Blade Runner 2049 arrived in the fall of 2017, 35 years after the release of Ridley Scott‘s sci-fi classic Blade Runner. It was a long wait for a sequel by any standard, and it left a lot of ground to cover between the events of the original film and the sequel, particularly since 2049 is set 30 years after its predecessor.
That gap of three decades has since been filled in many ways, including several Blade Runner comic book series, but before 2049 hit theaters, Warner Bros. Pictures commissioned three different short films that helped shape the major events leading into the sequel story. Now, with both Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2049 streaming on the SYFY app, it feels like a good time for a look back at those short films, and what they told us about the sequel.
The three short films leading up to 2049 span nearly 30 years of continuity, with each following different characters and covering a different piece of the puzzle leading up to the sequel. Here’s a quick guide, along with where you can watch them.
A guide to the Blade Runner 2049 prequel shorts
Black Out 2022
Three years after the events of Blade Runner, the Tyrell Corporation introduces Nexus-8 model Replicants which, unlike the previous models with their pre-programmed expiration dates, will be allowed to live natural lifespans just like humans. Their introduction sparks a violent anti-Replicant movement, with activists using Tyrell’s database of Replicants to hunt down Nexus-8 models and destroy them.
Some Replicants, with the aid of human sympathizers, decide to fight back, and form an underground movement with the goal of destroying Tyrell’s database and, as a result, allowing Replicants to move through through the world free of detection. Directed by Shinichiro Watanabe (Cowboy Bebop), the anime short Black Out 2022 follows two of these Replicants, Trixie and Iggy, along with their human collaborator Ren, as they hatch a plan to detonate an EMP over Los Angeles. The mission succeeds, the Replicant database is destroyed, and Los Angeles is plunged into a blackout. The fallout from this attack triggers global economic and social unrest, and leads to a complete shutdown of all Replicant production. Tyrell goes bankrupt, and the Replicant program is dormant for a full decade until the Wallace Corporation acquires what’s left of Tyrell, and begins work on new models.
2036: Nexus Dawn
More than a decade after the blackout, Wallace Corporation head Niander Wallace (Jared Leto) meets with a group of officials in a hearing to discuss his burgeoning Replicant program. During the hearing, Wallace reveals that the aid he’s brought with him, which he refers to as an “angel,” is actually a new Nexus-9 Replicant. Though the officials warn him that the mere act of creating a single Replicant is against the law, Wallace argues that the only way to preserve a collapsing Earth society is to use new Replicants as a cheap source of labor to support human-sustaining infrastructure.
Against the objections of the panel at the hearing, Wallace sets out to demonstrate how compliant his Replicant is, ordering the Nexus-9 to slash his own face, and then make a choice between his own life and Wallace’s. The Replicant kills himself, setting the stage for Wallace’s rise as a new producer of Replicants.
Both Nexus Dawn and its follow-up short were directed by Luke Scott, son of original Blade Runner director Ridley Scott.
2048: Nowhere to Run
A more personal prologue to Blade Runner 2049, Nowhere to Run follows Nexus-8 Replicant Sapper Morton (Dave Bautista), who’s been passing as human since the blackout of 2022 and working as a protein farmer. While at a market to sell some farmed leeches, Sapper notices a group of thugs preparing to assault a mother-and-daughter whom he’s befriended. He intervenes, and displays the kind of superhuman strength and pain tolerance associated with Replicants. When he leaves the scene, he drops his identification. An onlooker picks up the ID and calls in the incident, revealing Sapper as a rogue Replicant.
It’s this call that leads the blade runner known as K (Ryan Gosling) in search of Sapper in the opening minutes of Blade Runner 2049, and thus the prequel film serves as the inciting incident in K’s journey throughout the feature film.
Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2049 are now streaming on the SYFY app.
