50 Essential Sci-Fi Films of the 21st Century (So Far)

Ridley Scott’s filmography may be a perplexing mix of ups and downs, but Denis Villeneuve’s isn’t. Perhaps, then, that was taken into consideration when Villeneuve - a then-untested talent on a film of this size, scale, and importance - was selected to helm the long-awaited Blade Runner sequel: 2049. Whatever the case, we’re lucky he was.

2049 takes us into the future of the past-future, into the path of humanoid replicant K (Ryan Gosling), a blade runner charged with tracking and permanently retiring other replicants. But his discovery of an improbable replicant birth brings him up against an existential crisis: was he made or born? There are only a few people who might have the answers he’s looking for, and the one he seeks is Blade Runner’s original runner Deckard (Harrison Ford), who is missing a child of his own.

Screenwriters Hampton Fancher and Michael Green tap into the philosophical depths of Scott’s original film, while rounding off the edges for a story that poses questions of its viewers, while supplying something of a satisfying conclusion. Visually, DP Roger Deakins matches original cinematographer Jordan Cronenweth’s aesthetic, while applying every 21st-century tool at his disposal to make this one of the best looking films of the past 25 years. And the way in which Villeneuve managed to expertly wrangle all of these elements, plus an all-star cast, and a new soundtrack away from regular collaborator Jóhann Jóhannsson, into a unified whole leaves no doubts as to why he was given Dune.