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| Blade Runner Black Out 2022 | |
|---|---|
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| Directed by | Shinichirō Watanabe |
| Written by | Shinichirō Watanabe |
| Produced by | Joseph Chou Al-Francis Cuenca Shun Kashima Nobuhiro Takenaka |
| Starring | Jovan Jackson Luci Christian Edward James Olmos |
| Cinematography | Shinichirō Etō |
| Edited by | Kiyoshi Hirose |
| Music by | Flying Lotus |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 15 minutes |
| Countries | Japan United States |
| Language | English |
Blade Runner Black Out 2022 is a 2017 Japanesecyberpunktech-noiranimeshort film directed byShinichiro Watanabe and animated byCygamesPictures. The short is one of three short films, (with2036: Nexus Dawn and2048: Nowhere to Run) that serve as prequels to the live-action filmBlade Runner 2049. It debuted on 27 September 2017 onCrunchyroll.[1][2]
Three years after the events ofBlade Runner,[3] the Tyrell Corporation has developed the newNexus-8 line of replicants. The models possess open-ended lifespans, like those of humans; unrest ensues. A replicant namedTrixie is assaulted by human thugs, but is rescued byIggy, a replicant ex-soldier who deserted after he learned that the enemy were also replicants. He recruits Trixie into an underground freedom replicant movement which sets out to sabotage the Tyrell Corporation's database and internet tracking, so that replicants cannot be so easily hunted.
Trixie then befriendsRen, a sympathetic human technician in charge of launchingnuclear missiles. He agrees to redirect a test missile to detonate over Los Angeles. This will black out the city and, with anelectromagnetic pulse, wipe out all electronic data. Trixie and Iggy set out to physically destroy the Tyrell Corporation's servers. Trixie dies in the attempt but the mission succeeds—servers powering the internet are destroyed and power to Los Angeles is permanently disabled. Iggy escapes and removes his right eye, which can identify him as a replicant.
A global collapse follows in which all replicant production ends and Tyrell goes bankrupt. The Wallace Corporation acquires Tyrell and restarts production of a new model a decade later.
The short has a rating of 7.3 onIMDb,[4] a 4.4/5 onCrunchyroll,[5] and a 3.6/5 onLetterboxd.[6]
Ollie Barder ofForbes magazine wrote positively of the short, saying "[...] Black Out 2022 is expertly done and I only wished we had more of it. It combines much of the elements fromCowboy Bebop but also some of the bleakness from anime such asArmor Hunter Mellowlink, which Watanabe also worked on."[7]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)Based onDo Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968) byPhilip K. Dick | |
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