Blade Runner 2049 Themes

Blade Runner 2049 Themes

Environmental Decay

Throughout the film we see K embedded into the reality of a post-nuclear war world. The weather is sporadic and the barren city where we find Deckard all point toward the reality of a world that's been ravaged by humanity's inability to care for it. This lack of care points towards the need for power and ruling over one another, so much so that we are willing to use nuclear devices to do so, and with that risk the ability for us to exist on earth.

Identity

This theme permeates all of the film. K isn't who he believes he is and only finds out at the end of his story. Everyone is masking themself in order to obtain and control others. We see all of this through the lens of K's point of view where we find a lonely man searching for connection in a world actively out to destroy itself. The reality that we hunt an enemy we don't even know rings true as K discovers he's hunting his own kind.

Dystopian World

Villenueve's film presents us with a bold and re-imagined version of the original film's dystopian world. We see technological advances that boggle the mind and the senses, while people continue to live in poverty and fear. And the gap between rich and poor grows wider and wider. The technologically advanced society is sleek and sexy, and yet K represents a loneliness and isolation that provides a harsh reality of what a world will become without taking care of one another.

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