The new models

Within the first few minutes, we learn that Ryan Gosling's "K," our new cyborg-hunting detective, is actually a replicant. There's no ambiguity, like there is with Harrison Ford's Rick Deckard in the first film. That immediately gives his job an added weight: He's hunting his own kind, and he's well aware of the inherent moral conflict.

We learn through the opening text that a lot has changed since 2019. The Tyrell Corporation unveiled its Nexus 8 replicants, which had a longer, human-like lifespan. That's exactly what Roy Batty and crew were fighting for in the first film, as they were older Nexus 6 models who could live for only a short four years. Rebellious replicants engineered a global blackout in 2022, in hopes of erasing identification records that were being used to hunt them down. That led to a ban on replicants altogether, which was lifted only when Wallace Corporation, a successor to the original replicant maker, Tyrell, proved that he could make models that were more obedient than the Nexus 8.

K is one of these newer replicants, which still have longer lifespans but differ from older models by their increased reliance on embedded memories. That's something we saw with Rachael (and potentially Deckard) in the first film, but in Blade Runner 2049 it's used as even more of a psychic cushion. Replicants are still aware that they're not "real," but the memories give them the illusion of human experience -- a birthday party growing up, perhaps, or playing with other children when they were a child. While you could view the memories as a "kindness," as one of their creators describes them, they're clearly a type of invisible shackle meant to keep replicants content with their subservient role in society.

Throughout the film, K is on the verge of an existential crisis. In the opening scene, he reluctantly subdues and kills a rogue Nexus 8 who's trying to live out his years as a protein farmer. He's shaken afterwards but takes the encounter in stride, since that's what he's programmed to do. During a mandatory synchronization test -- which appears to be an evolved form of the Voight-Kampff exam for finding replicants in the first film -- K proves that he's performing at "baseline." The movie doesn't explain what that means, but we can assume that it refers to being within the limits of his programming. Throughout the movie, though, he also strives to push against those boundaries to become a "real boy."

A replicant savior