20 Things You Didn't Know About Blade Runner 2049
18. "Within Cells Interlinked"
Officer K (Ryan Gosling) must complete 'baseline tests,' a sinister psyche evaluation assessing his ability to perform his duties. Designed to provoke an emotional response, the questions appear random and unrelated: "Do they keep you in a cell? When you’re not performing your duties, do they keep you in a little box? What’s it like to hold the hand of someone you love? Do you dream about being interlinked?"
Some may recognise these lines from Vladimir Nabokov's 999 line poetic novel Pale Fire.
The passage was reportedly adapted by Ryan Gosling himself, choosing to repeat individual words as test responses. Joi, the AI projection and K's love interest gives a copy of the book to K, implying some awareness of its literary origins and a curious mind, full of questions.