Blade Runner Vs. Blade Runner 2049: Which One Is Better?

7. The Villain

Though there's plenty of moral ambiguity in the original movie, the closest thing it has to a villain would surely be Eldon Tyrell, the mastermind behind the creation of the replicants, a God figure to them, who poetically ends up killed by his own design when Batty demands an extended life. Joe Turkel's performance is great, even if the character is a fairly small fixture all things considered.

2049 has a far more palpable and clearly-drawn villain in Jared Leto's industrialist Niander Wallace, and while like Tyrell his screen time is ultimately quite minimal, he has a compelling and unsettling presence throughout. Sylvia Hoeks' replicant underling Luv arguably makes more of an impact, though.

Winner: Leto's lyrical dialogue is tailor-made to be more divisive than Turkel's performance, and as the iconic figurehead that sets both of these stories in motion, Tyrell wins out easily. Both films keep their antagonists on the periphery, though, because they're about so much more than just that.