Blade Runner Black Out 2022 is a 2017 tech-noir cyberpunk anime short film directed by Shinichiro Watanabe and animated by Cygames Pictures. The short is one of three short films, alongside 2036: Nexus Dawn and 2048: Nowhere to Run, that serve as prequels to the live-action film Blade Runner 2049. It debuted on 27 September 2017 on Crunchyroll.[1][2]

This article consists almost entirely of a plot summary. It should be expanded to provide more balanced coverage that includes real-world context. (December 2020)

Blade Runner Black Out 2022
Directed by	Shinichirō Watanabe
Written by	Shinichirō Watanabe
Produced by	Joseph Chou Al-Francis Cuenca Shun Kashima Nobuhiro Takenaka
Starring	Jovan Jackson Luci Christian Edward James Olmos
Cinematography	Shinichirō Etō
Edited by	Kiyoshi Hirose
Music by	Flying Lotus
Production companies	CygamesPictures Alcon Entertainment
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date	27 September 2017 (2017-09-27)
Running time	15 minutes
Countries	Japan United States
Language	English

Plot

In 2022, three years after the events of Blade Runner,[3] the Tyrell Corporation has developed the new Nexus-8 line of replicants, who now possess natural, open-ended lifespans equivalent to that of a regular human. This causes a massive backlash among the human populace, who begin hunting down and killing replicants, seeing them as a now very credible threat to humanity. One of these replicants, Trixie, is attacked by a group of thugs but is rescued by Iggy, who effortlessly disarms and kills them. Iggy reveals to her that he used to be a soldier on a planet called Calantha but deserted when he realized the enemy soldiers he had been fighting and killing were also replicants.

Iggy recruits Trixie for an operation carried out by an underground replicant freedom movement to destroy the Tyrell Corporation's database of registered replicants as well as the core internet servers, so that replicants can no longer be hunted. Trixie befriends Ren, who is a technician in charge of launching nuclear missiles and a replicant sympathizer. Ren agrees to redirect a test missile to detonate over Los Angeles, blacking out the city and wiping out all electronic data. At the same time, Trixie and Iggy hijack a fuel truck to physically destroy the Tyrell Corporation's servers. However, Trixie is killed while battling security forces with Iggy. The operation is a success, with the servers powering the internet destroyed forever and power to Los Angeles disabled permanently. Iggy manages to escape and removes his right eye, the only thing that can identify him as a replicant.

The ending narration states that in the aftermath of the Black Out and subsequent global collapse, all replicant production scientific activity was banned and the Tyrell Corporation, along with nearly every other company, went bankrupt, only for the Wallace Corporation to acquire the company and restart production of a new model a decade later.

Cast

• Jovan Jackson as Iggy Cygnus
• Luci Christian as Trixie
• Bryson Baugus as Ren
• Edward James Olmos as Gaff

See also

• Blade Runner: Black Lotus, a 2021 anime television series also based on the Blade Runner franchise.

References

External links

• Official website
• Blade Runner Black Out 2022 on YouTube
• Blade Runner Black Out 2022 at IMDb