ABSTRACT
Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2049 both raise the metaphysical question: “What is it to be human?” Neither directly asks the related, gendered question: “What is it to be female?” This essay considers both questions. Blade Runner’s answer to the first question is that biology does not determine human value. Replicants like Roy Batty and Rachael—and perhaps Deckard himself—possess the sorts of psychological properties that matter for personhood and individual identity. 2049’s answer to the first question turns away from philosophy. Despite having a replicant, K, as its central character and the mystery of replicant childbirth at the heart of its narrative, 2049 offers a religious answer to questions about human nature and identity. When we turn to the gendered question, we find that both films remain dependent on generic representations of women. Thus, Rachael, in Blade Runner, is a femme fatale, while in 2049, the two central female characters, Ana and Joi, symbolize the trope of virgin and whore. The centrality of iconic male hero figures and the dependent status of each film’s main female characters mean that neither film moves beyond familiar stereotypes.
