Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

In 2049, bioengineered humans known as replicants are slaves. K (short for his serial number, KD6-3.7), a Nexus-9 replicant, works for the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) as a “blade runner”, an officer who hunts and “retires” (kills) rogue replicants. He retires Nexus-8 replicant Sapper Morton and finds a box buried under a tree at Morton’s protein farm. The box contains the remains of a female replicant who died during a caesarean section, demonstrating that replicants can reproduce biologically, previously thought impossible. K’s superior, Lt. Joshi, fears that this could lead to a war between humans and replicants. She orders K to find and retire the replicant child to hide the truth. K visits the Wallace Corporation’s headquarters, the successor to the defunct Tyrell Corporation in the manufacture of replicants. Wallace staff members identify the deceased female from DNA archives as Rachael, an experimental replicant designed by Dr. Eldon Tyrell. K learns of Rachael’s romantic ties with former blade runner Rick Deckard. Wallace Corporation CEO Niander Wallace wants to discover the secret to replicant reproduction to expand interstellar colonization. He sends his replicant enforcer Luv to steal Rachael’s remains and follow K to Rachael’s child. At Morton’s farm, K finds 6.10.21 carved into the tree trunk and recognizes it from a childhood memory of a wooden toy horse.

Because replicant memories are artificial, K’s holographic AI girlfriend Joi believes this is evidence that K was born, not created. He searches LAPD records and discovers twins born on that date with identical DNA aside from the sex chromosome, but only the boy is listed as alive. K tracks the child to an orphanage in ruined San Diego but discovers the records from that year to be missing. K recognizes the orphanage from his memories and finds the toy horse where he remembers hiding it. Dr Ana Stelline, a replicant memory designer, confirms that the memory of the orphanage is real, leading K to conclude that he is Rachael’s son. At LAPD headquarters, K fails a post-traumatic baseline test, marking him as a rogue replicant; he lies to Joshi by implying he killed the replicant child. Joshi gives K 48 hours to pass the baseline test or he will be ‘retired.’ Joi hires Mariette, a prostitute replicant, as a surrogate for Joi to have sex with K. Mariette, who is part of the replicant freedom movement, leaves a tracker on K. At Joi’s request, K reluctantly transfers her to a mobile emitter so he cannot be tracked through her console memory-files.