In my previous post, I reviewed Blade Runner 2049. Most know that the original Blade Runner was based on the Philip K Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? However, most don’t know that the basic premise behind the novel long predates it. Like so much of the modern world it’s rooted in the Diesel Era.
On January 25th, 1921 the play RUR or Rossum’s Universal Robots premiered. Written by Karel Capek, RUR was a smash international success. The play’s storyline should be all too familiar to us,
The play begins in a factory that makes artificial people, called roboti (robots), from synthetic organic matter. They are not exactly robots by the current definition of the term: they are living flesh and blood creatures rather than machinery and are closer to the modern idea of androids or replicants. They may be mistaken for humans and can think for themselves. They seem happy to work for humans at first, but a robot rebellion leads to the extinction of the human race. (Source: Wikipedia)
Image from the original play of R.U.R
In addition to Blade Runner, the play has ties to the Dieselpunk television program Batman: The Animated Series. In the two-part episode Heart of Steel, a machine named HARDAC created mechanical replicants of people with the goal of replacing humans, which is clearly similar plot to RUR.
Not only was the episode plot inspired by the play but it also contained several nods to it as well as to the movie Blade Runner. The name of the creator of HARDAC machine was Karl Rossum, which is an obvious combination of a variant of the playwright Karel Capek with the name ‘Rossum’ who was the inventor of the robots in the play. Interestingly, Karl Rossum was voiced by William Sanderson, who played the genetic designer J.K. Sebastian in Blade Runner. In addition, one of the robots in the episode is seen driving a car with “RUR” as the license plate number.
HARDAC from Batman: he Animated Series
One can't help but notice the similarities of RUR to the SYFY channel's reimagined Battlestar Galactica. In this rebooted series we find that the Cylons had been created by humans as slave labor and had 40 years earlier rebelled against humanity. And like RUR we find that all but a small number of the human race are destroyed by their creations.
Capek’s gift to us is more than his Proto-Dieselpunk play, which sparked so many science fiction stories. It was Capek who coined the English word ‘robot’, which he based on the Czech word ‘robotnik’, which means ‘slave’.
Back in 1982 the Dieselpunk classic Blade Runner was released. This movie set the standard that would inspire the Dark Deco look later found in Dieselpunk productions such as Batman: The Animated Series.
In 2017 Warners Brothers studio released a long awaited sequel, Blade Runner 2049, which is now on DVD/ BluRay.
The protagonist in this sequel is a Blade Runner named K (Ryan Gosling), which is short for KD9-3.7. K is not only a Blade Runner but is also himself a replicant. He dutifully does his job of ‘retiring’ rogue replicants and then goes home to his holographic girlfriend (think of her as an holographic Alexa with artificial intelligence) named Joi (Ana de Armas).
The world of Blade Runner 2049 is even harsher than it was in the original. The environment is more devastated and more bleak. Most people are packed into slums where they’re dependent upon food processing technology since the world-wide ecology, which had been in decline in the original, had completely collapsed several years prior.
The corporate bad guy in Blade Runner 2049 is Niander Wallace (Jared Leto) of the Wallace Corporation, which is the successor-in-interest to the Tyrell Corporation. The Tyrell Corporation had gone bankrupt shortly after 2022 when replicant technology was outlawed. Niander Wallace had successfully lobbied for a return to replicant manufacturing and has a monopoly on their production as well as the food production technology.
The sequel brings back three characters from the original. Harrison Ford reprises his role as Rick Deckard while Edward James Olmos appears briefly as Gaff. We even see a CGI creation of Sean Young as Rachel.
Blade Runner 2049 opens with K hunting a replicant named Sapper Morton who is superbly played by Dave Bautista (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1 and 2). What K discovers at Sapper’s farm sets into motion events that threaten to blow their society apart.
Blade Runner 2049 is a visually stunning movie. The sets are amazing and the special effects are awe-inspiring. I’m reminded of Buzz Aldrin’s description of the moon as being “Magnificent desolation”. His poetic description of the lunar surface also applies to the world of Blade Runner 2049.
In addition to grand sets the technology is intriguing. The technology is at times retro while at times futuristic. The technology has a hands-on depth to it. There's definitely an alternate history feel to the tech.
One criticism I have is its length. It’s a loooong movie. Blade Runner 2049 clocks in at 163 minutes, which is nearly the same length of 2001: A Space Odyssey. In addition, I found much of the pace and acting as subdued. Gosling’s
acting I found to be especially subtle, which made moments where he did
express emotions all the more poignant.
Another criticism I have is that I thought the characters of the sequel were less interesting than those of the original. None rise to the level of those in the original, human or replicant. Of all of the new characters I found the holographic Joi to be the most interesting.
This is a Dieselpunk blog and therefore I want to address the question that’s probably on the minds of all of my readers: “Is this sequel Dieselpunk?”
In a word: no.
While Blade Runner 2049 is an amazing movie it lacks the dark decodence of the original. There’s one scene with a holographic Frank Sinatra singing ‘One For My Baby”, which he did record in 1943. However, the scene was placed in nuclear devastated Las Vegas and it therefore had a more of a early 1960s Rat Pack setting than one of decodence. And the creators of Blade Runner 2049 focused on giving Los Angeles less of a Metropolis feel and more like a dystopian future Beijing.
While Blade Runner 2049 is an amazing movie I can’t call it Dieselpunk.
