The Road to 2049 website fills in some key details that aren't addressed by the shorts - namely, that the population almost starved to death until Niander Wallace developed genetically-modified food products, which the populace relies on by the time 2049 begins.Nowhere to Run: Set shortly before 2049, the short follows Sapper Morton as he goes about his daily routine, but is forced on the run after protecting a mother and daughter from thugs.Nexus Dawn: Taking place 14 years after Black Out, Niander Wallace meets with a government committee in an attempt to have the prohibition on Replicants lifted, via demonstrating a new type, the perfectly subservient Nexus-9 model.Black Out 2022 is an anime Interquel that explains how and why things are the way they turned out in the sequel - a pair of Replicants and a human sympathizer seek to "even the odds" against Replicants by detonating a nuclear bomb above the West Coast, which causes an EMP surge that knocks out the city's power and eventually causes Replicants to be placed under prohibition.The tie-ins help to establish key events that take place between the original film and 2049:.Alas, Poor Villain: Like Pris, Roy, and Zhora, Luv's death is painful, drawn-out, and unglamorous, and K visibly struggles with having to do it, especially given the small flickers of empathy that we'd seen from Luv over the course of the film.Aerith and Bob: On the one hand, Rick Deckard, Ana, and Joi ("Joy" being a fairly common woman's name.) On the other, there's Sapper, Freysa, Luv (which is as much a pun on "Love" as Joi is for "Joy"), Joshi, Coco.Niander Wallace even provides a rare example of the "weird name/normal name" pairing in the same character.The nude hologram advert for the "Joi" virtual woman stands out, along with the absolutely massive ballerina which only serves to impede everyone's traffic. Only this time it's with giant holograms.
Advert-Overloaded Future: Los Angeles is just as full of ads in 2049 as it was 30 years before.Jared Leto appears prominently on the posters and trailers but only appears twice in the movie, in the first and third acts.Dave Bautista is rather prominent in many trailers and advertisements but he appears only briefly in the first act.Harrison Ford receives second billing in most of the promotional material but only appears in the third act.In fact, there's so many, it could be argued that it's the opposite of this trope, being a quiet drama, with some occasionally intense action thrown in there. Two good examples include K talking with Joshi in his apartment, and the "hologram love scene" between K, Joi, and Mariette. Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene: Loads of them.
The ruthless Replicant manufacturer Niander Wallace (Leto), who bought out Tyrell Corporation and resumed its activities, is also deeply interested in this secret. While doing so, he unearths a long-buried secret that has the potential to plunge what's left of society into chaos. One day on a mission, K makes a discovery that leads him to a former Blade Runner, Rick Deckard (Ford), who has been missing for 30 years. Its plot follows an LAPD Blade Runner known as Officer K (Gosling), who is tasked to eliminate pre-Nexus-9 Replicants. Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch composed the soundtrack. The cast includes Ryan Gosling, Jared Leto, Ana de Armas, Harrison Ford (reprising his role from the first film), Sylvia Hoeks, Robin Wright, Carla Juri, Dave Bautista, David Dastmalchian, Wood Harris, Barkhad Abdi, Mackenzie Davis and Lennie James. The film was directed by Denis Villeneuve, written by Hampton Fancher and Micheal Green and co-produced by Ridley Scott (who also contributed to the script). Blade Runner 2049 is a 2017 neo-noir Science Fiction film, and the sequel to 1982's Blade Runner.