:45:49
Just go and look at it. Forgot to say, like, everything
1:45:51
you just said, like, So if I'm going to add anything, it just
1:45:55
feels like the amount of challenges.
1:45:57
He said himself that he didn't need to, but he did anyway.
1:46:00
And I'll go back to the interiors of Wallace's temple.
1:46:03
Does it need all those lapping reflections of the water again?
1:46:06
I mean, I have no idea how complex that setup would be.
1:46:10
No, doesn't need it. It looks insanely difficult.
1:46:13
I would definitely not do it. But he does.
1:46:16
And if deacons can do it, let him do it.
1:46:18
So yeah, this is absolutely one of those where you just go.
1:46:20
You know what? The work does all its own
1:46:22
talking here. There is a recurring kind of
1:46:24
visual motif using water as well, because you get the water
1:46:28
in Wallace's offices, like we're saying, you get the sea wall
1:46:31
later on, we get snow at the end.
1:46:34
So there's this kind of developer that goes along, which
1:46:35
is quite clever. Yeah, and Veiler said that after
1:46:39
he accepted the job as director of Blade Runner, he was having
1:46:41
dinner with deacons that same night, and they prepared by
1:46:44
hauling up in a Montreal hotel for a month with the storyboard
1:46:47
artists Sam Hudecki and Daryl Henley to storyboard the entire
1:46:51
film. Wow, he said.
1:46:53
They came up with some visual ideas that were so crazy to that
1:46:55
just have the screenplay rewritten afterwards to
1:46:57
accommodate them all. Wow, he's very big on
1:47:00
storyboarding. It seems like the only other
1:47:02
things. Deacons had a hand in design and
1:47:03
the huge pink version of joy we see towards the end as well.
1:47:07
And that's sharp joy towering A bouquet.
1:47:09
It's ridiculous. It's one of the defining shots
1:47:11
of the film, I think, isn't it? Yeah, it is.
1:47:13
Yeah. And her hair now as well, that
1:47:15
Blues things kind of cut. Apparently that was just some
1:47:17
cheap wig because he didn't have time to get anything else.
1:47:20
But still, he can make it look good.
1:47:21
Yeah, it's unbelievable. Yeah, and I want to talk about
1:47:24
the visual effects because I think the thing I was most
1:47:26
worried about with this sequel was would the capture the feel
1:47:30
of the original or would the updated too much?
1:47:32
Like one of the big problems with the Star Wars prequels is
1:47:35
the technology was so much more advanced that the prequels look
1:47:38
like in the future, not the past of that particular universe,
1:47:42
which I found really difficult to kind of get past.
1:47:45
But here the effects work is so well done because it looks like
1:47:48
Blade Runner, but it does look like it's moved on, but not to
1:47:50
the point where it's unrecognizable.
1:47:52
And it has that tactility. But the first one is where, you
1:47:55
know, I feel I can reach in and I can touch this world like I
1:47:58
did with the 1st. And it does that thing where it
1:48:01
blends the use of CG and model work and miniatures and
1:48:04
practical effects so brilliantly that there's so many shots where
1:48:07
I'll go. I generally can't tell which one
1:48:09
of those disciplines this shot belongs to.
1:48:12
I think that's how you use visual effects.
1:48:14
Definitely. Definitely.
1:48:15
Yeah, you're right. There's miniatures, the scale
1:48:17
models, there's green screen, practical and digital.
1:48:20
The blend is just, like, so well done.
1:48:22
Yeah. And I know the viewers said that
1:48:23
the reason he likes to have some practical effects is because he
1:48:26
thinks it makes it easier for the cast to immerse themselves
1:48:28
in the world. Yeah.
1:48:29
Which makes sense. Yeah.
1:48:30
And that must have with the cinematography as well, having
1:48:33
it all looking on set, pretty much how it's going to look on
1:48:35
film. Most inspire ideas.
1:48:37
Deacons and everybody else. Our mother.
1:48:39
Absolutely, 100%. I mean, there's some amazing
1:48:41
before and after shots. I'm sure we've put it on our
1:48:43
Twitter as well. Yeah, actually on the set and
1:48:46
you can see them before and afters and how little they
1:48:48
actually used and filled in. It's incredible, incredible
1:48:51
work. Well, I say yeah, everything
1:48:52
starts as a real set with real props and then they build around
1:48:55
it with digital like enhancements.
1:48:57
So the farms were a real place with digital ladders.
1:49:00
The orphanage is a real set with a digital background.
1:49:03
Yeah, spin as a real prop vehicle the bills and then add
1:49:06
digital elements to it. Yeah, I mean watching sequences
1:49:09
where the digital is done by the studio who did gravity in frame
1:49:12
store. The miniatures are done by the
1:49:14
team. We did Lord of the Rings.
1:49:15
In went a workshop. The shot by Roger Deakins.
1:49:17
I mean, no one never looks so good.
1:49:19
Yeah. It's like an incredible array of
1:49:21
talents. Definitely 100%.
1:49:23
Another classic Blade Runner visual they brought back from
1:49:25
the original is the neon corporate logos.
1:49:28
They carried it on from the first film as well.
1:49:30
Pan Am and Atari haven't been around properly since the 90s,
1:49:33
but we'll see them both here. I love seeing the Atari logo.
1:49:36
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
1:49:41
Yeah, yeah. I saw an interview with Ryan
1:49:44
Gosling and he said the veal they have told him this is the
1:49:46
world where Apple never existed. So technology focuses on
1:49:49
function rather than aesthetics and how it looks.
1:49:52
Nice Sony logo in there as well. Because they distributed the
1:49:54
film. Didn't.
1:49:54
They Yeah, yeah. Nice little sneaky nod.
1:49:57
For his work on Blame from the 2049 Roger Deakins finally,
1:50:00
after 13 previous nominations, won his highest Oscar for Best
1:50:03
Cinematography. Yeah, about time, Westy.
1:50:06
Absolutely, 100%. And the special effects team won
1:50:09
the Academy Award for best visual Effects, also deserved.
1:50:13
Yeah, definitely, 100%. That's the main crew unbelieving
1:50:15
that 2014. I am Hampton funshine Michael
1:50:18
Green crafting A worthy sequel script, Hans Ziman Benjamin
1:50:21
Warfish creating that epic soundscape.
1:50:23
Orchardigans finally getting his Oscar and effects team is
1:50:27
seamlessly blending practical and digital.
1:50:29
So world class talent delivering pretty much world class work
1:50:33
throughout. It really is a beautiful thing.
1:50:39
The end The final active Blade Runner 2049 sees Villeneuve
1:50:45
bring all the threads together. The climactic and wet
1:50:48
confrontation between K Love and Decade is coming.
1:50:52
But first, Viva Las Vegas, right?
1:50:55
Indeed. So having discovered he might be
1:50:57
the one, he heads to the radiation soaked ruins of Las
1:51:00
Vegas to find decade in the most orange place in the world.
1:51:06
He explores an old casino before coming face to face with the OG
1:51:09
bleed runner himself. We've got Pink Diggins and then
1:51:13
Harrison Ford back-to-back. Yeah, Westie, you're loving it.
1:51:16
Unbelievable. Just, you know, every time I
1:51:18
watch it, Christmas in July, let's be honest, all of these
1:51:22
shots here are just screensavers.
1:51:23
The sound of the sort of sofa board and boom.
1:51:27
It reminds me of all these fallen statues.
1:51:29
It reminds me, you know, the Valley of the Gods from Jason
1:51:31
and the Argonauts where you have all the statues there, but it
1:51:33
feels like they've all fallen. And you get that great one where
1:51:36
there's the left eye of the statues missing and the left
1:51:38
eyes. But you know, you look open to
1:51:40
the left is a replicant, so they've taken that eye away.
1:51:43
That points back to it. And again, some wonderful nods
1:51:45
to the first film. So I'll go through a few of
1:51:47
them. The B Landon on his hand, which
1:51:50
goes back to the original void contest that he does on Rachel.
1:51:53
And he says the wasp Bland's on your arm.
1:51:55
I'd kill it. So he doesn't kill it.
1:51:58
He lets it go. And then he ends up with his
1:52:00
hand absolutely covered in the BS and then walks up.
1:52:03
So he's got that empathy, he's got that plane.
1:52:05
It really works into that because bees are used
1:52:07
classically in German airports to monitor the clean air to see
1:52:11
if there's any radiation. All right.
1:52:13
So obviously put there by deck and to monitor the air outside
1:52:16
to see if you can go outside because the radiation and the
1:52:18
Fallout in Vegas to monitor that.
1:52:21
And then has been there. They've created a colony and
1:52:23
they've all started to work together.
1:52:25
And then the colonies have kind of survived and you've got more
1:52:27
and more colonies to be. So he's set up more of them and
1:52:29
they've thrived and they've survived and they've done it
1:52:32
themselves to show that humans can't actually do that or
1:52:35
replicants can do that. And then we're getting going
1:52:37
through the door, but obviously you've got all of that set up
1:52:39
with the beans, which makes me forget about the visuals a
1:52:41
little bit. And we're going through the door
1:52:42
and then you get that classic Harrison Ford revealed from the
1:52:44
darkness, which is like the Raiders reveal.
1:52:47
It's the hard part of what Deacons did in Skyfall.
1:52:51
It's just got that. And I was like, please let him
1:52:53
come out of the dark holding the gun.
1:52:55
He had them the first film. And I swear to God, I will never
1:52:58
do anything nasty to anyone for the rest of my life.
1:53:01
This is a legacy sequel you had that has the perfect dialogue in
1:53:05
it. I used to do your job.
1:53:07
I was good at it. Yeah, Great.
1:53:09
That back and forth from his and him and Ghost and that little
1:53:11
standoff and then that disappear over the balcony.
1:53:14
It's just. Oh yeah, it's great.
1:53:15
It's just absolutely wonderful from the then on in.
1:53:18
Not cut to Vegas with early warm sound design.
1:53:22
Orange light is one of the most striking visuals I think I've
1:53:24
ever seen in the film and the erriness in the casino was great
1:53:28
as well. That cause appearance It is like
1:53:30
Indiana Jones we'll never think it's must have known that when
1:53:33
they were doing. 100% that would probably be the first shot they
1:53:37
wrote down how we're going to introduce just out the shadows
1:53:39
with a gun. First thing I would have written
1:53:41
down. Exactly.
1:53:43
Yeah, I think causing it for a great together as well.
1:53:45
Yeah, famously. Yeah, the orange haze of Las
1:53:49
Vegas was signify the area is drenched in radiation, which
1:53:52
obviously expected the bays. And it was inspired by
1:53:54
photographs of a 2009 sandstorm in Sydney.
1:53:58
These photographs are amazing, by the way, if you haven't seen
1:54:00
them, I'm. Not seeing them, No, Yeah.
1:54:01
I mean, it's just like the Sydney Bridge.
1:54:04
It's all right. It's got the same gradient.
1:54:05
It looks unbelievable. So didn't show the images to
1:54:08
Villeneuve and he said, Yep, let's just do that.
1:54:10
And it was done through onset lighting and effect like missed
1:54:13
in his and frame store. Then added some digital colour
1:54:16
grid and post to kind of just boost the oranges touch more.
1:54:19
But yeah, there's behind the scenes for each of this as well.
1:54:21
And it looks as good on set as it does on camera.
1:54:23
I think it's that little touch grid and as the end it's
1:54:26
amazing. Even when you see it before free
1:54:28
so go involved it looks great. The final result is just
1:54:31
ridiculous. It's unbelievable, yeah.
1:54:33
And when he was planning the Las Vegas scenes, Feenleve brought
1:54:36
in Sid Meade, who had worked as a concept artist on the original
1:54:39
Blade Runner, obviously, and Feenleve asked him to design how
1:54:42
Las Vegas would look in the Blade Runner universe, and they
1:54:44
based it mostly on his designs. Like might be my favorite brief
1:54:48
ever, but Las Vegas in the Blade Runner universe, Great.
1:54:52
Yeah, Yeah. Still be doing it.
1:54:55
I couldn't have made any decisions so much.
1:54:59
And it was Sydney's last film, which isn't a bad way to go.
1:55:02
Like connecting the dots to probably use more famous work.
1:55:05
Yeah, definitely. There's another reference to the
1:55:07
first film when we first see Deckard, his first line to
1:55:10
cares. You might have never piece of
1:55:12
cheese about you now, would you, boy?
1:55:15
Which is pretty cool. Oh, good.
1:55:16
This is a quote from Treasure Island by Robert Louis
1:55:19
Stevenson. And there was a deleted scene
1:55:20
from the first film where we see a character reading Treasure
1:55:23
Island. That is the first line.
1:55:25
I think the character stranded on the islands called Ben, and
1:55:27
that's the first thing he says to the people who arrive.
1:55:29
Right, That's right. Yeah.
1:55:30
The guy on the island says that. Yeah, Yeah.
1:55:33
So, yeah. So it's relevant from that
1:55:35
point. Relevant because he's.
1:55:36
Stranded as well, yeah. Exactly.
1:55:38
And in the casino, there's a couple of other little details
1:55:40
in there worth mentioning. You'll see that deck artist
1:55:42
carved some wooden animals, a rhino, an antelope, a cat, a
1:55:46
horse, an elephant, and a lion. The 1st letter of which all
1:55:50
spell out Rachel. Nice.
1:55:52
Yeah, he's carrying some torture there.
1:55:56
Also when Kay visits Gaffe earlier, he's made an origami
1:56:00
sheep. Surely not to do Andrews view of
1:56:02
electric sheep I'm guessing. Yeah, yeah.
1:56:04
And then when Kay walks into the hall where Deckard shows up, we
1:56:07
hear the same bell sounds as when Deckard walks into the
1:56:10
Bradbury building for the final showdown with Chris and Roy
1:56:13
Batty in Blade Runner. Oh, nice, yeah.
1:56:15
When kids walking around the casino, it kind of reminds me of
1:56:18
like when you say all shot to the Titanic.
1:56:20
There's something really ghostly about.
1:56:21
It I know what you mean, yeah. The production design is
1:56:24
fantastic. Yeah, it looks like it's just
1:56:25
been there forever and they're just stumbled, stumbled across
1:56:28
it. It really does.
1:56:29
That shot of Rachel as well, that little picture.
1:56:32
Oh, yeah, he's in there. You're talking about that
1:56:34
torches carry. And that's what's Megan Vegas
1:56:36
Orange he's taught for Rachel. And then after this, he gets K
1:56:45
and Decor do that classic thing of two characters getting to a
1:56:48
scrap, and then they decide this is getting us nowhere.
1:56:51
Let's just make up over drink instead.
1:56:53
Yeah. I mean, what's interesting is is
1:56:55
when Ford has thrown those endless punches, he does look
1:56:57
really tired. It does look like he's not had
1:57:00
this kind of like scrap in such a long time.
1:57:02
But in this fighting, Weedley forever in this film features in
1:57:06
regards to, like, AI holograms and replicants.
1:57:08
I think this might be the most like, prescient scene of all
1:57:11
with those hologram versions of Sinatra and Elvis pain in the
1:57:14
background because like, you first watch this, you think,
1:57:16
well, even in the future, who'd spend money to go and see
1:57:19
hologram versions of Art is Singing.
1:57:22
But then just a few years ago, you had that launch of ABBA
1:57:24
Voyage, which just uses holographic avatars of the band
1:57:27
from the 70s, and now it's a huge hit.
1:57:30
It's kind of told the future already, this scene.
1:57:33
But then you get the scene in the bar afterwards where I mean,
1:57:36
for start, that dog can't be real because you shouldn't be
1:57:38
feeding a real dog whiskey you and for a world of hurt if you
1:57:41
do that. But he also says ask him.
1:57:43
So that might go. I'm a replicant actually.
1:57:47
Like for like a throwaway line like that, it says a lot because
1:57:51
it's funny, but actually, isn't that the point?
1:57:53
The point is, in this world it's not up to humans to judge
1:57:56
whether replicants are real. Ask them themselves.
1:57:59
You can ask the same question about joy, and that's the heart
1:58:02
of the film for me. What constitutes being real?
1:58:05
If you feel something doesn't matter where your memories come
1:58:07
from, and not for me in amongst this great scene of them just
1:58:10
sitting with a drink, filling in the plot gaps.
1:58:12
That's the most important line in this scene for me.
1:58:14
Yeah, brilliant. I.
1:58:15
Mean the concert holds a great setting for the fight as well.
1:58:18
Elvis and Marilyn Monroe performing forever to an empty
1:58:21
room it seems like I find quite unsettling the whiskey scene.
1:58:25
That is one of the best moments in the film I think.
1:58:27
I think a dialogue scene, Kate thinks that Deck his dad at this
1:58:30
point, so there's someone occurring there.
1:58:32
Yeah, Ford is excellent. Again, the best I've seen him in
1:58:34
a long time. Totally feels like Deck Odd and
1:58:37
feels like it's been hiding for like 30 years.
1:58:40
And how cool is it when Kay runs through the wall to catch up
1:58:43
with that God? Brilliant, brilliant.
1:58:45
Cool as hell. A few more those kind of moments
1:58:47
wouldn't have gone amiss, to be honest.
1:58:48
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Fantastic.
1:58:49
In the name of the casino is Vintage Casino and the Sinatra
1:58:53
hologram was a not to the producer Cynthia Yorkin, whose
1:58:56
husband Budd Yorkin. He directed Sinatra in a film
1:58:59
called Come Blow Your Horn in 1963, and both Sinatra and Elvis
1:59:02
held residencies in Las Vegas at different times in their
1:59:05
careers. Nice.
1:59:07
Thought of Elton John. You know what?
1:59:08
I'm in there. Amazing.
1:59:10
Imagine Daniel Daniel in the background.
1:59:15
The holograms of Elvis, Marilyn and Sonata weren't real footage
1:59:18
to a shot for the film. There were models and the
1:59:20
likenesses of the three stars were composited on top of the
1:59:23
performers film. You've said getting the
1:59:25
holograms to work in this scene became so difficult that the
1:59:27
thought about changing the scene all together.
1:59:29
Wow. Yeah, apparently the head of
1:59:31
that, Joe Walker, saved the day by having the idea of having the
1:59:33
holograms kind of cut in and out like the deal, if you'll never
1:59:37
said that totally changed the scene.
1:59:38
I'm not going to imagine it makes it, like, really haunting.
1:59:42
It's Miles. Better that just the technology
1:59:44
doesn't work. The technology doesn't last.
1:59:46
Yeah, it's miles better, Yeah. And while shooting the fight,
1:59:49
Harrison Ford accidentally punched Ryan Gosling in the face
1:59:52
for real, which is the take we've seen the film.
1:59:54
So as an apology, Ford invited Gosling to share a bottle of
1:59:57
whiskey with him and then mooned him.
2:00:00
And apparently this is something you did to Sean Young on the
2:00:02
first film as well. That's right.
2:00:04
Yeah, Ford said that he punched him because Gosling dances
2:00:07
forwards a lot more than he dances backwards.
2:00:10
So right, it's what's Goslin's falling.
2:00:12
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's our journey to Vegas.
2:00:15
Orange skies, abandoned dreams and two Blade runners coming
2:00:18
together. Love and Wallace have other
2:00:20
plans, don't they? Certainly do do.
2:00:25
The climax, The Blade Runner 2049 brings our characters
2:00:28
together for some big revelations while this tries to
2:00:31
break Deck on with a digital resurrection.
2:00:32
While K haven't been told by the resistance that he isn't, the
2:00:35
special one raises to save Deck out from love.
2:00:38
It all ends in snow, silence and sacrifice.
2:00:42
Does. So how's it all?
2:00:44
It plays out so well in this reunion between Deckard and
2:00:47
Rachel Wasn't expecting it whatsoever for reasons we'll get
2:00:50
into, but just that glimpse of her silhouette is just enough to
2:00:55
make you go. It's not who I think it is.
2:00:56
And is that where we're going with this?
2:00:58
Because the film is done such an effective job of reintegrating
2:01:01
Deckard into the story, into this world.
2:01:03
We know that apart from his daughter, Rachel is by far and
2:01:07
away the most important thing in the world.
2:01:09
So there's a genuine tension of Willie succumb to this
2:01:12
temptation, even though he knows she's not the real thing.
2:01:15
And this goes back to what we've been saying about Ford getting a
2:01:18
real joy out of returning to this couch because it gives them
2:01:21
some proper meaty material to get his teeth into.
2:01:24
Because this is some of his best work, this confrontation he has
2:01:28
with Wallace when he says he knows what's real.
2:01:30
And you can see the torment he's going through being faced with
2:01:33
this, well, what looks to all intents and purposes,
2:01:35
resurrection of Rachel. And you get that great moment
2:01:38
where you know, he says to Wallace, you mustn't have
2:01:40
children. And Wallace replies, he has
2:01:42
millions, which is true, but with all those millions, he
2:01:45
doesn't understand what it actually means to be a parent,
2:01:48
whereas Deckard only has one. But he totally gets it.
2:01:52
So I think it's probably Ford's best scene in the film.
2:01:54
It's really tense. I think the only thing I don't
2:01:57
get is Wallace sending Deckard off world to be tortured.
2:02:00
Yeah, I don't get that either. I.
2:02:01
Don't know if that's just a convenient way to get him into
2:02:04
his spinner so Kate can track him down.
2:02:05
Because otherwise you think you've got, like, a massive
2:02:07
temple. Sure, you've got a spare room
2:02:09
somewhere. Like, take him there.
2:02:11
Yeah. And Wallace says the Deckarden
2:02:13
race that we're designed to meet and fall in love, which adds a
2:02:15
little layer to the original film.
2:02:18
Yeah. And Elvis was singing Can't tell
2:02:20
Falling in love with you earlier.
2:02:22
Really unintentional choice. And he says he loves the song.
2:02:25
Yeah, yeah. And Ford really quite a game
2:02:27
when he looks at Rachel with some recognition and then says
2:02:29
your eyes were green and just walks away and then love just.
2:02:32
Executes her I. Think it's interesting because
2:02:35
even watching it now, one of the points in the film is to tell us
2:02:37
that key and replicants have worth.
2:02:40
When you see someone just casually execute a replicant, it
2:02:43
does kind of normalize it a bit. But you know what I mean.
2:02:46
Oppression gets hold in the 1st place by normalising things that
2:02:48
shouldn't be seen as normal. Yeah.
2:02:50
And just see how that happens. Yeah.
2:02:52
Yeah. And the digital Rachel?
2:02:54
She was created by an effect studio called MPC, and Vena have
2:02:58
told them they had to make the best CGI version of a character
2:03:01
ever seen. No pressure?
2:03:03
No. No, no.
2:03:04
Oh, I chased an E, Yeah. He's not asking for AT Rex or
2:03:07
anything. It's fine.
2:03:09
So they scanned Sean Young's skeleton as it is now to get her
2:03:12
bone structure and then created a digital school of racial
2:03:15
format and then laid skin on top use and footage of Sean Young
2:03:18
from 1982 as a reference. Then when they were done they
2:03:21
created a digital version of the shot of Rachel in the first film
2:03:24
where we see a smoke and a close up, the shot at the original and
2:03:27
their shot to be left side by side.
2:03:29
And when he couldn't pick out which one is real, they knew the
2:03:32
one or something. That's unbelievable.
2:03:36
That isn't it. It's absolutely unbelievable.
2:03:38
Imagine they used the wrong footage though and it was from
2:03:40
Ace Ventura and Rhea Finkel walked out.
2:03:46
I mean, it shows that things that moved on because you
2:03:48
couldn't have even tried that just a few years earlier.
2:03:50
No chance. And then an actress called
2:03:52
Lauren Peter was then hired to play Rachel in the scene, and
2:03:55
Sean Young came in to work with Peter on her mannerisms and
2:03:59
taught her how to walk like Rachel.
2:04:00
They filmed Peter in the scene in Jung's face was digitally
2:04:03
composited on top of hers. Right.
2:04:05
Yeah, and apparently when the first did it, it didn't look
2:04:07
good enough because it didn't look like Rachel, and they
2:04:09
couldn't figure out why. Right?
2:04:11
He's one of the producers. Karen Murphy said it's not the
2:04:14
score of the skin, it's the problem.
2:04:15
It's the makeup that you've given her.
2:04:17
That's not how Sean Young was made-up in the original.
2:04:19
And when they start it fixed the problem.
2:04:21
Oh wow. And then, with all the secrecy
2:04:23
around the film that denied at the time that Sean Young was
2:04:26
involved at all but brilliantly, she got in on the ACT, she
2:04:29
released a statement saying fans should boycott the film because
2:04:32
he wasn't in it. I remember that.
2:04:34
Yeah. That's so she was like, just
2:04:38
this is terrible. I'm not in it.
2:04:39
I remember that. It was like Oprah.
2:04:41
It was amazing. Yeah.
2:04:42
That's brilliant. It did really good.
2:04:44
So Decker, it's been taken off world to be tortured.
2:04:48
I guess he's on the way, yeah. He's on the way.
2:04:50
Who's gonna save him? Well, I mean, it's raining, so
2:04:53
might as well have a rectum gonna come in and crash
2:04:55
something because that's what's gonna happen.
2:04:57
So there's this great shop, you know, the spinners are exploding
2:05:00
either side. Kind of reminds us the end of
2:05:02
New Hope. You know, when he comes in on
2:05:03
the on the Millennium Falcon and just blows the two guys on the
2:05:06
other side, it's kind of, is that a bit of a nod, Telecan?
2:05:09
So yeah, maybe. I love that the way it kind of
2:05:12
crashes down. Shogun the whoopers?
2:05:14
Well, shouldn't I? Imagine that key at the back.
2:05:21
It's great. And then that that crash
2:05:23
happens. When it starts, I always get a
2:05:25
little bit infuriated thinking I don't think this this should be
2:05:28
in the film. Like when it starts and she
2:05:30
comes out and starts attacking them and loves to take fighting
2:05:33
with key and it's all this like martial arts and Kung Fu stuff.
2:05:36
And I'm like, oh, I don't know if this should be in.
2:05:38
And then it's I'm watching it a bit more and I'm watching it a
2:05:41
bit more. And then the tensions building
2:05:42
and then the water is filling up and then dead gods is there.
2:05:45
And then it's just this, this back and forth and then the
2:05:48
gunshot and then there's the stab and then there's the kiss.
2:05:51
And it's like, ah, this is all time together.
2:05:53
This is absolutely necessary. This definitely needs to be in.
2:05:56
She's overpowering them. She's going to win here.
2:05:58
And then that moment where he just comes from under the water
2:06:01
and just picks her up and paints her against the wall.
2:06:03
And it's just like he's just got this absolute need to just
2:06:07
destroy this thing, whatever it is.
2:06:09
He's just, there's no humanity left in a whatsoever.
2:06:11
And everything ties to this moment.
2:06:13
And I honestly think that she could overpower care at this
2:06:16
point. And he pulls a back under the
2:06:18
water and he's choking her a bit more and she gives up.
2:06:21
If you, I mean, I've watched this a number of times and I
2:06:23
think she gives up and she looks up and the way that he's framed
2:06:26
through the water is he's got the two strips of light either
2:06:29
side, which look like Angel wings and he's framed in that
2:06:32
way. And she kind of looks up and
2:06:33
goes, but you know what? There's nothing left for us here
2:06:35
now anyway and just kind of gives it up and leaves it
2:06:38
because that's her choice and her humanity.
2:06:41
She chooses to die. And it's almost like Batley
2:06:44
said, time to die. Tears in the rain, She's in the
2:06:47
water. And I think that's the whole
2:06:48
message and it is that she actually lets him live, then he
2:06:52
lets Decade live, and then that's how they get their
2:06:54
retribution at the end. Take on it.
2:06:57
I think so. That part of the back story is
2:07:00
that LA was hit by a tsunami in 2025, which is why the sea walls
2:07:04
being built. Yeah.
2:07:05
And water has been kind of a recurring more teeth through the
2:07:07
film. So it works well as a second to
2:07:09
the climax. You've got the singing spinner,
2:07:11
the rising tide, Key in Love beating the hell out of each
2:07:14
other with the ticking clock of Decor drowning in the
2:07:16
background. So it's all the end of their.
2:07:17
Narratively, it's great when Love stabs Key and then kisses
2:07:21
them really weird and then just goes, I'm the best one, which is
2:07:25
a great line. We're also kind of shown that
2:07:27
she's where Key was earlier. She wants to be special or she
2:07:30
thinks she has no worth. I always know what the scene
2:07:32
before this as well. After Kate's been told he's not
2:07:35
the one by the resistance, he's wandering around LA depressed,
2:07:38
which is brilliant. Just needs a ball and a brown
2:07:40
paper bag. She comes across and he comes
2:07:46
across the giant Joy hologram. She calls him Joe, which is what
2:07:49
his Joy named him, meaning she was his programming.
2:07:52
And the thing he came to resigns himself to the fact that he's
2:07:54
just programming as well. And that's when he decides the
2:07:57
state of decor. Yeah.
2:07:58
That choice is the thing that shows is more human than human,
2:08:01
which I think it's all just great the way it turns around.
2:08:03
Yeah. Yeah.
2:08:04
But the original plan was to film the climax at the Malta
2:08:07
Film Studios because that was known for its huge water tanks
2:08:10
and the chart clash of the Titans and Game of Thrones
2:08:12
there. But if you see a Cynthia York
2:08:14
and said that relocating all 230 crew members would have cost a
2:08:18
fortune and realized they could shave $1 million off the budget
2:08:22
they build in the one in Budapest.
2:08:23
So that's what they did. Nice.
2:08:25
And since then terminally a dog fade June under which you have
2:08:28
all used those Budapest water science.
2:08:30
As well. All right.
2:08:31
Nice, right. Yeah, Yeah.
2:08:32
So Deckard saved, Love is gone, and Key is on the way out, but
2:08:36
it's not over just yet. He takes Deck artist Celine
2:08:39
Laboratories to meet his daughter, Doctor Anna, but not
2:08:41
before he expires himself on the snowy steps.
2:08:44
Indeed. Well, I'll say this about the
2:08:46
end and watching Deckard reunite with his daughter while Kate
2:08:50
dies on the steps outside with snow falling down on him.
2:08:53
The beautiful imagery of that. It's a hell of a lot more
2:08:56
satisfying than bugging some outtakes from The Shining on the
2:08:58
end. Fair enough.
2:09:00
So it's wrapped up, but I think it's wrapped up with this nod of
2:09:04
ambiguity still about certain things, and that just feels
2:09:08
right for Blade Runner film. I agree it does.
2:09:10
I mean, it's a completion of Kay's arc, I think, isn't it?
2:09:13
You find this humanity in what we would like to think is the
2:09:15
most human way possible. He sacrifices himself or others.
2:09:19
I think the snow is a great visual choice.
2:09:21
It is a development of the water mortif we mentioned and it's a
2:09:24
pure and peaceful, which is kind of where Kay ends up.
2:09:28
That final overhead shot lying on the steps is perfect.
2:09:31
I think a worst film would have had an image of Joy appearing in
2:09:34
his head going I told you you were special or something.
2:09:39
Well that's a great shot. It could have finished there,
2:09:41
but then it end with Anna and Deckard meeting and the final
2:09:44
shot is of Deckard, as it should be I think.
2:09:47
I think as final moments goal this is one of the best I've
2:09:49
seen for years. I think it's perfect.
2:09:51
Yeah, from that moment when they turn up at the lab, it's just
2:09:54
absolutely fantastic if you just watch that moment about 5 or 6
2:09:59
times. Just that moment.
2:10:00
There's so much in here that really elevates the whole film.
2:10:04
Deckard asking him if he's all right, treating him like a
2:10:07
human. Yeah.
2:10:08
The salt markings that are on case court when he pulls the
2:10:11
horse out, said he's being in salt water.
2:10:13
It's an old mark that he's caught, which is absolutely
2:10:16
incredible. Just in these little touches.
2:10:18
The symbolism towards Batley's death, obviously the tears in
2:10:21
rain, but he dies in the snow. Rain is too fast to acknowledge.
2:10:26
Rain is too similar in its makeup.
2:10:28
Snowflakes are individual. This falls slowly to have their
2:10:32
own individuality, to have their own identity.
2:10:34
He catches it and he knows he's an individual.
2:10:37
He's unique. So he dies his own.
2:10:38
He dies a hero. And then when Decker goes in the
2:10:41
lab, the snow has fallen in the lab.
2:10:43
Is she creating that last memory for Key Country Implant memories
2:10:48
from where she is? Maybe.
2:10:50
And if she can't, that's fucking beautiful because she's like
2:10:53
cannot. She cannot leave there.
2:10:54
So how else does she send the memories?
2:10:55
How else does she know which model gets what?
2:10:58
So she could have access to the chaos, have access to a certain
2:11:02
group of the Nexus names, or know that when he's come in to
2:11:04
know who he is, but what his makeup is, who he is as a
2:11:07
person, what he's looking for. And she's given him that piece.
2:11:09
She's given him that end. Then she turns around and she
2:11:11
gets her ended. Perfect.
2:11:13
I love the bit as well and deck all like says why are you doing
2:11:15
this? Why are you helping me?
2:11:17
And he just goes go meet your daughter.
2:11:19
Great, but to prevent that ending from being leaked, it was
2:11:22
communicated to the cast verbally and not included in the
2:11:25
scripts. And in the moment Kate is down
2:11:27
on the steps, you can hear that Cement and Wolfish have weaved
2:11:30
the skull from the TS and Rain speech into the background.
2:11:33
Yeah, nice. Bit of a nice touch.
2:11:35
Honestly. I think they get much closer to
2:11:37
the Roy body death in the first film now.
2:11:39
I think we could have ever reasonably expected them to.
2:11:41
I think it's a fantastic final. Far more subtly as well.
2:11:45
Yeah, yeah. And with that, Kate completes
2:11:48
his journey from nobody to somebody.
2:11:50
Deckard finds what he lost as snow falls in Los Angeles Not a
2:11:54
bad way to end things. Definitely not reception and
2:12:00
awards. So that's the story.
2:12:04
You played Runner 2049 and it opened in cinemas on October the
2:12:07
6th, 2017. How did it do?
2:12:10
Well, our own Nexus 6 number cruncher has the data.
2:12:14
So Matt, it was those numbers, would you?
2:12:16
Production budget was between 150 and $185 million, and on
2:12:22
that later in the 2049 grossed $276.6 million worldwide, which
2:12:28
was actually a big commercial disappointment for the studio.
2:12:31
But it did fare better with the Oscars nominated for five wards
2:12:34
in total, winning two of them. As we've said, Roger Deakins
2:12:37
finally won for Best Cinematography.
2:12:40
John Nelson, Good Neff, Sir Paul Lambert and Richard R Hoover won
2:12:43
Best Visual Effects. Nice.
2:12:46
So whenever any kind of publication, including us, talks
2:12:49
about the budget of a film, I think it can be a bit misleading
2:12:51
because we're usually talking about the production budget.
2:12:54
On top of that, any film also has a marketing budget, which
2:12:57
can be like 50 to 100% of the production budget.
2:13:00
So believe in the 2049 had to make about $350 million to break
2:13:04
even, which it didn't like you said much.
2:13:06
So it lost about $80 million, unfortunately.
2:13:09
Yeah. Bradley Scott said the slow
2:13:10
piercing of the film was the reason that flopped and said it
2:13:12
was at least 30 minutes too long.
2:13:14
And Bill New said he was proud of the film but made the most
2:13:17
expensive art house movie in cinema history.
2:13:20
Yes, get in. Yeah.
2:13:22
So he knew it was a financial risk.
2:13:24
I can't believe the studio approved the script to be honest
2:13:27
without being like 20 minutes. Yeah, yeah.
2:13:30
And. Include at least one big set
2:13:31
piece in the middle. I mean, the blueprint's kind of
2:13:33
right there. Look at what Norman's been doing
2:13:35
for 10 years before this. Yeah, that's how you make a
2:13:37
blockbuster that's autistic and it makes money.
2:13:40
Yeah, and Sony Pictures handled worldwide distribution of the
2:13:43
movie and gave a censored version of it to Turkey,
2:13:46
deleting all the scenes in nudity and said that did that
2:13:49
out of respect for the Turkish culture.
2:13:51
However, Turkey was furious and the SIYAD, the association of
2:13:57
Turkish film critics, wrote an open letter to Sony Sane.
2:14:00
Seeing oneself as an authority to decide what is appropriate
2:14:03
and what is not appropriate for a in quote marks local culture,
2:14:06
and imposing your view on that culture is one of the greatest
2:14:09
shows of disrespect for that culture.
2:14:11
Wow. Yeah, furious.
2:14:13
Yeah. So there's a new shot of
2:14:14
Mariette kind of in silhouette and kid apartment, which is only
2:14:17
a couple of seconds. That also means we'll lose the
2:14:20
whole Wallace birth in the replica scene, I guess because
2:14:23
she's naked. Surely it's better with that,
2:14:25
isn't it? Definitely, absolutely.
2:14:26
Yeah, 100%. Well, under the critics, and
2:14:28
we'll start, as we usually do with Roger.
2:14:30
You bet. Roger was no longer with us by
2:14:33
2017. He completed the baseline test,
2:14:35
unfortunately. What did Brian Talarico of Roger
2:14:39
reba.com make of the film do we think?
2:14:41
I don't really know Teleriko's vibe on anything.
2:14:43
I don't know it's it's got to be the same as as Rodrigo hasn't.
2:14:48
It. That legacy they've got to stick
2:14:50
with. I'm going to go 3.5.
2:14:52
It was 3.5 out of four and Brian, one of the most
2:14:55
philosophical and challenging sci-fi films of all time, and
2:14:58
one of the most stunningly short films of not just this year of
2:15:01
the last several and later on 2049 answers questions about
2:15:05
what it means to be human and how vital it is to appreciate
2:15:08
our design to enrich the soul. Yeah.
2:15:11
Philosophical and challenging. That's why we like it, and also,
2:15:13
possibly why audiences stayed away.
2:15:15
It's a hard sell. It is, yeah.
2:15:18
Peter Travers, a Rolling Stone, also gave the film 3.5 out of
2:15:21
four stars and said on its own March to screen legend later on.
2:15:25
The 2049 is a mesmerizing mind vendor that asks new questions
2:15:29
meant to tantalize, provoke and keep U.S.
2:15:31
Open night. Right.
2:15:33
Does it give you fellas up a night?
2:15:34
Every night since I've seen it, yeah.
2:15:38
And Empire magazine gave the film the full whack. 5 stars out
2:15:41
of five. And Dan Jolan said as bold as
2:15:44
the original Blade Runner and even more beautiful, visually
2:15:48
Immaculate, swirling with scenes as hard rending as they are mind
2:15:51
twisting. 24/9 was a good year. And get this, if you think
2:15:56
forward on easy territory, think again.
2:15:58
This is possibly the best performance of his career.
2:16:02
Wow, best performance in Harrison Ford's career.
2:16:06
I mean, he's. Very good.
2:16:07
He's very. Indie and Han Solo.
2:16:08
I don't think so. Not quite.
2:16:11
I think the original deco performance is better than this
2:16:13
one. Yeah.
2:16:14
And so today on Rotten Tomatoes, Blade Runner 2049 has an 88%
2:16:19
approval rating from both audiences and critics.
2:16:21
Perfectly balanced and on IMDb a solid 8 out of 10.
2:16:25
Yeah, 88. Percent from audiences and
2:16:28
critics, people like us, they just didn't go to see it,
2:16:30
unfortunately. No, no.
2:16:32
So Blabenet 2049 was released a critical and Audience prayers
2:16:36
won awards but was a box office flop.
2:16:39
Making a good film doesn't necessarily mean you've got a
2:16:41
profitable one, does it? No, no, that's very true,
2:16:44
unfortunately. Sequels and influence.
2:16:52
The evil Nerve has made sequels in his career.
2:16:54
Or with Blazer not being the box office Turkey it was, this never
2:16:57
even looked like getting one. There's Blazer 2099 on TV, what
2:17:01
would you like to see them make a movie?
2:17:03
Follow up to 2049. I don't think I would.
2:17:07
I don't think I would either probably.
2:17:08
I mean I'd love to see more of this world obviously, and the
2:17:10
finances make it unlikely, but maybe there's bad.
2:17:12
Leave it as a nicely balanced 2 film story.
2:17:15
I think so. So Blade Runner is known for
2:17:17
having seven different cuts released over the years, but
2:17:20
then you've said that the theatrical cut is the only
2:17:22
version of this film. At one point there was a four
2:17:24
hour rough cut and they considered releasing them as two
2:17:27
separate movies. But then you've decided he just
2:17:29
wanted one definitive version, which is definitely the right
2:17:31
choice. Imagine there was Flo.
2:17:33
Would have been if it was 4 hours 2 box office flops.
2:17:38
Vinglev has said he might be interested in coming back,
2:17:41
though in an interview with Empire, he said If you asked me
2:17:44
if I'd like to revisit this universe in a different way, I
2:17:46
can say yes. It would need to be a project on
2:17:49
its own, something disconnected from both of the movies.
2:17:52
Yeah, he said that he wakes up at night dreaming about a
2:17:54
detective and wall story set in the future, which kind of sounds
2:17:58
like Bob Blade Runner already is.
2:18:00
Yeah, I mean, you've made it. That's.
2:18:03
Why you're dreaming about it? As for the influence and legacy
2:18:06
you're played from the 2049, it's quite an interesting one.
2:18:09
The original influence countless science fiction films that
2:18:12
followed, but how was this one left its mark?
2:18:14
I don't know. I don't think this one has
2:18:16
really left its mark as much as I think it should have.
2:18:20
I think what this has really done, it's elevated huge cinema.
2:18:24
I think Nolan took a lot from this and went right.
2:18:26
I'm making things even bigger again.
2:18:29
But the real, real pull away from this I see is Vilni of
2:18:32
going off and doing June. I don't think if he'd done this,
2:18:35
it wouldn't have been able to do that.
2:18:37
And if he hadn't done June, I think he would have come back
2:18:39
and done something in this world.
2:18:40
I think he would have. He would have needed it.
2:18:41
But I think June's quenched his thirst.
2:18:43
The other legacy sequels that have come out, you know, the
2:18:45
Terminators and the Aliens and the Star Wars and everyone's Bob
2:18:50
played Run Out was a bit of a flop.
2:18:51
So let's try and do something a little bit, you know, it's got
2:18:54
to be shorter. I think that's its influences.
2:18:56
Like they're looking at its negatives.
2:18:58
But it's now massively popular. It's 8, it's got really good
2:19:01
reviews, it's got really good customer reviews.
2:19:02
It's right up there. I think there was just too much
2:19:05
in it for people to take away from 1 viewing at the cinema and
2:19:08
it's not for everybody, so I think that's what a lot of
2:19:10
people took from. This is like we need to simplify
2:19:12
it for me and make it an hour and a half.
2:19:15
Yeah, yeah. Really.
2:19:16
That's kind of what I get from it, yeah.
2:19:18
Naughty. I mean, I think you're right.
2:19:19
I mean, June obviously benefited from real nerve cutting his big
2:19:22
budget science fiction teeth here.
2:19:24
Which he split into two films again.
2:19:26
It's like the what he wanted to do with this one.
2:19:28
Exactly, Yeah, yeah. I think the wider influence
2:19:30
might be in how to approach legacy sequels.
2:19:32
This show that you can make something that honours a classic
2:19:35
original while being its own thing.
2:19:37
You don't need to bring back every character, you don't need
2:19:39
fan service every 5 minutes, you just tell a worthy story with
2:19:42
something to say in that world. But to be honest, the fact they
2:19:45
lost money has probably been the overriding influence.
2:19:49
Students will have looked at this and thought, Nah, let's
2:19:51
just make something safe. Which is a shame, but what
2:19:54
happens? If this had been the big case,
2:19:56
it might have shifted the blockbuster landscape away from
2:19:59
rehashing previous films, which would have been nice.
2:20:01
If anything, it's probably just cemented it.
2:20:04
Yeah. Well, hopefully, like the first
2:20:05
film, it'll find an audience. Yeah, I think it has to be
2:20:08
honest. I think a lot of people love
2:20:09
this one. The influence legacy mean it
2:20:11
comes from the original Blade running anywhere.
2:20:13
So this one, it's one of those films where you go, the director
2:20:17
couldn't have then gone on to make X film until they made this
2:20:20
one first. And I think that's just very
2:20:22
true of the scope and the scale of Dune.
2:20:25
And you know, kind of like what we said on Bridge on the River
2:20:28
Kwai, David Ian had to make that first before he could do launch
2:20:31
of Arabia. Yeah.
2:20:32
This is the similar kind of comparison.
2:20:35
This is his bridge on the river Kwai.
2:20:37
Dune is his launch of Arabia. So no movie sequels to play from
2:20:40
our 20 49ers? Yes, and maybe that's for the
2:20:43
best. But in showing how to make a
2:20:45
legacy sequel if you want artistic credit and how not to
2:20:48
make one if you want to make money, and in pushing forward
2:20:51
the career of the Navy, nerve. The influence of the film has
2:20:53
been felt, we think. Yeah, definitely for good and
2:20:56
for bad, all the right movies ranking.
2:21:03
And we've arrived at the end of Blade from the 2049.
2:21:06
Now it's time for us to each give our scores.
2:21:08
I'm going to send and see if it's more Blade rather than
2:21:11
Blade Runner or just another sequel.
2:21:13
What's the you chose this one? Your summary and score for Blade
2:21:16
in the 2049 please. I think this is more Blade
2:21:18
Runner than Blade Runner, and it's exactly what I wanted.
2:21:21
I wanted more of the same. I wanted to go back to that
2:21:24
restaurant that I've been to when I was younger and had that
2:21:27
that food that I tasted and I wanted it to taste exactly the
2:21:29
same when I went back, and I did.
2:21:31
And it just had more ingredients in it and it was fresher and it
2:21:33
was a little bit nicer, if I'm completely honest.
2:21:36
And it's just a beautiful thing to go back to such a world and
2:21:40
have a trip with such respect and such regard for the
2:21:44
audience. And I think that's what you've
2:21:46
did. He made this for people who
2:21:48
really love the first film. I love what it's trying to say.
2:21:51
I love the depth of it. I love going through it and how
2:21:54
I see something different every single time.
2:21:56
I love the fact we could have kept talking about the ending
2:21:58
for another 20 minutes and it's looking up and to the left and
2:22:01
it's this and it's, that's what, to me, that's what cinema is.
2:22:05
It is a visual medium and it's about sitting with your friends
2:22:09
after you've seen a film and talking about if we go and say
2:22:11
Fast and Furious 975 and we'll come out of it, we've got
2:22:15
nothing to talk about because it's usually I've seen that
2:22:18
before, so what's the point of making it?
2:22:19
What do you get from it? This.
2:22:20
You get a lot from it and that's what I need, that's what I'm
2:22:23
hungry for and that's what I really want.
2:22:25
And for that reason, leaving that cinema, I felt like I was
2:22:28
learning about cinema again. I felt like I'd learned
2:22:31
something new and I'd seen something fresh and exciting.
2:22:33
In 2017, I was still waiting for it to happen again.
2:22:37
And every time I watch this, I do it sparingly and I'm not
2:22:39
going to watch it again for another year now because I've
2:22:41
seen it enough times for this. But I'm excited to know that
2:22:44
it's there. So for me, it's a perfect film,
2:22:47
it's a perfect 10. Wow.
2:22:50
It's right up there for me. It's right up there for me.
2:22:51
It's amazing. Yeah, I mean, we've covered a
2:22:53
lot of ground with this one. And for me, this is filming at a
2:22:56
very high level. Denisia Nerve must have
2:22:59
respected him for taking on an impossible task, making a sequel
2:23:02
to one of the most influential science fiction films ever.
2:23:05
And in my mind, he's pulled it off.
2:23:07
And not just him, It was hugely collaborative.
2:23:10
The visuals from Roger Deakins are stunning.
2:23:13
Some of the best cinematography I've ever seen.
2:23:15
Hands in, man Benjamin Wallfish created the score.
2:23:18
The ties in the van get us while being its own beast.
2:23:21
That horn sound still ringing around my brain.
2:23:23
Yeah. I think the performances are
2:23:25
excellent across the board. Gotham leads it very well.
2:23:28
Ford brings new decks to Deckard, which I wasn't
2:23:30
expecting. Yeah, I'm as it almost as joy
2:23:33
breaks hearts. Certainly mine.
2:23:35
Yeah. And Sylvia Hoax's love.
2:23:37
But us. But what really impresses me is
2:23:39
how I expand on the themes of the original without just
2:23:41
repeating them. His journey from obedient
2:23:44
replicant to someone who chooses his own path, accepting he's not
2:23:47
special and not being what makes him special.
2:23:49
I think that's really good science fiction writing.
2:23:51
Yeah. I mean, it's not perfect.
2:23:53
The pacing is deliberate, shall we say.
2:23:55
And as I said, it might benefit from an exciting B plot and set
2:23:59
piece or two. Or every frame is beautiful.
2:24:01
Every scene is there for a reason and is a film that gets
2:24:04
better on each viewing. It's 100% a worthy sequel in my
2:24:08
eyes. That's a feat in itself, but
2:24:10
also as a film that gives me hope that Hollywood is still
2:24:13
capable of intelligence, thought provoking science fiction.
2:24:17
That makes it even more special. So it's a nine out of 10 for me.
2:24:21
OK. I'm not your submarine score for
2:24:24
BR2049 please. I'll get the negatives out the
2:24:27
way first because there's very, very few of them.
2:24:29
It is just a bit over long for me because it's not always
2:24:32
better and they're all elements of the plot.
2:24:34
The more that you think about them, the shakier they get.
2:24:36
But that is really about it for the negatives.
2:24:39
Everything else on an artistic level is exceptional.
2:24:41
And as I said at the top, it's a sequel I didn't think we'd ever
2:24:44
see, certainly not in this form. Like we've said, it's mad that
2:24:48
the studios gave him that much money to basically do exactly
2:24:51
what he wanted with no notes. It's such a one off in that
2:24:56
sense. I've said before I'm not a huge
2:24:59
failure fan. I don't quite get the hype, but
2:25:01
I have to be honest and give credit words to you.
2:25:03
I think this is easily his best film.
2:25:06
What he's accomplished here is something I generally just don't
2:25:10
think anyone else would have had the mindset or skill set to do.
2:25:14
So it's really easy to score this for me.
2:25:16
Is it as good as the original? No, it's a little bit of a step
2:25:19
blow. So therefore it's also a nine
2:25:21
for me. Very nice.
2:25:23
But we also put this out there to our ACRM patrons to get their
2:25:26
thoughts as loyal as love, but thankfully less murderous.
2:25:30
And you've got some big opinions on the film.
2:25:33
So we were, the Reds said. This is a 10A follow up to the
2:25:37
original, expanded on its themes and wisely at the first films
2:25:41
question about Deckard remain up for interpretation.
2:25:44
Visually stunning, the scores, perfection and solid acting
2:25:47
performances. I'm always left wondering just
2:25:50
one thing at the end with Key on the steps.
2:25:52
I want him to crack a small smile, then cut to black a smile
2:25:56
from Key at the end. You get 1 Before he hits the
2:25:59
steps, though, he smiles. Just as he says to your
2:26:01
daughter, Yeah. I probably wouldn't go for that
2:26:04
just at the end, to be honest. That feels like one step away
2:26:06
from Joy turning up again, to be honest.
2:26:08
Yeah, I think you just need, need to watch the end 6 times
2:26:11
like we have and you'll see it's all there just in that it's all
2:26:13
the right. No, it's just in the different
2:26:15
order. Yeah, classic.
2:26:16
Yeah. Thomas Boyd, not quite as big a
2:26:19
fan, said This is a movie I want to love but can't.
2:26:22
Beautifully shot and a natural extension of the world in the
2:26:25
original, but the third act let's the film down.
2:26:28
Things happened that made no sense just to set up a
2:26:30
confrontation between Love and Key and facilitate the reunion
2:26:34
between Decor and Stallone. 8 out of 10.
2:26:38
I'm guessing Thomas means Stallone, unless I miss Slide
2:26:40
turning up. One say that version.
2:26:43
I'm just running up this step. And Kieran said massively
2:26:52
underrated. I love how they flipped the
2:26:54
mystery from the original on its head and I can't think of any
2:26:57
other film where we can't be sure if the protagonist
2:26:59
motivations are his own. Plus Vegas rising out of the
2:27:03
sandstorm was class. It was that is classic you when
2:27:07
you're right, you're right. So mostly very positive from our
2:27:10
patrons and all together they read the film as what do you
2:27:13
think? They gave it our turn.
2:27:15
I'll say it's a solid 9 like. Yeah, it won't be perfect.
2:27:18
I'll go night as. Well, nobody's as visually
2:27:20
excited this thing. It was already solid, 9 out of
2:27:24
10, Yeah. So in total like this blade in
2:27:27
the 204937 out of 40 grand score.
2:27:31
Grand score and. That's us done on blazing the
2:27:34
2049. Hopefully you don't think we're
2:27:36
not even close to baseline. Please, anything but.
2:27:40
Yeah. Next time out, Luke, Westy and
2:27:44
Matt are trading their podcasting Mike through a Glock
2:27:46
17 and a great soundtrack. You're talking professional
2:27:50
killing John Cusack, Mini Driver and Grosse Point Blank.
2:27:53
Popcorn certainly are. Yeah, looking forward to that
2:27:55
one. Yeah, that's gonna have to.
2:27:57
Do 10 years for it either 1010 years.
2:28:03
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Try not to find us. That's harder.
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That's the harder thing. Yeah.
2:28:55
Yeah. We're all off now to lie in the
2:28:58
snow and currently how special we are.
2:29:00
Not very. I would imagine, yeah, I'm just
2:29:03
going to look up and to the left and then go to sleep.
2:29:06
Rose by blank special though, so I'll come back for that and for
2:29:09
now I for listening everyone. Thank you so much guys.
2:29:12
Take care.