Blade Runner 2049 - Exploring The Nature of Existence Through Color

[@kasztan2008]

Taken from comment on Reddit "The film initially starts out with stark white and grey colors. This mirrors K's identify and how he sees himself: a cold, detached machine. Once he is in the San Diego junkyard the color of orange begins to seep into the film. Here he is questioning whether he is, by his own existing definition, with a soul or without. When he finds the horse he fully believes that he has one. Which leads to his hunt for Deckard. At this point his entire world is now orange. He completely believes himself to have a soul. His persona and identity now mirror a human. He sees himself as living for the first time. Once he is incapacitated and later cared for by the rebels his belief in being real and having a soul is shattered. This causes the color of the movie to shift again to grey, white, and black."

[@Joshua_23]

what about the blue colours

[@Mike_v_E]

I interpreted the color purple differently. The color blue represents artificial things in Blade Runner 2049. Joi is violet (purple), because Officer K loves her. The color of love is red and the color of artificial things is blue, combine these and you will get violet (purple).

[@glamdringithil7326]

Masterful analysis, particularly on the green. I learned and it was beyond pleasurable. I hope you will do more like this. Top quality video essay.

[@carlyraejepson581]

I come back to watch this video every once in a while. It's so freaking good. The best analysis of a movie EVER. This needs more views and more likes. Truly genius. Made me love the movie on a whole nother level.

[@Tralman1965]

Incredible commentary on an incredible film!

[@yukiyamahara1120]

true)

[@kevinlindgren95]

My favorite movie of 2017. Great analysis!

[@kasztan2008]

Great analysis. I have to rewatch the movie again now :)

[@MGSVxBreakpoint]

This movie... Great analysis.

[@thescifiproject]

You've done a man's job, sir.

[@scrivnerlee2283]

I guess your through huh?

[@thejimmydanly]

You: the yellow color of Sapper's door foreshadows the revelations the location will hold. Me: bright colors pretty

[@ThatGooner]

Lovely vid, so cool to find even more minor parallels that I had yet to pick up on. Let alone the colour, you could just as easily do a video about the specific environments and how it is *always* present, even in the corner of a shot (the rain against K's window, the use of snow, especially when you compare how Lt. Joshi's office window is seen being hit by rain from the outside during her request for K to terminate the child and how you're taken to the outside shot again but with snow when Love kills her).

[@5Amigos32]

I loved this analysis I had never thought much about what color represented in the film and I'm so glad I saw this in my recommendations. definitely subscribed

[@flippert0]

Your treatise on the use of color in BR2049 is illuminating ;-) I would normally associate blue and yellow differently but in the the context of the movie and your explanations it all makes sense (for example, to me, blue isn't 'artificiality' but 'truth', while yellow is deception). Let me add 'white'. I think, it means just 'neutral' here, a surface, where you can project onto anything you want. For example, "Luv" initially wears all white, but she isn't innocent, quite the opposite. The memory maker and her room are white, projecting everything onto it you want.

[@armoda1057]

nice analysis. Wallace's grand palace is bathed by golden light. Wallace is in fact the paragon of knowledge in this film, at least from the perspective that he is clearly the locus of god-like understanding, since he saved the world and remade replicants. gold is the color of knowledge, wisdom, the divine, and enlightenment. It adds to your idea that the yellow/orange color is used to signify the discovery of new information/knowledge in the movie.

[@roofvoelcom]

Great job, sir 🙏 Watching this film for the 5th time and I got to this review of it, I sure am glad I did. It helped me out a lot, thank you 👏

[@javonwilliams8760]

A brilliant analysis of a brilliant film

[@xthewated]

Incredible film analysis, well done.

[@TheChromaKid]

Really good video on a really good film!

[@MapleMilk]

I saw this in the comments of BestGuyEver's Blade Runner video recommended by someone in counter to his I wasn't disappointed

[@Ledaveu]

You're great man. I love your work

[@nyz7659]

Can you please share where you found that opening line by Denis

[@maxwellschmidt235]

I think this is the best breakdown of the colors. Other explanations I've seen stay pretty superficial. Also, a number of reviewers seem to think K's encounter with the big Joi invalidates K's Joi's individuality and therefore her love and growth. I think we are meant to ask the question all along about the extent to which she is a manipulation. But for me the big Joi is meant to show how different individuals sharing the same base programming can be. On some level, K's Joi was always making decisions in interaction with him which led to a wildly different outcome from being a sexual display and manipulation. Even without specifics on the color meanings, the complete difference makes it pretty clear that the film leans toward differentiating the Jois.

[@adropbear]

Great work, thanks!

[@lizaestevez6928]

thanks for the analysis with no spoliers finally

[@gerocolde]

Amazing Work!

[@vinay5807]

I just followed the yellow 💛💛.

[@PseudoEmpathy]

Thank you.

[@hamish_white_]

GREAT video ❤

[@savakaumaro7282]

Badass fuckin' video man, great work!

[@PeloquinDavid]

A lot to think about here. In some cases, it seems a bit of a stretch, but I don't doubt for a second that the filmmakers left a ton of clues, hidden messages, false leads and ambiguities throughout the film - including in the use of colour.

[@rasplez9889]

Explained colour in bladerunner to my crush. Won her over.

[@In_the_sun]

What about red?

[@KidFresh71]

This movie- more human than human.

[@raynaldorusi]

you are the only other person I've heard compare this film to Tarkovsky. Villeneuve is incredible.

[@Sam_T2000]

I like colors.

[@KenTWOu]

9:57 - speaking of this film making team, there was a similar video about colors using in Sicario (Sicario: The Mirage of a Moral World) and there is a thread on Roger Deakins' forum, where Roger Deakins himself debunked what was said in that video: www.rogerdeakins.com/lighting-2/intersting-study-about-siccario-use-of-color/ www.rogerdeakins.com/film-talk/how-the-color-in-sicario-reveals-the-battle-between-good-evil/ "I think there is an element of the viewer bringing their own interpretation to the use of color. I mean, New Mexico is beige! The landscape is beige, the buildings are beige, people invariably wear beige clothes. A blue T shirt changes color as it is seen in differing lighting situations. That is just a fact of the way colored light affects color and that kind of blue is more susceptible than others." Of course, this quote doesn't necessary mean that BR2049 colors got the same treatment, and/or using of colors in the movie was purely coincidental, so you can take it any way you want. But I strongly disagree with your 'yellow is truth / enlightenment' point and think that in some cases you're over analysing this whole thing, especially when trying to find a meaning in rear signals of a drowned car (5:49).

[@thefakecritic1377]

First of all, thank you so much for watching! I really appreciate it! Now, I will agree that people attaching meaning to basically every single thing they see is a common occurrence in the film community, and you're probably not wrong about Sicario, but for Blade Runner 2049 Denis Villeneuve himself has confirmed the significance of color and how he uses it purposefully throughout the film, specifically sighting the color yellow as an example:collider.com/denis-villeneuve-blade-runner-2049-interview/ . He has also said that he and his team storyboarded every single scene by hand before pre production even started, so that yellow showing up in the action climax was no mistake, at least I don't think so.