Synopsis:

What would a modern day Blade Runner score by Vangelis sound like? This edit rescores Blade Runner 2049 with new music from the composer’s 2016 album Rosetta and his Blade Runner tribute album from 2007. The music is supplemented by some earlier Vangelis tracks, as well as material by John Barry and others. No music from the original Blade Runner is used, except when sampled by Vangelis on the BR tribute album. In addition, the edit is approx. 15 minutes shorter, mainly from trimming Wallace’s scenes to a minimum and cutting Gaff and Rachael.

Intentions:

To provide a fresh experience by rescoring BR2049 with new music by Vangelis.

Change List:

Note: This list includes only changes that are additional to rescoring. Changes related to rescoring (i.e. adding new music and trimming footage to fit music) are not listed. - Added fanedit disclaimer. - Changed the wording slightly in opening text crawl. - Cut shot of eye opening and moved it to end of film (where the shot is played in reverse, so the eye closes instead). - Trimmed Sapper bashing K into wall. Difficult to believe K would survive that much head trauma. - Edited black levels in city shots so that detail can be seen easier. - Reduced the film’s green tint to bring out detail and colour in several scenes. - Cropped out subtitles of woman shouting at K in apartment. It’s not important to know what she says. - Cut Sapper’s voiceover (“You new models are happy scraping the shit… because you’ve never seen a miracle”) when K is flying to Wallace Corp. Not needed. - Cropped out “Wallace Corporation, Earth Headquarters” location title. We can pick this up from context. - Reordered shots of Wallace Corp exterior so they flow better. We see the base of the towers first, then K’s spinner near top of the towers, before cutting to interior. - Cut Luv in her office with a client. Nothing notable here, except a reference to “pleasure models” from the original Blade Runner. This edit generally leans away from nostalgia. - Cut Luv’s line “Makes one feel desire” so that she simply says, “It is invigorating being asked personal questions. Do you enjoy your work, officer?” I thought it was weird that so many women hit on K in this movie (Joi, Luv, Mariette, Joshi). So I wanted this interaction to be more about Luv trying awkwardly to connect with K, rather than anything sexual. - Cut Gaff in retirement home. K learns nothing here and the scene exists mostly for nostalgia. - Cut all of Wallace’s dialogue in his first scene after line “Can you at least pronounce a child is born?” Jared Leto’s cliché lines and cartoon villain acting are terrible. The scene now ends with Wallace saying “But there is a child… Bring it to me.” - Cut Wallace inspecting and killing newborn replicant. Wallace doesn’t merit this much screentime, and the violence is totally unnecessary. - Trimmed shot of Coco bleeding on floor. Again, unnecessary. - Cut location title when K and Joi visit the dump / orphanage. They’ve left the heart of the city (communicated by sign reading “Now Leaving Greater Los Angeles”), that’s all we need to know. - Cut Ana staring at K and smiling after she offers to view his memory. She looks infatuated, for some reason (see earlier note about female characters hitting on K). - Cut K and Joi discussing consequences of K deleting her from the console. I wanted to pick up the pace here, and Joi's death later doesn’t have a huge impact anyway. - Changed colour of the imprint from K’s fall on the hotel carpet. The red imprint looks like blood, which is confusing, so I made it closer to orange. - Cut Frank Sinatra hologram. It’s not impressive after seeing the other holograms, and “One For My Baby” isn’t very subtle. The jukebox now plays a Nelson Riddle instrumental of “Artificial Flowers” instead. - Cut Freysa’s line “That’s why Sapper let you kill him.” This doesn’t match what we saw earlier. Sapper put up a fight, and K beat him. - Cut Freysa’s line “When the time comes, I will show her to the world, and she will lead our army.” From what we’ve seen of Ana, the idea of her leading the replicant army is ridiculous. - Cut Mariette’s line “More human than humans.” This is a pointless reference to the original movie, and it doesn’t make sense for the replicant resistance to use Tyrell’s old motto as an inspirational quote. - Cut Freysa’s line “You must kill Deckard.” Freysa has no reason to be so cold. Presumably she cares about Deckard, if not as a former friend than at least as a fellow replicant and the father of Ana. Besides, the “kill Deckard” idea is still implied without being spoken. - Cut Wallace’s line “All the courage in the world cannot alter fact.” No need to elaborate on his previous line about the jumping fish. - Added line “Tyrell’s final trick: procreation” after Wallace’s line “To teach them all to fly.” In this edit, Wallace’s goal is simply to create replicants who can reproduce – for what reason, we don’t know. One can guess Wallace wants to be like God, or his ambition is endless, or whatever. It’s not important to the story being told. - Cut Wallace suggesting that Deckard and Rachael were designed to fall in love and his discussion of that idea. This is bad fan fiction, unsupported by events of the original movie. - Cut Rachael clone. It almost looks like her, but not quite, so it doesn’t work in my opinion. I also thought it was gross and sexist to kill off Sean Young’s character before the story started, and then trot out a young fantasy version of her and kill her again onscreen. - Cut K’s flashback to Sapper saying “Because you’ve never seen a miracle” when K is standing on bridge. Not necessary and Freysa’s voiceover works better by itself. - Inserted shot of Ana’s hand touching artificial snow while K is dying. - Cut Ana’s line “Just a moment. Beautiful, isn’t it?” so final scene is purely visuals and music. - Inserted fanedit name, faneditor credit and custom end credits, including complete list of new music.

Additional Notes:

From the original BR2049 score, only two tracks still feature in their entirety (“Mesa” and “Someone Lived This”), alongside about a dozen excerpts from other tracks, which are abbreviated or combined with new music. The rest of the score is replaced. 48 new tracks – including 35 by Vangelis, 7 by John Barry (from Jagged Edge soundtrack) and 6 by other artists – contribute to score, source music and sound design. The most significant Vangelis tracks are listed below: - Launch Approval - Beaubourg Part I - Mail from India - BR Downtown - Dream in an Open Place - Beaubourg Part II - Spotkanie Z Matka - Starstuff - Piano in an Empty Room - Mission Accomplie (Rosetta’s Waltz) - No Expectation Boulevard - Dimitri’s Bar - Sweet Solitude - Philae’s Descent - Atom Blaster - Thermo Vision - Sunlight - Exo Genesis - Movement 3 (from Soil Festivities) - Perfume Exotico - Origins (Arrival) - Perihelion - Elegy - Return to the Void - Physical Energy - Albedo 0.06 - Rosetta - Up and Running

Other Sources:

- Blade Runner Trilogy 25th Anniversary [Disc 3] (Vangelis) - Jagged Edge Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (John Barry) - Rosetta (Vangelis).

Special Thanks:

-Thanks to Plissken1138 for viewing and providing feedback, and also to my family.