In the film Ready Player One by Ernest Cline and Blade Runner 2049 by Hampton Fancher and Philip K
In the film Ready Player One by Ernest Cline and Blade Runner 2049 by Hampton Fancher and Philip K, the authors expressed the ideology of technology’s purpose in the future and its effects that comes along with it. Like in Fahrenheit 451 and Avatar, these two films also portrayed the thought of rising technology and covering our lives with it’s shadow. However, in Ready Player One and Blade Runner 2049, the setting is more distinctive and highly significant as both are more relevant to the world today despite their time period are set in the future. This is because in these two films, the authors’ shows the aftermath of a highly developed technology which is used carelessly, whereas the what is happening to the environment is not given much attention. The environment in these films are desolated, nothing but landscapes of strong angles, towering structures, and rugged materials. Blade Runner 2049, was representative of the dreams or nightmares you might have, a dystopian future. The story of the film centers on Officer K, a blade runner for the Los Angeles Police Department, a cop task with ‘retiring’ replicants, a fictional bioengineered or biorobotic android, — killing them. The film began where Officer K terminated a replicant as part of his job. During this scene, the author portrayed the idea of advanced technology when Officer K is having difficulty on ending the life of the replicant in which should’ve ended 4 years after it was created, as programmed. While on duty, he also unearths a long-buried secret that could potentially cause chaos upon their society. His discovery led him on a quest to search for Rick Deckard, a jaded predecessor of K, whose been missing for 30 years. Authors Hampton Fancher and Philip K Dick also brought the audience a terrifying realistic version of today’s civilization possible future. Whereas, a hellish wreck of a planet is shown caused by nuclear war, with a haywire climate, city sized rubbing dumps and a sea wall of epic proportions as film’s setting. Along with the grimy and bleak environment, urban areas in the film are filled with gigantic buildings with holographic advertisements shimmering with lights flashing and spluttering. Further in the film, Officer K met Deckard and a group of replicant revolutionaries where his interaction with them eventually prompts questions about the very premise of his job and his very identity, as he a replicant and possibly the secret child of the first Blade Runner Rick Deckard and his replicant lover Rachael. Much the same in Fahrenheit 451 and Avatar when the character’s oneself is challegend. Under orders from his superior Lieutenant Joshi, K must find and terminate the older rogue models that are still out there. However, instead of hunting down replicants, he sought answer if he is really the secret child since he recalls snippets of memories that proves so. As the film continues, he met the real secret child, Stelline, and realizes that it’s important for her to meet her father so therefore the future of the replicant race will have hope. In order to do this, Officer K fought against the system and higher authorities, the Tyrell Corporation and its new inventor Niander Wallace who makes new replicants (film antagonist) and Luv, who is also a replicant and the film antagonist. Similar to the films I have mentioned, the author in this film, Blade Runner 2049 also portrayed the idea of the rising technology and comes along with it are authorities at the top of the society’s piramid trying to gain control. Author’s Hampton Fancher and Philip K Dick also went further and include the consequences that we may encounter if we let technology rise carelessly through how the film’s environment is portrayed. Moreover, the two authors also used ‘replicants’, enslaved bioengineered humanoids, as an indication of some poverty-stricken people. This relates to some parts of the world since in some countries, like India, governments wants to get rid of slumdogs, people who they think would and could never contribute to society or make profit of or for, even if it means persecuting them.The author exactly portrayed this when higher authorities wants to terminate replicants, as they developed and enhanced emotional mechanism which they shouldn’t have. Apart from that, like in Fahrenheit 451, the authorities in Blade Runner 2049 takes away the right of these replicants to have their own feelings regardless that they should not have because they had no choice as they are bioengineered with human genes which makes them part human. Nevertheless, what I learned from this film and from the authors is that they have similarities when compared to Fahrenheit 451 and Avatar since Blade Runner 2049 portrayed the idea of technology will take over us and along with it are manipulative people trying to control everybody through the use of technology which could cause harm to humanity and surroundings. Apart from that, the main character in Blade Runner 2049 also underwent a realization in which made him question his own actions, the premise of his job and most of all his identity. Hence, Officer K’s realization made him seek redemption, join the replicant revolutionaries and fight for hope, life and love.
On the other hand, as to what I mentioned previously, Ready Player One by Ernest Cline also highlights the idea of rising technology and in this film it is evidently visible. Author Ernest Cline also portrayed the outcome of Earth’s environment if left unattended. However in Ready Player One, how the technology developed and enhanced is difference from the previous films. Nevertheless, it still has a touch of the reality’s possible outcome of the world we live in today, but quite the opposite of Blade Runner 2049 in terms of how technology is used and enhanced. In Ready player One, Cline focused on how technology developed and in which would metaphorically and virtually consume us. The year is 2045 where the world is falling as society is locked in severe decline. The film began where Wade Watts, the protagonist, is in transit. Fireman-sliding his way down a series of a poles and ropes is just how he gets from his aunt’s dingy apartment to terra firma in “the Stacks,” a teetering settlement of stacked blight in Columbus, Ohio. During this scene, the Cline also portrayed a grimy environment, stacked-up towering apartments made out of rugged and some rusted materials. This is because the author represents a world where people stopped fixing problems but instead try to outlive them. The world in Ready Player One is almost exactly the same dystopian dump in Blade Runner 2049 due to the usual political and ecological disasters, referring to the Corn Syrup Droughts, the Bandwidths Riots and mass poverty which were told in the start of the film and which also ravaged humanity. Although, unlike in the other films, the people in Ready Player One have one escape from their harsh reality by entering the a sprawling metaverse of virtual experiences in which people can indulge in everything from boxing matches to climbing Mount Everest with Batman, the OASIS, on a hunt for nostalgic, multimillionaire James Halliday’s (founder of OASIS) Easter Egg. It is also a contest for control of his virtual paradise since the first person to find the egg will inherit his stock. Inevitably the corruption of the real world interrupts with Wade’s idea life in the OASIS demonstrating the need to avoid such an awful future. Corporate power IOI exploits its reach in order to defeat Wade Watts and seize humanity’s new realm of existence (OASIS). However, like in Fahrenheit 451, Avatar, and Blade Runner 2049, the character in Ready Player One, Wade Watts, met people who helped him understand the real world and virtual world better and help him succeed in finding the Easter Egg of James Halliday. In this film, technology risen in a unique way in which everyone benefited from it. However, the plot begins when Halliday made a quest available for everyone and comes along the higher authorities corrupting the people to cheat and win the challenge. During these scenes, the IOI did what they could in the real world and virtual world to stop Wade Watts even if it means almost killing him in the end of the film by chasing him with a car and a gun. This relates in the real world, the world we live in today, literally and figuratively. An example of this is the legalization of carrying firearms in America in which risen the crime rates and death toll of the people in the state. Another example is how regimes in our present world cheats and corrupts their people to maintain their supremacy. Despite of that, inevitably there will be people who would put their line to bring down those wicked people, and this is what author Ernest Cline and the rest; Ray Bradbury, James Cameron, Hampton Fancher and Philip K. Dick is trying to show.
