12 Most Emotionally Devastating Movie Moments Of 2017

Ryan Gosling’s K is living the relatively humdrum life of a blade runner retiring rogue replicants and going home to his dingy apartment and hologram girlfriend, until his very core is shaken by the revelation that his memories could be more than just mere implants and that he could be the part-human miracle child of Deckard and Rachel.

It’s an inkling that puts K on a Pinocchio-esque journey through which the replicant could become a real boy and as he grows ever more hopeful at the possibility he really is more human than human, he becomes a far more sympathetic and likeable skin-job than the fierce and rebellious replicants in the first Blade Runner. By this point, we really want him to be Deckard’s son too.

Then comes the third act plot twist that Deckard and Rachel’s love child was a daughter and K is not the chosen one after all. Thanks to Gosling’s nuanced and vulnerable performance, it’s a revelation that’s as devastating for us as it is for K.