The Greatest Sci-Fi Sequel Ever Made Is Officially a #1 Hit on HBO Max
Collider Article by Rob London
Canadian director Denis Villeneuve has emerged as one of the greatest cinematic science fiction auteurs of the early 21st century. He's turned Frank Herbert's once-thought-unfilmable Dune series into a pair of box-office blockbusters, with a third film set to round out the trilogy this winter. Before that, however, he had the audacity to make a sequel to one of the most beloved films in the sci-fi canon—and now, that audacity is paying off.
Blade Runner took a long road to becoming a science fiction classic. The adaptation of Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? lingered in development Hell before it was finally brought to the screen by Ridley Scott. However, Scott clashed with both the film's producers and with star Harrison Ford during production; the resulting film was an initial disappointment with both critics and audiences. However, it is now seen as one of Scott's masterpieces, and as one of the greatest science fiction films of all time.
In 2017, Villeneuve released Blade Runner 2049, a belated sequel to the original film. Set decades after the original, it centers around K (Ryan Gosling), a replicant "blade runner" who hunts down other replicants when they go rogue. However, he becomes a renegade himself when he stumbles upon an impossible mystery: finding a child who was somehow born to a replicant mother (Blade Runner's Rachel, played by Sean Young). The search for the child leads him to the ruins of Las Vegas, where retired blade runner Rick Deckard (Ford) is hiding out. While Blade Runner 2049, like its predecessor, didn't become the blockbuster its producers were hoping for, it's currently having a spate of streaming success: it's the #1 movie on HBO Max.
Blade Runner 2049 is now streaming on HBO Max. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.