The Entire Blade Runner Timeline Explained

The 1982 movie "Blade Runner" is widely considered one of the best science fiction movies ever made. The neo-noir film, directed by Ridley Scott, is based on the 1968 novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick. Although it wasn't a huge hit when it was first released, viewers grew to love the film for its darkly stunning visual effects, action-packed story, and thought-provoking characters. After its initial release, several new versions came out, some with different endings and additional changes. In this article, we'll reference the 2007 version "Blade Runner: The Final Cut," which is re-edited and has some extended scenes.

The highly-anticipated sequel "Blade Runner 2049," directed by Denis Villeneuve, was released in 2017. But that won't be the last installment in the franchise: Amazon Studios is currently working on the live-action series "Blade Runner 2099" with Scott serving as executive producer. If you want to brush up on the events of the movies before the series comes out, we've got you covered. Below, we're going over the entire "Blade Runner" timeline in chronological order.

Deckard and police officer Gaff (Edward James Olmos) visit the Tyrell Corporation headquarters to speak with Eldon Tyrell (Joe Turkel), the founder and lead engineer of the company. Tyrell isn't convinced that the Voight-Kampff test can really distinguish humans from replicants, so Deckard gives Tyrell's assistant Rachael (Sean Young) the test to prove its accuracy. It typically only takes about 30 questions to get the results, but Deckard has to ask Rachael over 100 questions. After completing the test, Rachael leaves the room and Deckard tells Tyrell that the test determined she's a replicant. Tyrell says that Rachael isn't a standard replicant: She has implanted memories and believes she's a human, which is why the test took so much longer than usual.

From there, Deckard investigates Leon's apartment, taking some photos and a snake scale. On his way home, Rachael intercepts him and says she found out what Tyrell said about her, but insists that it's not true. As proof, she shows Deckard a photo of herself as a child with her mother. Deckard says that the photo and her childhood memories are all from other people — mainly Tyrell's nieces — and she becomes so upset that she leaves.

After his conversation with Bryant, Deckard sees Rachael and tries to follow her, but Leon suddenly attacks him. Things aren't looking good for Deckard — he's so caught off-guard that Leon manages to knock his gun out of his hand and land several punches during the scuffle. Just as Leon is about to deal the final blow, Rachael grabs Deckard's gun and shoots Leon in the head. Despite having orders to retire Rachael, Deckard is so grateful she saved him that he lets her hide at his apartment.

They grow much closer while spending time together there. Rachael asks if he'd track her down if she fled, and he says no, but another blade runner inevitably would. Then she asks if anyone has given him the Voight-Kampff test, implying that Deckard might be a replicant, but he doesn't answer because he has fallen asleep. He wakes up shortly afterward and makes a move on Rachael. She rejects him and tries to leave the apartment, but when he shuts the door, the mood shifts, and they become intimate with one another.

After Bryant informs Deckard that Tyrell and Sebastian were both found dead at Tyrell's house, Deckard calls Sebastian's apartment. Pris answers and hangs up without saying anything, leading Deckard to visit the Bradbury Building and look for more clues. She hides amongst the creepy lifelike dolls before attacking Deckard. Although her impressive acrobatic skills make her a challenging opponent, Deckard eventually gets the upper hand and retires her.

Roy arrives, prompting Deckard to hide. He becomes very upset when he finds Pris' body, but then Deckard starts shooting at him, so he retaliates by punching through a wall and breaking two of Deckard's fingers. He gives Deckard his gun back, but Deckard finds it extremely difficult to shoot straight with his injuries. He runs to another room, with Roy chasing him relentlessly, but we soon realize that Roy isn't doing so well either. Roy is so close to death that his hand starts malfunctioning, so he stabs a nail through it to stabilize it. Deckard makes it to the roof and tries jumping to another building, but falls short and hangs onto the ledge for dear life. Roy finds him there and decides to save him, delivering his now-famous "tears in the rain" monologue.

Deckard goes back to his apartment, and he and Rachael run away together. Before leaving, Deckard finds an origami unicorn made by Gaff. This could mean that Gaff knew about Deckard's unicorn dream because Deckard is actually a replicant, but it's left unclear.

In 2022, the replicant freedom movement causes a 10-day power outage in Los Angeles known as the Blackout. During the Blackout, they destroy the replicant database to try to prevent blade runners from hunting down and retiring replicants. Afterward, the production of replicants is banned, leading the Tyrell Corporation to go bankrupt. This has massive repercussions; by the mid-2020s, there are widespread economic issues and people around the world are suffering from food shortages. Then the Wallace Corporation creates synthetic farming in 2025, ending the global food crisis and becoming extremely powerful in the process.

In 2028, the Wallace Corporation takes over the Tyrell Corporation and starts making innovations with replicant technology. They eventually create the Nexus-9 replicants, which are more obedient than previous models, so they're able to begin producing replicants again. They use the Nexus-9s as slave labor to help with interstellar colonization, and by the year 2049, they have produced millions of replicants and colonized nine planets.

K has always believed that he's a Nexus-9 replicant, a model that has fake implanted memories, but that changes when he finds evidence suggesting that he is the replicant child. He goes back to Sapper's farm and examines the tree Rachael was buried under, finding a date carved near the base reading "6-10-21." This affects him profoundly because it reminds him of a childhood memory. When he was little, he remembers living in an orphanage and getting chased by a group of boys who wanted to take his wooden horse toy. He looked at the bottom of the toy, revealing a carving of that same date, and managed to hide it in an unused furnace before the boys beat him up. K previously believed the memory was fake, but the carving on the tree convinces him that it really happened.

K looks through the DNA bank to find children with that date of birth, discovering a boy and a girl with identical DNA who were born that day. This is impossible since they would have to be the same sex if they were identical twins, so K realizes one must be a copy. The records came from an orphanage and show that the girl died, further convincing K that he's the replicant child. When he visits the orphanage, he even finds the wooden horse toy in the furnace. Afterward, he visits Dr. Ana Stelline (Carla Juri), who creates fake memories for replicants, and she confirms his belief that his childhood memory is real.

K hasn't been the only one tracking down the replicant child. Early on in his investigation, K brought Rachael's hair to the Wallace Corporation and a replicant named Luv (Sylvia Hoeks) helped him find out who it belonged to. That leads the CEO of the company, Niander Wallace (Jared Leto), to deduce that Rachael was the replicant who had a child. Wanting to create other replicants capable of reproduction so he can have more slaves, Wallace orders Luv to find the replicant child.

During her search, Luv steals Rachael's remains and keeps close tabs on K since he's also looking for the child. When K suddenly leaves Los Angeles, Luv tortures Joshi and demands to know where he is. Joshi won't say, so Luv murders her, using her lifeless face to unlock her computer and locate K. Accompanied by a team of Wallace henchmen, Luv follows K to Las Vegas, then attacks him and Deckard in the abandoned casino. During the assault, she badly injures K and destroys his AI girlfriend Joi. She then kidnaps Deckard and leaves K to die.

Luv brings Deckard to Wallace, who tries persuading him to share the whereabouts of the replicant child. When that doesn't work, Wallace tells Luv to take Deckard to an off-world colony so they can torture the information out of him. Luv handcuffs Deckard and they take off in a flying car with K right behind them. He shoots them down and they crash near the ocean, where he and Luv have a battle to the death. The stakes are high, especially since Deckard is trapped inside the vehicle that is quickly filling up with water, but K manages to drown Luv and save Deckard before the vehicle sinks. Everyone will assume Deckard died in the crash, so no one will be looking for him anymore.

Despite being gravely injured, K helps Deckard reunite with his daughter, Dr. Ana Stelline. K realized she was the replicant child when Freysa told him the child was a girl. K had visited Ana earlier in his investigation because of her expertise in creating fake memories for replicants. When she used a device to view his wooden horse toy memory, she was so moved that she cried before confirming it was real. At the time, he had assumed that meant it happened to him, but she was actually the child in the memory, and she illegally implanted this reminiscence into some replicants. While Deckard goes into Stelline Laboratories to meet Ana, K stays outside, where it's implied that he dies.