Love, Joy, and Lust: Creation and the Female Body Explored in Blade Runner 2049

Introduction & Brief Summary

Blade Runner 2049, released in 2017 and directed by Denis Villeneuve, serves as a modernized sequel to its 1982 counterpart. Primarily used to explore the presence of humanity in an ever-growing artificial world, the film's treatment of female characters expands it far beyond the confines of its original conversation. 

Starring popular actors like Ryan Gosling as Officer K, Harrison Ford as Rick Deckard, Ana de Armas as Joi, and Sylvia Hoeks as Luv, the film explores a world where humans have created replicants, a bioengineered human counterpart, who are used primarily for slave labor. Throughout the film, we follow Officer K, a replicant working for the Los Angeles Police Department, as he serves in his role as a "blade runner", those in the position tasked with finding and killing older model replicants who are considered devious and a danger to society. But when he kills replicant Sapper Morton, he discovers replicant remains buried deep underground. These remains are discovered to have belonged to a replicant mother, who had successfully conceived and delivered a child via cesarean section. This was previously thought impossible even by the replicants' creator, Niander Wallace. Lt. Joshi then tasks Officer K with finding and "retiring" the born replicant child. 

The Nature of Creation and Birth

A female replicant being made by Mr. Wallace

One of the primary themes explored by the film is the idea of creation, or perhaps sub-creation, as it exists within replicants. While Officer K's boss, Lt. Joshi, believes replicant birth a threat to peace between humans and replicants, Mr. Wallace sees it as a way to further capitalize on his ability to make as many replicants as possible. He doesn't just desire a larger slave workforce — he wants to create enough to "swarm the stars", millions more. The image above depicts a female replicant being "made" as she is about to fall out of an artificial womb: a clear plastic bag. While this representation of creation illustrates how Mr. Wallace creates the replicants, this exploitative scene also depicts a "thievery" of a sacred human process. The replicants aren't just objects in the film, they are adjacent to humans with a deep level of emotion and feeling. While the image is not included due to graphic content, Mr. Wallace kills this replicant during this scene, slicing her lower stomach out of disgust that she doesn't have a functioning womb as she shivers in disorientation. He tells Luv, his replicant assistant, that "we could storm Eden and take her" if he is able to make replicants reproduce naturally. In this manner, Mr. Wallace perceives himself as a sort of God, able to imitate the process of birth to serve his own purposes. To further explore this scene, even the yonic symbol of a womb is made to be cold and empty. It comes not from a loving motherly womb, but from a transparent bag that drops the replicant onto a hard floor. The replicant isn't born as a child able to experience growing up, but as a fully-grown adult who appears to be disturbed and frightened by the world she enters.

Joi: The complex AI girlfriend

Officer K's AI partner, Joi

Joi, a main character and K's girlfriend, further highlights the role of women throughout the film. Originally created by Wallace's company to serve as an imitation of a real-life partner, Joi frequently confuses the boundaries of her character and blurs the line between sentience and pre-programmed emotional response. She serves as K's guide and even leads him to believe that he could potentially be the born replicant child himself. She encourages him to consider his own humanity and ability to love, which pushes him to success towards the story's end. 

K's encounter with Joi's hologram

After her death, K runs across a large hologrammed version of Joi, colored in pink with a blue wig. This scene begs the question of how real she was as a sentient being, especially as she says the widely-cited line, "You look lonely. I can fix that." Was she just a drug of sorts, keeping K tied to addictive technology in a barren wasteland? After all, she was created by Wallace. Luv, Wallace's assistant, even asks K multiple times if "he is satisfied with their product." This places Joi's character in a unique context. On one hand, she is a guiding light who assists in K's rediscovery of himself. On another, it's possible she is just another piece of artificial intelligence used to keep both replicants and humans tied to a Wallace-dominated world. 

Joi's emanator

One of the most fascinating parts of interpreting Joi's character occurs when K needs to leave LA to seek out Rick Deckard. She offers for her file to be placed in an emanator, a portable device that can project her hologram wherever K goes. This also means that if the device is destroyed, Joi's file would be deleted along with it, effectively "killing" her. Her ultimate sacrifice and confinement to the emanator device makes the "technological manipulation" interpretation slightly more difficult to defend. Outside of the emanator, Joi can also be turned on and off at any time. During a moment in the film where she is trying to help K, she glitches and her image fizzles out entirely. Her authentic voice is often mixed with her contrasting role as a romantic servant in moments where she changes costumes for K, or when she brings Mariette into his home to make intimacy with her "feel real." An interesting moment occurs during this scene with her, who tells Joi "I've been inside you. Not as much there as you think." With this in mind, her autonomy as a character is persistently blurred. Many of her actions could be summed up as loyalty and commitment to K, even in knowing she was likely to die. At the same time, her wish to be placed into the emanator and assist K in discovering himself could also represent her developing desire for personhood. This creates a battle of sorts for the film's female characters, as they struggle to identify their individual autonomy. Ultimately, Joi's name as a character becomes ironic by the end, as K comes to terms with the fact that there may not be any joy left for him.

Luv: A power-hungry puppet, or victim?

Luv's character illustrates how fear can control an individual while simultaneously placing her in the role of a powerful assassin. Serving as Mr. Wallace's chief assistant, she is tasked with following Officer K in his journey to discover the born replicant child. Unlike Joi, her ruthlessness is a pervasive trait in her character, driving her to murder both the innocent and guilty to get what she wants. Towards the film's end, she stomps on Joi's emanator for no real reason other than to hurt K. At a quick glance, she may appear to be just as villainous as Mr. Wallace. But what does she really want? Going back to the creation scene, Luv sheds a tear at the replicant's murder. She does so again when she murders Lt. Joshi (mostly called Madame in the film). Why does she cry? One indicator may be an earlier scene with Officer K, where she is assisting him with records on the replicant mother. She tells him his name, and he replies with "He named you, you must be special." This begins a sort of attachment to identity that reveals itself in Luv's tears, even at violence she is enacting herself. Her desire to please Mr. Wallace is consistently at odds with her struggle for humanity. When she is chasing after K and fighting him to protect Rick Deckard, she shouts "I'm the best one!" Even when she has the opportunity to acknowledge her internal desires, she chooses to reinforce her commitment to Mr. Wallace, who sees her as nothing more than a pawn in his game. He has groomed and exploited her role as an assistant to handle his dirty work. In the end, K drowns her, and viewers watch her screaming underwater as she takes her last breaths. The haunting image below illustrates her struggle with herself, even in death. 

Luv's last moments

Additional Depictions of Women Within the Film 

*In observation of the other female characters in the film, I note appearance because while they might only serve smaller roles within the story, their depiction by the director illustrates his choices in portrayal of women and how they are perceived in a contemporary society.

Lt. Joshi (Madame)

Outside of Joi and Luv, there are a variety of other female characters who are represented differently throughout the film. The first is Lt. Joshi, who holds a chief position in the LAPD. Her loyalty, unlike with Joi and Luv, doesn't lie with any male figure. Rather, she believes the replicant child should be "retired" solely because of the greater implications its existence could have on society. On the note of appearance, she is not necessarily feminine (unlike both Luv and Joi, who mostly wear dresses throughout the film). Her hair is shorter and slicked back, and she is dressed in an all-black suit or other dress in all of her appearances. However, her contributions to the film are minor in comparison to Joi or Luv, and she is eventually killed by Luv in a brief exchange.

Mariette/Sex Workers

The sex workers in the film have more to them than it may seem on the surface. Their clothing is lower cut, colorful, and two are dressed in large fur coats (as depicted below). When K is walking through the city, he is met with multiple depictions of women as prostitutes and pleasure objects. But Mariette, the woman who will eventually sync with Joi to have sex with K, is actually a part of a replicant-resistance group led by Freysa, who help to protect the identity of Dr. Ana Stelling. Mariette may seem to contrast Joi, a "virgin" type character, but she is much more than a servant to sexual desires. Rather, she assists K after he is attacked by Luv in order to complete his goal to bring Rick Deckard to his child. 

The strippers, Mariette is next to K wearing a black hat

Dr. Ana Stelline

There is something significant to be said about how Ana's character is depicted in the film. While highlighted as a creative entity with participation in K's efforts in her own right (she plants her own memories into K's head, making him believe he is the born replicant child), she is kept in a large glass cage for her entire life. While this might be necessary to her protection, it highlights yet another female character in the film being restricted to her own thoughts and feelings without a way to take true action. 

Statues/Holograms

There are multiple presentations of female statues and holograms throughout the film, defining a sort of lustful desire that keeps humans/replicants blind to the harshness of their broken world. In multiple scenes, women are used as a form of escapism from a troubling reality. In Rick Deckard's home, a fight scene between him and K accidentally kick on a hologrammed Elvis Presley performance, where he is accompanied by a slew of dancing women, wearing bird-like costumes. These costumes, all shiny and glittery, represent a temptation keeping society from understanding their slow, yet sure, demise. When K is walking through the city, he is met with a large telegram of another dancing woman, a ballerina. 

Closing Thoughts

Blade Runner 2049 is rich in themes, characters, and imagery. It would be nearly impossible in a blog post to cover all the dystopian thematic devices and compile them into one. However, the portrayal of creation, birth, and women take on a subtle, yet central part of the story's components. Characters like Joi provoke a sense of intrigue in her motives as a character. She is either a puppet to the Wallace corporation, or an AI being developing sentience. Luv, although a fierce fighter and assassin who nearly succeeds in her mission, is being held like a puppet on strings by Mr. Wallace, confining her to a servant role despite a clear hint at her desire for identity. Smaller roles played by women, such as Dr. Ana Stelline, Lt. Joshi, and the strippers, further confuse the film's intent to either place women in empowering or suppressing roles. They might have some control over their circumstances, but are mostly left to grapple with a fate out of their control as a result of suppression and silencing by not just the film's antagonists, but even primary characters as well. 

Statues found in Old Las Vegas

Additional Links

Blade Runner 2049 Official Trailer

Interview with Director

Inside the Making of the Film

Works Cited

Blade Runner 2049. Directed by Dennis Villeneuve, Performances by Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford, Ana de Armas, Sylvia Hoeks, and Jared Leto, Warner Bros. Pictures, 2017.