Blade Runner recap: the story so far

No. 01 · 1982 · Film

Blade Runner recap

In November 2019 Los Angeles, the retired blade runner Rick Deckard is forced back to work to hunt four Nexus-6 replicants who killed humans on an off-world colony and came to Earth: the leader Roy Batty, Pris, Zhora and Leon. Replicants are built with a four-year lifespan, and they want their maker to extend it. At the Tyrell Corporation, Deckard tests Rachael, Dr. Eldon Tyrell's assistant, and finds she is an experimental replicant with implanted memories who believes she is human. Deckard tracks down and kills Zhora, and Rachael saves his life by shooting Leon. Deckard and Rachael fall for each other. Roy and Pris use the lonely genetic designer J.F. Sebastian to reach Tyrell, and Roy kills Tyrell when he says he can't extend their lives.

How Blade Runner ends

Deckard kills Pris at Sebastian's apartment building, and Roy hunts him through it and across the rooftops. When Deckard slips, Roy saves him, gives a short speech about the things he has seen, and dies as his lifespan ends. Deckard's colleague Gaff tells him that Rachael won't live either, and Deckard runs off with her, finding a tin-foil origami unicorn, Gaff's sign, which in later cuts hints that Deckard may be a replicant himself.

Post-credits scenes

No. There is no post-credits scene.

No. 02 · 2017 · Film

Blade Runner 2049 recap

In 2049, the Wallace Corporation makes obedient replicants, and K, a newer-model replicant, works as an LAPD blade runner retiring older Nexus models. After killing one, Sapper Morton, K finds a box buried under a tree containing the bones of a replicant woman who died in childbirth: Rachael, who escaped with Deckard. A replicant giving birth was believed impossible, and K's boss, Lieutenant Joshi, orders him to destroy all evidence so it doesn't lead to war. The industrialist Niander Wallace wants the child to unlock replicant reproduction and sends his replicant enforcer Luv after it. K's memory of a wooden horse turns out to be real, and he believes he may be the child. He tracks Deckard to a ruined Las Vegas. Luv kills Joshi, captures Deckard, and a replicant resistance tells K that the child was a girl.

How Blade Runner 2049 ends

K realises he is not the child and his memory belongs to someone else. He stops Luv taking Deckard off-world and drowns her, wounded himself. He takes Deckard to meet his daughter, Dr. Ana Stelline, a memory designer who made K's memory. As Deckard walks into her lab, K lies down on the steps outside in the snow, possibly dying.

Post-credits scenes

No. There is no post-credits scene.

No. 03 · 2021 · Series · optional

Blade Runner: Black Lotus recap

In 2032, Elle, a young replicant woman with no memory and a black lotus tattoo, wakes up in Los Angeles carrying a data device. She is taken in by Joseph, a former blade runner, and Doc Badger, a black market dealer. The device holds footage of the Doll Hunt, an event where powerful men hunted replicants for sport, and Elle sets out to kill those involved, including Senator Bannister, Hooper, Police Chief Earl Grant and Doctor M, as her memories return. LAPD officer Alani Davis investigates the killings. Elle kills the head of the Wallace Corporation, Niander Wallace Sr., and learns that his son, Niander Wallace Jr., built her to kill his father. Joseph admits he once worked with the dangerous blade runner Marlowe, and kills Marlowe. Wallace Jr. sends the replicant assassin Water Lily after Elle.

How Blade Runner: Black Lotus ends

Elle infiltrates the old Tyrell building and faces Wallace Jr., who kills Water Lily himself. Elle blinds him with her sword. Joseph blows up the replicant factory, sacrificing himself to save her. A month later, Wallace Jr. continues his plans, and Elle rides Joseph's motorbike into the desert.