In the 2016 movie Blade Runner 2049, Ryan Gosling plays the replicant K (short for his serial number KD 6-3.7) in a dystopian future in Los Angeles. Replicants are bioengineered humanoids who serve humans, despite having superior strength and intelligence.
However, no matter how much it made sense to him, K eventually finds out that he is not human. The memories in his mind are real, but they are not his. They belong to Deckard's daughter, Ana Stelline, a memory designer for the Wallace Corporation who implanted her memories in K during.
Blade Runner 2049 begins with Ryan Gosling's Detective K, retiring an old replicant. Living in the almost uninhabitable dystopian version of Los Angeles, K is a replicant himself, working for the LAPD as a Blade Runner, following the orders of his human superiors and being mocked and bullied in and out of work.
1982's Blade Runner introduced fans to the now-iconic sci-fi universe, where sentient artificial humans known as Replicants are created for slave labor on off-world colonies, and Blade Runners are police officers assigned to kill Replicants, should they step out of line.
Portrayed by. KD6-3.7, nicknamed K and later known as Joe, was a Nexus-9 replicant Blade Runner tasked by the Los Angeles Police Department with retiring outdated Nexus-8 replicants, which were rushed into production in 2020 by the Tyrell Corporation upon the death of its founder, Dr. Eldon Tyrell, in 2019.
Is Ryan Gosling A Replicant In Blade Runner 2049? Ridley Scott Answers | MTV Movies
Is K the son of Deckard?
Because of this memory, K became convinced that he was Rachael and Deckard's child, but was eventually informed by Freysa that he was not and that the child was female. With this revelation, K soon determined that Stelline was the child. K took Deckard to Stelline's lab as she interacted with a snowfall hologram.
In a 2023 interview, Ford stated that he "always knew" that Deckard was a replicant, but wanted to "push back against it", adding that a replicant (or at least, Deckard) would want to believe that they are human.
The second film further develops Rachael's origin, and gives significantly more details about her radical design. It revealed that she was an experimental model of replicant with a high percentage of human organs, including human reproductive organs, and that Rachael conceived a child with Deckard.
The Replicants of Blade Runner, as the name suggests, are essentially AI systems given advanced bioengineered bodies designed to replicate the physical abilities and intellectual capacities of humans.
Luv was a rather cold, emotionless replicant, whose only duty was to serve Niander Wallace, a role that she was slavishly devoted to, always referring to him as "Mr. Wallace", and never straying from her duty to serve and/or please him.
However, he later learns that, even if the memory is real, it was not his own but Dr Ana Stelline's. Through her work, Dr Stelline shared her memory with K, and this allowed him to understand what it was like to walk in her shoes, but most importantly, to believe himself a free, loved replicant.
Much like the original, Blade Runner 2049 became a cult hit but failed to thrive financially due to pacing issues, murky stakes and zero fun factor. Ridley Scott followed up the tremendous success of his science fiction horror film Alien with his cyber-noir thriller Blade Runner.
K started the movie believing he was made, with implanted memories. He then thought he was born, and that the memories were real. In fact, as revealed by the end of the movie, he was made and the memories were implants – but they were real, implanted memories from the actual daughter of Deckard and Rachael.
Replicants were sometimes referred to as "skinjobs" or "skinners," as they were indistinguishable from non-engineered humans, except for their empathetic abilities. These terms were considered slurs. Throughout the existence of replicants, various movements for and against their freedom were formed.
Later at K's apartment, he informed Joi of his conclusion that his memory was indeed real. This overjoyed her, as she always believed him to be special, insisting that he now be called "Joe." Unsure, K sought further information and Joi suggested finding the one responsible for creating memories for replicants.
Replicants don't have plastic skin, or a metal skeleton. They are genetically human in every way. Except a lack of empathy, hence the Voight-Kampff test. Replicants are limited to a 5 year lifespan or they develop emotional responses IE empathy.
Despite many advances in this technology, these highly intelligent androids are far from existing in our world. The technology today, three years after the setting of Blade Runner, is still far from creating actual Artificially Intelligent beings.
The big twist in the final act of the movie is that K isn't the son of Deckard and Rachael at all, but just another cog in the machine that might lead to the child's discovery.
The horse, with the inscription "6.10. 21", establishes the connection between the dead female replicant who gave birth and died on 6.10. 21, and K himself, implying that the memories were not in fact "implanted" but are rather genuine after all.
Doctor Ana Stelline (Carla Juri) designs memories for the Nexus-9 Replicants but is forced to live in a bubble because of her condition. She's in no condition to lead any sort of revolution or lead her “people.” In fact, she's a key point in the machinery that allows them to be produced and enslaved.
Our hero, the replicant police officer K (Ryan Gosling), was going to learn that he was the secret child of the first Blade Runner's hero, Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), and his replicant lover Rachael (Sean Young).
Deckard was a human in the 2019 (the 1982 film) and through a Herculean effort survived his encounter with Batty and fled Los Angeles with Rachael at some point after Batty's death. Deckard was a replicant and fled with Rachael, another replicant, after Batty's death.
What does the origami unicorn mean in Blade Runner?
From a symbolic standpoint, the unicorn most probably describes Deckard's subconscious mind, in which he yearns for unbridled freedom like the majestic creature, which, however, is akin to a myth in the blatantly capitalistic and autocratic world of Blade Runner.
Does Blade Runner 2049 confirm Deckard is not a replicant?
That seems pretty definitive, but even so – the film remains open to interpretation, and Denis Villeneuve's 2017 sequel “Blade Runner 2049” does nothing to confirm or deny Deckard's replicant nature.
