New ‘Blade Runner 2049’ Short Film Introduces us to Dave Bautista’s Sapper

‘Blade Runner 2049‘ is less than two weeks from hitting theaters (can you believe that?!?!). Now that the marketing campaign for the sequel has ramped up, Warner Bros. have released another prequel short after learning more about Jared Leto‘s Niander Wallace in the previous short, ‘2036 : Nexus Dawn‘. This time, the second of three shorts–titled ‘2048: Nowhere to Run‘–focuses on Dave Bautista‘s replicant fugitive, Sapper.

The Idea behind these ‘Blade Runner 2049‘ short films is to allows us to learn a little bit about the characters before watching the film. With a boisterous runtime of 2 hours and 32 minutes, it’s easy to see how these short films allowed director Dennis Villeneuve the freedom to explore the backstory of key characters without overloading the story to be told in the actual film.

Here’s the short film ‘2048: Nowhere to Run‘, starring Dave Bautista:

[su_youtube url=”https://youtu.be/aZ9Os8cP_gg”]

What’s interesting about this short is that actually gives Bautista a chance to act a little bit. Although there is the inevitable fight scene that happens toward the end, which has a purpose in telling the story, this short film gives us a tantalizing tease as to what’s in store for the film itself.  It seems that a shift has been happening in the last few years where tentpole marketing has relied more heavily on viral videos to engage the audience. It’s certainly better than trailers that spoil the film off the bat, so it’s hard to complain about this trend.

Here’s the synopsis, via the official site:

Thirty years after the events of the first film, a new blade runner, LAPD Officer K (Ryan Gosling), unearths a long-buried secret that has the potential to plunge what’s left of society into chaos. K’s discovery leads him on a quest to find Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), a former LAPD blade runner who has been missing for 30 years.

In addition to Bautista and Leto, the film stars Harrison Ford, Ryan Gosling, Robin Wright, Barkhad Abdi, Ana de Armas, Sylvia Hoeks, Lennie James, and Mackenzie Davis. The film was written by ‘Blade Runner’ scribe Hampton Fancher and Michael Green, and is produced by Ridley Scott. ‘Blade Runner 2049′ opens in theaters on October 6th, 2017.