Blade Runner 2049 and the Only Benefit of Ugliness

Denis Villeneuve is a master in visual storytelling. Director of the Dune (2021, 2024) films, Arrival (2016), and Sicario (2015) demonstrates his ability to transport and immerse us into an entirely different universe with breath-taking visuals. Many of his films are beautiful enough to watch key scenes even without music or sound. Blade Runner 2049 (2017) is no exception.

This film is a sequel to the original Blade Runner (1982) film that tells the story of a future America when technology has propelled us to new heights, so high that the wealthy have fled our planet and let the remaining population eek out life in a grimy, dark, and desolate world. The original, directed by Ridley Scott, is widely considered a sci-fi masterpiece. It follows Deckard (Harrison Ford), a Blade Runner, an officer of sorts tasked with hunting down Replicants, artificially designed androids.

The Only Benefit of Ugliness

Blade Runner 2049 (2017) takes place 30 years later in California. The opening sequences are haunting, showing us a future California beaten down by drastic changes in the climate over the years. The story follows K (Ryan Gosling), a Blade Runner who discovers evidence that a Replicant gave birth, something always thought of as impossible, leading him on a journey to discover who he is, and what he is.

While K’s journey is interesting, and certainly engaged my attention, what stood out to me most vividly is the world Villeneuve has created. With great irony, he has beautifully captured the ugliness of this world. It is a character in itself, and a leading one. This future is soaked with dread and hopelessness and artificiality; the world is void of love and is ripe with lust and gratification, advertised at each corner. The filmmakers do not glorify these things, but use them as a warning. After the film ended, I walked away thinking . . . the only benefit of ugliness is that it makes you ache for beauty, a direct stirring of the image of God in all human beings.

Important Questions

At the deepest level, both films ask the important theological question, “What is man?” Ridley and Villeneuve do this thoughtfully, as many sci-fi films do. The ruling society has forgotten or never known, the answer to the question. For them, humanity is one part of nature, which technology now allows us to master, not cultivate.

Blade Runner 2049 (2017) reminded me strongly of C. S. Lewis’ Space Trilogy (1938–1945), especially the last installment, That Hideous Strength (1945). In Lewis’ world, society has advanced similarly in which the elite think they have found the tools to control and master nature, including human beings. Their goal is to sanitize creation to manipulate it for their own agenda. Lewis shows the end of this pursuit is destruction, serving as an application in narrative form of his book The Abolition of Man (1943).

Only the Christian Story Accounts for this Story's Longings

I enjoyed watching Blade Runner 2049 (2017), and I appreciated the foundational questions it asks and even the ugly world it shows us. But as you consider watching this, know that this is a godless world, one in which lust of the flesh permeates. Some scenes of sexuality are disturbing, so you should skip them completely. This is a future Babel, and Villeneuve shows us it is not sustainable and can be avoided.

The key virtues for him are joy and love, and even key characters are named after them — Joi (Ana de Armas) and Luv (Sylvia Hoeks). And certainly, these are key to a flourishing society, but we understand that they are a real thing only because of our eternal and benevolent God who showers blessings on sinners and saints alike. A secular, materialistic, and atheistic universe cannot account for these things. Because of that, when we experience them, especially non-Christians, we have a divine opportunity to dialogue about them and their source in the character and gospel of God.

Want more? Watch my review on Stage & Story TV.

Dane Bundy reviews the movie on Stage & Story TV

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Dane Bundy is President of Stage & Story and Director of Fine Arts at Regents School of Austin.